Previously paywalled documentary movie "Being Japanese" now free on YouTube
Greg Lam is a professional videographer who is probably best known to Japanophiles from his YouTube channel(s) "Life Where I'm From".
He's been producing vignettes about what it's like for a Canadian or any other non-Japanese to live in Japan, and has often explored the topic of bridging multiple cultures and origins, either from the viewpoint of an adult or a child growing up in Japan.
Thanks to his professional interviewing, recording, and editing skills, Greg introduced me to a new, younger audience that digests the internet primarily through video as opposed to written websites and blogs, which is what this site is.
Sitting down with me in my home office, crammed with professional lighting and mics and high end cameras, Greg came prepared with countless questions that I could tell were well prepared and showed me that he had thoroughly read and researched the information on this site.
Given that the creation of this site was partially inspired by two things: me being tired of answering the same questions about naturalization over and over to the genuinely curious, and also to combat the incredibly inaccurate (often with racist undertones) information about Japanese naturalization that was prevalent on the English web ten years ago in 2010, I was extremely impressed with Greg's preparedness, thoroughness, and objectiveness.
I also learned that if I was ever to venture in vlogging or podcasting, I would have to up my game, rather than rely on the comparatively amateur setup of a webcam and the light from my monitor.
From the raw footage, Greg cleaned up and produced a mostly unedited one hour long interview with me, which is a length that he doesn't often give to his other subjects (whom I think are just as or even more interesting than myself), and being video internet savvy, he produced an abridged, infographic heavy 10 minute digestible version that would prove to be a hit.
After that session, Greg approached me again about a year later, telling me about a much grander project that approached a much wider topic than simply being Legally Japanese. In it, he thoroughly interviewed people from the southernmost islands of Japan (沖縄Okinawa
) to the northernmost island of 北海道, and he even managed to score interviews with two serving Members of Japan's House of Representations (衆議院議員).The part that I enjoyed most was his coverage of the very complex matter of ハーフ (a Japanese with "mixed" phenotypes), recognizing that they are not a monolith and that the experiences of a ハーフ who was born and raised and educated entirely in Japan are very different from somebody who is raised mostly overseas or even in an international school within Japan. The only other documentary I have ever seen that covers this topic well is "HAFU" which was produced and directed by Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez.
Due to the costs and time put into this full length professional documentary, it was initially distributed behind a paywall for rent or purchase on Vimeo.
However, it is now available for all to view for free on YouTube, complete with multiple subtitle tracks. I strongly encourage anyone that has ever thought or wondered what it means "to be Japanese" beyond the legal definition to grab some popcorn and set aside 90 minutes of your time:
- Part One (about 1 hour) of BEING JAPANESE（日本人とは）: https://youtu.be/pmzWknYaNXg
- Part Two (about 1 hour) of BEING JAPANESE（日本人とは): https://youtu.be/iYMmsiDsHrg
