It’s very hard to live in Japan as a third generation British Japanese these days

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]So, I'm third generation British Japanese and let me explain. Um, so my whole family, so my grandparents, they all moved to Japan in the 50s and 60s. I think this I've talked about this a lot, but I feel like these days it's very weird to be living in Japan as a person with my background cuz there's a lot of tourists, a lot of foreigners moving to Japan. And of course, I don't look Japanese. I fully know that. And and I don't want anybody I don't expect anybody to assume or know that I'm fully from here, from Japan. So that creates this really weird dynamic or this weird reality for me and the other people as well. So because of all these tourists and like foreigners moving to Japan, there's been a lot of friction and there's been a lot of problems between the locals and the foreigners. And because I look foreign, this creates this weird um vibe or this weird um feeling from the locals. And it's super draining and super annoying to be honest cuz I fully know I'm from here. This is my home. This is my reality. This is where I fully belong or fully am from. But for other people, they don't they don't see that. And I don't expect them to see that or like realize that or you know like nobody can assume I'm from Japan and that's fine. I don't it's nobody's fault. It's nobody's I'm not accusing anybody, but it's just like it's creating this weird reality for me. Like I even I'm convincing myself that I'm visiting Japan or I try to convince myself that I don't fully belong here. I'm not from here.

[00:01:31]Therefore, I keep my sanity kind of thing. Like I don't know how to explain this, but [snorts] like I've never really I I know this other family that's third generation fully white but from Japan family, but they're American. But I'm not American.

[00:01:45]I'm not American despite my accent. I went to an American school in Tokyo and I also lived in the States when I when I was a kid for like two years. So that's why my accent is quite American, but my family's not from America, but so yeah.

[00:01:56]So even from there, my background is just too different and too unique for people to fully grasp or understand what I am and who I am. and which is fair, but it's just it's very I I it's really hard to put words to this these feelings to be honest, but it's very hard to live a normal life some days in Japan if that makes sense. Like I never know how the cashier is going to react to me. I don't know how the work worker is going to react to me. I don't know who what a stranger on the street would react to me. Like I would always constantly have to explain and tell them that I'm safe.

[00:02:29]You know, I have this feeling like I have to tell them. I have to make them know that I'm from here that or I speak the language or I I fully understand what's going on. But of course, nobody's going to know that from looking at me for the first time. Even I wouldn't know looking at myself as a stranger wouldn't know I'm from Japan. So that really creates this weird super dystopian feeling. I guess it's like I don't I forgot the word. Is it cognitive dissonance or something? But it's really like and I talked to a lot of foreigners that moved to Japan that speaks Japanese and even they see me as a foreigner that speaks really good Japanese and they kind of compare themselves to me. I'm like, "No, no, no. I'm I'm I'm a person from Japan with a foreign background that happens to speak English, you know?" So, but not there aren't that many people like me. So, I think they have a hard time understanding that. And even if they did, like they still see me as an not not an equal, but like they they still see me as a person that also came from a came from abroad. So, and when I talk to Japanese people, they're like they always want to know about my foreign part or they want to talk about the UK or New Zealand or Australia or whatever, America, like English, like which is fair because I do I can talk about those countries and I do know what it's like to be in those countries or like you know because I lived in the States when I lived in the UK, I've been to New Zealand, Australia and all that.

[00:03:53]So, like I get it, but at the same time, it's kind of sad when they only see that part of me and like they they kind of negate my Japanese side, but at the same time, when when they fully expect me to act and say and be like a Japanese person, that's also suffocating. So, like that's kind of like selfish on my part. like and so it's really like I I don't fully want them to think I'm fully Japanese or fully foreign, but that's quite selfish to ask to somebody, right?

[00:04:27]cuz they only know one side of me and they and if they only know one culture like that's what they expect if I tell them I grew up in Japan or you know but this so I I really feel like I'm in between everything of these and like I'm just floating in the air and it I know this is not this is not a unique experience to me I know a lot of like you're not the majority of the country you grew up in you're not the majority race and often lead and that often leads to feeling like myself right now and so I fully. No, this is not unique to me.

[00:04:59]But what makes it stronger, what makes this feeling stronger is when you're in a very homogeneous, very narrow-minded, very rigid, very one way um focused country, which is trap. And I'm not I'm literally not blaming anybody. It's just I'm just saying my circumstance is just leading me to feel more and more weird and strange about my existence as a person from Japan.

[00:05:26]And but it's usually fine when I tell people that I'm from Japan or I grew up in Japan. And I'm not saying like I get attacked or like you know where a lot of Japanese people experience racism in the UK or US like they have it worse as in like crime wise or like racism wise. I think they have it worse way worse. And I really do want to talk about that as well. Like how Asians get treated so badly in the West and not many people talk about this and we should be talking about this more like It's really sad to hear all these stories from my friends going to France or UK or like America and like they get treated so badly that they start hating the country like so so that's another story. But I fully acknowledge that I I am I do have an easy I do have an easy racism. I do experience this easy racism. I I I hate the I I don't even think it's racism in Japan because like to them racism is more towards East like Southeast Asians or like non-Japanese Asians and they people in Japan really look down on those people and it's really sad. So as a European looking person I'm more of a anomaly. I'm more of a you know people a person from the movies you know and I fully acknowledge that. So, but I just want to say like for a person with my background, it's I I some days don't know how to feel and how to deal with these emotions and how to go about life feeling like a normal person. So, that's why I moved to the UK, like London, and I fully felt like myself and I fully felt like I belong there. But, you know, I'm not British, so it's not like I I was fully integrating into the culture or whatever. But London's very multicultural, so that that was fine.

[00:07:16][snorts] But I just wanted to talk and show just talk about my reality as a person cuz I think I never talked about this too much on my Instagram or or Instagram like in like I think I've never talked about this on Instagram to be honest. Maybe on YouTube a little bit, but yeah. So it's it's been a journey. I'm 30 now and it's still it still is a daily struggle to be honest.

[00:07:40]And I don't know if I will be living in Japan full-time because I'm always going somewhere else. And I think there is a reason for that because I don't fully feel comfortable being in Japan. And I have the privilege to be able to work anywhere right now. So I do take that take advantage of that and you know go to places that I always wanted to go and you know work from there or do whatever.

[00:08:01]So, but yeah, I just I just wanted to share my reality as a person of that's third generation British Japanese. So, [snorts] I I think I know like I don't have enough vocabulary in English to explain my thoughts, but like it's it's been like I feel like my case as a person should be studied anthropology wise. So [snorts] I want like anthropologists to like comment maybe like what I'm experiencing like or if anybody knows a person like me and that maybe [snorts] you can guys connect me with them. But but that's another reason why I started my um YouTube channel. Um it's a Japanese YouTube channel. But I started interviewing people like myself because I was I was struggling. I was lost. I wanted to know how they dealt with it. how all these non-Japanese looking people that grew up in Japan dealt with their identity crisis and like whatever they went through looking non-Japanese and as [snorts] I talk to everybody like every person's experience varies and it's so different and it's very unique and it's really nice to hear their their stories but at the same time I think I'm in like the weirdest position cuz nobody's not many people are like third generation so they're usually like their parents are from a foreign country so they fully know So their their parents are like foreigners.

[00:09:18]I mean, which they have their own struggles as well. Like it's like two extreme cultures. But for me, I'm like I got like a diluted version of a foreign culture in the house. And so my parents fully speak Japanese, like native level.

[00:09:30]And so I didn't struggle with that. But at the same time, that makes me more Japanese, but looks wise, I'm [snorts] I'm not East Asian looking at all. But all like and it's also interesting because all my cousins are half Japanese, half white and but it's only my family that stayed Caucasian like fullblooded British which is interesting because all my parents' siblings they all marry Japanese people. So that's why all 16 of my cousins are half white, half Japanese, and they they have their own struggles, I think. But because they have a British past because they have a Japanese passport and they have a Japanese parent, they I don't think they feel more foreign here or they don't feel like they're they don't I don't think they feel what I'm feeling. I know it's been all over, but I think it's really good to know that I do feel these em emotions on some days and like this is the reality of a person of a TCK person like third culture kid person and yeah even like TCK wise like I didn't like grew up like moving around like I was mainly in Japan so it's not like I struggled like moving around all these countries and this and that but I was just like mainly experienced in Japan.

[00:10:39][snorts] But yeah, I hope you guys enjoy this video and yeah, I'm I'm really enjoying like being honest and being bare and like just talking about my life. So, see you in the next video.

[00:10:48]Bye-bye.