New Film “Whole” Looks at Daily Struggles of Mixed-Race Japanese

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Book/Video Reviews, Interviews, Media Archive on 2021-11-26 20:38Z by Steven

New Film “Whole” Looks at Daily Struggles of Mixed-Race Japanese

Nippon.com: Your Doorway to Japan
2021-11-25

Matsumoto Takuya

As the population of mixed-race Japanese—popularly called hāfu—grows, entertainers and athletes with bicultural backgrounds are increasingly prominent. However, most of those considered hāfu in Japan live normal, private lives, struggling daily with curiosity, prejudice, and their own identity conflicts. Whole, a new short film, takes up the issues facing just such people through the story of two young men. We spoke with the director, writer, and leading actor about the film…

Read the entire interview here.

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“Hafu” Filmmaker Spotlights Bicultural Japan

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Census/Demographics, Interviews, Media Archive, Social Science on 2015-04-12 00:01Z by Steven

“Hafu” Filmmaker Spotlights Bicultural Japan

Nippon.com: Your Doorway to Japan
2013-12-27


Nishikura Megumi

The recent film Hafu documents the lives of five bicultural Japanese. Nippon.com spoke to one of the film’s two directors, Nishikura Megumi, to learn more about the film and the motivation behind it.

The number of Japanese citizens marrying foreign nationals has been increasing at a rapid pace, and every year more than 20,000 children are born in Japan to such international couples. These binational kids have been in the media spotlight lately, with many celebrities from such backgrounds appearing on television. But the image conveyed on the screen does not fully capture the reality.

Unlike many of these TV celebrities, who tend to be children of a Caucasian parent, around three-fourths of all international marriages in Japan involve a partner from another Asian country, most notably China, South Korea, and the Philippines (according to 2007 data from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare). So many of the children of these marriages do not superficially resemble what most people view as a binational—or hafu, as they are called in Japanese (from the English word “half”—as in “half-Japanese”).

The recently released film Hafu, co-produced by filmmaker Nishikura Megumi, follows the lives of five hafu raised in a bicultural environment. Nippon.com met up with Nishikura to learn more about the film and her own experiences as a bicultural person…

Read the entire interview here.

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