Being Japanese (2021) 100% 1★

– My name is Joe Oliver. My father is American. He was in the military and my mother was Japanese. I was raised in Japan for 37 years. If I had to categorize myself, I would be an earthling. In Japan, no one thinks I am Japanese. Other people, especially Western people,
think I'm Japanese. So others determine who I am, so I can only say I am an earthling.
So you go ahead and decide who I am.
I say I am an earthling.

– For 27 years after the end of the war in 1945, Okinawa was administered by the U.S.
During that time, Okinawans needed a special travel permit to enter Japan, as they were considered neither U.S. citizens nor Japanese citizens.

– So like this, Ainu people and non-Ainu people are doing this together.
This is not a ritual that only Ainu can do, or only Ainu should do, because Ainu sees people as humans, this should be the way it is, so we gather here together, enjoying, being merry, full of happiness.

– The first time my parents told me I wasn't Japanese, I was Korean, was when my mother and I were taking a bath together. My mother said, „If you go to kindergarten, you'll meet a lot of Japanese kids. You are not Japanese.” And I remember thinking, „What is Japanese?”
„I'm not them? We're not the same?” She said, „No.” She said, „They're Japanese.
You're not. You're Korean.” I didn't understand, because what's the difference between us.
We looked exactly the same. I put up my finger like this and said, „Not this much?
Maybe this much I'm the same?” And she said, „No, no you're not.”

– I realized I was Japanese when I first went to Hungary when I was like 6 or 7. I was living in Japan like any other Japanese child, I was never told I was different. So I'd never thought differences existed. When I went to an international school in Hungary, everyone said where they came from. So everyone shared their own culture with each other there. I said I was Japanese, but wait, my mother is Czech, so I am also Czech. That's how I started to think about myself. After I came back to Japan, my classmates said, „You are not Japanese so
go back to your country.”

– What is being Japanese?
– That is a very difficult question to answer, although Japan is an island nation,
it has always had a lot of interaction with the Asian mainland and beyond.
As a result, Japanese people have a lot of different ancestries. And Japanese people from Hokkaido are different from that from Honshu or Okinawa. But they are all Japanese.
If I wanted to give a definition it would be something like this. People who live in Japan,
speak Japanese to some extent, and think of Japan as their home, are Japanese.
– It's easy to determine what's not Japanese, but it's harder to determine what's really…
what is Japanese, so what's left? And the more I talk about this, and the more I think about this question…the simpler my answer gets. And that is…it's what's on your passport.
And it could be as simple as that. Do you have a Japanese passport?
Then you're Japanese.

– Max, had a funny story about his Japanese mother's family that he would visit regularly.
– Basically every time I would go visit them my own oji-chan, my mom's brother,
would always be like, „Oh Max, you're good at using chopsticks!”
„Oh, you like natto? Wow, you're like a Japanese!”
You do know I am the son of your sister? I never could say it to him, but I always thought it was hilarious. How he treated me so much like not Japanese. Even though it's like, it's your own sister's son.