{"id":10394,"date":"2010-12-02T22:10:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T22:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=10394"},"modified":"2015-10-29T00:53:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T00:53:01","slug":"will-there-ever-be-a-rainbow-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=10394","title":{"rendered":"Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnngo.com\/tokyo\/life\/will-there-ever-be-rainbow-japan-341969\" target=\"_blank\">Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CNN International<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnngo.com\" target=\"_blank\">CNN Go<br \/>\n<\/a>2010-12-01<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tracy Slater<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Government statistics suggest multiculturalism is on the rise, but social organizations for mixed-race Japanese say &#8216;hafus&#8217; still face challenges<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Japan\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a>, which <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sakoku\" target=\"_blank\">closed its borders from 1639 to 1854<\/a> and later colonized its neighbors, has an uneasy history with foreigners, national identity, and multiculturalism.<\/p>\n<p>Yet government statistics and grassroots organizations say multiculturalism in the famously insular country is now on the rise&#8230;<br \/>\n<strong>Japan: The new melting pot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Japan&#8217;s national government recently announced it is turning to travelers in a foreigner-friendly mission to boost diversity &#8212; at least in tourist spots &#8212; by paying them to provide feedback on how to increase accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apu.ac.jp\/~askew\/\" target=\"_blank\">David Askew<\/a>, associate professor of law at Kyoto\u2019s Ritsumeikan University, identifies more profound changes.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Celebrating diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A handful of new organizations are tied, at least in part, to the increase in multicultural marriages.<\/p>\n<p>Groups such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixroots.jp\/engdex.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Mixed Roots Japan<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hapajapan.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hapa Japan<\/a>, founded by children of mixed-Japanese couples, aim to celebrate the broadening scope of Japanese identity, both nationally and globally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a real need now to recognize that Japan is getting more multiracial,\u201d says Mixed Roots founder Edward Sumoto, a self-described \u201chafu\u201d of Japanese\/Venezuelan ethnicity. \u201cThe Japanese citizen is not simply a traditional Japanese person with Japanese nationality anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The issue of the identity of hafu is also being explored in a new film titled \u201cHafu,\u201d currently under production by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hafujapanese.org\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Hafu Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In support of multiracial families, Mixed Roots holds Halloween and Christmas parties, picnics and beach days&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnngo.com\/tokyo\/life\/will-there-ever-be-rainbow-japan-341969\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8216;hafus&#8217; 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, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,12,16,125,8],"tags":[4579,4580,1793,4578],"class_list":["post-10394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-articles","category-asia","category-identitydevelopment","category-media-archive","tag-david-askew","tag-hafu-project","tag-japan","tag-tracy-slater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43567,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10394\/revisions\/43567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}