Trans-pacific Research and Action Institute for the hisabetu-nikkei
TRAI
About TRAI
Trans-pacific Research and Action Institute for the hisabetu-nikkei is a bi-national organization established in 2006 to facilitate and promote capacity-building of the structurally and socially marginalized (Hisabetsu Nikkei) communities in the state of Japan and their diaspora, particularly in the U.S. and its territories, to address and resolve the root causes of various inequities that affect them, and to participate in local and global movements to build their communities as informed, empowered stewards of fundamental principles of unity, justice, sustainability, equity and unique cultural and social traditions.
The Hisabetsu Nikkei, we believe, are the living proof of the remaining, long-overdue legacy of Japanese colonialism. In order to fully eradicate this systemic injustice, it is critical that the Hisabetsu Nikkei who can speak to it from their own first-hand experiences and community historical knowledge articulate their own solutions, and effectively inject their voices in the decision-making processes around issues that impact them directly.
In the present day, we also recognize that much of the structural inequities manifest in poor and disenfranchised communities can be attributed to international and global level influence shaped by an unaccountable select group of few world leaders and corporate executives, as seen in the areas of trade policies, for example. In the age of “globalization,” our communities are not unlike many around the world in which the consequences of international/global policies and domestic ones compound the local-level sufferings and challenges.
The international influence in determining the inequitable power dynamics between the Hisabetsu Nikkei and the ruling elite is nothing new, however. We recognize that the very origins of the doctrine of the Imperial system as well as the methodologies of conquest by use of arms, policies, social and other institutional intervention were actively sought out from the West by Japan’s leadership behind Japan’s “modernization” since the 19th century, representing religious, military, political and economic institutions. For this reason, Hisabetsu Nikkei’s analytical landscape encompasses the local, the national, to the transnational, in order to develop a historical systemic analysis of Japan’s system of oppression, as well as to articulate solutions in the context of neoliberal globalization in which Japan is an integral part.
The Working Group’s core activity areas consist of the following:
1) social enterprise project development and implementation, in
partnership with the Jinzai Ikusei Kenkyuu-sho (Ginza, Tokyo) and Japan
Pacific Resource Network (Oakland, CA);
2) Promotion of direct Hisabetsu Nikkei community alliance-building within and beyond Japan, particularly among broad-based social movements
led by communities impacted by various injustices;
3) Support and implementation of capacity-building and leadership
development projects for constituent Hisabetsu Nikkei communities; and
4) Public education and awareness-building.
What are we doing now?
TRAi‘s initial tasks involve articulation of the definition and positionality of these Hisabetsu Nikkei in the context of the historical colonial legacy of the Japanese Imperialist agenda that - contrary to popular notion - continue to this day in the present. Furthermore, the Working Group seeks to document, analyze and disseminate information across Japan and the U.S. (i.e., the English language-dominant environments) to substantiate the various impacts of this systemic oppression as well as increase public awareness, and suggest avenues for strategic alliances directly with the impacted communities in Japan and the U.S., and internationally.
In addition, TRAI is undertaking a series of dialog with various
communities and organizations in Japan to explore strategies in
our core activity areas, and to formalize organizational structure
accordingly. The
list of advisors, affiliates and membership is simultaneously being
developed.
What is ‘Hisabtsu Nikkei’?
by miho kim, a US-based zainichi Korean activist, Co-Founder of the Trans-Pacific Research and Action Institute and US Coordinator (San Francisco/Bay Area)
In the process of Japanese nation-state formation marked by the “Meiji Restoration” in 1868 and thereafter as an official imperial entity, the Japanese state took colonies inhabited by Ainu in Hokkaido, Okinawans, and Koreans. After Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, it was stripped of its colonial holdings in Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and China. However, Hokkaido and Okinawa still remain within the Japanese state. Zainichi Koreans also remained within the postwar Japanese state, and continue to live there today while their ancestral “homeland” has been divided amongst other colonial powers. These peoples are subject to Japan’s ongoing “assimilation policy” as a primary overarching strategy of continuing colonial rule within its own borders in the context of its domestic policy legal framework.
The Buraku-min are descendants of those who were relegated to the ‘untouchable’ caste under the social stratification system that dates back to the feudal era in Japan. While Japan’s insidious caste system was renounced formally by Japan’s Meiji government more than a century ago, the Buraku-min continue to experience institutional barriers to achieving full liberation from their “non-human” subjugated caste.
Hisabtsu Nikkei, a term introduced originally in 2004, literally means “discriminated-against” (Hisabetsu) and “of Japan.” (Nikkei) Since 2000, as I sought to inject my unique zainichi perspective into social movements led by People of Color in the U.S., I repeatedly came up against the absence of an established term to refer to minorities in/from the state of Japan as a single politically defined group of people who share in the collective predicament of being systematically discriminated against, on the basis of lacking a “pure” or legitimate Japanese heritage (the Buraku-min are also known as eta or hinin, meaning “extremely filthy” and “non-human,” respectively, hence precluded from legitimate Japanese status). Therefore, the need to identify and analyze systemic root causes of our common experiences of oppression as fellow “non-Japanese” has surfaced as a common agenda for all of us. Hisabetsu Nikkei is therefore a political and a social construct, developed to refer collectively and categorically to these groups of peoples to identify on the basis of this common agenda, and galvanize a formidable political influence to eradicate ongoing systemic oppression, namely the Imperial system and ideology, as a key instrument to advance Japanese colonialism. Only through this crucial process can we effectively strategize to collectively redress, restore and ensure full dignity and justice to all of Japan’s minority communities and their future generations.
February 2007