Interracial Relationships in Japan: An Exploration of Values in Japanese Young People’s Attitudes toward Interracial Relationships

Abstract

This study investigated Japanese young people’s attitudes toward interracial relationships. Most respondents held a more positive general/global attitude than a personal openness attitude to interracial relationships. In other words, respondents chose a more restrained approach to taking personal actions such as dating, living with, marrying, and having children with people of a different race. Of the gender difference in general/global attitudes toward interracial relationships, women were more positive than men, but there was no difference in personal openness attitudes. Regarding the roles of values in predicting general/global attitudes, the study identified two significant positive values of hedonism and universalism and one negative value of tradition. Regarding the roles of values in predicting personal openness attitudes, the study identified one positive value of self-direction and one negative value of security. Values were found to be an essential variable in investigating interracial relationships.

Keywords:

• interracial relationships
• values
• Japanese young people’s attitudes towards interracial relationships
• gender differences in attitudes
• otherness

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to J.F. Oberlin University & Obirin Gakuen Foundation of America for their support in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Young people are vaguely and broadly defined and used by scholars. However, in general, young people typically refer to individuals in a specific age range distinct from childhood and adulthood. The definition of young people is influenced by cultural, social, and legal factors. In Japan, the age of 20 is quite significant. A national holiday called Seijinshiki (Coming of Age Day) was established to celebrate those who turned 20 (Snoddy, 2013). It recognizes individuals who have turned 20 years old, marking their transition to adulthood (Snoddy, 2013). Therefore, for this study, the young people refer to those who are around 20, from 18 to 26, also known as young adulthood.

2 Hāfu is a Japanese term used to refer to a person ethnically half Japanese and half non-Japanese. A loanword from English means “half,” a reference to the individual’s non-Japanese heritage “Hāfu”, 2024. Hafu is a Japanese identity category of people born from parents of different races or ethnicities, where one has an ethnic Japanese and the other has a non-Japanese heritage. Although it is generally referred to as people who partially hold Japanese ethnicity mixed with different ethnicities, the term may also be applied to anyone of mixed race (Kimura, 2021).

3 Lalonde et al. (2007) measure of general attitude and personal openness to interracial relationships was developed and taken from Mwamwenda (1998) and Knox et al. (2000) in their study of social dominance orientation and ideological asymmetry concerning interracial dating and adoption in Canada. The general attitude with eight items and the personal interest measures with six items resulted from a two-factor factor analysis solution.

4 The survey follows the conventional way of asking about gender: male or female, as in a standard survey for many years. In hindsight, the researcher realized it should have added a third choice: others. Data collected from this question with 1.3% missing might be those needing this third choice. However, the researcher acknowledges that as the norms around gender identity change, a new way of asking this question should be better and might be more reflective of the research intention: “Do you describe yourself as a man, a woman, or in some other way?”.

5 The Likert scale of 1 to 5 represents “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” with three representing “neutral” and four representing “agree.”.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by the College of Communication and Fine Arts, University of Memphis.