Hybrid identities and adolescent girls : being 'half'' in Japan

This book examines the ethnic, gendered and embodied ‘hybrid’ identities of ‘half-Japanese’ girls in Japan. The girls struggle to positively construct their identities into positions of control over disempowering discourses of ‘otherness’ as they negotiate their constructed identities of ‘Japaneseness’, ‘whiteness’ and ‘halfness/doubleness’.

This is the first in-depth examination of “half-Japanese” girls in Japan focusing on ethnic, gendered and embodied ‘hybrid’ identities. Challenging the myth of Japan as a single-race society, these girls are seen struggling to positively manoeuvre themselves and negotiate their identities into positions of contestation and control over marginalizing discourses which disempower them as ‘others’ within Japanese society as they begin to mature. Paradoxically, at other times, within more empowering alternative discourses of ethnicity, they also enjoy and celebrate cultural, symbolic, social and linguistic capital which they discursively create for themselves as they come to terms with their constructed identities of “Japaneseness”, “whiteness” and “halfness/doubleness”. This book has a colourful storyline throughout - narrated in the girls’ own voices - that follows them out of childhood and into the rapid physical and emotional growth years of early adolescence.

Contents List of Tables and Figures Transcription Conventions Acknowledgments Preface 1. Constructing Hybrid Identity in Japan 2. Examining Discourses of ‘Otherness’ in Japan within a Multiperspective Discourse Analysis Approach 3. The Participants and the Data Collection 4. Negotiating Identities 5. Claiming Good Difference; Rejecting Bad Difference 6. Celebration of Cultural, Symbolic, Linguistic and Social Capital 7. Discursive ‘Embodied’ Identities of Ethnicity and Gender 8. Discursive Construction of Hybrid Identity in Japan: Where has it Taken Us? Appendix 1: Transcript of Rina’s Think Aloud Protocol (Uncorrected) Appendix 2: Descriptions of Materials Used for Discussion Appendix 3: Self-Portraits (in Alphabetical Order) Glossary of Japanese Words References Index Challenging the myth of Japan as a single-race society, half-Japanese girls are seen struggling to positively manoeuvre themselves and negotiate their identities into positions of contestation and control over marginalizing discourses which disempower them as 'others' within Japanese society as they begin to mature. This work examines these girls The author examines the ethnic, gendered and embodied 'hybrid' identities of 'half-Japanese' girls in Japan, narrated through their own voices. They struggle to connect their identities into positions of control over disempowering discourses of 'otherness', while also celebrating cultural capital in 'Japaneseness' and 'whiteness'