Japan: Interracial Dating

Considering the world we live in these days, interracial dating is as common as dating in general. Do we even look at a mixed race couple and think “Oh! Interracial dating!” or do we just see another couple among many others? Well, for us in the west it is very common for someone to date another of different race. But in Japan, it is quite the opposite. It is very rare for a Japanese person to have a foreign girlfriend or boyfriend. There are several factors contributing to this.

Demographics: Japan has a population of around 128,056,026 people. Only 2 million of those people are foreigners, and 60% are entirely made up of Chinese and Koreans. Can you imagine how small the amount of western foreigners in Japan is? This plays a big role in why there is so little interracial dating. There aren’t really enough white foreigners to make it a common situation.

Language: Now the amount of foreigners decreases even more when we take in consideration if they can speak Japanese or not. The language barrier can be a huge… well, barrier to dating someone since you can’t even communicate. This is intimidating for the Japanese.

Stereotypes: Stereotypes stamp people rather permanently. The Japanese have a certain view on westerners, and vice versa. While stereotypes can be positive or negative, it is the negative ones that keep people from interracial dating in Japan. Things such as, “Westerners move too fast in a relationship” or “Westerners are wild” can cloud people’s judgments so that the Japanese won’t even consider dating a westerner… even if they are nothing like that. Westerners as well can be narrow minded thinking “I don’t want to date a shy person, so I won’t date anyone Japanese” when there are plenty of un-shy Japanese people.

Public Image: While many in Japan find it “cool” to have a foreign girlfriend or boyfriend, there is a fair amount of Japanese that consider it as unwanted attention. Remember, Japan is a place where everyone wants to blend in… not stand out. Having a foreign companion will definitely not make them fit in. Many just want to do what is normal and dating a foreigner over there is an unavoidable attention magnet. Everyone would be staring, wondering, assuming, and so on. It can be uncomfortable.

If you are living in Japan then I apologize if a lot of these factors can make dating over there seem hopeless, but do not lose confidence! It is a challenge, but definitely not impossible. Everyone is different. You’ll be surprised by Japanese people who can speak English, Japanese people who think westerners are not too different from them, Japanese people who have dated foreigners before, and the list goes on.

I hope this was helpful and leave any thoughts in the comments below! J