Making Sense of Nihonjinron

This article attempts to examine Nihonjinron, the popular essentialist genre in Japan, which purports to analyse Japan's quintessence and cultural core by using three concepts - nationality, ethnicity and culture - synonymously. The focus of the paper will be placed on: (1) the widespread polit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThesis eleven Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 81 - 96
Main Author Sugimoto, Yoshio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published SAGE Publications 01.05.1999
Subjects
Cultural Groups
Cultural history
Cultural Pluralism
Cultural Relativism
Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Globalization
Japan
National Identity
Nationalism
Social Theories
ethnocentrism
nationalism
cultural relativism
globalization
identity
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article attempts to examine Nihonjinron, the popular essentialist genre in Japan, which purports to analyse Japan's quintessence and cultural core by using three concepts - nationality, ethnicity and culture - synonymously. The focus of the paper will be placed on: (1) the widespread political bases of Nihonjinron and its internal divisions; (2) its changing features in the face of globalization; (3) the possible productive uses of Nihonjinron at both conceptual and theoretical levels; and (4) the dilemma of inter-societal and intra-societal cultural relativism, which the Nihonjinron debate has highlighted. The paper presents an outline of an inductive, pluralistic, multicultural model of analysis as a possible alternative.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:0725-5136
1461-7455
DOI:10.1177/0725513699057000007