Ethnic minority citizenship and the Japanese Constitution

Abstract

[Conclusion]: Thus ethnic minorities in Japan remain like pariahs lacking what Arendt calls a public life, and are therefore denied any footing in the human world. How can one possibly find a way out of this situation in which so many people lack even the basic human condition and are without publicly secured human relations in general? It could be said that an infringement of human rights occurs not only when at least one of the rights listed as a human right is violated, but also when people lose their footing in the human world. If this is so, it will be necessary to create a more open public sphere in order to guarantee human rights. As a first step, the rights of citizenship must be made more accessible by having them accrue not only to a single exclusive state community, but also to multiple communities. In concrete terms, this means the establishment of a system and form of citizenship which positively guarantees plural nationalities (i.e. the possession of more than one nationality by a single individual). In order to make this possible, there must be a regional order in Northeast Asia, in which more than one state community can share the principle of national sovereignty. Korea and Japan would form the initial core of such a regional order. Exactly how this can be achieved and what form it should take are matters for investigation henceforth.