So I was not born in Japan but I moved here as an infant and grew up here my entire life. I am visibly not Japanese as I have darker skin so I kind of have an identity crisis whenever I go abroad and someone asks me where I am from lol. When someone asks me which country I am from, I hesitate to call myself Japanese even though I grew up entirely in a Japanese culture but it just feels wrong as I don't look like them at all (and I don't have Japanese citizenship yet anyway)
My usual answer is I am from Japan and ethnically I am where my parents are from since it feels uncomfortable to me to say I'm from Japan with no other explanation as my skin tone does not match. For those who are similar to me, what do you do?
I'm also curious to what naturalized citizens say to this question, do you just say you are Japanese? I think it's really cool that in America no one will bat an eye at people saying they are American regardless of skin color. But in Japan that is of course not the case due to it being so homogenous
by DigStrange4377