Being Japanese Raised Outside Japan (Overseas Japanese)

what was it like growing up in Australia as a Japanese person after coming back to Japan like what kind of culture sh you experienced before I was a bit afraid to come back because when you come to Japan as a overseas Japanese hey guys how you there I'm Takashi from Japan so today I'm going to interview Japanese people raced outside of Japan okay let's get started so thank you for your time so you're from America yes I'm from LA but you're Japanese right correct so my mom and dad are technically Japanese but it's born here in Japan uh after the one month Kine which is like the checkup we flew to America so my entire life I thought I was American so there's a lot of cultural like who am I identity crisis stuff you know the reason why the your parents move to America my dad's work mostly so we're just based there the entire time we went to Canada first uh Michigan New York all over we ended up uh settling in La then and you came back what age at the time back at 18 for college but it was technically American college but that's based in Japan living as a Japanese American I thought I was American my entire life but As I Grew Older I knew there was this part of me that was missing and I didn't know what that was like I knew it was J Japan but I've only been to Japan for like summer vacations going to bachan's house in the summer like maybe a week or two and come back right back to the States so I really wanted to learn about the culture see what Japan was about that's the biggest reason I moved to Tokyo I'm going to ask you about your life in America and about Japan so first America going up in La growing up in La what was it like um honestly the little town that I grew up in was called samarino so there's a lot of Japanese and Asian kids there it's probably I would say maybe like 70 plus% was Asian mainly Taiwanese Cantonese Korean a little bit Japanese so I didn't feel like The Outsider you know um we all look the same everyone was speaking English when I was young I I don't know it wasn't like uh it wasn't that different I would say but as you grow older you definitely see the changes and um the cultural differences of like even even within the Asian Community like the Chinese kids and the Japanese kids are very very different so that was that was quite interesting for me I thought coming back to Japan like what kind of culture sh you experienced or what something you that makes makes you think like oh I'm Miss America or something like that um again it's it was quite unique in my uh experience because the college I went to was very International a lot of kids were coming in from Europe America Canada all over the world but once you stepped out of school it was very different like worked for the first time in Japan what what's expected out of you as a working person person in Japan was quite different from what I expect what I knew from the state side so that was an interesting thing for me um yeah it's just basically the Japanese culture was very different from what I knew what kind of moment you feel like you're very American you're very different from other japin people cuz you're you're not from Japan right what kind of moment you feel that so I feel very different from the people I work with or people that are around me in the way that they think I feel like a lot of times when Japanese people are challenged they become like small andos meaning like they're not very confident about what they feel is right so they'll just sort of go with the flow but at the from my perspective it's like but if you feel a certain way about something just go with that thing and just say what you want to so that's the biggest difference that I feel when I'm here in Japan talking to like Norm normal Japanese kids okay again in America what makes you feel you're very Japanese in America I was a little bit more like conscious of the you know the Japanese side of things like well like you have to be polite and be quiet you have to respect what other people say and this and that so those things were definitely a thing and right now yeah I think I guess it's still a little bit there when people get too crazy I'm like uh I don't know if that's like good but um yeah very much Western I in that sense okay and about the language you speak Japanese and English which one is your own native language you don't know honestly I don't know my dad spoke to me in English my entire life my mom spoke to me in Japanese my entire life so it's sort of 5050 for me maybe that's the reason that you wanted to come to Japan cuz you know you would struggle with Japanese right for sure for sure so I can speak it with my mom I like know how to um express myself but like written in Japanese or read reading like those things are completely foreign to me so I think that's something that I wanted to learn and which I did in college so like you went to Japanese school in America or no no no it was uh just pure like public school American school oh just talking with your parents basically you learned Japanese so like but it's different right like talking with your parents and talking with your friends or you know school right so what was interesting is my mom talked to me in a very polite so when I came to Japan I was like overly I was speaking whatever my mom taught me and a lot of those words and phrases were overly polite and so I would just talk to my friends like like please do whatever and like they're like why are you being so nice to me that's like to the cour and I was like what are you talking about over time I learned that there are like certain ways you talk to your elderly and then your friends and then people like they're younger than you there's like a very cretion of um I know phrases and express expressing yourself in Japanese so that was very know new to me when I moved to Japan okay are you going to leave in Japan for good or you going to go you're going to go back to America definitely going back to America uh why um I just like the culture I just like the weather just like the people oh yeah cuz you're from Los Ang yes I'm from La I'm definitely not moving to the east coast cuz just too too cold for me so except weather was the reason weather culture freedom I just feel like the overall quality of life is higher over there because you can just be whoever you want to be and there's just so many opportunities and that's something I want to experience myself but also my kids but honestly I'd like to be half and half like I'd like to fly in here um when it's like nice weather Spring and Autumn really like those seasons um summer is a little humid in Tokyo so probably not summer probably want to fly over to the West Coast so so so so like sort of going back in for this is close enough so you can do that you know thank you so much yeah thank you thank you oh oh you need to speak Japanese for my viewers okay uh okay obviously you speak Japanese okay can you introduce yourself in Japanese to my viewers instructor okay thank you for your time can I introduce your background thank you for having me my name is Yasuo I am a Japanese living in Paris I was born in Tokyo I lived in China for 8 years I lived in America for 8 years and then France for 20 years now so you didn't grew up in Japan I grew up from 3 to six in Japan years old three years so your native language is English absolutely so I grew up uh speaking English all my life but Japanese at home lived in Beijing mainly I also lived in Hong Kong a little bit in Shanghai and in the states I lived in Boston and New York and in France only Paris and where you originally from in Japan Tokyo Tokyo so you you basically grew up in big cities exactly I I am a big city person I love living in the big cities basically Tokyo Paris New York those are my main my favorite cities my parents uh uh were working outside of Japan because they were working for a Japanese company I I was uh out outside because they were there too I am uh living in Paris because what I do I'm a designer I design handbags uh my job it's very useful to be in Europe because all the factories are in Europe like my bags are made in Italy so it's helpful to be outside but obviously we have a lot of work and sales for example in Japan in Tokyo so there's a lot of opportunities to come back and that's why I'm here today there are some times that you thought about your identity maybe crisis something can you explain your process of you know I think um I think we go through as a person who have multiple cultures I had that moment when I was around 13 to 15 years old I would say I felt very much Japanese but I also knew that I did not have all the cultural sort of background to be a real I would say like representative of my own country um I wanted to know more about my own country but I didn't have the opportunity to come back I felt felt like I was not enough Japanese to call myself Japanese afterwards I learned more about the uh the culture Japanese history and I now I'm not afraid to say I'm Japanese it's a process where you have to go through certain sort of let go of that fear of not being the perfect Japanese representative abroad and say to yourself it's okay there's a lot of people like myself and there's not that many perfect Japanese anyway anywhere so after you go through that process you can say okay I'm a Japanese person I live abroad I don't know everything but I also know how to present my own culture towards somebody who's not Japanese when you come to Japan you feel differences um you know before I was a bit afraid to come back because when you come to Japan as a overseas Japanese you feel like maybe you're not that welcome I had that fear but uh people's mentality are changing in Japan there's a lot lot of foreigners there's a lot of people with different cultures so when I come here I feel more um welcome I would say the definition of Japanese person how do you answer I think it's changing before I would say Japanese person is somebody who lives in Japan who knows the culture of Japan I think Japanese person physically we would say oh that person is a Asian person but I think today there's Japanese people who are have some culture have some other there are people who are not at all Japanese ethnically but they were born in Japan and we could say they are also Japanese I think our mentality of our own notion of who is Japanese is evolving and that is something very nice it's almost like we are becoming a little bit more like the United States where there's a lot of people from different places of different racial backgrounds and we all call them Americans I think that we have a lot of you know we have a lot to go through to I mean I don't think Japan will ever be like the states that's not the point but um I think Japan has a very strong and and historical background to ever become something like the states but the whole notion of who is Japanese what color is Japanese is evolving and that's very modern okay as a Japanese person who rised outside of Japan what do you like and you don't like about Japan uh what I like is that when you come back to Japan everything is proper it's clean uh people are so cordial and you feel generally safe in this country and that's what I love about Japan what I don't like is exactly the same reason why I like meaning it's so proper and so cordial that when you come back we feel like everybody is living under a lot of rules um people are respectful because they're rules but those rules sometimes are a little bit too I would say narrow maybe less flexibility than in other places in the world so while I appreciate that cordiality and a lot of rules there are the same reasons why it's sometimes inconvenient any possibility that you're going to come back to Japan to leave here again oh I would love to do that one day it doesn't have to be Tokyo I love the nature in Japan in general so I would say I would love to make that opportunity for myself in the future and be a real Japanese I would love to you know get get to know more General culture and let other people be proud for me to say that I'm a real Japanese person you've been outside of Japan for most of your life how do people see Japan how do people see Japanese people you has it changed uh past 40 years yeah I think so I mean especially I I I can only say about maybe Paris and France in general because I've been living there for the past 20 years people are more open towards Japanese culture uh a lot of people didn't know about Japan they would say oh Japan is part of Asia it's near yeah part of China near China Taiwan Hong Kong it's like a one block it's so far away from Europe but nowadays I think that they have a better notion of oh Korea is not the same as Japan Japan is not the same as China people are more aware with internet with uh Instagram like information is more fluid these days so you do feel that that differentiation you mentioned the Jaan became more International and what about local Japanese people do you think they are also globalized or do you think it hasn't change in that sense what do you think I think that um it hasn't changed overall it hasn't changed but there is this sense of my feeling that says that even though uh the local Japanese who who don't speak um English or other languages I have this feeling that they also are more aware of how different people can be so they are more tolerant they have not changed themselves but they are more acknowledging the fact that there are many people out there that do not share the same values or Vision than themselves so they're neither shocked or they're not hurt by the differences of their their Vision I feel that any otherwise for people who want to come to Japan without renue or living my advice when you come to Japan is uh leave all your thoughts and Prejudice and preconceived ideas about Japan at home come to Japan with a clean sheet of A4 without any written script come here and enjoy and absorb whatever you can meet people enjoy different food be open to try different things and go to places you never thought you would and enjoy because this country is filled with so many beautiful things that everybody should enjoy Japan at one point or sooner or later yes that's what you did when you went to Paris exactly the most important is the Curiosity meaning you want to enjoy life by discovering different things and when I moved to Paris 20 years ago that's exactly what I did I left all my thoughts and went to Paris and started my life all over again you you still don't get bored by Paris no I love Paris uh obviously like any other City there's a lot of inconvenient things but uh yeah Paris after 20 years it's still beautiful what language do you speak uh as a Japanese person I speak obviously Japanese English French and Italian can you introduce yourself in the languages you speak okay so uh English is English my name ISO I am a Japanese person living in Paris French thank you for your time can you introduce your Sur yes hi my name is Arena I'm Japanese and I lived in Australia for 2 years and I currently live in Tokyo I lived in Australia when I was 10 years old what was it like partly growing up being Australia as a Japanese person um I really liked living in Australia because people around me were very nice even though I couldn't speak English at all they came to talk to me with gestures and they tried to communicate with me so they were very nice uh where in Australia was it I lived in k k was a really good place because there were a lot of Nature and people were very friendly is your personality heavily influenced by Australia or you think you're quite typical Japanese person or yeah what do you think about your personality um I think my personality is influenced by Australia because when I'm with my friends or when I talk I show more emotions a lot of Japanese girls are often seen as quiet and they don't really show emotions you think it's true uh some Japanese girls I think how about you I show more emotions when I first went to Australia I was shy quiet but they came to talk to me with the kindness and being friendly and my personality actually changed when I came back from Australia I was very very friendly I was so open but I gradually started to be more Japanese a lot of Japanese people talk indirectly so when I meet someone new and we talk and we get to know each other at the end we say oh mat but sometimes that mat never happens like let's hang out again but that's not going to happen yeah that's not going to happen and yeah I think that was the difference because when I say oh let's hang out again I really mean it okay okay you know just being bright okay yeah you would say you're more direct you think so think so you think it's a good thing or not necessarily good thing in Japan in Japan not just in general in Japan it depends on the person that you're talking to maybe some people can get hurt by saying oh I don't want to see you again or maybe Japanese people can get hurt easily maybe maybe yeah that's why they speak nicely right you went to Australia what did you learn from that experience um I learned that even though you can't speak their language you guys can still communicate and make friends and know about the differences between the cultures even though I couldn't speak English I lived in Australia and it was really fun and people around me were very nice so even though you can't speak Japanese right now uh maybe you could come to Japan and make new friends from different countries uh what do you like and you don't like about Japan if you need to say um what I missed about Japan when I lived in Australia is that a lot of people are very nice like how they talk and how they act so I like that about Japan but what I don't really like about Japan is some people are not very accepting with cultures or their sexuality I think because I grew up in a Japanese family it was my mom staying home and my dad working and that's very Japanese I thought that was normal yeah because I grew up in that environment but when I got to know about different countries I noticed oh this isn't right can you imagine yourself living in Australia again in the future or it can be any other countries but like yeah leaving Japan can you imagine yes um I haven't been to Australia for 10 years now so I really want to go and live there again it doesn't have to be Australia but I would love to live in different countries for long term or just one year two years or what do you think CU it's different just three years so you want to come back at the end of the day I think so I think I will still miss Japan like the food the people and my family lives in Japan so I would miss them can you introduce yourself in Japanese okay thank you for watching so far how was it that was interesting okay anyway thank you for watching if you like this video click like button please subscribe to my channel if you have any question you want me to ask people in Japan please leave the comment too see you next time

Channel: TAKASHii from Japan

Views: 393,790

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Id: kQgaxhiutPE

Length: 22min 54sec (1374 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2023