ABSTRACT
People of mixed ethnic parentage often find themselves marginalized in Japan. Despite being born and raised in the country, with the relevant linguistic and cultural repertoire, they are treated as gaijin (‘foreigners’) and labelled as haafu (‘half’). They report experiencing an identity crisis resulting from social marginalization. While other studies have examined the identity of haafu adolescents in Japan, this is one of the few to focus on adults. In this chapter, we explore how they construct their identities with respect to circulating ethnic labels in Japanese society, drawing on research which has explored (inter-) subjective positioning acts in identity construction in interaction (including Bamberg et al., 2008; Korobov, 2013). We specifically examine the role of stance in evaluating, aligning and positioning subjects; the linguistic features used to encode positions; and their role in indexing, reproducing and contesting discourses about ‘haafu’ identity. Difficulties and differences in self- and other-ascription are identified across informants and in comparison to adolescents.
