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On a visit to Japan nearly two decades ago, I learned that the folks I met were interested in Americans – not Asian or Japanese Americans, but actually it was in their perception of Americans, the “white” ones. My younger cousins who were in the single digit age, expected their American relative to look like Zach from Saved by the Bell. I witnessed them say that I was supposed to have blond hair and blue eyes. Then my friends in Tokyo introduced me to their friends who commented, “he’s just like us”. I thought, ‘cool, but who else could I or should I be?’
In the earlier 90s, after their economic bubble burst, Japan still had Levi’s fever. The US was exoticized and still rare. “Yankee”, an Americanized style party girl was supposed to be “cool”. Shops with American names popped up. As an Asian American in Japan, I was treated as lesser than a Japanese person. I looked the looked, but couldn’t speak the language. If I were white, I’d get a pass into the forefront, but instead, I was a like a mute dog.
My friend Shinya once told me, “maybe Giant Robot will help change how Japanese people see Asian Americans.” He said this in 1996 and I remember that statement to this day. (I can now argue if things have changed or not with or without Giant Robot’s help.)
From left to right: Megumi Nishikura, Marcia Yumi Lise, and Lara Perez Takagi. Photo credit: Ryu Kodama.
Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi are two filmmakers living in Tokyo, Japan. Their next project, The Hafu Documentary, focuses on a lesser-known part of Japan’s demographic: biracial individuals. Hafu is the Japanese loan word for half-Japanese. The documentary features a Mexican-Japanese family (the Oi’s), a Ghanian-Japanese model named David, a Venezualan-Japanese community organizer named Ed, an Australian-Japanese expatriot named Sophia, and lastly, an unannounced Hafu of mixed Japanese and Asian descent. Both Nishikura and Takagi are half-Japanese themselves and I last interviewed them before the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Once again, they take time out from their busy schedules to discuss their documentary and its progress since then.
Lara and Megumi in action. Photo credit: Michael Connolly.
Giant Robot: How has production progressed so far?
Megumi Nishikura: “Sophia” is the fourth person. We put up a new image for her on the website. [When we first met her] it all came naturally. She wanted to show that she was part of this movie. She has her own blog and started writing about her participation in the film, and she tweets about us now and then. Her story is on the website and she grew up in Sydney, [Australia]. She spent a few summers in Japan here and there visiting her relatives, but doesn’t have too much experience in Japan. Last year, she decided that this was her last chance. If she didn’t take it now then she would never come and live here. She moved here and is tried to find a job, take Japanese lessons, and figure her way out while abroad.