On the Concept of "Sub-State Region" as a Historic-, Linguistic-, and Cultural Community inside a Sovereign State

在这项研究中，考察了“次国家地区”概念在波多黎各和冲绳案例中的适用性。“次国家区域”的概念被定义为“一群人的政治单位，具有基于地理空间的历史、语言和文化共同体，它不赞成建立一个独立的主权国家，而是选择保留或被整合在具有不同历史、语言和文化背景的其他国家的主权下”。就波多黎各而言，应用这一概念有助于理解美国主权下具有西班牙文化背景的这块领土的政治情况。尽管波多黎各有资格组建自己的独立主权国家，但波多黎各人民已表现出留在美国的倾向。像“民族”或“族群”这样的传统概念无法解释这一事实。在这里，将“国籍”或“族群”问题与主权国家问题分开的“次国家地区”概念更有助于理解这种情况。在冲绳的情况下，情况也是如此。

In this research, applicability of the concept of "sub-state region" to the cases of Puerto Rico and Okinawa was examined. The concept of "sub-state region "is difined as "a political unit of a group of human beings with a historic-, linguistic-, and culturalcommunity based on a geographicspace, which does not prefer the establishment of an independent sovereign state and rather choose to remain, or to be integrated, under the sovereignty of other state with a different histoyic-, linguistic, and cultural background"As for the case of Puerto Rico, application of the concept is useful for understanding the political situation of this territory with a Spanish cultural background under the sovereignty of the United States. Although Puerto Rico qualifies for the formation of its own independent sovereign state, the people of Puerto Rico has shown their preference of remaining in the United States. Conventional concepts like "nation" or "ethnic group" cannot explaine this fact. Here the concept of "sub-state region" which separates the issues of "nationality" or "ethnicity" from that of sovereign state is more helpful to understand the situation. In the case of Okinawa, the same can be said.