earticle

영어

‘Nihonjinron’(日本人論, theories/discussions about the Japanese), which emerged in the late 1960s and became popular, enabled a new meaning for the Japanese thanks to Japan's economic power. This Nihonjinron helped to make the Japanese people aware of the Japanese lineage as a homogeneous nation as if it were an immutable “truth”. The symbol of “single Japanese” naturally alienated all those who were classified as “non-Japanese”, not Japanese, as foreigners. It is not difficult to point out that the Japanese image of the time was a discourse of genderization, stratification, and racialization. But where have the “non-Japanese” beings hidden in Nihonjinron, which is wrapped up like a ethnically homogeneous society? Interestingly, the envy and longing for white people formed by actively accepting American culture at that time proceeded with the mixed-blood boom and half boom. Ironically, Nihonjinron, which has even assimilated racial prejudice due to the spread of a single-ethnic society, was paired with a “harp” discourse formed through a “biracial boom”. The harp discourse, which appeared like both sides of a coin, can be said to be a “another Nihonjinron” that complements and reinforces the image of Japanese people becoming racialized as a single people. In this presentation, I will look at the formation of the harp discourse, which served as another Nihonjinron. In addition, I will reconsider the racial theory of modern Japanese society by confirming the representations of mixed-race children who are called as images of positivity and negativity according to their convenience.