Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "What's it like being Half Hispanic in Japan?" video.
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@mikloridden8276 Oh no. Thanks for explaining, and sorry for your experience. American "racial" classification and identification is interesting yet so unique. I suspect it can be difficult if one doesn't fall under a ready-made category.
But I do vividly remember Korean-American neighborhoods in LA were getting attacked when a White police officer shot a Black suspect. That was very confusing. You may have had a vastly different childhood--and even a different type of prejudice/discrimination--if you were raised in Mexico or Japan. If you were raised in Japan, I'm fairly certain you wouldn't be treated any better or worse just because you're half-Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian, Brazilian, Spanish, etc...
There is a famous actor by the name of SHIROTA Yu (Spain) and a TV anchor by the name of MASAI Maya (Mexico). On our national volleyball team, MOMII Aki (Peru) played in the Olympics. Ironically, our limited exposure and knowledge may be the reason why we don't really have strong stereotypes or prejudices against those countries. Cuz I know there are strong stereotypes in Japan against Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc.
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I don't think we have a word for "Xenophobia" because the translation is 外国人嫌悪症, which is an artificially created word, and not widely used in Japanese. I've met many half-kids, and how they're treated depends on personality, upbringing, and education.
These days there are a number of popular actors, singers, and models who are half-Filipino and half-Japanese. Also I doubt anybody in Japan would consider athletes like DARVISH Yu, TAKAHASHI Ran, SAKAI Gohtoku, or TAIHO to be foreigners. (TAIHO was the most popular Yokozuna in the post-war era.) Our national Judo team has many half-kids. We also have politicians who are half-Japanese.
But I must say you do have a point on skin color and phenotype and general acceptance in Japan. But this is mostly for people with Japanese heritage. I believe Kaori-san, the Half-Colombian girl in this video, will almost always be treated as a Japanese person in Japan. (Perhaps the Colombian side also has mixed European and Indigenous/Asian ancestry.) And it's not just about her appearance. Her mannerism, voice, fashion, body-type, and make-up fits within Japanese expectations and beauty standards.
Many of the half-Filipino and half-Japanese celebrities who are popular in Japan don't look noticeably different from full-Japanese either. They either look full Japanese or quarter-foreign at most. So they are a bit exotic but not too exotic-looking, which does seem to match overall Japanese beauty standards these days. AKIMOTO Sayaka, TAKAHASHI Maryjun, and HAYAMI Mokomichi are well-known here.
Aside from half-Filipino background, there are so many famous half-people. There is a well-known announcer by the name of MASAI Maya, who is half-Mexican. TAKIGAWA Christel is half-French. SAWAJIRI Erika is half-Algerian-French. She was a popular actress until she got in trouble with the law. The MICHIBATA sisters are also well-known...for a variety of reasons. If I recall Leah Dizon was also popular in Japan some time ago, and she has Chinese-Filipino-French ancestry. While she didn't have any Japanese ancestry, and her Japanese was limited because she's from the US, her looks and personality made her very successful as a model.
As such, if you're half-Asian, most of us won't even notice it. If you're half-European, depends on the mixture and phenotype. Sadly, I suspect the people who struggle the most in Japan would be the half-Black kids, particularly those who look more Black than Asian.
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@meluvcats Just to be clear, I was explaining my observation on who will most likely be perceived as "Japanese" from an appearance/phenotype perspective. As for beauty-standards on people from abroad, that is an entirely different conservation.
I know there is a wide spectrum of preferences. Some people fancy Taylor Swift, others like K-POP idols. If I understand correctly, in East Asian fashion industries, there are many models from Russia and Eastern Europe, or people with ancestral roots in those regions. I suspect that is the case because many of them have varying degrees of natural Eastern & Western Eurasian admixture, due to thousands of years of migrations in all directions. (I recall hearing once that fashion industry likes "racially ambiguous" appearances because they can appeal to a wide audience.) But it's also true that they fit the preference or beauty standard.
But I do need to emphasize that that even if both of your parents are from Japan, if you were raised/educated abroad and if you're not familiar with Japanese language and culture, you will be treated differently. This obviously applies to half-Japanese kids who were raised and educated abroad as well. For instance, the half-Venezuelan kid in this video may be perceived as "illiterate" in Japan. Japanese companies will be valuing international students who finished Japanese universities and grad school (or studied Japanese in their home countries) over somebody who cannot read Japanese newspapers.
As for foreign-nationals, the social acceptance in Japan will depend on how much they are able to assimilate and integrate with Japanese society. If you study, work, marry, or raise children in Japan, you'll gradually and naturally become part of Japanese society. A few years ago, TERUYA Eiji, a child of a Nikkei-Brazilian who migrated to Japan, passed the Japanese Bar Exam. He was the first Brazilian national to do so. Naturally, he will be respected and valued far more in Japanese society than most in Japan. There are many other foreign nationals who are working full-time in local municipalities and as public school teachers.
Donald Keen was probably the most respected person outside of Japan. So much so that in his final years of his life, and when his daughter approached our NY Consulate that his last wish was to become a Japanese citizen and die in Japan, people in high positions moved mountains and made exceptions for him to show our gratitude. He's the scholar who translated Tales of Genji into English, which is just impossible to do. I'm confident that most of us won't be able to translate a 1,000 year-old literature even into modern Japanese, let alone a foreign language, unless you receive specialized training for decades. He was very well respected, as he understood Japanese history, culture, and literature more so than most people in Japan.
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@Kalafior10 I question your knowledge of Japan, since most foreign-nationals living in Japan are from neighboring countries, and many have assimilated culturally and integrated socially. Many of them eventually naturalize to Japanese citizenship. Just to give you an example, there is a famous eye-doctor in Tokyo who is a descendant of the Manchu Imperial Family. She came from China, finished medical school in Japan, and now has a practice in Tokyo. (People will immediately notice when they see 愛新覚羅, which is a surname or clan-name you only encounter in history textbooks.)
We have an ethnic Korean from China (李相哲) who is one of Japan's leading experts on North Korean affairs. He used to be a journalist in China, later finished his graduate studies in Japan, and has been teaching at university for decades. We have quite a few ethnic Mongols from both Mongolia and China who run SUMO staples. And we have naturalized citizens like ARIFYA Eri who is elected as a Member of Parliament. She has Uyghur ancestry.
The list of famous people with non-Japanese backgrounds is quite long. And most international marriages are with people from neighboring countries. These days, you can find many half-Filipino celebrities in Japan, such as AKIMOTO Sayaka, HAYAMI Mokomichi, or TAKAHASHI Maryjune. The reality is you cannot be a second-class citizen in Japan if you're a foreigner, because you're not a citizen to begin with.
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@@homie3461 We only approve 1,000 nationalizations each year, and majority applicants are Permanent Residents, Spouses & Children of Japanese nationals, Japanese Descendants, or foreign children who were raised and educated in Japan.
But I do understand what you're saying about nationality vs ethnicity. Multi-culturalism will never be tolerated in Japan. I know that the only foreigners who will ever be accepted in Japanese society are those who are willing adapt to Japanese language, culture, norms, behaviors, mindset, mannerism, aesthetics...in other words, become part of Japan. Those who can not or will not assimilate culturally and integrate socially will be alienated and isolated, so that they will leave Japan.
That said, I got the impression that the last kid is struggling with something other than ethnic/racial identity. Seriously, how many Japanese men will dress like that? If I had to guess he's a different type of minority.
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