Are there any non oriental Japanese?

Question

I know this is a weird question but it suddenly occured to me i have never seen or heard of someone from Japan that is not of oriental descent. I mean in the uk we have all manner of ethnic origins and throughout most of europe. Does anyone know a caucasian japanese person? It was something that occured to me recently?

I suppose im also asking about there immigration policy. Is it a total closed shop?

Crikey - if this is true? In the uk if you even question immigration you are blasted as racist. So how would you catergorize a society that has a closed immigration policy from fear of diluting their ethnic origin - in the uk we'd be called fascist.

Answer 1

Japanese society is very closed and insular. But I suppose there are a few.

Answer 2

There were indigenous people called the Ainu who seemed to be Caucasian rather than oriental, the women used to tattoo moustaches onto their upper lip, but I think they have been assimilated by the Japanese to the point where you can't see that they are any different in appearance to the rest of the Japanese, they might be a bit hairier but they do not look Caucasian because they have interbred with them so much. I don't think there have been many immigrants to Japan, although there are definitely some people of Korean descent, who after several generations are still regarded as incomers. As the countries nearest Japan are also Asian countries, oriental people would be the most likely immigrants than Caucasians.

Answer 3

Well me answer the general question ... I know that there are Russians who have lived in Japan for some time. They are oriental people anyhow when you consider that Russia boarders Japan.
The Ainu of northern Japan are considered proto caucasian. I think there is a some mixture there. I read somewhere that Japanese are hairier than other oriental races or nationalities.
You know, of course, that their soredaijin I don't know maybe prime minister was or is of mixed background. An writer from either Greece or American Greek got stuck in Japan. He married into a Japanese samurai family and took a Japanese name, Yakimo Koizume. His pen name or the one he wrote under was Lafcadio Hearn. I feel that his case is very rare nowadays. He wrote about Japanese troops going off to fight the Russians circa 1900.
I think that you can find a wide variety of foreigners living there for one reason or another. But, of those who are naturalized Japanese, the case above is the only one I have heard of. I don't know the status of a woman who marries into Japan. I think that her children are considered Japanese. She becomes kanai, a member of the family. But, Japanese women marry out of Japan. They take their husbands status and are still considered Japanese themselves. But, I don't know what happens then to the husband's status or her children's.
But, if you are asking from the general population of all people foreign and nationals living in Japan there are many, many foreigners living there.
Also, my friend, a Japanese, became an American. Her husband remained a Japanese but had some sway as a foreigner married to an American. However, when they divorced she lost her Japanese passport and was no longer considered to be Japanese. It makes travel to Japan to see her friends and family more difficult for her.

Answer 4

First of all, Japan does not have a closed immigration policy. i have person friends who have immigrated there, married a Japanese too. There are a lot mixed marriages in America between natives with Japanese, same as in Japan itself. So I guess the children of such marriages would be considered non oriental Japanese as you call them.

Answer 5

i lived in japan for 6 months back in the 70s i did meet a few caucasian japanese they were the children of different embassy officials but still they were born there so they could be classed as japanese i dont know the policy for emigration these days but then it was closed you could get visas for work or short stay but nothing permenant

Answer 6

theres a tribe in the north the ainu.. that are not Japanese but a different people , and during the war the Japanese took Korean people as slaves for work and even though the Koreans had kids in japan later they were not considered citizens by the Japanese government

Answer 7

Japan is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world. With an increasing number of mixed marriages, however, there are children who have half Caucasian backgrounds.

Answer 8

Oriental means from the east, if you look at a map, japan is pretty much as far east as you can go, so therefore, you are from the Orient, if you are from Japan

Answer 9

You have to be Japanese to be a citizen of Japan. They may have changed it as of late, but this is always the way it was.

Answer 10

it's because japan makes it hard for people to become citizens in there country.

people burn in japan aren't automatically giving citizenship unless at least one of their parents are a Japanese citizens

because of this many people born in Japan aren't citizens even if they where born in japan and lived there their whole life.