Regardless of what her fans think, Gwen Stefani is proud to be a Japanese girl. The musician started a fresh conversation about cultural appropriation during an interview with Allure magazine.
Stefani told Allure that her father's "stories of street performers cosplaying as Elvis and trendy women with brilliant hair" initially sparked her interest in Japanese culture.
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Stefani, an Italian American, told the publication that after traveling to Japan as an adult, she developed a "super fan" status for the country's culture.
"I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it, she continued a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl.”
The 53-year-old Italian-American also discussed her Harajuku Lovers perfume line, which has been under fire since its 2008 debut amid claims that she has been copying Japanese culture throughout her career.
Gwen has come under fire from social media users who claim she has been "getting away with this foolishness for far too long" and that it is "disappointing" that she has decided to "double-down" on her position.
The singer was accused of cultural appropriation by Western media outlets, which is a term that broadly refers to the inappropriate adoption of a culture's customs, practices, or ideas by members of another group. However, some Japanese users have defended Gwen on the accounts of Western media outlets.
Seeing that American pop artist Gwen Stefani was being accused of "cultural appropriation" in Western media, Shizuoka, Japan resident Eriko Sairyo, 30, who works as a professional, couldn't grasp the whole debate.
“I personally think that it’s pretty cool that people want to incorporate Japanese styles into their fashion,”
She continued;
“I don’t have any issues when, for example, foreigners wear kimono and walk around Kyoto for sightseeing. I actually love it that people love our culture.”
Stefani is not the only individual to highlight a gap between Western sensibilities regarding alleged appropriation and the opinions of Japanese people. Despite being a huge success at the box office in Japan, the 2017 Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese anime film Ghost in the Shell received criticism for "whitewashing" when it was first released.
The outrage thrown towards Stefani and other people accused of cultural appropriation is mostly a Western preoccupation, according to Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.
“No one I know in Japan aside from Western friends will take issue with her claims, which are mostly just silly pop froth… No one here needs to prove that they’re Japanese, so no one is threatened by a leggy Italian-American pop star proclaiming that she is,” Kelts told Al Jazeera.
Stefani has a long history of incorporating elements from other cultures into her works. In the 1990s, she was frequently spotted donning a bindi, the forehead decoration popular in the Indian subcontinent.
She dressed as a Native American woman in the 2012 music video for Looking Hot, while the 2005 music video for Luxurious featured Native American costumes and props.
In the past, Stefani has fought back against accusations of cultural appropriation.
Stefani has consistently insisted that she has a special bond with Japan.
The Japanese way of life had a big influence on Love.Angel.Music.Baby is a 2004 album by Stefani. Also, A line of perfumes with the likenesses of Stefani's four Japanese American "Harajuku Girls" backup dancers was introduced in 2008 in bottles.
The Harajuku Lovers perfume line is offered for sale in Western markets and Japan, including at Rakuten, the biggest online retailer in the country.
Stefani attributes her "fixation" to her father, Dennis, who frequently visited Japan when Stefani was a small girl while working for Yamaha Motorcycles and frequently brought his young daughter gifts from there.
