YUKUHASHI, Fukuoka Prefecture--Sophia Fukushima thought she was “rather bad” at writing essays, but last summer she decided to put into words something that has bothered her for most of her young life ...

“Excuse me, are you hafu?” the taxi driver asked. Anna, a woman of mixed Japanese and American heritage, was in a taxi en route to a party in Tokyo last year when she was asked that question, and says ...

We are increasingly seeing more strong hafu women being celebrated for their amazing achievements as well as being able to harness the power of understanding and experiencing two different cultures.

For 18-year-old model Rina Fukushi, Tokyo is home. But growing up as a mixed-race child in Japan wasn’t always easy. With a Japanese-American father and a Filipina mother, Fukushi was one of a growing ...

For such a small word, “half” carries an awful lot of weight here in Japan. Adapted to fit the syllabary, the word is pronounced “hafu” in Japanese, and describes a person who has one Japanese – and ...

The number of Japanese citizens marrying foreign nationals has been increasing at a rapid pace, and every year more than 20,000 children are born in Japan to such international couples. These ...

Rumay Wang, who goes by Hafu, owes her start in gaming to a bad case of mono — at least somewhat. She spent her recovery at home resting, which gave her ample opportunity to hone her skills. In the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about Asia in the 21st-century world economy. When I was a child in Japan in the 1950s, I attended a boys-only primary ...

According to Japanese government statistics, 6.1 percent of Japanese marriages in 2006 were between a Japanese native and a foreign native, compared to 3 percent in 1989. The number of foreign ...