This article attempts to examine Nihonjinron, the popular essentialist genre in Japan, which purports to analyse Japan's quintessence and cultural core by using three concepts - nationality, ethnicity and culture - synonymously. The focus of the paper will be placed on: (1) the widespread political bases of Nihonjinron and its internal divisions; (2) its changing features in the face of globalization; (3) the possible productive uses of Nihonjinron at both conceptual and theoretical levels; and (4) the dilemma of inter-societal and (...) intra-societal cultural relativism, which the Nihonjinron debate has highlighted. The paper presents an outline of an inductive, pluralistic, multicultural model of analysis as a possible alternative. (shrink)