Interviews

1. Lack of language skills

2. Having patience in Japan, being both

3. Acculturation

4. Preserving traditional Japanese culture

5. New Year's food

6. Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners

Jane Aiko Yamano

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners

Because we look Japanese, but we really didn’t know the Japanese customs, the Japanese language…the language is the big thing. The way of business and the way people think, I think, is very different. But now, I think people – the Japanese themselves – are more used to Japanese Americans or foreigners in general, so they don’t really look down on you and you could still be a part of their life or be a part of their conversation. And in the past, I felt like, “Gosh, now I look like everybody, but I feel more of an outsider than I did when I was in America, when I didn’t look like everybody.”

Finding Home (film) identity languages racially mixed people

Date: September 3, 2003

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Interviewer: Art Nomura

Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.

Interviewee Bio

Jane Aiko Yamano, 38-year-old Nisei-Yonsei, was born in Los Angeles and moved to Japan at age 12 with her Japanese father and Sansei mother. At the time that her family moved to Japan, Jane’s Japanese was minimal, even though she attended Saturday Japanese school in Los Angeles. She was enrolled in the American School in Tokyo, which was largely English-speaking. She then graduated from Sophia University and went to beauty college, after which she went into business.

Ms. Yamano is now fluent in speaking, but limited in reading and writing Japanese. She recognizes the restrictions placed upon women in Japan, but her position as head of a beauty college gives her more authority than usual for a woman. She is a Japanese citizen, having been registered by her father, and is also a U.S. citizen, holding passports from both countries. She has now lived in Japan for over 25 years. (September 3, 2003)