I want to start a list of books that are antithetical to the idea that Japan is ethnically homogenous. I have not read all these books, and so will not attempt any reviews here. If people would like to see a book added to this list, please comment. I suppose eventually if this list grows, I will have to divide it into sections. But for now, I’ll keep it like this.

I’ve now added a new section, links of interest. There are many *obvious* links that need to be added, but haven’t yet. Of course any links people send me will be added.

Last updated: April 5, 2007

Homogenous HETEROGENEOUS Japan book list:

(These books are in no particular order.)

1. Multicultural Japan by Donald Denoon, Gavan McCormack, Mark Hudson, and Tessa Morris-Suzuki

2. Multiethnic Japan by John Lie

3. Myth of Japanese Uniqueness by Peter N. Dale

4. Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity by Michael Weiner

5. Introduction to Japanese Society by Yoshio Sugimoto

6. Images of Japanese Society: A Study in the Social Construction of Reality by Ross Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto

7. Hegemony of Homogeneity by Harumi Befu

8. Global Japan: The Experience of Japan’s New Immigrants and Overseas Communities by Roger Goodman

9. Koreans in Japan by Sonia Ryang

10.Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan by Joshua Hotaka Roth

11. Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People by William W. Fitzhugh and Chisato O. Dubreuil

12. Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan by Richard Siddle

13. Okinawa: The History of an Island People by George H. Kerr and Mitsugu Sakihara

14. Japan’s Diversity Dilemmas: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and Education

15. Multilingual Japan by John C. Maher and Kyoko Yashiro

16. JAPANESE ONLY—The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan by Arudou Debito

17. Japan and Global Migration: Foreign Workers and the Advent of a Multicultural Society edited by by Mike Douglass, Glenda Susan Roberts

18. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland by Takeyuki Tsuda

19. Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective by Takeyuki Tsuda

20. No One Home: Brazilian Selves Remade in Japan by Daniel Linger

21. Migrant Workers in Japan by HIroshi Komai, translated by Jens Wilkinson

22. Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan by HIroshi Komai, translated by Jens Wilkinson

23. San’Ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo by Edward Fowler

24. North Koreans in Japan: Language, Ideology, and Identity by Sonia Ryang

25. Lives of Young Koreans in Japan by Yasunori Fukuoka, translated by Tom Gill

26. Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir by Shigeru Kayano

27. Opening the Doors: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Globalization in Japan by by Betsy Ter Brody

28. Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in Japan by Nanett Gottlieb

Heterogeneous Japan links (many more to be added):

1. Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle’s Home Page
Formerly David Christopher Aldwinckle, Arudou Debito is an American-born writer who became a Japanese citizen in October 2000. This site provides insightful articles, essays and debates relating to the challenges facing naturalized citizens and non-Japanese residents in Japan.

2. Books for, by or about half Japanese

3. Halvisie
A site with people who have one Japanese parent and one parent of a different nationality. Many seem to be American.

4. United for a Multicultural Japan
An organization working to promote the welfare and legal rights of non-Japanese with Japanese spouses, and other long-term or permanent residents of Japan.