The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania

ペンシルベニア日米協会

2022 Japan Lecture Series – Kawasaki, a city of Japan’s Multicultural Vanguard

  • Thursday, April 28, 2022
  • 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
  • Room A14 Margaret Morrison Hall, 5001 Margaret Morrison St, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

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The notion of multiculturalism (tabunka shugi or tabunka kyosei) emerged in the social and political discourses during the 1990s while the “myth of Japan’s homogeneity” was widely challenged by various scholars, thinkers, and business leaders in Japan and abroad since the 1980s. However, there are still issues regarding the diversity, equity and inclusion in Japan, a country where the population is declining and yet the number of foreign residents continue to grow. How is it possible for Japan to reinvent itself in response to the fast-paced global trend of multiculturalism?

To facilitate a discussion of multiculturalism in Japan today, Professor Yoshihiro Yasuhara will introduce the case of Kawasaki, a city that “became the first municipality to pass an ordinance that makes hate speech a punishable offense”* and its repercussions.

Doors open at 6:30 PM and the talk will begin at 7.

YYoshihiro Yasuharaoshihiro Yasuhara is an Associate Teaching Professor of
 Japanese Studies at Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Pennsylvania State University. His publications include “John Okada: No-No-Boy ron: Amerika shakai no shuryu to Minority no kyokai [On John Okada’s No-No Boy: The Boundary between America’s mainstream and minority]” in Yure ugogku <hoshu>: Gendai America bungaku to shakai [The Oscillating Conservatism: The Literature and Society of Modern America.] (Ed. Kazuhiko Yamaguchi and Takashi Nakatani. Tokyo: Shumpusha, 2018). He teaches, and researches on, Japanese film, modern Japanese literature, cultural studies of Japan’s popular culture, and all levels of Japanese language.



Japan Lecture Series Sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc.

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