Understanding online racism in Japan in global and local context

This chapter focuses on the key global social challenge of online racism, which threatens the achievement of SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 11 (Sustainable Communities), and SDG 16 (Peace and Justice). Since the Zaitokukai group caught the attention of national media for taking an online racist movement to Japan’s streets, much attention has been paid to vocal anti-Korean and anti-migrant discourse which has a strong foothold online. However, the universalism of ‘Western’-derived theories of online racism is thrown into question. Japan's online environment has developed in relative isolation from the English-language web, meaning the affordances, logics, and behavioral norms shaping the circulation of racist ideologies differ. Furthermore, the social and political context of race and immigration, and the historical development of racial thinking in Japan, have an important bearing on Japan’s online racism in terms of not only its targets but its acceptability, visibility and penetration into mainstream politics. Context-sensitivity will not only result in better knowledge production on the Japanese case, but also in greater, deserved attention in global scholarship to what historically marginalized contexts like Japan have to offer our broader understanding of the intersection between digital technology and social and political life.