ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the argument advanced in Multiethnic Japan (2001) that Japan has been a multiethnic society, and examines how in spite of the seeming academic consensus, the larger Japanese society has continued to subscribe to the myth of monoethnicity. Far from refuting the ethnic homogeneity assumption, the recent influx of foreigners and migrants paradoxically strengthens it. The relative weakness of social movements around multicultural, ethnic, and immigration issues contributes to the persistence of the ideology of monoethnic Japan.
