Navigating boundaries of Japaneseness: identity options and constraints for ‘invisible’ multiethnic individuals in Japan

ABSTRACT

This article examines how multiethnic individuals in Japan navigate both racial and ethno-national boundaries between Japanese and non-Japanese, and how these boundaries shape or constrain their identity option as Japanese. While previous research primarily focused on the (in)visibility of mixedness (race) as constraints, this study emphasises the role of ethnicity and nation in shaping their identity choices and constraints. Through interviews with 17 individuals born to Japanese and non-Japanese Asian parents, the study reveals that ethno-national boundaries often limit their self-identification as Japanese, even though their non-Japanese backgrounds are not visibly apparent. It challenges the dominant narrative surrounding ‘hāfu’, which emphasises a desire to be fully seen as Japanese, by revealing that some multiethnic individuals in Japan do not aspire to be perceived as entirely Japanese. Despite the contrasting nature of these two identifications, they both stem from the same issue ― the narrow conceptualisation of Japaneseness.

KEYWORDS:

• Japaneseness
• mixed identity
• mixedness
• mixed race
• hāfu
• multiethnic
• mixed ethnicity
• ethnic option

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to the participants of this study. I also wish to extend my appreciation to Yoshikazu Shiobara, Yu-Anis Aruga, as well as the members of the seminars led by Gracia Liu-Farrer and Glenda Roberts at Waseda University, and Yoshikazu Shiobara’s seminar at Keio University, for reading and providing feedback on the previous version of the manuscript. Additionally, I am thankful to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on the earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Jozuka, ‘Japan’s Hafu Stars Are Celebrated. But Some Mixed-Race People Say They Feel like Foreigners in Their Own Country.’

2. Kimura, ‘Voices of In/Visible Minority: Homogenizing Discourse of Japaneseness in Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan,’ 265.

3. Sugimoto, ‘Making Sense of Nihonjinron,’ 83; Kowner and Befu, 2001 ‘Ethnic Nationalism in Postwar Japan: Nihonjinron and Its Racial Facets,’ 391–401.

4. Kashiwazaki, ‘The Foreigner Category for Koreans in Japan,’ 123–24.

5. Seiger, ‘Mixed Japanese-Filipino Identities under Japanese Multiculturalism,’ 396; Shimoji, Konketsu to Nihonjin: Hāfu, Daburu, Mikkusu No Shakaishi [‘mixed Blood’ and ‘Japanese’: The Social History of Hāfu, Daburu, and Mikkusu), 273–80.

6. Korekawa, ‘Nihon Ni Okeru Kokusai Jinko Tenkan to Sono Chu-Cho-Ki Tenbou: Nihon Tokushu Ron Wo Koete (Migration Transition in Japan and Its Mid- to Long-Term Consequence: Beyond Japanese Exceptionalism),’ 19.

7. For example, based on the October 2015 Census data, which Koreakawa used to estimate the number of individuals of mixed heritage in the above article, Chinese, Koreans, and Filipinos constitute the top three countries of origin for foreign nationals in Japan.

8. Ko, ‘Sengo Nihon Eiga Ni Okeru <Konketsuji> <Hāfu> Hyōshō No Keihu (<Mixed-Blood> and <Hāfu> Representations in Post-War Japanese Movies),’ 80.

9. See note 2 above.

10. Tanu, ‘Are Hafus “dirty” or “special”? Negotiating Mixed-Race Identities among Japanese-Indonesian Youths in Indonesia,’ 382–84; Osanami Törngren and Sato, ‘Beyond Being Either-or: Identification of Multiracial and Multiethnic Japanese,’ 811; Seiger, ‘“Mixed” Japanese-Filipino Identities under Japanese Multiculturalism,’ 396.

11. Liu-Farrer, Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-Nationalist Society, 4.

12. See note 3 above.

13. Osanami Törngren, Irastorza, and Rodríguez-García, ‘Understanding Multiethnic and Multiracial Experiences Globally: Towards a Conceptual Framework of Mixedness,’ 767.

14. Song, ‘Rethinking Minority Status and “visibility”,’ 13.

15. Rizova Stone, ‘Race, Ethnicity, and Nation,’ 1.

16. Brubaker, ‘Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism,’ 25.

17. Rizova Stone, ‘Race, Ethnicity, and Nation,’ 2; Brubaker, ‘Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism,’ 25.

18. Eriksen Jakoubek, ‘Introduction: Ethnic Groups, Boundaries and Beyond,’ 4.

19. Brubaker, ‘Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism,’ 25–26.

20. Smith, National Identity, 75.

21. Rizova Stone, ‘Race, Ethnicity, and Nation,’ 2.

22. Rizova Stone, 2; Brubaker, ‘Ethnicity, Race, and Nationalism,’ 27.

23. See note 3 above.

24. Oguma, Tanitsu Minzoku Shinwa No Kigen: ‘Nihonjin’ No Jigazō No Keihu (The Origin of Monoethnic Myth: The Geneology of Self-Image of ‘Japanese People’), 357–61.

25. Kashiwazaki, ‘The Foreigner Category for Koreans in Japan,’ 128.

26. Oguma, Tanitsu Minzoku Shinwa No Kigen: ‘Nihonjin’ No Jigazō No Keihu (The Origin of Monoethnic Myth: The Geneology of Self-Image of ‘Japanese People’), 360–61; Kashiwazaki, ‘The Foreigner Category for Koreans in Japan,’ 124.

27. Yoshino, Bunka Nashonarizumu No Shakaigaku: Gendai Nihon No Aidentitī No Yukue (Sociology of Cultural Nationalism: The Whereabouts of Identity of Modern Japan), 4.

28. Kowner and Befu 2015, ‘Ethnic Nationalism in Postwar Japan: Nihonjinron and Its Racial Facets,’ 401; Befu, Hegemony of Homogeneity: An Anthropological Analysis of Nihonjinron, 10.

29. Yoshino, Bunka Nashonarizumu No Shakaigaku: Gendai Nihon No Aidentitī No Yukue (Sociology of Cultural Nationalism: The Whereabouts of Identity of Modern Japan), 106–19.

30. Ibid., 149.

31. Kawai, A Transnational Critique of Japaneseness, 97.

32. Ibid., 71.

33. Ibid., 73.

34. Ibid., 78–85.

35. Ibid., 94.

36. Ibid., 95.

37. Ibid., 71.

38. Ahn Yoon, ‘Between Love and Hate: The New Korean Wave, Japanese Female Fans, and Anti-Korean Sentiment in Japan,’ 192.

39. Osanami Törngren, ‘Ethnic Options, Covering and Passing Multiracial and Multiethnic Identities in Japan,’ 750.

40. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America.

41. Song, Choosing Ethnic Identity, 21.

42. Ibid., 20–22.

43. Ibid., 39.

44. Kibria, ‘Race, Ethnic Options, and Ethnic Binds: Identity Negotiations of Second-Generation Chinese and Korean Americans,’ 84–85.

45. Ibid., 84–89.

46. Khanna, ‘Ethnicity and Race as “Symbolic”: The Use of Ethnic and Racial Symbols in Asserting a Biracial Identity,’ 1063.

47. Osanami Törngren, ‘Ethnic Options, Covering and Passing Multiracial and Multiethnic Identities in Japan,’ 766; Osanami Törngren and Sato, ‘Beyond Being Either-or: Identification of Multiracial and Multiethnic Japanese,’ 816; Oshima, ‘Perception of Hafu or Mixed-Race People in Japan : Group-Session Studies Among Hafu Students at a Japanese University,’ 23; Shimoji, Konketsu to Nihonjin: Hāfu, Daburu, Mikkusu No Shakaishi [‘mixed Blood’ and ‘Japanese’: The Social History of Hāfu, Daburu, and Mikkusu), 271–72; Takezawa, ‘Konketsu Shinwa No Kaitai to Jibunrashiku Ikiru Kenri’ [Dismantling the Myth of Mixed Blood and the Right to Live Yourself],’ 22–23.

48. Ibid.,

49. Ibid.,

50. Osanami Törngren, ‘Ethnic Options, Covering and Passing Multiracial and Multiethnic Identities in Japan,’ 766.

51. Seiger, ‘“Mixed” Japanese-Filipino Identities under Japanese Multiculturalism,’ 396–97.

52. Osanami Törngren and Sato, ‘Beyond Being Either-or: Identification of Multiracial and Multiethnic Japanese,’ 809.

53. Tanu, ‘Are Hafus “dirty” or “special”? Negotiating Mixed-Race Identities among Japanese-Indonesian Youths in Indonesia,’ 382–84.

54. In informal settings, the term ‘ainoko’ (mixed-breed) and, in formal contexts, ‘konketsu’ (mixed-blood) and ‘konketsu-ji’ (mixed-blood children) were commonly used labels in the past. However, many of these terms have been replaced, if not entirely, by ‘hāfu’ and ‘kokusai-ji’ (international children) respectively. For a detailed discussion, see Okamura, ‘The Language of “Racial Mixture” in Japan: How Ainoko Became Haafu, and the Haafu-Gao Makeup Fad.’

55. Okamura, ‘The Language of “Racial Mixture” in Japan: How Ainoko Became Haafu, and the Haafu-Gao Makeup Fad,’ 45.

56. Ibid., 46.

57. Osanami Törngren and Sato, ‘Beyond Being Either-or: Identification of Multiracial and Multiethnic Japanese,’ 816; Shimoji, Konketsu to Nihonjin: Hāfu, Daburu, Mikkusu No Shakaishi [‘mixed Blood’ and ‘Japanese’: The Social History of Hāfu, Daburu, and Mikkusu), 229–32; Tanu, ‘Are Hafus “dirty” or “special”? Negotiating Mixed-Race Identities among Japanese-Indonesian Youths in Indonesia,’ 384–86.

58. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, ‘Fusai No Kokusekibetsu Ni Mita Koninkensū No Nenjisuii [Annual Number of Marriages by Nationality of Husband and Wife].’

59. Harris Sim, ‘Who Is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race,’ 624; Aspinall Song, Mixed Race Identities, 33–42.

60. Eriksen Jakoubek, ‘Introduction: Ethnic Groups, Boundaries and Beyond,’ 3.

61. Horiguchi Imoto, ‘Historicizing Mixed-Race Representations in Japan: From Politicization to Identity Formation’ paragraph 15.

62. See note 5 above.

63. Sato, ‘“Others” among “Us”: Exploring Racial Misidentification of Japanese Youth,’ 310.

64. ‘5 chan neru’ is an internet forum in Japan. Ultra-right and racist comments were widespread on the forum.

65. Sasaki, ‘Maru Maru Kei Toiu Aporia: Maruchi Esunikku Japan Heno Kadai,’ 10.

66. Igarashi, ‘Haigaishugi: Imin Zōka Ha Sono Gensen to Naru Ka [Exclusionism: Will Increasing Immigration Be the Source of It?],’ 105.

67. See note 38 above.

68. See note 2 above.

69. See note 50 above.

70. See note 43 above.

71. See note 14 above.

72. Lee, ‘Contested Everyday Cultural Citizenship: “Mixed Race” Children and Their Ethnicized Citizenship in South Korea.’

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI under Grant [JP20J12555].

Notes on contributors

Yuna Sato

Yuna Sato is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Keio University and the University of South Australia, specializing in the field of ethnic and racial studies, with a particular emphasis on mixed identity in Japan. Her recent publications include ‘“Others” among “Us”: Exploring Racial Misidentification of Japanese Youth’ in Japanese Studies (Volume 41, Issue 3, 2021), ‘Reimagining Japan Through the Experiences of Mixed Japanese’ in Sustainability, Diversity, and Equality: Key Challenges for Japan (co-authored, 2023), and ‘To Be or Not to Be “White” in Japan: Japaneseness and Racial Whiteness through the Lens of Mixed Japanese People’ in The Routledge International Handbook of New Critical Race and Whiteness Studies (co-authored, 2023).