Japologist cinephile Donald Richie passes away
His cultural contributions to society were massive: while being best known for introducing Japanese film to the English world, first through writing and then in the late 20th century he provided audio commentary via DVDs, he has authored over forty books (and was the subject of four), he created about a dozen 8mm & 16mm films, and he was responsible for the English subtitles for a few of é»æŸ€ æ's masterpieces. He received many honors for his work and is a household name amongst those who study classical and "Golden era" Japanese cinema.
There are many obituaries already written about his great life and I won't attempt to write a better one here. Instead, I'd like to focus on one point that is related to this website.
Although Richie was a "lifer" in Japan, having first arrived in 1947 after the War and spending over seven decades being connected to it, he intentionally never became a Japanese citizen. Martin Fackler (who wrote an article about Donald Keene's naturalization and his acceptance) had this to say about it in the New York Times:
Mr. Richie said he never sought to become a Japanese citizen, but instead seemed to revel in his position on the margins of Japanese society, which, he wrote, offered him far greater personal freedom ….
“I may have rejected the U.S.A. where I was born,” Mr. Richie wrote in his memoir, “but I did not decide to be Japanese. That is an impossible decision, since the Japanese prevent it. Rather, I decided to decorate Limbo and become a citizen of this most attractive, intensely democratic republic.”When Richie says "the Japanese prevent [being Japanese]", he is referring to the ethnicity and culture sense, not a legal sense. And what he says is true: becoming legally Japanese does not make you ethnically, culturally, or (naturally) racially Japanese.
It seems like a silly thing to point out since it's so obvious. However, I often read comments on internet bulletin boards, when somebody asks a question about naturalizing, replies such as "Why? No matter what you do, they'll never accept you." To me, these people are missing the point: being "accepted" in Japan has nothing to do with Japanese nationality. Naturalizing isn't guaranteed to make you accepted, happier or more successul. Likewise, not naturalizing doesn't mean you'll be less happy or successful or less accepted.
I actually believe that it is possible to be "fully accepted" (and likewise, not accepted) by the Japanese people, and it's possible to even be accepted ethnicity or culturally as one of "Japan's own" (whatever that means) I don't think it's easy though. "Being accepted" is not an absolute all-or-nothing proposition: you can "be accepted" as one of the group, for example, as a parent of a child in a Japanese school on sports day. You can "be accepted" as a equal at work. There are many different, conflicting areas of acceptance that we work to be accepted into throughout our life.
To "be accepted" in a particular group, you don't have to be a Japanese national. Likewise, it's very possible to be a full blooded Japanese racially, having even being born in Japan with Japanese as your native and only language and not be accepted. As somebody that grew up and spent most of his life in the "land of immigrants" called America, I can also say with confidence that possessing U.S. citizenship is no automatic guarantee that you will be ethnically or culturally or accepted merely because of your passport.
To "be accepted" in a particular group, you don't have to be a Japanese national. Likewise, it's very possible to be a full blooded Japanese racially, having even being born in Japan with Japanese as your native and only language and not be accepted. As somebody that grew up and spent most of his life in the "land of immigrants" called America, I can also say with confidence that possessing U.S. citizenship is no automatic guarantee that you will be ethnically or culturally or accepted merely because of your passport.
I can say that once you become a Japanese citizen, you can expect to be immediately and unconditionally accepted in all matters of civil legal acceptance where citizenship is a requirement: for example, you will never be denied entrance or the right to be in Japan for any reason (ever), you will never be denied the right to vote, and you will never be denied the right to be chosen to serve as a lay judge.
Naturalizing is not for all foreign residents of Japan, and I hope that whoever is reading this blog doesn't think this site's purpose is to promote it or push it on everybody that lives and works in Japan. For some people who live in Japan, it makes a lot of sense and compliments their life by giving them rights reserved exclusively for citizens of a sovereign country. On the other hand, there are people who live their whole lives in Japan (such as Richie) who will never think it's right for them. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Rest in peace, Donald Richie.
