2024 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Changes in Representations of Blackness in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
22K01095
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| Research Institution | Gifu University |
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Principal Investigator |
JG Russell 岐阜大学, 地域科学部, 非常勤講師 (90262740)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Keywords | black diaspora / race / mukokuseki / dual heritage / colorism / representation / diversity / intersectional racism |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I spent the research period collecting and reading primary and secondary sources on the topic and conducting interviews with African-descendant residents in the Kanto and Kansai regions. I conducted audio-taped, in-person interviews with 16 persons (8 men and 8 women) from June 2024 to March 2025. Each interview averaged about 90 minutes. In addition to in-person interviews, I: (1) monitored social media platforms for videos that discussed the experiences of African-descendant and dual-heritage Black Japanese individuals, (2) collected published memoirs written by such individuals, including those interviewed for this project, and (3) monitored Japanese and Anglophone (JA) online forums for discussions of Black representation in cosplay, manga/anime, video games, including the ongoing controversy surrounding the inclusion of Yasuke, an African brought to Japan by missionaries in the 16th century who is believed to have become a samurai in the service of Oda Nobunaga in the video Assassin's Creed Shadows, and online advertisements, particularly cosmetic surgery and orthodontal advertisements.
Moreover, as online machine Japanese translation becomes increasingly available, Japanese blogs/vlogs feature translations of English articles originally posted on Anglophone websites about race that are used to generate commentary on Japanese websites. The reverse is true of Anglophone websites. The discourse generated has provided an opportunity to examine the intersectionality and replication of racial discourse as it navigates international boundaries via the medium of AI.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
While the collection of primary and secondary sources and the monitoring of online forums, blogs, videos, and vlogs concerning the experiences of African-descendant people in Japan has proceeded smoothly, there was a delay in conducting in-person interviews with all the individuals who responded to my initial query for participants. This was largely due to: 1) a lack of a follow-up response from those who had initially expressed an interest in being interviewed for the project and 2) an inability to coordinate a schedule for in-person interviews due to scheduling conflicts.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As I mentioned in "Summary of Research Achievements," 16 people were interviewed, primarily in the Kanto and Kansai areas. The original plan was to have greater regional diversity, as well as a larger representation of mixed-roots Black Japanese participants. Presently, there remain 20 people who responded to the initial query and expressed an interest in being interviewed for the project that I have yet to interview. Currently, I am arranging their interview schedules. I also plan to increase the number of mixed-roots interviewees. Follow-up interviews are also planned with selected interviewees. It is anticipated that the number of interviewees will increase as word of mouth spreads.
Transcription of the previously conducted interviews is currently underway.
Additionally, I am currently working on two research papers based on the project, one of which is currently under peer review.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The grant was awarded to study changes in the representation of African-descendant people in Japan, with a focus on representations in Japanese media and popular culture and the experiences of Black and mixed-roots Black Japanese in Japan. As in previous years, the grant will be applied toward the purchase of academic journal articles, books, interview equipment (primarily audiotapes), and copyrighted visual material and to cover travel expenses incurred in conducting in-person interviews and attending academic conferences. Following ethics protocols, interviewees are not financially compensated for their participation; however, since interviews are primarily conducted in cafes, grant money is used to pay for coffee, tea, and refreshments ordered by the interviewee during the interview.
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