Multi-ethnic Japanese Identity:
An Applied Conversation Analysis
Tim Greer
Hokkaido University
In Japanese, the word haafu, which has been coined from the English half, is still commonly used to refer to Japanese people who have one non-Japanese parent. Although some parents are beginning to prefer the term daburu (double) in an attempt to more fully express their children’s bicultural access to two or more worldviews, the participants in this study reported that they generally used haafu. Other expressions they mentioned within this sequence include gaijin (outsider), konketsuji (mixed-blood), and zasshu (mongrel).
This study employs an ethnomethodological approach, combining Applied Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorization Analysis to document the sequential procedure in which the participants’ co-construct their ethnic identities, noting in particular the role of language alternation. The data collected is based on a focus group discussion with six bilingual Japanese teenagers from ‘interracial’ families, examining in detail approximately two minutes of conversation in which the participants attend to some of the terms that are used to refer to multi-ethnic Japanese. The turn-by-turn micro-analysis reveals the ways in which the participants use codeswitching in talk-in-interaction while co-constructing their understanding of the terms others ascribe to them, and identifying those which they believe to be suitable.
It focuses on how the bilingual participants demonstrate their sensitivity to the dual nuances of the word haafu through collaborative codeswitching in talk-in-interaction. Participants were found to demonstrate a variety of allegiances to this and other ethnic identifiers. The study concludes that the ascription of such referents is still a contentious issue among multi-ethnic Japanese teenagers and their use as labels will be appreciated to varying degrees by those to whom they are applied.
