CVK
Thanks to Norm for this one! The Mainichi Daily News ran an interesting article about what it’s like to be mixed in Japan. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s that fascination with the familiarly different that has women here running to plastic surgeons for eyelid incisions and nose jobs to look more Western.

Flattering in some ways? Of course. The perks include the ridiculously overpaid promotional gigs on offer for that “non-Japanese-yet-Japanese” look. Or the automatic assumption you’re intelligent because you’re bilingual, or athletic because you’re bigger.

But the attention gets distasteful.

The only haafu role models I can recall were figures in entertainment or sports, rife with associations of sexuality and virility. You won’t find us haafu in the hallowed halls of political power or the boardrooms of major corporations reserved for the “truly” Japanese.

As a haafu friend once put it, “you never get full admission to the club.”