I'm looking for any manga that involves groups that are considered minority in Japan. Preferably "indigenous" ones (not some exotic American that just moved into the country). Aside from above i suppose Chinese go into the same group, but i'm Ok with Taillessness, Vietnamese people and the rest of Eastern Asia that is close to Japan (eee... Russian included ).

It would make me happy if suggestions would focus mainly on Ainu and Ryukyu people, end even more if those people would take bigger part in the story.

I can't give any examples atm, but i suppose Shamo kind of catches what i want. Well at least as far as i've read till now (the Korean guy is quite exposed at the end of 1 volume and majority of 2nd volume, have not read further).

Also please keep it low with Chines/Russian mafia activities in Japan. If you think the story is great, please suggest it, but certain patten involving this mafia in BL with pathetic stories kinda made me dislike the motive.

Also genre is not an issue for me, sainen, jousei, shounen, shoujo, hentai, yuri, bl, etc bring it all (ok bl is fine, but really, no Chinese/Russian mafia+BL please -.-;; ).

Chidaruma Kenpou Onorera ni Tsugu
Kamui Den If I recall, Kamui lives in a Ainu village.

Last edited by revilenigma at 3:03 pm, Jun 29 2010

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Yey... thank you for suggestions, will read

well, i remember that in Shaman King horohoro, one of the major character, is an Ainu (or at least i think that's what he was, an indigenous people of hokkaodo). he went on about his dream of butter-something field or something.

the story has whole bunch of other natives from different country involved as it grows longer

i totally forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me guess is time to finally finish reading the manga :3

Hmm.... this is an interesting topic. Ainu and Ryuukyuu are going to be pretty understated- we have plenty of manga set in Okinawa, so I guess there's some Ryuukyuu culture involved, but generally both have been pretty hybridized... they're started groups clammoring for restoration of certain traditions for the sake of keeping culture alive, but generally I think those are going to be too recent to appear in manga yet, and it's unlikely that there would be many scanlated that deal with actual culture, rather than just supplementing a few stereotypes in order to avoid having to give a side character much development.

If we're just looking at ethnic lines, then aside from the previously mentioned three, only Brazilians and Chinese have terribly significant population numbers. However, if you look at the other minorities- the social victims, Burakumin, Hibakusha (atomic bomb victims), etc, then there are a few more options.

I can't really think of any manga involving Burakumin (it probably would get shot down long before a chance at publication), but I suppose [m]Yuunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni[/m] does deal with hibakusha.

For what it's worth, it might also be worth reading Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino. There are some applicable sections concerning Chinese and half-Japanese, even though I'm really not all that enamored of her writing (but I'm a little particular... if your reading is pretty mainstream it shouldn't be a problem). Plenty of stuff for Hibakusha as well, and there are a few foreign characters in a number of Japanese novels, but I don't want to shove too many textual sources down your throat, and I can't think of any centered on Ryuukyuu or Ainu anyway.

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wow, so the discrimination aginst burakumin actually persist in japan? i just read that article in wiki, thanks for letting me know that something like that still existed.

i guess what japan need is some restless lawless time like in korean war where all baekjeong buy/forge their family tree so that their family status will be hidden. some even changed their last name so that the baekjeong status will not be appearent. (and we wonder why there are so many Lee and Kim in korea.....?) and everybody forget about that and flood into history. only to be used when tou curse someone.

@akari_mizunashi: thank you for a suggestion

@Crenshinibon: thank you so much for all suggestions and i really wouldn't mind if you write more (novels included, as long as the author is Japanese). It's a subject i'd like to deal with on longer term; its not something of current interest only, really.
I know that getting titles which would in one or another way deal with those people, culture differences, the prejudice and/or inferiority that Japanese feel toward those groups in form of fiction is rather impossible. Which is exactly why i did not narrow my request to this point. But just by having characters like that (be it main ones or side characters) i can get a lot out of it.
What we learned at methodology classes dealing with Japan was a bit of an overload for me and it was presented from western POV wich more or less pissed me off rather than teach me something new.
Also as far as i know the program to preserve Ryukyu and Ainu culture has been going of for about 50 years, same goes for problem with Koreans (actually those became problem right after 2WW when Japan returned Korea its Independence if i remember right) so i really though there would be more of this topic in Japanese literature, but maybe they're just "shy" or manga is just not proper format for this topic considering Japanese take it for light entertainment rather than anything else.
Burakumin and Hibakusha are most definitely interesting topics as well, but generally speaking those still deal with Japanese, while i'd prefer to explore Japanese dealing with foreigners (or what they consider to be foreigns) first. But thank you for suggestions anyway since its more or less first next topic i'm interested in

@Hespia Klarerin: i was quite surprised when i heard of discrimination against burakumin as well, but apparently its still very much present. For example in those more traditional families or where children still seek parents approval to get married the partners background will be explored and if any of his/her ancestors was burakumin or lived closed to those sections they're usually not allowed to marry (but to my knowledge this subject usually goes through grandparents - it doesn't justify the actions but it kinda makes sense). And for what you mentioned... in most cases changing your family name and similar things to prevent anybody from linking you to burakumin doesn't help <- words of my teacher so i cant really claim if that is the case or not, but i do know if Japanese people decide to do something they will, exploring ones history means they'll do it and they'll do it damn well.

It's not hard to find Burakumin... there are lists in the city halls, provided you know the right person- I can at least guarantee that the folders exist, though I've never been allowed to look at one. I've had this discussion with people who have those sorts of connections, it's still very much alive, changing your name doesn't eliminate what gets you put on the list either- they look at the area you live and were born, the professons you've had, the professions your ancestors have had, etc. etc. Because of the marital investigations and whatnot, they mostly intermarry, so it's easy to trace.

Don't trust the 50-year thing, or anything that supposedly happens "immediately" after WWII. Korea was dissolved as a Japanese colony in 1945, that much is true, but there were a number of issues after that. Which Korea do the Koreans living in Japan return to, for instance? I mean, sure, there were minor activist movements and that sort of thing, but nothing that produced any sort of results until at least the 1980s, and not much has happened since the UN declared the Ainu a minority. The Japanese government actively insisted that Japan was homogeneous in order to make certain impressions on Western powers prior to that, so all of this "minority" nonsense was just sort of swept under the rug.

Japanese literature doesn't discuss that because Japanese society doesn't want to. It's pretty much that simple. Heck, Murakami Haruki was nearly booed out of the profession by Japanese literati who insisted he wasn't enough of a "post-war" Japanese writer up until The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Now then... as far as actual suggestions are concerned. There's a short story by Murakami, using him as a launching point, called "A Slow Boat to China," which is in whichever the earliest of his English collections is. It's a little personal (it's about the protagonist's image of China, rather than Chinese in Japanese society), but it talks about the presence of Chinese in Japan. Oe's Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids has a Korean in it, though it's WWII Japan, it has contemporary relevance. It's particular relevant that's he's an outsider here, I think.

I'm positive there are a number more, but I'm blanking at the moment.... I'll come back later. Generally I think I'd recommend text over manga for this particular task. Manga is a highly commercialized market, and doesn't really have the old blood elitist literati backing up its "purity" in the same way you see with text, so it tends to be less intellectual. I can dig up academic papers and that sort of thing if you want too, or at least drop some names of authors of nonfiction for you to look into. If it's something you're generally interested in, there's quite a lot to absorb.

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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
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NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...

Ainu:
Yuusha Dan
Samurai Spirits
Yuki no Taiyou

Chinese:
Tetsudou In, Love Letter
Cardcaptor Sakura