Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?Posted in Anthropology, Articles, Asian Diaspora, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive on 2010-12-02 22:10Z by Steven |
Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?
CNN International
CNN Go
2010-12-01
Tracy Slater
Government statistics suggest multiculturalism is on the rise, but social organizations for mixed-race Japanese say ‘hafus’ still face challenges
Japan, which closed its borders from 1639 to 1854 and later colonized its neighbors, has an uneasy history with foreigners, national identity, and multiculturalism.
Yet government statistics and grassroots organizations say multiculturalism in the famously insular country is now on the rise…
Japan: The new melting pot?
Japan’s national government recently announced it is turning to travelers in a foreigner-friendly mission to boost diversity — at least in tourist spots — by paying them to provide feedback on how to increase accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.
David Askew, associate professor of law at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University, identifies more profound changes.
In 1965, a mere 1 in 250 of all marriages in Japan were international, he notes. By 2004, the number had climbed to 1 in 15 across the nation and 1 in 10 in Tokyo…
Celebrating diversity
A handful of new organizations are tied, at least in part, to the increase in multicultural marriages.
Groups such as Mixed Roots Japan and Hapa Japan, founded by children of mixed-Japanese couples, aim to celebrate the broadening scope of Japanese identity, both nationally and globally.
“There is a real need now to recognize that Japan is getting more multiracial,” says Mixed Roots founder Edward Sumoto, a self-described “hafu” of Japanese/Venezuelan ethnicity. “The Japanese citizen is not simply a traditional Japanese person with Japanese nationality anymore.”
The issue of the identity of hafu is also being explored in a new film titled “Hafu,” currently under production by the Hafu Project.
In support of multiracial families, Mixed Roots holds Halloween and Christmas parties, picnics and beach days…
Read the entire article here.