There are many of ha-fu musicians in Japan and seen on TV, radio, newspapers, and internet. They usually talk in Japanese and know the culture of Japan same as the other Japanese.

Sometimes we do not notice that a musician is a ha-fu or not. For example, You Hitoto who is a famous singer in Japan looks like Japanese because her father is Taiwanese and her mother is Japanese, which mean they are both Asian. She also sings a song in Japanese and talk in Japanese in some interviews.

On the other hand, there are some musicians who look different from Japanese people. The singer of enka (Japanese traditional music) JERO can be one of them. Although, he is a quarter but still a good example of that. He got black skin and some characteristics that black people have. However, he sings and also speaks very well in Japanese, and the biggest reason of it is that his grandmother is Japanese. He has got many of prizes in Japanese music world and been on TV shows so many times.

Also, the pop music singer Becky is one of them. She has Japanese mother and English father, so her looks is almost foreigner. The difference we can see is the color of her eyes and her skin. It is seen in the picture here. She has been on TV many times and much of Japanese people know that she is a ha-fu.

So, what do they produce? I think the answer is that they make up the images of ha-fu people in Japan. Those people are often introduced specially as a ha-fu person. JERO is in the shows as “the first enka singer of black people.” If there were no ha-fu people around you, you would make images of them what you see in media. Especially in the childhood, the Japanese TV show “Ohasuta” was seen in our generation. Becky was in the show and act really excitingly. I think our fundamental images are coming from those shows.

However, as we saw in the class, many ha-fu people in Japan who do not act in media would be feeling in other way. Some of them are not that exciting or good at something, or even speaking in Japanese. We should more care about this, and at first, it is necessary to know about ha-fu people around us. The images that made by media can be different from the real.

by Junsuke Fujino