Abstract: In Modern Western countries, a theoretical system of “scientific racism” was established in order to build up nation states and carry out overseas colonization. This system provides a racial hierarchy centered on the “white supremacy theory” and gives Japanese people a new identity as “yellow race”. Around the two key issues of whether to accept this hierarchical order of race and whether to accept the identity of “yellow race”, there were four tendencies in the ideological circles in Meiji period of Japan: “racial reform theory”, “white-Japanese theory”, “Asianism”, and “conservative race theory”. These four tendencies ultimately lead to two types of identity, one being a “yellow” or “colored” race that competes with “white” people, and the other being a unique and superior “Japanese race” compared to neighboring ethnic groups. These two types of identity influence and contradict each other, which have a profound impact on Japans self-understanding and world understanding in the future.

Key words: race, self understanding, racial improvement, Asianism, the Kiki Shinwa