Quote:
Originally Posted by bekhiet
"As for people of mixed nationalities in Japan. I imagine that it's tolerated"
So basically you have no idea what you are talking about. The author of this thread is looking for real answers not your assumptions. Others have written about all kinds of things and very much off focus, which is very annoying. Please make sure your on the right thread. Getting back to the issue:
Japan is a country that prides itself on its supposed homogeneity, and conformity is valued. Realistically, racism and discrimination do exist. There is a Japanese proverb that states: the nail that sticks out will be hammered back. Due to Japans centuries of isolation that ended in 1854, there is still a distrust for foreigners. Following WWII when the American GIs pulled out and left for the US, many mixed children were left behind. It was not uncommon for the mothers of these mixed children to leave them at orphanages due to the humiliation they would face with a mixed child. During the Korean War era, anger and hate in Japan toward the mixed children was still intense. By now, the more offensive postwar view of children of mixed race has largely disappeared. The derogatory term “ainoko” meaning half-breeds and its equally loaded successor “konketsuji” (mixed blood child) are of the past. However, the term “haafu” to describe a mixed child in Japan is still heard, especially among children. Growing up being different is still frowned upon and Japanese children are especially cruel. Mixed children knowing they are conspicuously different, go through childhood either trying to prove their legitimacy, or turning their back completely on trying to be Japanese. There will be great pains to fit in as an adolescent: even if the mixed child speaks Japanese and knows the tough dialect of the Kansai region, there is still problems fitting in. Why even at international school, full of Westerners, there are suffocating rules of the Japanese seniority system; juniors and mixed kids are silent until spoken to and carry their superiors' bags (and so-on). Mixed couples will also have issues and foreigners and mixed adults will often see this, as their opinions are often shrugged off as insignificant. Many Japanese positions and places are reserved for “true” Japanese people. Although, nice to your face, mixed couples can tell in the eyes of true Japanese people that they see disapproval and resentment of a Japanese marrying a non-Japanese. Now it is true that some haafu are seen on fashion magazines and TV and has some younger generation women running to get plastic surgery for eyelid incisions and nose jobs to look more western, for that “non-japanese-yet-japanese” look but these idealizations and fantasy are in the world of sports and entertainment. It is often stated that, as a haafu, you never get full admission to the club. The question most asked by mixed children is am I really Japanese? Never mind that the mixed child was born in Japan, and their first language is Japanese, or that they’ve spent three-quarters of their lives in Japan. The problem is you don’t look Japanese, and that has always foiled attempts to pass as one in a country that cloaks itself in an impenetrable veneer of homogeneity.
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this will all change when caucasian-japanese will become the majority
in 2006 ...735,132 marriages in Japan, of which 40,154 involved were international...thats 40,154 possible caucasians-japanese babies in a year
mixedasians.com • View topic - Are whites taking over Japan?