Japanese Ethnocentrism and Globalization

Japan has frequently been portrayed as a uniquely homogeneous society both racially and ethnically. For decades, the Japanese leadership had inculcated in the populace the myths of Japanese racial purity and of the ethnic superiority which was supposed to be guaranteed by the uninterrupted lineage of the imperial household over centuries. In the years of rapid economic growth since the 1960s, many observers have attributed Japan's economic success and political stability to its racial and ethnic homogeneity. In everyday life, racism and ethnocentrism still remain strong in many sections of the community and the establishment. The tatemae of Japan's racial and ethnic homogeneity goes hand in hand with the honne of many Japanese, who believe that “Japaneseness” has superior qualities and should not be contaminated.

Analysts of the social psychology of the Japanese suggest that the inferiority complex towards the Caucasian West and the superiority complex towards Asian neighbors have played a major role in Japanese perceptions of other nationalities. The leadership of modern Japan envisaged a “ladder of civilizations” in which Euro-American societies occupied the highest rungs, Japan was somewhere in the middle, and other Asian countries were at the bottom. Also notable is the persistence of the doctrine of wakon yōsai (Japanese spirit and Western technology), the dichotomy which splits the world into two spheres, Japan and the West, and assumes that the spiritual, moral, and cultural life of the Japanese should not be corrupted by foreign influences no matter how much Japan's material way of life may be affected by them.