Japan’s Future: Will they embrace their hāfu population?

As an ethnic minority in the Japanese society, the hāfu population is susceptible to social stigma and hateful discrimination, whether subtle or outright as outlined in our previous article, Hāfu: What is means to be Japanese in a changing Japan.  As more hāfu people become visible public figures, as in most places in the world, the colour of their skin plays a role in how they are received. Those with half caucasian or East Asian blood are met with mixed opinions while hāfu people with African, South Asian or South East Asian blood often experience the most scrutiny.

While even elite athletes and celebrities undergo hateful public scrutiny that make headlines, the unjustified attention and differential treatment that ordinary hāfu people face is often silenced or goes unnoticed. As the size of the multiracial community is on the rise with increased immigration, the general public attitude has been slow to change.

Institutional barriers still prevent children of mixed heritage in Japan from being officially recognized. A consequence of not being considered a distinct social group by the Japanese government means that the government doesn’t track their numbers, locations or the disparate treatment that hāfu people face. The active denial, or at best, the subtle lack of recognition has created an identity crisis for individuals who are caught in an either-or situation and have to resort to denying, or at the very least, hiding the other half of their identity.

The either-or situation also exists in a much more significant life decision that hāfu people have to make: which citizenship to select before they turn 22. The Japanese government does not allow children of interracial couples to retain dual citizenships in adulthood. Restricting people to single citizenship are rooted in the idea that it prevents complexities with regards to national security and diplomatic relations should political and military conflicts arise between two nations. But fundamentally, systematic and institutional structures create convenient barriers to fully acknowledging the presence of biracial people in Japan.

Consequently, the research and conversations that do emerge about Japan’s hāfu population are conducted in an ad hoc way and observations, analysis and conclusions of these topics are often derived from unstructured interviews and a recollection of anecdotes rather than through comprehensive national surveys or studies. This lack of official recognition and media coverage is a likely reasons as to why a certain part of the Japanese society remains unconcerned and uninformed about the realities of life for many hāfu people in Japan.