Multiracial politics
Mixed feelings about race
By William Wetherall
First posted 10 March 2006
Last updated 5 February 2007
How many "multiracial people" are there in the world?
Japanese law has no tradition of racializing people, and Japanese census forms do not solicit information about race or ethnicity. There is a box for "honseki" (principal register), which is tantamount ot "kokuseki" (nationality) for people who are not members of family registers affiliated with Japan. One is classified as a registrant of a prefefecture in Japan (Japanese), or of Kankoku, Thailand, Russia, Nigeria, the United States, whatever, or of no state (foreigners). Respondants are not asked to identify their putative race or ethnicity.
In sharp contrast, census taking in the United States today is a highly racialist operation. US laws were conceived on the assumption that race exists and should "count", whereas Japanese laws have assumed that race, if it exists, is a private matter. Until the latter half of the 20th century, race was a qualification for obtaining US nationality (and citizenship) through naturalization. However, race or ethnicity have never been requisites of Japanese nationality.
The earliest racial divide in the US census was "white" and "non-white" or "colored". Today, every advocacy organization that claims to represent the interests of a putative ethnic or racial "group" vies to get its own "label" on the official list of categories so that its potential political constituency can be counted and otherwise "empowered" by official demographic statistics.
2000 US census figures on Asian ethnicity
Since the 2000 census, people have been allowed to check secondary race boxes after first checking a primary racial/ethnic affiliation. All such checking is voluntary, and more people are opting not to racialize themselves.
The 2000 breakdown for "Asian Americans" is as follows.
Table 1: Largest Asian American Ethnic Groups, 2000 Census
Asian alone Asian and
Two or more at least
Asian one other Total
ethnicities race population,
(i.e., (i.e., alone
Ethnic Single Chinese- Filipino- or in any
group ethnicity Vietnamese) White) combination
Chinese 2,314,537 130,826 289,478 2,734,841
Filipino 1,850,314 57,811 456,690 2,364,815
Asian Indian 1,678,765 40,013 180,821 1,899,599
Korean 1,076,872 22,550 129,005 1,228,427
Vietnamese 1,122,528 47,144 54,064 1,223,736
Japanese 796,700 55,537 296,695 1,148,932
Cambodian 171,937 11,832 22,283 206,052
Pakistani 153,533 11,095 39,681 204,309
Laotian 168,707 10,396 19,100 198,203
Hmong 169,428 5,284 11,598 186,310
Thai 112,989 7,929 29,365 150,293
Taiwanese 118,048 14,096 12,651 144,795
Indonesian 39,757 4,429 18,887 63,073
Bangladeshi 41,280 5,625 10,507 57,412
Table 2: Percents of components of total population
Chinese 84.6 4.8 10.6 100.0
Filipino 78.2 2.4 19.3 100.0
Asian Indian 88.4 2.1 9.5 100.0
Korean 87.7 1.8 10.5 100.0
Vietnamese 91.7 3.9 4.4 100.0
Japanese 69.3 4.8 25.8 100.0
Cambodian 83.4 5.7 10.8 100.0
Pakistani 75.1 5.4 19.4 100.0
Laotian 85.1 5.2 9.6 100.0
Hmong 90.9 2.8 6.2 100.0
Thai 75.2 5.3 19.5 100.0
Taiwanese 81.5 9.7 8.7 100.0
Indonesian 63.0 7.0 29.9 100.0
Bangladeshi 71.9 9.8 18.3 100.0
Table 1 source:
Author: Le, C.N.
Title: "Population Statistics & Demographics"
Website: Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America
URL: http://www.asian-nation.org/population.shtml
Last updated 2006, accessed 8 March 2006
Table 2 source:
Computed by William Wetherall from Table 1 figures
Although the title of the source table says "Asian Americans", I have not yet confirmed that the figures exclude non-Americans. If the figures include aliens, then the "Japanese" will include not only Americans, but Japanese and other nationalities who consider themselves to be of "Japanese" ethnicity or raciality.
Mixture in "Japanese" population
At face value, though, the "Japanese" population includes a higher percentage of self-styled multiethnic/multiracial individuals than all other "ethnic groups" except "Indonesians".
To be continued.