Japan and “the Other”: Reconceiving Japanese Citizenship in the Era of Globalization

The era of globalization has produced increasing social diversity within Japanese society, forcing a reexamination of mainstream assumptions about Japanese national identity and citizenship. Local government and civil-society responses to social diversity have led to the blossoming of internationalization and "sister city" movements. At the national level, however, clear leadership supporting reform of national immigration and citizenship policies has been lacking. Should Japan choose the path of accepting internal diversity as a permanent feature of its society, and doing so on terms that are consonant with ideals of democratic egalitarianism, it may benefit from examining the citizenship policy reforms fashioned by other democratic societies in response to social and cultural diversity, such as notions of "denizenship" and multicultural citizenship. Such reforms that confirm the equal dignity of social "others" would also support Japanese citizens more broadly to adopt heterogeneous rather than homogeneous notions of Japanese national identity.