Category Archives: Class Pages

Hafu in Japan

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by Maki Yoshikawa

In Japan, there are a lot of hafu increasing the number year by year. This is because an increasing number of international marriages.

Probably we imagine people with white or black skin and big eyes. This means we unconsciously imagine non- Asian people. This is the symbol of how we are not get used to see other races in our daily life.

I have been thinking about hafus are little different from foreigners in terms of their identity. Japanese in Japan has no difficulties to define them. Foreigners are aften treated as foreigner, however, in their hometown in other countries, they are never treated as foreigner. What about hafu in Japan?

My friend‘s father is American and she looks completely American. However she speaks fluent Japanese and she uses only Japanese in daily life. She said that when she enters staff room in university, they are suddenly in a hurry and start looking for a parson who can speak English. She feels strange and always says “I can speak Japanese” in Japanese fluently. We treat people with the first appearance. My friend thinks this is little disadvantage because she feels like treated as a foreigner even if her identity is Japanese at least living in Japan since she were born. In addition, Japanese people think she can speak English fluently.

She said in the US, she is often treated very friendly at first sight as American because of the appearance. What I found interesting and strange is that once he/she knows about that she is hafu Japanese, some people do not regard her as a complete American.

I was astonished because I have thought since the US is multiracial nation, the hafu is not big problem.

What I would like to insist is that like my friend, hafu can face the unconsciousness about their identity. I regard her as Japanese but I do not know if she thinks herself as a Japanese or American. Even if she thinks herself as an American, it does not matter because nothing changes between us just because of citizenship.

I think that because of this unconsciousness of identity, hafu feel more friendly with hafu. When hafu people feel alienated, in their mind there are three kind of people which is Japanese, Foreigner and Hafu.

I was so worried how to remove their uneasiness or difficulties in Japan because I have many hafu friends and this was my first time to think about their identity and how they feel about themselves.

In my opinion, we do not have to treat them as a special. Their identity is theirs and we do not have right to decide it. What is different is just an appearance for me.

There will be more and more international marriage and more and more hafu in Japan and in the future, my child can be hafu and his/her friend can be hafu as well.

We can cope with this problem easier following times. I have no clear way to solve their difficulties but I would like to do something since this is very familiar problem for me.

Should Japan allow dual citizenship?

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by Ryuhei Sugiyama

Today, in international society, some countries such as the U.S., Australia, and Canada allow people to have dual citizenships legally. In these countries, there are a lot of immigrants from other countries and various types of races. Therefore, the rate of international marriage or over-ethic marriage is higher than the countries that do not allow people to have dual citizenship like Japan. Japanese government does not allow dual citizenship because of a bias or stereotype that “Japan is the homogeneous nation.” According to the Constitution of Japan, Japanese people who have dual citizenship must choice either of two by 22 years old. If people choice the citizenships of other country, they legally treated as “foreigner” through their life in Japan.

To be begin with, why do people have two citizenships? This is because each country adopt different requirement to give citizenship to the people. Some country adopt Jus sanguinis, the notion that regards blood of their parents as important, and some country adopt Jus soli, the notion that regards birth of place as important. Until international society standardizes the requirement of the citizenship, those who have dual citizenship will exist in the future. In addition, the extinction of the stateless person is also one of the biggest problems of international society because these people cannot get any protection or rights, and this strengthens the possibility of violation of fundamental human rights. From these reasons, people are given a citizenship, or in some cases given two citizenships.

There are some merits for people who have dual citizenships. First, these people can come and go both two countries easily because they do not have to get the visa. These people have relatives in both countries, so this convenience is helpful for them. Second, it relates to the determent of wars by increasing the number of people who have plural patriotisms on plural countries. This claim is argued positively in the U.S.

Even if dual citizenship has some merits, Japanese government do not allow it. According to the opinion of the Ministry of Justice, dual citizenship will make legal unfairness between people who have it and who do not have it. In addition, increasing the number of people who do not have the patriotism on Japan will have a bad effect on Japan. For these reasons, government force people to choose the citizenship into one.

In the end, should Japan allow people to have dual citizenship? Actually, dual citizenship has strong merits, and these merits are very helpful for them. However, the unfairness also cannot be overlooked. On one occasion, dual citizenship is profitable for them, but on another occasion, it is unfavorable for them. On the other hand, the way of giving the citizenship also has a problem. Japan adopt the way base on the blood of their parents. In this way, for example, people who have American parents and grow up in Japan cannot get the citizenship of Japan nevertheless they may have an identity as Japanese. However, that is not to say the way that bases on the place of birth is good. The important thing is preparing rules for forming individual identities, not imposing of them. Come to think of this, dual citizenship should be allowed after all because the choice of citizenship may mean the imposing of an identity. Today, the number of “hafu” is increasing sharply in Japan, and the condition drastically changed the one in half century ago. Therefore, today’s laws are not enough to correspond to the complex situation in Japan. Government should prepare rules in older to cope with complex situation flexibly, and admitting of dual citizenship may one of the solution of it.

References

The choice of nationality. Retrieved May 8, 2013 from http://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji06.html

The different treatment of dual citizenship. Retrieved May 8, 2013 from http://www.gcnet.at/countries/variety.html

The treatment of dual citizenship. Retrieved May 8, 2013 from http://www.gcnet.at/campaign/ciperle-cl.htm

Hafu in Japan

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by Ryoma Kagawa

What do Japanese people think about hafu? In the video about hafu in class, the Japanese interviewed responded to this question that hafu are pretty and cool, have good command of some languages, and behave socially, and some of the interviewees envied hafu and even wanted to be hafu for their image. Japanese people tend to have positive image about hafu in this way, but it seems that they do not really understand hafu because, in spite of such images, there are some problems with which hafu encounter in Japanese society.

The first problem is that hafu are often treated as if they were foreigners when they look like Westerner. For example, when they are hunting for a job, they are asked if they speak English very well or they go to attend church on Sundays. This is because Japanese people have the wrong view that Westerners, or Western-looking people, are English speakers and Catholics (Haefelin, 2013). However, hafu were raised in Japanese society and are familiar with Japanese culture, and some hafu are not so good at commanding English. Furthermore, the second problem is that hafu are often discriminated against especially in rural areas, no matter that they look like Western or Asian. I found a person who has a Japanese parent and a Chinese one on the Web and he once has had negative feelings for Japan due to discrimination which he experienced; yet he was sure that he would not be accepted in China as well because he had no command of Chinese language and was hardly close to Chinese culture (Yamashita, 2013). I think that hafu share Japanese culture, customs, and language with Japanese people who have Japanese parents, so they are not foreigners but Japanese.

In order for hafu to join in Japanese society, I believe that the Japanese should change their view on them, and there are some means for the conversion of the view. One of them is to teach children other cultures at elementary schools. While adults belong for a long time to Japanese society which avoids hafu, children have flexible thoughts. Consequently, it is thought that education of multiculturalism at an early age is efficient for forming a society which better includes hafu. Such a society cannot be achieved soon, but now that one in thirty babies in Japan is hafu, I think that they will come to be accepted in society gradually.

Some Japanese people regard hafu as special, and admire them, but it is true that they have difficulty belonging to Japanese society. For a society open to them, I think that to appeal to flexible mind of the young is of great significance. In the stream of globalization, I believe that this will be realized although it requires a long time.

References

Haefelin, S. (2013, February 18). Haahu to shushokukatsudou [Hafu and job hunting]. Haahu wo kangaeyou [Let’s think about hafu]. Retrieved May 7, 2013, from http://half-sandra.com/column/2013/02/18/1423.php

Yamashita, M. (2013, April 11). 30 nin ni 1 ri ga haahu no jidai tachihadakaru bunka no kabe wo dou norikoeruno ka? [The era that 1 in 30 is hafu – how do they overcome the cultural barrier in front of them?]. WEDGE Infinity. Retrieved May 7, 2013, from http://wedge.ismedia.jp/articles/-/2702

Should Japan Allow Dual Citizenship?

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by Satoshi Tanaka

Through  globalization, a lot of companies have an office and a factory in foreign country, and people have many opportunities to work overseas. However, Japanese government allows people to have citizenship of only one country. As a result, Japanese people who work in a foreign country cannot get a service as citizen of the country without resigning their Japanese citizenship. However, getting other citizenship makes people difficult to come back and live in Japan. In some countries, government allows people to have dual citizenship, and it helps people to work in other country, but I think that dual citizenship has also some disadvantages.

Dual citizenship has both advantage and disadvantage. Firstly, getting dual citizenship makes people feel more comfortable to work in foreign country. For example, people have no right to vote for the person who governs the country where they live if they have only Japanese citizenship. Moreover, people cannot get service without citizenship there such as a support of a fee for medical care and education. Therefore, dual citizenship gives people a support to live in the country. However, it also has demerits. Dual citizenship makes the tax system much more confused. Which government do people have to pay tax to? Which government do people get pension from? Now, tax and pension are already very complex problem which the government has. By introducing dual citizenship, the government must manage people who work all over the world.

Then, I suggest that people have two types of citizenship, main citizenship and sub citizenship. This system has the advantage of dual citizenship and solves the disadvantage which it has. First, this system gives people services such as medical care support and education in the country where they work like dual citizenship. Moreover, this system solves the problem of tax and pension. By dividing two citizenships into main and sub, it is easy to divide tax into the tax for home country and the tax for the country where people work. Moreover, this system makes people more flexible to change the second citizenship because they have the main citizenship.

In conclusion, following the globalization, the opportunity to work overseas is increasing. The current system of citizenship cannot support people to work in foreign country. I think that Japan should suit the change of the society by introducing dual citizenship. However, dual citizenship has still disadvantages. Then, allowing two types of citizenship, main and sub, makes up for the weakness of dual citizenship.

Understanding about another: The most important thing to understand foreigner or “hafu”

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by Tomoya Yamaguchi

Recently, in Japan there are a lot of “hafu” who is one parent is a foreigner who is white people.  Their faces are different from so-called “Japanese” and they are often thought as a foreigner in Japan, because consciousness of Japanese people is “Japanese is Japanese”.  This means that people think Japanese has a similar face as Asian ethnicity, so they are thought as a foreigner.  Another reason why people think they are foreigner is also that Japan is said to be a mono-racial country.  Hafu is rare to ordinary Japanese.  These facts result in that situation in Japan.

Hafu has a Japanese citizenship, and they have lived in Japan since they were born.  Some of the hafu has an identity as a Japanese citizen.  However Japanese people have a consciousness as mono-racial country.  This is a serious problem to hafu.  In order for them to be accustomed to Japanese society comfortably, Japanese government should create a class about multiculturalism or different culture from the elementary school.  By taking a class in the early period of children, they can understand or learn hafu or another culture and foreigner.  International school is a good example.  In our class, we watched a movie about discrimination and the identity of hafu.  In the movie, one hafu said that his company forced him to use his French name because he could be forgiven by customer when he mistook.  This is a terrible discrimination.  I think that the boss of him who forced him to use the name hasn’t touched another culture or foreigner in his childhood and he doesn’t understand the feeling of them.  If he understood the feelings, he would not say such a terrible thing.  In Japan, a lot of people don’t have an opportunity to contact with foreigners who have different culture and racial background.  This contributes to that discrimination indirectly, so it is important for children to take the class.

I think that it is difficult for us to change this situation because Japan is said to be a mono-racial country and people don’t have a consideration as to foreigner or hafu even today when globalization has progressed.  Besides, Japan doesn’t have a lot of immigrants and the policy toward foreigner is also hard or rigid.  I don’t intend to say that Japan should take an action drastically to multiculturalism because the measures about it are not prepared for.  However Japanese education should be changed to multiculturalism because globalization is progressing now and from now, more people will come to Japan from foreign countries.  In addition to it, the number of the hafu will increase more and more.  According to it, for children to take the class must be so valuable and to be a person who can understand foreign stuff is important.

Unfair Advantages for Non-Japanese?

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Tokyo-based game developer James Kay

by Robert Moorehead

A headline in today’s Japan Times boldly claims that “expat game developers have an unfair advantage in Japan.” The writer, Brian Ashcraft, interviews expats who develop apps for the iPhone, and notes their optimism for the potential riches available in this industry. So where’s the unfair advantage for expats, and the implied discrimination against the Japanese?

Submitting apps for the iPhone requires navigating the site iTunes Connect, which is in English. This is more difficult for developers who have a limited English skills. And that’s unfair? Is Apple discriminating against non-English speakers? Are Japanese developers languishing due to their limited English skills? Are English-speaking expats unfairly stealing work from Japanese developers?

We’ll never know, as the article isn’t even about this. Rather, it’s a puff piece about a few expat app developers who live and work in Japan. I used to write similar “life of a foreigner” articles for the Chubu Weekly back in the mid-1990s. Since such articles are rather boring (my own articles included), the Japan Times editors spiced it up with a sensationalist headline claiming unfair advantages for expats.

But why print such a headline? The Japan Times publishes in English, thus its readership is heavily skewed toward the expat communities. But are these readers looking for signs of their superiority, or to have their pillows fluffed by the local English rag? What other unfair advantages do expats have? Perhaps this could be part of a series of articles, each with a sensationalist headline, on the unfair glories that expats reap in Japan and around the globe. Next up, Peruvians have an unfair advantage over Japanese when it comes to reading and writing in Spanish.

Skin Colour, Gender and Marriage in India

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by Isabel Cabaña Rojas

 

When the moment comes to look for reasons of why Indians conceive beauty as they do, it seems that nobody can come up with a clear explanation. Many argue that the ideal of fairness has existed since ancient times, manifested in the stories and myths from Indian gods and spirits, where darkness and light were in battle for the primacy of the world. Whereas some others state that, more than that, the presence on history of British colonizers, and the socio-economic structure they established in India, pervaded all the cultural spheres, including the ideals of beauty. But, regardless of the origins of this particular and powerful feature of Indian culture, is interesting to notice how deeply rooted is in the daily life of Indian, especially women, who define their life according to this value, the value of being ‘fair’. As Philips (2004) points out, fairness has become a ‘symbolic capital’ that is ‘disempowering’ women, particularly in their freedom and election to marry someone. The fact that in India marriages are arranged emphasises more the power of skin colour on their lives, because both are things, at the end, women cannot choose.

For men the things are not much different either. For them, white skin is also a value and an attribute worth to fight for, but the responsibility of achieve this colour is less strong than in women. A dark-skinned man can still have chances to marry a fair-skinned woman… the other way around, no way! So when thinking on the relevance of race in the contemporary Indian culture, and its linkage with marriage (and all the industry surrounding it) one should necessarily connect it with gender. And somehow with social class. Inasmuch as I wonder how strong this really is in the general culture in India: is this situation in all the regions of this country? Are people living in rural areas really concerned about their skin colour? Is it a middle/high class issue? As, supposedly, a post-colonial heritage, fairness is at some point linked with belonging to a certain social level, that of the ruling class in opposition to the darker working class of Indians.

But, what seems very important here is the role that new generations, especially those of Indian descent abroad (as Indian Americans, for example) will have in the perpetuation of this custom. There are people already criticizing what this perception of colour is doing to the culture, especially to women (and not only in the social sense, but also in health, considering the massive use of bleaching creams). According to Vaid (2009), in the Indian Diaspora, at least in the United States, there are no signs that this is something to be left behind.

References

Gosai, A. (2010, July 19th). India’s myth of fair-skinned beauty. The Guardian online.

Guha, S. (2010, March 23th). India’s unbearable lightness of being. BBC News.

Philips, A. (2004). Gendering Colour: Identity, Feminity and Marriage in Kerala. Anthropologica, 46(2), 253-272.

Vaid, J. (2009). Fair Enough? Color and the Commodification of Self in Indian Matrimonials. In E. Nakano Glenn (Ed.), Shades of Difference. Why Skin Color Matters (pp. 148-165). Stanford University Press.

Vaidyanathan, R. (2012, June 5th). Has skin whitening in India gone too far? BBC News-Magazine.

Fair Skin and Indian Marriage

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by Nurussakinah Mahmud

The thing with marriage in Asia (mostly) is that you don’t just marry the groom or bride. When you marry someone, indirectly you are marrying the whole family too. And this is proven very solidly in Indian culture as most marriages are arranged by the parents. Every criteria for the bride must be filled satisfyingly for a marriage to occur, and with how badly obsessed the Indian society perceived fair skin as a criteria of beauty it was no wonder that most parents seek fair-skinned bride for their son.

While other cultures doubtlessly also have the affinity for searching for fair-skinned brides, in my opinion, they are not really that straight forward about it. In Malay society for example, I don’t think anyone will blatantly say to your face that they do not want to marry you because you are dark-skinned or your chance of getting married will be less than other people.

But the Indian society is kind of the opposite. They are openly stating it, in the matrimonial sites’ profiles and newspaper advertisements, even to the girl’s face, that they want a fair skin girl. In fact, as I searched through the matrimonial sites, they even have tags for skin preference which is quite shocking I must say. And while the author in the book (Jyotsna Vaid) mentions three types of skin colour the Indian usually been associated with, gora or gori (fair or light skin), saanwala (wheatish brown) and kala or kali (dark), the skin preference section only have fair, very fair and wheatish tags. Even though as we know, most people in the southern part of India generally have a much darker skin, so few of people actually admitted of having the dark skin while the rest self identify themselves as fair or at least wheatish.

Colorism is having quite a strong grasp on Indian society. Even among those who live in overseas for a very long time, the stigma that having fair skin is better than being darker is still running deep in the heart of the immigrants from India. In fact, now that they are living in overseas and their daughter may be the second or third generation there, most parents who wrote the profile for the matrimonial sites on behalf of their daughter now included ‘very fair’ to emphasize how very much lighter their daughter’s skin is, in comparison to the fair skin girl in India.

Just what is it that makes the skin colour such an obsession in Indian society? Some argue that it was implemented on their mind since the British reigned in India for more than a century. During this period of oppression, white people signified the superiority and richness as compared to the local, whom were at that time, were only servants or slaves. The mentality continues on to the modern days with the effects of globalization and media, of how beauty is always being described as having fairer skin through the commercialization and marketing of skin lightening products, as well as the influence of Bollywood idols.

As the stigma and prejudice continue, the girls with darken skin colour find themselves having a lot of problems regarding self-esteem and to always be blamed for something they could not possibly alter – the DNA or genetics that make up for their darker skin. Adding the practice of paying dowry to the groom into the equation, the discrimination is heightened as dark skin girls are subjected to a higher dowry price than lighter skin girls as compensation.

Although India is one of the fast developing countries, the blatant discrimination and social injustice especially toward women is still so worrying. As quoted by a Harvard professor in regard to colorism in India: “the sadness here, I guess, is that these are not subtle biases, they are expressed overtly to deny people access to opportunity and resources.”

Resources:

Fair and Ugly – Indian Americans and Skin Colour Politics. Retrieved from http://newamericamedia.org/2010/03/fair-and-ugly—indian-americans-and-skin-color-politics.php

All’s Fair in Love and Cream. http://www.michelepolak.com/200fall11/Weekly_Schedule_files/Sheyde_1.pdf

Fair Skin and Marriage in India

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by Cherry Zhou

In marriage advertisements, there are numerous ways to describe yourself or your desired partner. Detailed information can be divided in to non-physical factors and physical ones. This chapter (“Fair Enough? Color and the Commodification of Self in Indian Matrimonials,” by Jyotsna Vaid) shows that skin color matters in Indian matrimonial over time. Although there is no single origin of the conscious of fair skin being beautiful, one possible explanation is that British colonization led to a preference of lighter skin and the introduction of Western notions of beauty. In India, fair skin was and probably still is considered as an indicator of belonging to a higher caste, social standing and hierarchy in society. People are likely to link fair skin tone with wealth and education, whereas those with dark skin may be perceived as low-income workers.

Through the reading, I also found that there exists a gendered pattern of mentioning skin tone in marriage ads. Women mentioned fair skin more than twice as often as men. Figure 9.5 shows that the the percentage of mentioning fair by women increased a lot overtime.

It may also be possible that Indian women are more sensitive to messages about social norms than men; they fully understand that to highlight fair skin in marriage ads is advantageous for themselves. On the other hand, however, men are less conscious about the importance of their physical appearance, skin color in particular. Men face far less pressure than women to have fair skin. Darker skin tone in men may be compensated by assets such as having a well-paid job, overall economic security and a good personality, whereas women are likely to be evaluated and judged only on their physical appearance

But there may be a change in this idea since more and more cosmetic companies like fair&lovely are staring to sell products targeting male customers. With more and more male celebrities endorsing skin products, male’s consciousness about fair skin may change in the future.

What this chapter didn’t mention much is that whether fair skin really improves marriage prospects, especially for women. So I did some research about this question.

The author is right about the fact that a large percentage of marriage in India is arranged marriage, even nowadays. Since the socially constructed idea is that fair skin is ideal beauty so it certainly can influence a person’s chance of finding suitable partner. For women, marriage is considered to be extremely important for lifelong economic security within Indian cultures. Sahay and Piran (1997) suggested that: ‘In many Indian languages, the words fair and beautiful are often used synonymously, and there is often a preference for a female with light complexion in marriage, if other considerations are equal’ (p. 162).

Moreover, this chapter argued that there basically is no resistance or critique of the emphasis on fairness as a marker of beauty even over periods of time. So through the diaspora, future generations of immigrated Indian people still remain to have their traditional ideals about skin tone. Overall speaking, what I found shocking is that there’s so much emphasis on looks in India, especially about being fair. In Indian culture, fair skin was perceived to increase one’s likelihood of an arranged marriage, and this suggests that some aspects of physical appearance are more important than others factors.

Reference:

Sahay,S., & Piran, N. (1997). Skin-Color Preferences and Body Satisfaction Among South Asian-Canadian and European-Canadian Female University Students. Journal of Social Psychology,137, 161-171.

Undocumented Immigrants

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by Yokoyama Yuu

The U.S. receives a lot of immigrants and there are many undocumented immigrants – about twelve million people. Today, undocumented immigrants also come in Japan. Each immigrant has the reason they cannot return their home country. For example, there are some children who do not know that they are undocumented till they try to get their driver license or university application. Although they love their country as well as other citizens, they always have the fear that they will be arrested and deported from their home country. On the other hand, there are some people who suggest it. Today, Japan also tends to deport undocumented immigrants – about a half million foreign people are taken in prison as illegal residence every year and Japan forces to deport them. It is cruel that undocumented immigrants are forced to be arrested and deported although they are innocent, isn’t it?

However, there are also problems for allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in. First, some immigrants who can get the status of residence desperately feel it is not equal that illegal ones can live without such effort. Second, some people are worried about that the job for citizens will decrease because illegal immigration works very low salary. For example, in U.S. about 5% of labor population depends on illegal immigration. Many undocumented immigration works in agricultural business. Third, if the country allows undocumented immigrants to stay without limit, it will be difficult to count the population of immigrants and the investigation of crime foreigners will become hard. This makes society worse.

In human view point, some people think government should not deport illegal people because some American has immigrant friends. Obama suggested new policy which allows illegal immigrant to stay in U.S. for two years. Thus, U.S. progress the direction to protect of immigration rights. However, we have to also consider if we receive many immigrants, how the society of the country will become.

I think Japan should give more chance for undocumented immigrants like the U.S. For example, Japan allows undocumented immigrants to work and if they can work well and success, gives states of residence forever having some conditions such as renewal of states once a year. Japan can let illegal immigration for the business which Japanese people do not want to such as agribusiness, caring for old people and train immigrants so that they can learn professional technique and work in the Japanese companies of foreign local place. It will increase the profit of Japan. They enter the country to earn money to live, so Illegal immigration has the motivation to work. In this way, immigrant may give Japan benefits. It will lead the “Dream Act” of Japan.