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Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...
term used to refer to a person born in Japan with half-Japanese and half non-Japanese ancestry. The word can also be used to describe anyone with mixed-racial ancestry in general. As many consider Japan to be one of the most homogeneous societies on the planet, children who have one non-Japanese parent are called ''hāfu'' Japanese and often face prejudice and discrimination from Japanese citizens of full Japanese descent. ''Hāfu'' individuals are well represented in Japanese media and abroad, and according to estimates from Japan’s
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare The is a cabinet level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as in Japan. The ministry provides services on health, labour and welfare. It was formed with the merger of the former Ministry of Health and Welfare or and th ...
in the 2010s, 1 in 30 children born in Japan are born to interracial couples with one non-Japanese parent.


In Japanese

* – A ''daburu'' is an alternative to Hāfu that focuses on the positive connotations of two cultures instead of one. * – A ''konketsuji'' is a Japanese person with one non-Japanese parent. It is considered a
derogatory A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility ...
term.


History


Prehistoric to feudal Japan

Hāfu refers to a person who has one ethnic Japanese parent and one non-ethnic Japanese parent. The term ethnic Japanese refers to the Indigenous
Japanese people are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago. Japanese people constitute 97.4% of the population of the country of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 125 million people are of Japanese descent, making them list of contempora ...
of the
Japanese archipelago The is an archipelago of list of islands of Japan, 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China Sea, East China and Philippine Sea, Philippine seas in the southwest al ...
. Over the course of centuries, the minority ethnic groups such as the Ainu and
Ryukyuans The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...
were mostly assimilated into the
Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai, Nara, Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a Names of Japan, name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial ...
population. Mixed race couples and thus hāfu people were rare in
feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...
. There were mixed Asian couples between ethnic Japanese and other East and Southeast Asian peoples. The most well-regarded theory is that present-day Yamato Japanese are descendants of both the Indigenous
Jōmon people The Jōmon (縄文) were a prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture that inhabited the Japanese archipelago approximately between 14,000 BC and 300 BC. Both genetically and culturally, the Jōmon are among the earliest known ancestors of the modern ...
and the immigrant
Yayoi people The were an ancient people that immigrated to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period (300 BC–300 AD) and are characterized by the existence of Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1 ...
. The Yayoi were an admixture (1,000 BCE–300 CE) of migrants from
East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
, mostly
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and the
Korean peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...
. Modern mainland Yamato Japanese have less than 20% Jomon people's genomes. In modern Japan, the term Yamato ''minzoku'' is seen as antiquated for connoting racial notions that have been discarded in many circles since Japan's surrender in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The term "
Japanese people are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago. Japanese people constitute 97.4% of the population of the country of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 125 million people are of Japanese descent, making them list of contempora ...
" or even "Japanese-Japanese" are often used instead. Genetic and
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...
studies indicate that the
Ryukyuans The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...
are significantly related to the
Ainu people The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...
and share the ancestry with the indigenous prehistoric
Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...
(pre 10,000–1,000 BCE) people, who arrived from
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and with the
Yamato people The or David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,'' p. 272: "Wajin," which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read "Yamato no hito" (Yamato person). ar ...
. During the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
, the
Ryukyuans The are a Japonic-speaking East Asian ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands, which stretch from the island of Kyushu to the island of Taiwan. With Japan, most Ryukyuans live in the Okinawa Prefecture or Kagoshima Prefecture. They sp ...
' distinct culture was suppressed by the
Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...
and faced forced assimilation.


Early modern period


Edo period (1603–1867)

English sailor William Adams, a navigator for the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...
, settled in Japan in April 1600. He was ultimately granted the rank of
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
, 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 were ''hāfu''. Chinese military leader Chenggong Zheng, historically known as
Koxinga Zheng Chenggong (; 27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), born Zheng Sen () and better known internationally by his honorific title Koxinga (, from Taiwanese: ''kok sèⁿ iâ''), was a Southern Ming general who resisted the Qing conquest of Chin ...
(1624–1662), was ''hāfu'', 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.


Modern period


Meiji, Taishō and pre-war Shōwa period (1868–1945)

Since 1899, the Ainu 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. 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. The first visible usage of the term ''Hāfu'' dates to 1930, in the novel ''Machi No Kokusai Mune'' (街の國際娘, lit. International Girl in the City) by Japanese author ''Touma Kitabayashi'' (北林 透馬). In the chapter ''Minato 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 furigana ''Hāfu'' is used as a synonym for the term "''konketsuji''" predating the appearance of ''Hāfu'' in dictionaries, which would not occur until after 1973.。


Contemporary period


Shōwa period (post-war) (1945–1989)

The presence of the
United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...
in Japan and Asia saw the birth of many children born to American fathers; these children were called Amerasians. 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 of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and
miscegenation Miscegenation ( ) is marriage or admixture between people who are members of different races or ethnicities. It has occurred many times throughout history, in many places. It has occasionally been controversial or illegal. Adjectives describin ...
and the struggles of supporting a child alone in post-war Japan. One orphanage, , in
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
, run by
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
nuns, opened in 1946. By 1948, staff members were caring for 126 children fathered by American servicemen, and 136 children by 1950. 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 his extramarital affair. The Elizabeth Saunders Home opened in
Ōiso file:OISO.jpg, 260px, Ōiso Long Beach resort is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 31,262 and a population density of 1820 persons per km². The total area of the town ...
by a Japanese woman named Miki Sawada, cared for more than 700 Amerasian children, none of whom were visited or supported by their American fathers. The Kure Project operated in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, between 1960 and 1977 providing long-term assistance to over 100 families with mixed-race children.


Heisei period (1989–2019)

Fashionable images of the half Japanese people have become prominent especially with the increased appearance of ''hāfu'' in the Japanese media. ''Hāfu'' models are now seen on television or fill the pages of fashion magazines such as ''
Non-no is a Japanese women's fashion and lifestyle magazine published by Shueisha. The magazine is headquartered in Tokyo. '' Men's Non-no'', targeted for a male demographic, was first published in 1987. History The magazine was established as a for ...
'', '' CanCam'' and '' Vivi'' as often as newsreaders or celebrities. The appearance of ''hāfu'' in the media has provided the basis for such a vivid representation of them in the culture. As of 2018, it is estimated that 30% to 40% of runway models in Japanese fashion shows identify as hafu. Most top models in their 20s of popular Japanese fashion magazines are hafu. One of the earliest terms referring to half Japanese was ''ainoko'', meaning a child born of a relationship between two races. It is still used in
Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
, most prominently
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
(where spellings such as ''ainoco'', ''ainoca'' (f.) and ''ainocô'' may be found), to refer to ''
mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...
'' (broader term in Hispanic America for mixed race in general) or ''mestiço'' 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 of ''ainoko'', while people with about a quarter or less of non-East Asian ancestry may identify on the Brazilian census as being ''amarela'' ("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." 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. 0/sup> 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. Most intermarriages in Japan are between Japanese men and women from other Asian countries, including China, the Philippines and South Korea. Southeast Asia also has significant populations of people with half Japanese ancestry, particularly in the
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. 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. Some experience negative treatment such as being teased or bullied in junior high school, treated like foreigners or stereotyped as bilingual and models. However, being mixed has been increasingly seen more positively. The hafu of international marriages between Japanese and other Asians tend to blend in easier in Japanese society. They can have a bicultural identity. Their foreign side could be suppressed in Japan's homogeneous culture. is a
television drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular su ...
, broadcast by TBS 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. The documentary film '' Hafu: 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. In September 2018,
Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 25 weeks, the first Asian player to hold the ...
is the first Japanese woman and hāfu to contest a Grand Slam singles final and the first Japanese Grand Slam singles champion. Naomi Osaka is the winner of the 2018 US Open Women's Singles.


Reiwa period (2019–)

Due to low birthrate, the population 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. 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. The percentage of hāfu is increasing, but the group is still a minority in Japan. The
Government of Japan The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative, executive (government), executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan. Japan is a unitary st ...
regards all naturalized Japanese citizens and native-born Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic backgrounds as Japanese, with no official ethnicity census data.


Notable hāfu individuals


Hāfu in popular culture


See also


References


Bibliography

* * *


Further reading

* * *


External links

''List includes archived websites.''
''Elizabeth Saunders Home Reunion Facebook Page''
The Elizabeth Saunders Home in Japan included many Japanese Amerasians (early Hafus).
''Hafu Japanese Facebook Page''
Active Hafu group with over 7300 members.
''Planet Hafu (Half Japanese Facebook Page''
Active Hafu group with over 2400 members.
''Takuan Amaru''
– Author. Son of a Black/Native American military man and a Japanese woman.
''AmerasianWorld.com's "Salaam Central Asia"''
by Kevin Miller, Jr., MPA. Calls himself a Japanese Amerasian, not a Hafu.

NYT. * ttp://www.kreuzungsstelle.com/index-en.html Die Kreuzungsstelle– Voices of half Japanese, mixed race/multiracial or multiethnic persons.
Hafu Film
* . By artist Natalie Maya Willer and researcher Marcia Yumi Lise.
HalvsieHAPA JAPAN FEST 2017 BIOS
– Large list of speakers to the event.
"“This Is Who I Am”: Jero, Young, Gifted, Polycultural"
(Fellezs 2012). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafu Japanese words and phrases Culture of Japan Japanese people by descent Ethno-cultural designations Multiracial affairs in Asia Race in Japan