The dynamics of inclusion and exclusion have operated for centuries in the island chain that constitutes Japan's southernmost prefecture, Okinawa - otherwise known as the Ryukyu Islands. Are the people of Okinawa 'Japanese' or not 'Japanese'? Answers to this puzzling question are explored in this richly-detailed volume, written by one of Japan's foremost public intellectuals, historical sociologist Eiji Oguma. Here, Oguma addresses issues of Okinawan sovereignty and its people's changing historical, cultural, and linguistic identity, over more than 150 years until its 1972 reversion to Japanese control, following its administration by the US from the end of the Pacific War.

About Editors and Authors

OGUMA Eiji is a Japanese sociologist and Professor in the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University specializing in historical sociology and correlated social sciences. Although aspiring to study physics at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Nagoya University, he dropped out and instead went on to graduate from the Department of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, in 1987. He joined Iwanami Shoten, a major academic publisher in Japan, and worked as book editor until 1996. He then joined the Department of International Social Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, where he completed his PhD. He served as Lecturer at Keio University, and later as Associate Professor, before assuming his current position. He is actively involved in research and discussions on political thought largely focused on nationalism and democracy and based on history. His books have won prestigious academic awards such as the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. He is also known as a guitarist.

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