The Same Different?: Group Discrimination in the United States and Japan

Abstract This article considers indicators of group similarity and difference and their relation to institutional discrimination in the United States and Japan. For this inquiry, discrimination is operationalized as the extent to which exclusion or marginalization in society is determined by the embodiment of difference (in this case, the Western conception of race). I contend that belonging and race are tightly coupled within the US context because its society was founded on a racial hierarchy that subjugated all groups deemed “not white” for the direct benefit of enfranchised white males. Although some racial groups have made substantial gains, race remains highly consequential for the life outcomes of most individuals in the United States. Japan, however, has a much looser association between Western race and belonging. This is largely because ethnocultural identity, not the Western construction of race, has historically been the primary axis of discrimination in Japanese society. Although race as understood in the West is relevant for some forms of interpersonal discrimination, ethnocultural identity remains the primary determinant of belonging or exclusion in Japan.