Half Is More

When being mixed-race makes you an outsider in your own country, feeling rooted can seem impossible.

Side-eyes. Confusion. Whispers. Giggles.

Being a mixed-race Japanese person is not easy, and that’s especially true for Kazumi Mandanda Yoneyama and her brother. Despite being born and raised in the Land of the Rising Sun and having a Japanese mother, the siblings, who share a Black French father, are treated as outsiders. But knowing they have as much right to belong as anyone else, they and their mixed-race friends search for ways to cope and find wholeness in their half-Japanese identities.

In a country as homogenous as Japan, Kazumi and others like her must continue to put one foot in front of the other and contend with feelings of otherness every day. As they navigate this road rife with trials and pitfalls—microaggressions, misunderstandings, social transgressions, and racism—it becomes clear that self-acceptance isn’t as simple as a wardrobe change.

This is a story of hope and the search for coexistence, dedicated to all those struggling with their identity.