| Summary: | Critical Race Theory (CRT), grounded in American legal theories of power
and dominance, has been increasingly applied to other countries to analyse
racialised power relationships between social groups. Applying CRT to
Japanese society, where "racism" is officially denied as a factor in the
systemic differentiation of peoples into a dominant majority and
disenfranchised minorities, nevertheless reveals racialised paradigms
behind deciding who is a "member" of society (as in a citizen) and who is
not (as in, a non-citizen), systematically allocating privilege to people with
"Japanese blood." This research focuses on recent changes to Japan's
official registry systems vis-à-vis non-citizens. Historically, the Family
Registry (koseki) and the Resident Registry (jūmin kihon daichō) have
employed biological conceits to give systemic advantages (in terms of
citizenship, employment, access to social welfare and official recognition
as residents and family members) to "Wajin" (Japan's dominant social
group with "Japanese blood") over "Non-Wajin." Although the Resident
Registry system was amended in July 2012 to allow equal registry of noncitizens, this research finds under CRT methodology that the dominant
Wajin majority did not further enfranchise or cede power to the
disenfranchised non-citizen minority. The reforms were merely cosmetic
changes to a segregating system that remains largely intact in scope and
enforcement.
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