Is Japan as ethnically homogeneous as it is often described?

This summer, East Asian Studies Professor Naemi McPherson led 12 students to explore Japan’s diverse social fabric through the Brown Global Summer Program, EAST0413 Explore Japan: Multicultural/ethnic Communities.

The program combined online asynchronous learning with two weeks of in-country immersion, including museum visits, fieldwork, and interactive student exchanges. By engaging directly with local residents and peers, participants explored Japan’s diverse communities firsthand—visiting a Chinatown, Koreatowns, and an Ainu community across Yokohama, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hokkaido, while reflecting on their own identities, perspectives, and sense of belonging.