Kaoru Sonoda: To Capture the Diversity of Minorities

To date, I have analyzed the intentions of both labor and management—specifically, the motivations behind how talented foreign nationals working in Japan and the Japanese companies that employ them establish, maintain, and eventually terminate their employment relationships. One conclusion is that the root cause of the mismatch lies in the fact that employment relationships are formed under a state of "same bed, different dreams," where both parties misinterpret each other's expectations. This has become apparent as efforts are made to incorporate human resources with characteristics that can lead to minority status (minority-ness) in the employment society—a concept increasingly recognized through terms like DEI and diversity. As these conclusions emerged, I began to feel strongly that, from my position as someone who has always been part of the majority, I must thoroughly consider the nature of "minority-ness."

The society woven by human beings is diverse and complex, and it cannot be easily explained in its entirety. We must be aware of the violence and arrogance inherent in assuming we have understood others. Nevertheless, the economy continues to move, and even at this very moment, someone in the employment society is finding it difficult to work, feeling alienated, and living an unstable life. That person might be a foreign national, a woman, a person with a disability, or perhaps a foreign woman with a disability. What commonalities exist among these "someones"? While we must avoid pre-defining the attributes of people facing difficulties, if we can continue to think honestly about this point, we may be able to share their suffering even slightly and change the current situation together. I have an intuition that the key to this lies in thinking through the boundaries between the majority and minority and the relationships created between them.

Currently, I aspire to be someone who, with the pride of a researcher, continues to stand in the "in-between," constantly grappling with and seeking to understand these relationships. The individuals and companies I have dealt with so far have been limited, and in the future, I want to expand the scope of my analysis to include more industries and occupations. While specializing in the employment of foreign nationals, I want to approach the question of what "minority-ness" is, without limiting it solely to differences in nationality. To achieve this, I need people from various perspectives to think about this issue with me. It would be an unexpected joy to have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with all of you, in order to capture the diversity of those called minorities and to find some common ground among them.