At present, there are a lot of halves who are TV stars in Japan. Besides, almost all of these stars are half westerners and half Japanese. For example, ベッキー, 土屋アンナ, ウエンツ瑛士 and so on. However, in Japan, the rate and number of half who are half westerners and half Japanese are small. Then, why are there many half westerners and half Japanese talents are popular among Japanese? Perhaps, it is because many Japanese think that the looks which are derived from European are beautiful. Well, why Japanese think so? There are two reasons why Japanese are fascinated by their looks. One is that because Japan has developed to catch up with the western countries and America in the Meiji era and after the WWⅡ. Second, it is because human beings tend to attracted by the thing which they have not.
When the Meiji Restoration was occurred in Japan, Japanese positively accepted a lot of western cultures, for example, Japanese made the dance hall for social contact, called Rokumeikan in Tokyo. In addition, after the WWⅡ, Japan had been affected by some western countries and America and remarkably developed to catch up with them. Japan has the national traits that accepting and adopting other cultures gradually as its own culture. By these historical points, Japanese might have a latent idea that the looks of western and America is ideal. Second, in terms of the psychology, human beings have the admiration for the looks which they have not. That means Japanese could tend to be fascinated by the higher nose, colorful eyes, blond hair and so on. Human beings are likely to feel that the feature they do not have is “good things”.
Finally, it is necessary that to insist that there are a lot of effects on us by the media when we see halves on TV. Media mainly pick up the topics or people that are popular and beautiful among the audience. But in this world, there are a lot of things we should see and grasp directly by going abroad on their foot. That helps us to make reasonable idea that there is no difference among halves. Also, simply, the world of show business is absolutely severe; only few people can steadily get the fans. However, it is the most important thing that every halves have the equal rights to get along with their life than any other reason. It is clear that we should prepare the equally working system for all people including halves by changing our points of view for halves.
by Sayaka Kurata
JAPANsociology 
interesting!
i like JOY(his father is British and his mother is Japanese ), but, i’ve never why …
he looks really foreigner, but he speak Japanese fluently and he tell a joke in Japanese. a gap between his looks and his language is interesting, that’s why i like him i think.
by the way, i wonder that half TV personalities are popular in other countries too?
thank you for your interesting comment, Myumi!
i think there are some halves in foreign countries, too. In fact, there are a lot of talents who are halves and immigrants in America.(but i could not search the reliable source or data about other countries…I’m sorry.)
Anyway, i felt, by investigating the situation for halves in not only Japan, but also in other countries, we could get and know our tendency toward the halves vividly. that means we could take an objective view for this situation (halves on TV) in japan by seeing the same situation in foreign countries.
thank you!
I’ve read your blog post about “halves” and agreed with the reasons why Japanese are attracted by Western figeres. These reasons are very proper and interesting, I suppose.
The fact that we often see some cool or pretty halves on television influences on our good impressions toward halves. In that point, media is of importance, and halves definitely have equal right to succeed in their lives.
Anyway, going abroad is effective to change our points of view. Let’s!
Thank you for interesting blog post.