When being Hafu can be a burden in Japan

I found this interesting article on how children of international marriages are inconvenienced by the Japanese system. Hiroki applied for a part-time job at a branch of Sukiya. He is half American and half Japanese. His mother is originally from America so Sukiya has both a Japanese and a Wester name. This restaurant hires many foreign students who are legally allowed to work in Japan. So when they saw the name “John” on the paperwork, the employer asked Hiroki to bring a copy of residence certificate and on his certificate, he is listed as a female because he is a transgender so the company didn’t hire him after all.

It is a shame that this happens to people who grow up in Japan as Japanese citizens yet they are still treated like a second-class citizen. But this is not unique to Japan..I think it’s everywhere. In America, different races live together so we have to fill out a form with our social security number and submit a copy of passport, green card or visa to verify our legal status in the US.. Japan used to be (well still is) a very homogenous country compared to America so they are not used to dealing with people from non-Japanese national backgrounds. and this transgender man shouldn’t have been subject to discrimination but this happens in the States as well..sadly. They will come up with different excuses to reject your application because they don’t want to be sued but I often see transgender females working in cosmetic department stores and that’s pretty much the only place they are accepted on the surface. But yes it should be illegal to treat someone as a female when it’s against the person’s wish but again it is not unique to Japan and it does happen in America too. A transgender male student was accused of using a female restroom and that almost got him expelled from college so you are talking about discrimination..it happens everywhere!

My advice to the parents of biracial/bi-national children is to do what’s best for your child. If you are raising your kid in Japan, don’t give him/her a middle name. Because it will always put the kid in trouble and make sure that the surname is spelled out in Kanji.