I’d like to talk about my Japanese identity.

While I was in Japan, I was never conscious about being Japanese because almost all Japanese are homogeneous people and have a monolingual culture. But since I came to London, I’ve felt I am a foreigner, and I started to think about what is Japanese.

This kind of feeling increased while I was working for an organization that provides services for migrants. There are no Japanese there, and a lot of people said to me Japan is a rich country and Japanese are kind and friendly. I don’t want to betray the idea they have, and I want to act like that as much as I can.

I still cannot find the answer to what is Japanese, but this is a good experience for me to look at my country from outside of Japan.