Global Human Rights and the Transformation of Minority Politics in Contemporary Japan

FAIN: FO-50061-08

Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Stanford University (Stony Brook, NY 11794-0001)

This book project examines how the rise of global human rights in the last few decades has transformed minority politics, giving rise to political activism by disadvantaged ethnic minorities in many corners of the world. Focusing on three minority social movements in Japan, Ainu people, Korean residents and the Burakumin, the project illustrates how the global human rights regime has provided new venues for contestation for minorities, growing flows of mobilizational resources for disadvantaged groups, and new vocabularies for framing their claims. These processes led to greater activism by all three minority groups in Japan, although the influence varied according to their historical backgrounds. Further, the movements all contribute back to the global political arena and elevated global human rights standards, demonstrating a feedback loop to the global regime. The book presents detailed accounts of these processes, using archival documents and interviews as main data sources.

Associated Products

Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Book)
Title: Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan
Author: Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Abstract: Since the late 1970s, the three most salient minority groups in Japan - the politically dormant Ainu, the active but unsuccessful Koreans, and the former outcaste group of Burakumin - have all expanded their activism despite the unfavorable domestic political environment. In Rights Make Might, Kiyoteru Tsutsui examines why, and finds an answer in the galvanizing effects of global human rights on local social movements. Tsutsui chronicles the transformative impact of global human rights ideas and institutions on minority activists, which changed their understandings about their standing in Japanese society and propelled them to new international venues for political claim making. The global forces also changed the public perception and political calculus in Japan over time, catalyzing substantial gains for their movements. Having benefited from global human rights, all three groups repaid their debt by contributing to the consolidation and expansion of human rights principles and instruments outside of Japan. Drawing on interviews and archival data, Rights Make Might offers a rich historical comparative analysis of the relationship between international human rights and local politics that contributes to our understanding of international norms and institutions, social movements, human rights, ethnoracial politics, and Japanese society.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/1030967735
Primary URL Description: Worldcat listing.
Access Model: Traditional print and ebook (not open access)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780190853112
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

---