Later this year when she reaches the age of 22, Naomi Osaka, like all other dual-nationals in Japan, will be forced to make a critical decision: is she Japanese or not?
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| Naomi Osaka at at the 2018 US Open competing in women's singles. |
Many of the dual-nationals in Japan that must choose a single nationality are also mixed race, however for Naomi Osaka, her decision has implications for her future ability to represent Japan in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And although the law does require dual-nationals to choose a nationality by the age of 22, failure to do so is not a crime. For Naomi Osaka, though, failure to choose a single nationality would not escape intense public scrutiny, and as the world’s reigning champion in the women’s singles at the US Open and Australian Open, her impending decision of nationality will either add to or detract from Japanese Olympic glory. Beyond the Olympics, however, the case of Naomi Osaka has brought much-needed attention to social issues in Japan surrounding mixed race identity and long term trend of xenophobic attitudes towards immigration.
It’s important to note that in most other countries, and not just Japan, there is an imperative need for the general population to better understand the complex lived experiences and issues of identity faced by mixed race individuals. In America, for example, it was only until about two decades ago that substantive research began to be conducted on mixed race demographics, and the year 2000 was the first year American citizens were able to identify as more than one race in the national census. There are many other historical examples of society’s failure to recognize the legitimacy of mixed race identities, including the one-drop rule (a hypodescent rule) which was used during the era of slavery to assign the “subordinate race” (a monoracial identity) to mixed race individuals in order to perpetuate racial foundations of the institution of slavery.
Specifically in Japan, however, there is an almost obsessive fascination with half-Japanese people. There is a widely shared conception that people of half-Japanese and half non-Asian descent are physically attractive, and recent decades have seen the young female Japanese population idolizing half-Japanese celebrities. The cosmetic industry has taken advantage of this and marketed their products to make Japanese women look more “half,” which supposedly involves decreasing the space between eyebrows and eyes, making the nose bridge look more raised, and increasing the size of the appearance of eyes. It is commonly believed that the children of a Japanese person and non-Asian person will be good-looking, and this kind of fetishization of mixed race people is harmful in its generalization, and often objectification, of a very heterogeneous group of people. This Japanese fascination with mixed race people becomes even more complicated and problematic when the general monoracial population of Japan views mixed racial heritage as a barrier to ever being truly Japanese. It brings up confusing questions for those who are half-Japanese, in terms of their racial, cultural, and national identities.
Mixed race people commonly experience confusion regarding their racial identities, and the legal compulsion to choose a single nationality may have significant and profound impact not only on their racial perceptions of themselves, but their mental and emotional states as well. Further, during an era in which Japan is experiencing a dramatic graying of their population and has teased the idea of introducing programs to increase immigrant workers, forcing those of actual Japanese ancestry to revoke their citizenship seems like a step in the wrong direction. This may have to do with Japan’s long trend of xenophobic attitudes towards foreigners, and although Japan’s current politics are certainly more oriented towards an integrated world order, there are still noticeable traces of a reluctance to invite non-Japanese citizens to migrate to Japan. For many years, there has been government talk of changing the rule against long-term dual citizenship, but progress on that front remains to be seen, and traces of lingering Japanese exceptionalism may have something to do with that. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has cited that it is necessary for diplomats to revoke any foreign nationalities, and this is reasonable as there are concerns for national security, but most people will not be put in positions where having dual-nationality will be a conflict of interest on a national level, and therefore this reason is insufficient.
In the future, it will be interesting to see how attitudes towards mixed race people in Japan change or remain the same, and whether or not the dual-nationality rule will ever be changed. And as we continue to have these discussions, it is important to be aware of the underlying racial and historical forces at play.
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