>From Harumi Befu

"Multi-" or "mono-" culturality is a relative matter.
No culture, if any, is 100% monocultural. To what extent a cultural is multicultural depends on which culture is compared and also how "culture" is counted.
Whatever definition is adopted, In comparison with USA, it is probably safe to say that Japan is less multicultural, but Japan cannot be said to be monocultural even in comparison with US: it is less multicultural. In comparison with France, with Algerians and Roma, or Germany, with Turks, it's a good question whether Japan is more or less multicultural, not only in terms of numbers involved but in terms of heterogeneity of cultural mix.