Hafu

There is a rather vigorous debate (and a lot of name calling) going on at the 'Japan Today' site about the use of the term 'hafu' (half) in Japan. The debate can be accessed at this rather ridiculously long link:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-hafu-project-exploring-the-question-of-what-it-means-to-be-japanese

'Hafu' is used to describe those Japanese (?) children, one of whose parents is a foreigner. Cian is a 'hafu' and is regularly referred to by people as such. I'll have to say as a father it is a bit disconcerting to have your child labelled as something besides 'boy', 'son' or 'that noisy fecker', based solely on his mixed parentage. Some of the contributors to the above debate would go way beyond 'disconcerting' and label it racist, akin to the use of 'nigger' in American society. I'm not too sure, in Cian's case, I have ever discerned that level of opprobrium directed towards him, and to be honest, hope I never do. However, Cian is the son of a Japanese-Caucasian marriage, and one of the things I have discovered in my time here in Japan is that there seems to be a socially covert ranking of international partnerships.

Japanese-Caucasian unions are generally, (aside from the blood and soil extremists of the far right), viewed in a favourable light. Less so are unions involving Asians, particularly Chinese. This isn't a fact, just an observation on my part. In a way it reflects the esteem still granted the Anglophone world as witnessed by the primacy of the English language here in Japan despite the fact that (a) Koreans are by far the largest ethnic minority, followed by the Chinese; (b) China has replaced the US as Japan's largest trading partner; and (c) the majority of tourists to Japan hail from China.

A lot of this is to do with history, particularly the shooting, bombing and killing bits of history that tend to linger on from generation to generation (and don't we Irish just know that). More of it has to do with Japan's somewhat childish view of the world as a territorially defined 'us' and 'them' sort of place, even if increasing numbers of 'them' are living here in Japan amongst the 'us'.

In truth Japan is still a bewildered beginner at all this multiculturalism and ethnically diverse society stuff, thus, I think, the use of the term 'hafu', for they have yet to learn that there is no need for a term at all.

But a generation or two of more Cians and I reckon they might just get there.