2015 Volume 96 Pages 109-129
According to Jock Young’s The Exclusive Society, the change from industrial society to post-industrial society has been accompanied by the transition from “the inclusive society” based on assimilation and incorporation to “the exclusive society” based on separation and exclusion. But Young’s “inclusive society” has not yet been established in Japan even today. Japan restarted as a strictly ethnic nation after the Allied Occupation, and thus the social integration policy oriented to multicultural society was not adapted. On the other hand, Young’s “exclusive society” has begun to arise in Japan since the 1990’s. In other words, although the “inclusive society” has not been sufficiently established, and thus multiculturalism opposed to assimilation has not been adopted, the “backlash” to multiculturalism is becoming widespread.
In this paper, I will examine these circumstances through the institutional status and official treatment of the Korean school in Japan. Points for discussion are as follows: (1) Even if Young’s “inclusive society” has been partly established in Japan, the official treatment of foreign residents in the latter part of the twentieth century has not been based on assimilation and incorporation, but on the forced choice between exclusion and assimilation. (2) Although this two-alternative situation has continued to date, the tendency toward the “exclusive society” with the “backlash” to multiculturalism has begun to strengthen since the 2000’s. (3) Additionally, both in the latter part of the twentieth century and since the 2000’s, the Korean school has been in the front line and a symbol of these phenomena.
