Minzoku-Shugi
/mĩnzokɯ ɕɯɡʲi/noun
A Japanese term meaning nationalism, especially nationalism centered on an ethnic or cultural people.
Did you know?Minzoku-shugi is written 民族主義, using Sino-Japanese characters whose components mean roughly “people or populace,” “clan or group,” “master principle,” and “righteous doctrine.”
Etymological Timeline
Ancient China
Old Chinese
民 (*mˤin)
“Person, populace, or the common people; the ancestor of the Japanese reading min.”
Ancient China
Classical Chinese
族 (*dzuk)
“Clan, family group, tribe, or people; the source of zoku in Japanese.”
Classical Chinese
Chinese
民族
“A people or ethnic group; this compound later became a major political term in East Asian intellectual vocabulary.”
Meiji period, late 19th century
Japanese
民族主義 (minzoku shugi)
“A Japanese Sino-Japanese compound modeled within the modern political vocabulary of nationalism and ideological “-isms.””
20th century
Japanese
民族主義
“Nationalism, particularly a form emphasizing shared ethnicity, culture, language, or historical identity.”
Modern English usage
English
minzoku-shugi
“A scholarly romanization of the Japanese term, usually translated as ethnic nationalism or nationalism.”