Comments on: Last April, Ibuki suggested excluding Ainu and zainichi people from educational and constitutional reforms

By: Matt Dioguardi

Matt Dioguardi — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:56:03 +0000

There is a set of vague values that Ibuki thinks represents what he would call the Yamato ethnos.

He wants to alter both the constitution and the educational system to represent these values.

Now putting aside the question of whether there really is a Yamato ethnos, and putting aside the question of whether this supposed ethnos can be best represented by any particular set of values, we should note Ibuki has no intention of introducing Ainu or Okinawan values into the constitution or the educational system, only those of what he considers to be the Yamato ethnos.

Finally, while here he only implies the Yamato ethnos, in other places he has mentioned the “Yamato minzoku” by name.

By: James

James — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:05:19 +0000

I don’t think he was excluding them from the reforms, which your title states, he was excluding them only from the definition of Japanese-ness. I.e. exactly what you wrote in you post. Saying that he means to exclude them from the reforms is a mistake, I think. He is just trying to show why he believes Japanese culture is homogeneous, and then use that as a reason for why educational reform is necessary.

By: Matt Dioguardi

Matt Dioguardi — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:32:41 +0000

I can’t comment fully on the above remark at this time, but I just want to note I’m confused by the last statement, “to interpret Japanese grammar justly.”

The problems claimed above are not related to my English translation of Ibuki’s words, but to the actual content of the statements themselves.

By: ameyonotsuki

ameyonotsuki — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:32:39 +0000

If I tell that Ibuki will exclude Ainu from the education environment that is equality, because Ainu is reliable and has the Japan family register, I think that what you describe is a just argument. However, Ibuki shows with a power to remove Ainu from the education environment that is equality and doesn’t become precocious.
Furthermore, zainichi means people of the other countries which don’t own Japanese nationality living in Japan and increases.
If zainichi which you say is a word to express a zainichi Korean, their most are people and their descendants who entered the country illegally from the Korean Peninsura in Japan governed by postwar America, and they don’t have the Japan family register.
Therefore, it has unreasonableness to apply the logic to “zainichi Korean”.
If people called “zainichi” are naturalized in Japan, the education environment that is equality will be given him for them surely.
I pray for that you get possible to interpret Japanese grammar justly.