Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "What's it like being Half Japanese Raised Outside Japan?" video.

  1. We have a lot of half people, successful ones too. The difference is that they received education in Japan, so they are no different from other Japanese kids in behavior, mannerism, mindset, and culture. The way we sit, talk, walk, dress, hair style, makeup...small things are usually enough to identify a local from a visitor.
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  2. I hope you have the opportunity to reconnect with your Japanese side too.
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  3.  @rakuraku8043  There are plenty of ugly half-Japanese, which is why there is a phrase called "残念なハーフ," meaning the unlucky and unfortunate half-Japanese kids. It really depends on your parents. Successful half-Japanese celebrities like SAWAJIRI Erika, SHIROTA Yu, or AKIMOTO Sayaka have Japanese fathers. I don't know if it's because their fathers married "beautiful" foreign women who match Japanese beauty standards, cultural and educational upbringing, or because they have Japanese surnames and identity (and are better accepted by Japanese fans).
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  4. I believe the best method is still to have both parents talk to the children in their own languages...only in their respective languages, because it's really tragic if your children cannot communicate directly with all of their grandparents, cousins, uncles/aunts, etc. If there is a Japanese school in your neighborhood, please make sure they attend it on Saturdays. It will impact their future. The focus is always about expanding the possibilities of your children's future. Building a foundation of both French and Japanese when they're young, so that when they actually start studying it will be easier to master. Naturally, fluency in language is just an entry-level problem, because the real challenge will be how to make them bi-cultural, so they will be completely accepted as natives in both French and Japanese societies. The brutal reality is you're neither useful to France nor Japan, if you're not perfectly fluent in both languages and cultures. So a fully-French person who has studied Japanese in highschool and university is more valuable to both France and Japan, than a Half-Japanese/French person who only knows one language. I cannot speak for the "identity" issue because this will depend on where your children grow up. Growing up Half-French Half-Japanese in Japan is a very different experience from growing in France or even third-country like Singapore or the UK. As you're probably aware, there are many Half-French celebrities in Japan.
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