Journal article written by 2008 Abe Fellow Yuko Okubo based on her project “The Localization of Multicultural Education and the Second-Generation Chinese and Vietnamese Immigrants: A Comparison of Japan and the United States.”

This article examines how everyday experiences of certain subjects at the margins of the state illustrate the gap between official discourses and practices of multiculturalism, and unofficial everyday interpretations or reactions to the former. For this purpose, the article discusses Chinese and Vietnamese youth who experienced educational programs under the framework of “multiculturalism and coexistence” (tabunka kyōsei) in primary school in Osaka, Japan. How do activists and teachers negotiate multiculturalism, and how do these youth remember their experience? The gap found here reshapes or contests state practices and discourses, and thus, illustrates a creative space within state and society.