"Nikkei-jin" and "Nihon-jin": The Case of San Francisco
Ph.D. Student, Department of Area Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Rather than ask “who are Nikkei-jin,” this presentation examines how the term “Nikkei-jin” is used – whom it references, and who uses it. Based on the case of a Japanese American community in San Francisco, I discuss the particular social and political conditions that suppose “the Nikkei-jin” and the boundary that distinguishes “self” from “other.”
From 2000 to 2004, I conducted fieldwork in San Francisco’s Japantown, one of the oldest Japanese American communities in the United States. In particular, I focused on the relationship between “Nikkei-jin” and “Nihon-jin” there. In my study, I used the term “Nikkei-jin” to refer to the early Japanese immigrants’ descendants, who speak English as their primary language, such as Nisei and Sansei. On the other hand, “Nihon-jin” meant those who speak Japanese as their primary language, including postwar Japanese immigrants, called shin-issei, and business expatriates and students. I differentiated these two groups based on primary language used rather than birthplace or nationality. In my graduate thesis written in English, “Nikkei-jin” corresponds to “English-speaking Nikkei” and “Nihon-jin” to “Japanese-speaking Nikkei.”
The case of San Francisco suggests the importance of considering the politics behind the boundary construction around “Nikkeijin” - when people refer to themselves or to others in this way. When do “Nihon-jin” become “Nikkei-jin”? This is an important question to consider as the transnational movement of people becomes more frequent and makes for a more complicated contemporary world.
最終更新：2008年02月05日 14:14
