Hāfu (ハーフ, "half") is aJapanese language term used to refer to a person born in Japan with halfAsian and half non-Asian ancestry.[1][2][3][4] The word can also be used to describe anyone withmixed-racial ancestry in general. As many consider Japan to be one of the most homogeneous societies on the planet,[5][6] children who have one non-Asian parent are calledhāfu Japanese and often face prejudice and discrimination from Japanese citizens of full Asian descent.[7]Hāfu individuals are well represented in Japanese media and abroad, and according to estimates from Japan’sMinistry of Health, Labour and Welfare in the 2010s, 1 in 30 children born in Japan are born tointerracial couples with one non-Asian parent.[8]
Hāfu refers to a person who has one ethnic Japanese parent and one non-ethnic Japanese parent. The term ethnic Japanese refers to the IndigenousJapanese people of theJapanese archipelago. Over the course of centuries, the minority ethnic groups such as theAinu andRyukyuans were mostly assimilated into theYamato population. Mixed race couples and thus hāfu people were rare infeudal Japan. There were mixed Asian couples between ethnic Japanese and other East and Southeast Asian peoples.
The most well-regarded theory is that present-dayYamato Japanese are descendants of both the IndigenousJōmon people and the immigrantYayoi people.[12] The Yayoi were an admixture (1,000 BCE–300 CE) of migrants fromEast Asia, mostlyChina and theKorean peninsula.
Modern mainland Yamato Japanese have less than 20% Jomon people's genomes.[13] In modern Japan, the term Yamatominzoku is seen as antiquated for connoting racial notions that have been discarded in many circles since Japan's surrender inWorld War II.[14] The term "Japanese people" or even "Japanese-Japanese" are often used instead.[15]
Genetic andanthropological studies indicate that theRyukyuans are significantly related to theAinu people and share the ancestry with the indigenous prehistoricJōmon period (pre 10,000–1,000 BCE) people, who arrived fromSoutheast Asia and with theYamato people.[16][17] During theMeiji period, theRyukyuans' distinct culture was suppressed by theMeiji government and faced forced assimilation.[18]
English sailorWilliam Adams, a navigator for theDutch East India Company, settled in Japan in April 1600. He was ultimately granted the rank ofsamurai, one of the few non-Japanese to do so. He wed Oyuki (お雪), a Japanese woman and together, they had two children, Joseph and Susanna, who werehāfu.[19]
Chinese military leader Chenggong Zheng, historically known asKoxinga (1624–1662), washāfu, born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Chinese father and raised there until the age of seven, known by the Japanese given name, Fukumatsu.[20]
Since 1899, theAinu were increasingly marginalized. During a period of only 36 years, the Ainu went from being a relatively isolated group of people to having their land, language, religion and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese.[21] Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was actively promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring. As a result, many Ainu are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture.[22]
The first visible usage of the termHāfu dates to 1930, in the novelMachi No Kokusai Mune (街の國際娘, lit. International Girl in the City) by Japanese authorTouma Kitabayashi (北林 透馬). In the chapterMinato no Sakaba no Ainoko Odoriko (港の酒場の混血児踊り子, lit. The Dancing In-Between Child at the Harbour Bar) the furiganaHāfu is used as a synonym for the term "konketsuji" predating the appearance ofHāfu in dictionaries, which would not occur until after 1973.[23]
The presence of theUnited States Armed Forces in Japan and Asia saw the birth of many children born to American fathers; these children were calledAmerasians. It's estimated that by 1952, anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 Japanese children were fathered by American servicemen, with many of the children placed for adoption by their Japanese mothers due to the stigma ofout-of-wedlock pregnancy andmiscegenation and the struggles of supporting a child alone in post-war Japan.[24][25]
One orphanage,Seibo Aijien (聖母愛児園,Seibo Aijien,Our Lady of Lourdes Orphanage), inYokohama, run byFranciscan nuns, opened in 1946. By 1948, staff members were caring for 126 children fathered by American servicemen, and 136 children by 1950.[24][25] A letter, dated 1948, detailed an incident of a malnourished infant born to a Japanese teenager whose American father refused to support for fear his wife would learn of hisextramarital affair.[26] TheElizabeth Saunders Home opened inŌiso by a Japanese woman namedMiki Sawada, cared for more than 700 Amerasian children, none of whom were visited or supported by their American fathers.[26] TheKure Project operated in the city ofKure, Hiroshima Prefecture, between 1960 and 1977 providing long-term assistance to over 100 families with mixed-race children.[27]
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Fashionable images of the half Japanese people have become prominent especially with the increased appearance ofhāfu in the Japanese media.[28]Hāfu models are now seen on television or fill the pages of fashion magazines such asNon-no,CanCam andVivi as often as newsreaders or celebrities. The appearance ofhāfu in the media has provided the basis for such a vivid representation of them in the culture.[29][30] As of 2018, it is estimated that 30% to 40% of runway models in Japanese fashion shows identify as hafu.[31] Most top models in their 20s of popular Japanese fashion magazines are hafu.[31]
One of the earliest terms referring to half Japanese wasainoko, meaning a child born of a relationship between two races. It is still used inLatin America, most prominentlyBrazil (where spellings such asainoco,ainoca (f.) andainocô may be found), to refer tomestizo (broader term in Hispanic America for mixed race in general) ormestiço people of some Japanese ancestry. In Brazil,amarela (yellow) is generally used for people of East Asian origin.
The former term evolved to be an umbrella term for Eurasian or mixed East Asian/mestizo, East Asian/African, East Asian/Arab and East Asian/indigenous heritage in general. At the same time it is possible for people with little Japanese or other East Asian ancestry to be perceivable just by their phenotype to identify mostly as black, white or mestizo/pardo instead ofainoko, while people with about a quarter or less of non-East Asian ancestry may identify on the Brazilian census as beingamarela ("yellow" or East Asian).
Soon this too became a taboo term due to its derogatory connotations such as illegitimacy and discrimination. What were central to these labels were the emphasis on "blood impurity" and the obvious separation of the half Japanese from the majority of Japanese. Some English-speaking parents of children of mixed ethnicity use the word "double."[32]Amerasian is another term for children of mixed ancestry, especially those born to Japanese mothers and U.S. military fathers.
Of the one million children born in Japan in 2013, 2.2% had one or more non-Japanese parent.[70] According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, one in forty-nine babies born in Japan today are born into families with one non-Japanese parent.[33] Most intermarriages in Japan are between Japanese men and women from other Asian countries, including China, the Philippines and South Korea.[34] Southeast Asia also has significant populations of people with half Japanese ancestry, particularly in thePhilippines.[35][36]
In the 21st century, stereotyping and discrimination against hāfu occurs based on how different their identity, behavior and appearance is from a typical Japanese person.[31] Some experience negative treatment such as being teased orbullied in junior high school, treated like foreigners or stereotyped as bilingual and models.[31] However, being mixed has been increasingly seen more positively.[31] The hafu of international marriages between Japanese and other Asians tend to blend in easier in Japanese society. They can have abicultural identity. Their foreign side could be suppressed in Japan's homogeneous culture.
Smile (スマイル,Sumairu) is atelevision drama series, broadcast byTBS from April to June 2009.Jun Matsumoto plays the lead role of Vito, a half-Filipino, half-Japanese man who always smiles despite all of the problems and difficulties he faces. The series focused on foreigners and mixed race children who suffered from racism.[37][38][39]
The documentary filmHafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan was released in April 2013. It is about the experiences of five hāfu living in Japan. It deals with issues of identity, multiculturalism, relationships, hardship and stereotyping that they face.[40][41]
In September 2018,Naomi Osaka is the firstJapanese woman and hāfu to contest aGrand Slam singles final and the first JapaneseGrand Slam singles champion. Naomi Osaka is the winner of the2018 US Open Women's Singles.[42][43]
Due to low birthrate, thepopulation of Japan is aging significantly. As of 2019, the fertility rate stood at 1.36 children per woman, far below the 2.1 children per woman required to maintain the same level of population. Japan had 126.5 million people in 2018, with Japanese nationals numbering 124.8 million in January 2019.[44][45] Currently, 1 in 4 Japanese residents are over the age of 65, meaning that if the birthrate does not increase, one-third of the population will be above this age by 2050.[46]
The percentage of hāfu is increasing, but the group is still a minority in Japan. TheGovernment of Japan regards all naturalized Japanese citizens and native-born Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic backgrounds as Japanese, with no officialethnicity census data.[47][48]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Adams' marriage with Yuki was arranged by Mukai Shogen, authorised by the Shogun. There is no official record that Magome Kageyu had a daughter, and it is believed that he adopted Yuki, his maid, for marrying to Adams and to advance his own trading activities. Primary source Nishiyama Toshio – Aoime-no-sodanyaku, leyasu-to-Anjin.
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