Society for East Asian Anthropology

Volunteered - Oral Presentation Session

Troubling categories of race and ethnicity in Japan through the lens of the Household Register (koseki)

Citizenship, Japan, Ethnicity

Presenter(s)

• LW

  Linda White

  Middlebury College

Anthropologists and historians of Japan have noted the complexity of ethnic categorization in the multi-ethnic society. This paper will use the lens of the koseki (household register) system to rethink Japan’s unstable categories of “ethnicity,” Japanese identity, and “race” in contemporary society. The koseki system, used to record both citizenship and family membership, reflects citizenship status, but not strictly ethnicity or race. How can the unstable notion of “Japaneseness” help us understand the limits and possibilities of ideas like race, racial formations, and membership in this particular society? What role does the koseki system play in establishing a singular Japanese identity in a multi-ethnic society?