Via the Hafu website:
Our events are designed to create opportunities to instigate fruitful discussions on cultural diversity, identity and ‘race’ in a profound and thoughtful way.
Typically, our talks are 30-45 minutes long with plenty of images and quotes from interviews, followed by a discussion.
Our exhibition can also be booked, usually for a period of at least one week, with the option of a programme of events.
The Hafu Project presents – Exhibition: Photography and Interviews
Natalie Maya Willer (Photographer) & Marcia Yumi Lise (Researcher)
7 Aug – 29 Aug …

Hello BT’ers! It’s been a while since I posted (due to the birth of my son, Sho (勝),  but I  wanted to share, with the writer’s permission, an email that I received:
Dear Black Tokyo,
I would like to bring the following matter to your attention.
A daycare center named Midori Hoikuen (みどり保育園), or Green Daycare Center, in Tokorozawa City in Saitama Prefecture, located just 30 minutes by train from Ikebukuro station in Tokyo, has been teaching hate speech to three-year old children daily, despite the protests of the parents of at least …

“Emmanuel Gbevegnon met his wife, Eriko Hidaka, in 1995 in Niger. Eriko, a native of Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, was there to help with vaccination activities, using her experience as a nurse. Emmanuel, a native of the city of Cotonou in Benin, a country next to Niger with a population of about 9.3 million, was there on business.

Emmanuel met Eriko at a community event to introduce Japanese culture in Niamey, Niger’s capital. About three years on from that encounter, the couple married in Benin and moved to Japan in 1999.
Eriko, …

Interracial J-pop icon, Crystal Kay, tours new album, but yearns to make it abroad!
[Via The Japan Times - Re:view Music] “There is still some racial thing going on,” claims a mild-mannered Crystal Kay. “Some people can’t accept there are a lot of foreigners out there, even in the industry.”
The 23-year-old is the original pioneer for interracial artists in Japan, and with eight top-10 albums under her belt, she is currently celebrating 10 years in the business with her first “Best of” collection and a tour.
Effortlessly glamorous in the office of …

Two very interesting posts from Loco in Yokohama that deal with stereotypes and very common perceptions about race and ethnicity in Japan. Feel free to comment on both Black Tokyo and Loco in Yokohama.
In Part 1 of the Loco in Yokohama, “Are You African? post:
The other day in class, the Japanese English teacher asked me what languages could I speak. The simplest answer would have been English only. I mean, as far as fluency is concerned it is the only language I know. However, from grades 1 through 8, I was heavily exposed to Swahili (an African language …

The latest from Mr. Seals: On October 2nd Black Professionals Tokyo will hold it’s first Entrepreneur Night. This will be an evening where members of our community who have either started their own business, or are involved in new and exciting ventures, introduce their businesses to the public.
The goal of this evening is to allow the public to learn more about new interesting products in the market, new opportunities for partnerships (if you are a business owner yourself), or better yet opportunities to invest on the ground floor of new …

I found another book that will soon grace my library, “The Shifting Grounds of Race:  Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles,” written by Scott Kuroshige. Below is a review by Princeton University Press.  Please share your comments/review if you have read the book.
Los Angeles has attracted intense attention as a “world city” characterized by multiculturalism and globalization. Yet, little is known about the historical transformation of a place whose leaders proudly proclaimed themselves white supremacists less than a century ago. In The Shifting Grounds of …

Host: Hafu Japanese
Type: Education – Lecture
Network: Global
Price: 2000/3000
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 11:55pm
Location: Last Chicas ラスチカスB1F （最寄の駅：Omotesando 表参道）
Email: info[at]hafujapanese[dot]org

This is our first talk event in Japan in Japanese! English speakers are welcome to join us and enjoy the networking party from 8pm too.
EVENT “Nibun-no-ni”
~The two worlds that reside in me~
Public talk, “In Conversation” and a Networking Party
Venue: Las Chicas in Aoyama (http://vision.jp)
Nearest station: Omotesando Exit B2 (5 mins walk)
Date: 19th of September 2009, Saturday
Time: Talk event 6pm ~, Networking Party 8pm~
6pm- Talk and In Conversation
>>>Marcia Yumi Lise (Co-founder …

I received an email from the creator of  ”Hafu” regarding upcoming events in Japan. I am sure that many of you have read the Japan Times article,”Hafu, focuses on whole individual” which was published back in February 2009. The creator states that: “This is an ongoing project that creates a dialogue about being in between cultures. By increasing discussions about culture, ‘race’ and ethnicity we hope to achieve a deeper understanding of these issues. For this reason we actively give public lectures and organise events.”  
Jacqualine Kurio in her piece, “Nationality, …

Roger Pulvers follows up on his previous post about raising bilingual children. In his latest piece, his discusses the importance of culture in language learning. I agree with his take since I consistently  stress the need to understand and incorporate culture in language learning and language usage. Check out Pulvers two articles and please feel free to leave a comment. 
Several weeks ago in this column, I wrote about some of the nonlinguistic aspects of raising a bilingual child. These can be social, financial and marital, involving the milieu the child grows up in, …