<Research Notes>The transformation of race and racialization theory, and the unchanged "international marriage" discourse in the Japanese empire

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  • <研究ノート>近代日本の人種・人種化論と「国際結婚」言説の変容
  • 近代日本の人種・人種化論と「国際結婚」言説の変容
  • キンダイ ニホン ノ ジンシュ ・ ジンシュカロン ト 「 コクサイ ケッコン 」 ゲンセツ ノ ヘンヨウ

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This paper examines the formation and change of discourse on race and racialization theory, focusing on that of "international marriage, " in the Japanese empire. By setting the time period from the middle of the 19th century to the downfall of the empire in the middle of the 20th century, I will depict various contradictions especially concentrated on womenʼs body located both in empire and colonies. The racialization theory during the middle of the 19th century criticized the "adoption" of children, which had been a long-term social custom in Japanese society, in order to establish the norms of the heterogeneous modern family. In a similar manner, modern law introduced "blood logic" based on the heterosexual and ideally gendered family. Such racialization theory had transformed when Japan extended its imperial territory in East Asia. So called "intermarriage" had been practiced between colonizer and colonized. The politics of boundary, such as between empire and colony, home and migrant community or occupied territory, emerged and was contested by the increasing number of intermarriages. In particular, intermarriage under the Japanese empire was regarded as an exchange of single women in East Asia where a patriarchal system had been dominant in the region. During the 1930s when Japan attempted to attain hegemony in Asia, racial theory had become a crucial political issue. The theory had been eagerly studied in order to meet the demand for ruling the different ethnic groups (iminzoku) in East Asia. In other words, Japanese discourse on race and its racialization theory changed when it expanded its imperial territory. However, the discursive framework of marriage, including intermarriage, remained to play the same role for controlling womenʼs bodies under the patriarchal system in the region.

Journal

  • 人文學報

    人文學報 114 171-186, 2019-12-25

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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