Can someone who is 1/4 Japanese ever assimilate?

[mds35]

Hello there, I am SOStmohs you can call me SOSy if you like (Pronounced as "saucy" ;D)
Well, I'm 1/4 Japanese on my mother's side. My Half-Japanese mother has little interest in Japanese culture, and my fully Japanese Grandmother died before I was born. Since I was a kid, I had always been fascinated by Japan and felt a strong connection to the country. I have been studying Japanese at school for 2 years and have been to Japan on a week long trip only once. I remember that as I was looking out the window of the plane as it was landing in Japan, the first thing I saw were rice fields and I got this overwhelming feeling of belonging and familiarity and cold not help but think, "I have finally come home." Ironically, I found out that my ancestors were rice farmers shortly after this.
In spite of all of this though, for the past few months as I have learned more and more about Japan including their treatment of foreigners, the mentally-ill, rape victims, etc. I've developed love/hate feelings for the country and its people. I am genuinely proud of the positive aspects of Japan, but ashamed of the negative.
Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to live in Japan, but now I am not so sure anymore. One thing that is for sure is that I do not think I should be treated as a gaijin in Japan. I am not asking to be considered fully Japanese, nor do I want that. I am what I am, but I do not want to be considered a complete and total outsider and have my heritage denied. If I live in Japan, I am living in their country and my own country as well. I understand and respect the desire to keep Japan Japanese, but being considered a gaijin in Japan is like not being accepted by my own people, and if that is the case, then they will not be my people anymore. From what I've read, it seems like there is no in-between there is gaijin, and nihonjin one or the other.
My friend is 1/4 Vietnamese and feels the same connection to Vietnam that I do to Japan. Among Vietnamese people, he is considered Vietnamese and not an outsider or alien of Vietnam in spite of Vietnam still wanting to keep Vietnam Vietnamese. In short, it's easy for him. Considering the treatment of foreigners in Japan, I am not so sure that it will be that easy for me. During my short stay in Japan, I never received any racism myself, but I witnessed it among people in my tour group, but the thought that it could happen to me, is not a good one.
The fact that people who have no Japanese blood are treated this way in the first place upsets me.

Thank you for your responses in advance, and sorry for imposing.

 

[Mike Cash]

The Internet has done a marvelous job of "horriblizing" the notion of how foreigners are treated in this country.

It is sad that it is the people who have never lived here who are the most susceptible to overblown accounts of Japanese racism, discrimination, and rejection of assimilation.

In my opinion, it mostly comes from young non-minority foreigners from Western countries who suddenly see a chance to throw off their "white guilt" and seek some newfound moral high ground and relevancy by wallowing in victimhood. They end up attributing any and every perceived slight to rampant and endemic racism on the part of the Japanese and are also apt to inflate their recounting of events in a self-serving way. I take them all with a double-handful of salt.

I'm not saying incidents don't happen; they do. I'm just saying you have to be very leery of forming an opinion based in what you read on the Internet.

The dirty truth about all those foreigners who whine about not being accepted or "allowed" to assimilate is that foreigners by and large are self-ghettoizing and make little to no serious effort to assimilate into their communities in any sort of meaningful way. It isn't necessary for the Japanese to systematically exclude foreigners; the foreigners do most of the exclusion themselves.

 

[Glenski]

One thing that is for sure is that I do not think I should be treated as a gaijin in Japan.

Well, your nationality now is American, and your way of thinking is not Japanese simply because you were not brought up here. You will be treated largely, if not completely, as a foreigner.

Bear in mind that children born to one Japanese and one foreign parent (like my kid) are actually called "haafu" (half). Some people will tell you this is just a mathematical distinction expressed in words, while others see it as a denigrating term meaning the child is not fully Japanese in all/enough respects. My kid is Japanese in pretty much every way because he has been born and raised here, yet he still carries that label. Some "haafu" kids are stygmatized in their lives by peers who basically treat them like lowerclass half-breeds. Enter, SOSY, who is not even 1/2 Japanese and has never spent more than a week in Japan. Why should you be any different to the Japanese?

I am not asking to be considered fully Japanese, nor do I want that. I am what I am, but I do not want to be considered a complete and total outsider and have my heritage denied.

IMO, it will be for the most part. Unavoidable.

If I live in Japan, I am living in their country and my own country as well. I understand and respect the desire to keep Japan Japanese, but being considered a gaijin in Japan is like not being accepted by my own people, and if that is the case, then they will not be my people anymore.

Let's take a different example to compare.

John is 1/4 German, 1/4 Finn, and 1/4 Swede. The rest is a mix of European heritage. He is American by nationality. He doesn't speak the languages of any of those countries, has never visited them, and knows only a few things about that that he has read in a couple of books or Internet pages. If he wants to relocate to any of those countries, how should he be considered? I use this example because it is probably a typical American situation.

From what I've read, it seems like there is no in-between there is gaijin, and nihonjin one or the other.

People who have lived here for decades and even achieved a switch in nationality (become naturalized) are often still considered by some to be foreign until some legal point is raised. I seem to recall one who recently posted that a policeman or lawyer told him he would be treated as a Japanese only after he had given up his foreign citizenship, and that treatment was based solely on the Japanese constitution (which actually says people don't have full rights unless they are Japanese). You have an uphill battle here.

My friend is 1/4 Vietnamese and feels the same connection to Vietnam that I do to Japan. Among Vietnamese people, he is considered Vietnamese and not an outsider or alien of Vietnam in spite of Vietnam still wanting to keep Vietnam Vietnamese. In short, it's easy for him.

Different country, different situation.

Considering the treatment of foreigners in Japan, I am not so sure that it will be that easy for me. During my short stay in Japan, I never received any racism myself,

You were here for only a week.

 

[mds35]

I understand. I think initially I misunderstood a few things including what question I was really trying to ask. I am truly sorry for the trouble I have caused.

 

[Mike Cash]

You've done nothing to apologize for.

 

[mds35]

I feel as if I have though. I shouldn't have felt entitled to different treatment because of my blood, but my nationality is not Japanese, therefore I am a foreigner and an outsider (gaijin). I believe the question I was truing to ask at first was "would I be perceived as 1/4 Japanese ethnically, or completely non-Japanese ethnically. I think my answer is "Your results may vary". Thank you though.

 

[Mike Cash]

Results do indeed vary.

I'll let you in on something....no two gaijins live in the same Japan.

 

[Tott BeBop]

I'll let you in on a secret to; being a halfie growing up in Japan during the early nineties was terrible as well, it was a big reason my parents decided to move my sister and I away from this country. It wasnt until but ten years ago where halfies started becoming "popular" (if you can even call it that)

What im trying to say is that despite the fact you may still be looked at and treated as a gaijin, people will not be pulling their children away from you any more while you walk down the streets of tokyo because you have a white mother. And yes, I do remember tha happening on numerous occasions, stuff like that leaves an impression on you.