Eriko Sairyo, a 30-year-old professional from Shizuoka, Japan, was perplexed when she learned that American pop singer Gwen Stefani was being accused of “cultural appropriation” in Western media.
Sairyo, a worker in the medical equipment sector, told the reporters, “I personally think that it’s very good that individuals want to adopt Japanese designs into their clothes.
“I don’t object when, for instance, foreign tourists stroll through Kyoto while dressed in kimonos. The fact that people appreciate our culture makes me happy.
Stefani, 53, stirred controversy on social media and in English-language media last week with remarks indicating the strong connection she feels to Japanese culture in an interview with Allure magazine that was published last week.
Stefani, an Italian-American, justified using the popular fashion style known as Harajuku, which is named after a district in Tokyo, as inspiration for her fragrance and clothing lines and recounted her first trip there.
Stefani referred to herself as “a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl” and stated, “My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.”
Jesa Marie Calaor, a Filipino American who wrote the article, said that the interview left her feeling “uncomfortable” and cited several US academics who warned against the perils of white people commodifying the cultures of marginalized groups, including the distortion of perceptions that minorities and other people have of them.
The interview and ensuing social media uproar were covered by media sources like CNN, The Guardian, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Buzzfeed, but none of them made any mention of the opinions of the Japanese people themselves.
The dispute has hardly made a ripple in Japan. The Stefani interview has received little attention in Japanese media, with the sole mentions of the dispute coming from obscure blogs and webzines.
On social media, several Japanese users have defended the former No Doubt singer against accusations of cultural appropriation, which is the unauthorized adoption of a culture’s habits, practices, or ideas by members of another group.
The majority of Japanese, according to Sairyo, are neither knowledgeable about nor sensitive to cultural appropriation, a once-obscure academic concept that has recently spread from US university departments into the Western mainstream.
Some Japanese even refer to people who discuss such topics with the phrase pori-kore, a portmanteau of “political correctness,” she said.
Stefani’s remarks didn’t bother Lyn Tsuchiya, a 23-year-old Japanese professional who resides in Tokyo.
Tsuchiya told the reporters, “I think it’s fair to take inspiration from something you love and include it into your work, as long as there is respect and there are no clichéd themes or misconceptions involved.
Sae Nagamatsu, a 26-year-old French-speaking resident of Tokyo, said she was unaware of the dispute when she read reports about it in French-language media.
According to Nagamatsu, “She simply likes Japanese culture and did not make insulting or disrespectful remarks toward Japanese people.” [Cultural appropriation] is context-dependent.
Stefani is not the first individual to highlight a gap between Western sensibilities regarding alleged appropriation and the viewpoints of Japanese people themselves.
Despite being a huge success at the box office in Japan, the 2017 Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese anime film Ghost in the Shell received criticism for “whitewashing” when it was first released.
The Western studio Sucker Punch’s 2020 PlayStation 4 game Ghost of Tsushima, which tells the story of samurai in feudal Japan, was criticized in the West for racial stereotyping but praised enthusiastically in Japan.
Despite the exhibition having the support of Japan’s national broadcaster and taking place without incident in other Japanese cities, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, cancelled its “Kimono Wednesdays” event in 2015 due to allegations of racism.
The criticism of Stefani and other people accused of cultural appropriation, according to Roland Kelts, a visiting professor at Waseda University and author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S., is primarily a Western concern.
“No one I know in Japan will dispute her statements, which are mainly simply ridiculous pop froth, with the exception of my Western friends… Nobody needs to establish their Japanese identity here, therefore no one feels threatened by a leggy Italian-American pop sensation declaring herself to be Japanese, Kelts told the media.
According to Kelts, Japanese culture openly embraces and assimilates Western influences.
He referred to Ginza, one of Tokyo’s most well-known entertainment districts, saying, “No one blinks when a Japanese bluegrass band singing West Virginian coal mining ditties in Ginza, wearing Stetsons and cowboy boots.”
“Or when Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken appears in Santa Claus costumes every year. What’s amazing, though, is how many of Japan’s imports from other cultures have been assimilated into the essence of what it means to be Japanese. The language, mindset, and fundamental unconscious behaviors of being Japanese are still present.
Even said, Kelts acknowledged that as a person of Japanese origin who was raised in the US, he is sensitive to some of the worries raised by Stefani’s remarks.
Stefani could have easily stated that she likes Japanese culture and that it seems like a part of her identity without embarassing herself or offending Asian Americans, which is sad and ridiculous.
Stefani has a long history of incorporating elements from other cultures into her works. In the 1990s, she was frequently spotted donning a bindi, the forehead decoration popular in the Indian subcontinent. She dressed as a Native American woman in the 2012 music video for Looking Hot, while the 2005 music video for Luxurious featured Native American costumes and props.
In the past, Stefani has fought back against accusations of cultural appropriation.
In an interview with Paper magazine in 2021, she stated, “We learn from one other, we share from each other, and we grow from each other.” And all of these regulations are only dividing us farther.
Stefani has always argued that she has a special bond with Japan.
Love.Angel.Music, a 2004 album by Stefani.
The Japanese way of life had a big influence on Baby. A line of perfumes with the likenesses of Stefani’s four Japanese American “Harajuku Girls” backup dancers were introduced in 2008 in bottles. The Harajuku Lovers perfume line, which received The Fragrance Foundation’s Fragrance of the Year Award in 2009, is offered for sale in Western markets as well as in Japan, including at Rakuten, the biggest online retailer in the country.
She oversaw the 2015 premiere of the 78-episode, three-season animated series Kuu Kuu Harajuku with Japanese influences.
As a performer, Stefani traveled to Japan in 1995 with No Doubt and again in 2007 on her own solo tour, The Sweet Escape Tour.
Stefani attributes her “obsession” to her father Dennis, who frequently visited Japan when Stefani was a small girl while working for Yamaha Motorcycles and frequently brought his young daughter gifts from there.
The adoption of Japanese culture abroad, according to Machiko Ikeoka Gozen, a 44-year-old businesswoman who was raised in a samurai family in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, is a cause for celebration.
Culture isn’t a product. The more obvious it is, the stronger it is since it is more intricately connected and deep, according to Gozen. “My family has consumed matcha tea for more than 400 years, and when I travel, I notice many American companies implementing Japanese ideas… I am more optimistic than I am pessimistic because such awareness will eventually draw people to the source.
Stefani’s fascination, according to Karin Takeda, a student in the northern city of Sapporo, is “evidence that Japanese culture is being communicated to the world,” she said.
Takeda told media , “I am extremely glad to see people embracing Japanese culture across boundaries.” “However, Japanese people are sometimes criticized as ‘imitating America’ when they absorb the cultures of other nations. It’s terribly depressing. I believe that nations should be accepting of one another’s cultures.
