Can aMestiçabe aHaafu? Japanese-Brazilian Female Migrants and the Celebration of Racial Mixing in Contemporary Japan

Bibliographic Data

ID3658664
AuthorsTamaki Watarai (0000-0001-9649-5471, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume35
Issue6
Pages662-676
Publication date2014-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Intercultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-6868 • E-ISSN: 1469-9540
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07256868.2014.967188
OpenAlexW2006561844
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited10

This paper reveals how young Japanese-Brazilian female migrants living and working in 'contact zones' construct and negotiate their identities where they are categorised and expected to carry out certain behaviours/performances. It does so by drawing on interviews of Japanese-Brazilian models working in Japan. After arriving in Japan, Japanese-Brazilian female migrants learn that being mestiça in Brazil can be valorised as 'haafu', and they aspire to work as haafu moderu ('fashion model') for Japanese print media. It will be shown that the labelling of Japanese-Brazilian fashion models as haafu functions as a mode of inclusion in Japanese society, but it also functions as a mode of exclusion if they fail to perform the haafu that mainstream Japanese expect.Keywords: MestiçaHaafuMixed RaceRacialisationMigrationJapanese-BrazilianFashion AcknowledgementsI would like to extend my appreciation to Aichi Prefectural University for supporting my research and project 'International Research Project toward Realization of Multicultural Co-living Society'.FundingThis work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) "A Japan-Based Global Study of Racial Representations" (Principal Investigator: Yasuko Takezawa) No. 22222003.Notes[1] As pointed out in the introduction by Iwabuchi in this issue, academic researchers have recently shown an increased interest in haafu (Greer Citation2005; Kamada Citation2005; Fish Citation2009; Iwabuchi Citation2014). Haafu, which originates in an English word, half, became popularly used in the 1970s. As for the detailed account of historical transformation of namings, see Horiguchi and Imoto (Citation2014) and Murphy-Shigematsu (Citation2002).[2] Brazilians now compose the third largest foreign national resident population in Japan, after Chinese and Korean migrants (Portal site of official statistics of Japan Citation2014). Most Brazilian migrants are Japanese descendents, or nikkei, and also of mixed race. Among Brazilian nikkei in Brazil, interracial marriage rates are quite high. Already in 1987, the rate among nissei (second-generation), was 6 per cent; among sansei (third-generation), 42 per cent and among yonsei (fourth-generation), 61 per cent (Center for Japanese-Brazilian Studies Citation1990).[3] I conducted six years of fieldwork from 2008 to 2014 mostly in the Tokai area, including Aichi, Gifu, Mie and Shizuoka prefectures, where we see the largest concentration of Brazilian population in Japan. This fieldwork includes participant observation of modelling courses and beauty pageants of the community; and 33 formal personal interviews with 13 former and current models, 13 women aspiring to work as models, 4 beauty pageant organisers and 3 Japanese modelling agencies. I had a telephone interview with one former model. One modelling agency completed a questionnaire. I had short conversations with two modelling agencies who came to beauty pageants held by the community. Those who hoped to work as models helped me to envision the process of how a contact zone might be created and possible conflicts of their hopes for socio-economic mobility with the requirements imposed by agencies when starting a career as a haafu moderu. I made contact with informants in several different ways. To find models and aspiring models, through friends and acquaintances, I sent out emails or messages via Facebook, introducing myself, explaining the objective of my research and asking for an interview. In a few cases, my friends or acquaintances set up interviews for me. I met some informants in events of the Brazilian community and asked directly for an interview. I also used snowball sampling to find additional informants, some models offered to introduce me to someone they knew. The contacts with four modelling agencies were made through attending beauty pageants of the Brazilian community. I sent a letter to one agency, and I sent an email to another modelling agency because the model affiliated with that agency asked me to write an official letter if I wished to interview her. I did not ask the modelling agencies to introduce me to their models, since one manager advised me that agencies would not welcome my attempts to make personal contacts with models. Each semi-structured interview lasted an average of 2 hours. I took notes during and audio recorded each interview session.[4] Modelling agencies avoid using nikkei-burajirujin when they describe Japanese-Brazilian models and their parents. When asked by clients and production staff if their models were nikkei-burajirujin, one agent tried to change the topic (Personal interview, 18 March 2010).[5] This statement was from a very short conversation I had with the contestant in the hallway of the venue of the Brazilian community beauty pageant in Japan. I asked her age and the reason why she participated in the event.[6] One beauty pageant, 'Top Model Japan', had been held in the Brazilian community until 2012 for the sole purpose of finding new models. Since the objective of this beauty pageant had been to find new 'top models', it opened the door to Japanese contestants. However, until 2008 only three Japanese contestants had participated, according to the organiser.[7] Personal interview, 6 October 2008. His agency receives about 300 inquiries from Brazilians per month.[8] Questionnaire, 23 February 2011.[9] Personal interview, 18 March 2010. This was also pointed out by another modelling agency. Questionnaire, 23 February 2011.[10] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[11] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[12] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[13] Nissen is a mail-order catalogue.[14] Vitrine 5 March 2010. This issue produced a special article entitled A meia distância, which means 'at mid-distance', on Japanese-Brazilian models who work as haafu moderu. It explains the concept of haafu in Japan, what expectations Japanese media and modelling agencies have towards haafu, and features some models' pictures.[15] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[16] One modelling agency that supplies both Caucasian and haafu models does not require this for their foreign Caucasian models due to their short period of stay in Japan (Questionnaire, 23 February 2011).[17] Changing names also happens with female news anchors. For example, most haafu female news anchors use their given name of foreign origin with their Japanese family name, such as Hayama Hélène, instead of Hayama Miyuki, which was the name she used in school and at the very beginning of her career. However, the motivation behind the change in news anchors' cases is different; it is to make a haafu female news anchor seem distant from the public, distant enough for the public to long for her. In the case of Japanese-Brazilians, since they are real 'foreigners', the agencies try to make them appear closer to consumers. With regards to the changing names of ethnic minorities, there have been discussions that warn about the dangers, such as a loss of identity. Hatano researched the changing names of Brazilian and Peruvian children in Japanese public schools. Name changes were usually required by school authorities. Their first and family names of foreign origin tend to be omitted, leaving only Japanese names (Hatano Citation2009). There is other research on name changing. Nakashima took up Asian-American news anchors' cases, where they started to use their middle names or mothers' maiden names that were ethnic and had not been used before. This has been done to differentiate themselves from others (Nakashima Citation2001).[18] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[19] Personal interview, 6 October 2008.[20] Personal interview, 18 March 2010.[21] Hamamatsu, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, has the largest number of Brazilians residents of any city in Japan.[22] JJ is one of the leading female fashion magazine in Japan.[23] Telephone interview, 17 February 2011.[24] Not all Japanese-Brazilians I interviewed knew the term haafu. Two of them did not know it. One has lived in Japan only for 10 months and the other works as a model and has friendships only in the community.[25] There is a generational divide in perceptions of identity construction among Japanese-Brazilians. Rivas concludes, through her analyses on short stories and movies that depict how 'fears', 'insecurities', 'conflict', 'hope' and 'desire' of and for a nationalistic identity are (re)constructed in the first-generation immingrants to Brazil (Rivas Citation2011) and return migrants to Japan (Rivas Citation2013), that these are then projected onto their mixed-race grandchildren or children. The multiple subject positions allocated to mixed-race children 'opens up the possibility of an identity construction that emerges as a choice for these characters' (Rivas Citation2013), becoming a 'third identitarian space that is not necessarily aligned to their parents' identities (Rivas Citation2013) or their grandparents'. In other words, mixed-race children have a different perception of identity construction separate from their grandparent or parents whose identities are based on a binary one (Rivas Citation2013).[26] Personal interview, 8 June 2010.[27] Telephone interview, 17 February 2011.[28] 'Brazilianness' can be also used to differentiate models from other haafu moderu. This differentiation becomes important with the growing number of haafu moderu.[29] This 'Brazil' is important when they talk about their families. They do not show their dekasegi family or their lives in Japan, nor do they talk about their own experiences as factory workers. It is not in any way the complete story implied by the cover of the January 2007 issue of Glamorous, which stated, 'We show you the real lives of our 10 Glamorous Models!' alongside a picture of their haafu moderu. In 2011, Kelly, one of the top Japanese-Brazilian models, published an autobiography, which includes her work experiences as a factory worker. However, this publication can be analysed as a marketing strategy of her modelling agency, since other models have also published their own to attract more consumers and clients. Telling her experiences as a factory worker and associating her act of effort with gambaru, an act highly valued in Japanese society, are intended to differentiate her book from others.[30] Telephone interview, 17 February 2011.[31] Telephone interview, 17 February 2011.[32] I had a personal interview with Poliana on 28 August 2009, with Karina on 13 September 2009.[33] To most Brazilians, it is difficult to know the full extent of their own ancestry.Additional informationFundingFunding: This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) "A Japan-Based Global Study of Racial Representations" (Principal Investigator: Yasuko Takezawa) No. 22222003

Physics · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Japanese History and Culture · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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