Regarding the Oct. 23 Views From the Street question "Which minority groups face the worst discrimination in Japan?": As a nisei and former resident of Japan and Okinawa, I find it telling that there is no mention about the continued institutional discrimination against Ryukyuans.
Without question, non-Japanese Asians face discrimination in Japan, but at least China and Korea have had their expropriated lands and sovereignty restored. Okinawa remains a vestige of Japanese imperialism, concentrating 75 percent of fellow empire America's military into a tiny space that comprises less than 1 percent of Japan.
The exotification of Okinawans does not neutralize the discrimination that Okinawa continues to face from Japanese environmental racism and dual colonization by both Japan and the United States. The fact that this has become "invisible" suggests that the most discriminated minority in Japan are Okinawans, just after the Ainu, who have almost literally become invisible through Japan's ethnic-cleansing politics. This is being practiced through "sanitizing" textbooks by the education ministry.