African Husband & Japanese Wife
Here’s a 19 minute news segment from a while back about a Japanese woman and her African husband struggling to make a living in Japan:
A brief summary:
He came to Japan from Mali when he was 19-years-old. He started out working at a hip hop clothing store in Harajuku, but now that he’s 37-year-olds and have a family to support, he’s working for a construction company. He wakes up at 5AM and works all day from Monday to Saturday each week.
He met his wife 13 years ago. When asked what she liked about her husband, the wife says she likes black men, citing their style and musical ability as good points. She even says that she sometimes wishes she had been black instead of Japanese. Her parents opposed their marriage, apparently due to a belief that “foreigner equals criminal.” It would seem that despite the husband’s efforts to be friendly with her folks, the marriage is still frowned upon. Because of this their household exists in isolation of any extended family.
Having 5 sons and 1 daughter along with a house loan to pay off forces them to live on a tight budget. Even with so many small children, the wife must work a part-time job. Everyone in the household helps in the preparation of dinner, which often includes imported meats considered permissible under Islam. The family also eats a variety of African-style dishes prepared by the husband, such as the catfish stew shown in the video.
One of their children, Mohammed, is actually the son of the husband’s brother, whom they adopted when the child’s father died. Mohammed has only been in Japan one year, but he is quickly learning Japanese and trying his best to adapt to life outside of Mali. Mohammed spends each day at school being tutored in the Japanese language by a volunteer teacher. He’s also working hard at mathematics and karate, which he can do relatively well regardless of language difficulties.
The report ends with a celebration of the 11th anniversary of their marriage. The husband gives his wife a present: wedding rings. Up until that point, they had been married without any rings.
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I’ve watched the program. It was good.
“Her parents opposed their marriage, apparently due to a belief that “foreigner equals criminal.”
True, her parents didn’t’ accept their marriage, but I don’t think the program specify the reason.
Other things I remember.
This guy speaks perfect Japanese.
And the first son, his brother’s son speaks perfect Japanese too.
This guy was working with the Japanese co-workers quite well.
The kids are learning Karate at Japanese Karate school. He wanted them learn to protect themselves in Africa; he noted that people are sometimes attacked out there and he himself have some scares in his bodies.
The kid gave vegetables they planted to their neighborhood. The report noted the kid sometimes got candy in return.
They bought a new house.
I hope they will lead a happy life.
oops. I watched it again, sorry, she said her parents thought gikokuji was almost like criminals.Wow!
BTW, the last year, I happened to watch K1, and I noticed this guy, Bernard Ackahhis blog. He is living with her Japanese wife’s parents.
It is the solution to the birth rate problem.
That Japan has this kind of show shows just how racist they still are in a lot of ways. That it’s even considered worth making a show out of a simple marriage just because *omg* this JAPANESE woman married someone who’s NOT JAPANESE *omg*, is really sad.
One day I hope that Japan looks back on shows like this and realizes how stupid it made them look. There is nothing sensationalist or unusual about marrying outside of your race. This isn’t the 1800s after all.
JAPANESE woman married someone who’s NOT JAPANESE *omg*, is really sad..
did she say that?
“There is nothing sensationalist or unusual about marrying outside of your race.”
And that is important to confirm because African descendants have been such super minority in Japan and people rarely meet them and have little knowledge about them. History of segregation is different from country to country and it is very important to let people know the there is nothing unusual about marring outside of your race when African descendants are increasing in number in Japan. And marrying with gaikokujin is getting recognized as nothing unusual.
BTW, I don’t like your characterization that the Japanese are still racist, Bakayaro. Surely you have no concern about the intricacy of Japanese society. Surely you have no concern about getting Japan better, Bakayaro. I’d rather look at this family and Mr. Bernard Ackahn in a positive light and spread this kind of friendship over Japan.
Racist or not, I find this video simply beautiful.
But I do agree it’s quite ambiguous to hear: “Despite different skin colors, they are a true family.”
While I think it is a good video and hats off to the guy for being a good husband and father, it’s sad that Japanese TV always has to make a big deal about Kokusai Kekkon with all the oohs and ahhs and iina naah subarashi, let’s look at what they are eating heeeeh, come on Japan gaijin japanese marriages are not that big of a deal…..wake up and smell the miso!
I thought it was a good show and did try and show how normal their marriage was.
If you ask me seeing people complain about this show just says that you’ll complain no matter what they do. Sure maybe they should’ve stated a few things differently, but stuff like this is a step in the right direction!
I for one commend this family for being exemplary and the show for showing it to people. The parents not being accepting is unfortunate, but more stuff like this is something I hope to see in the future. The more positive images we have out there the better.
People get married all the time. How is kokusai kekkon any different?
Do Japanese have problems with marrying blacks or foreigners in general?
I see a lot of Japanese women marrying “white” men. A lot of people in the showbiz are mixed and some are non-Japanese.
Comparing to other Asian countries, I find Japanese to be most liberal.
It is not uncommon for Japanese women to be forbidden or rejected by their parents because of wanting to marry “white” foreigners (or any colour of foreigner). But this is not to say that all Japanese parents are like that. My in-laws are fantastic.
It’s called xenophobia, not racism.
It’s actually not too unusual even for a foreigner to develop some form of xenophobic sentiments when in Japan for an extended period.
I’ve known many people (foreigners in Japanese eyes) who went to Japan or are still there and it happens all the time that I hear “It’s kind of weird to see a foreigner at XY” or “I went to see XY, but there were just too many foreigners there”.
You know…If they like it, who has the right to say its wrong? Thats just butting into other peoples lives =/.
O.O, The wife said “she likes black men, citing their style and musical ability as good points”. Do japanese people marry a foreigner only because of certain stereotypes??.
Some people are attracted to their counterparts because of certain stereotypes. Doesn’t that what happen when, for instance, many Americans are attracted to Asian women? And when they marry, do they marry only because of
the stereotypes?
＞Doesn’t that what happen when, for instance, many Americans are attracted to Asian women?
it is as her accessory
I can’t even make sense of what hoihoi is trying to say with that comment.
No reason why Japanese and Mali should not marry. I wish them every happiness and success. Marriage, family and children are the best things in the world. They love each other and he is a solid working guy. What’s the problem ?
I watched the video again and I must say that this family totally rocks. He is extremely fluent in Japanese, the kids are native speakers (and Mohammed is catching up even though he’s only been in Japan 1 year) – anyway the kids are very cute and cool. You know I’m jealous. This is a great family !
And for those of you who criticize the wife may I suggest that you learn Japanese and listen to what she says towards the end of the video. This is a really nice family and a very happy story.
Alright, let me go quickly learn Japanese and come back just to watch the end of this video! That makes a lot of sense. And what? Learning Japanese only takes like a few hours or days right?
How bout you do everyone a service and just translate it for those that don’t know the language fluently.
I was being sarcastic. My point is if you can’t understand Japanese then you have no basis on which to form opinions about the family and therefore no reason to post any comments.
And you’d be incredibly wrong as anyone can form an opinion on anything they want based on the information at hand. If you’d like to provide more information for those that don’t understand the language then props to you for helping to inform others. If you want to think your above everyone and pretend like just because someone doesn’t understand a language that they can’t understand human relationships and different cultures from their own, then you come off as asshole.
But hey, there’s people out there that really like being assholes.
‘But hey, there’s people out there that really like being assholes.’
Stop talking about me Karisu!
Oh, come on! You know I can’t do that! Too much fun
Karisu – I’m not so much an asshole as an adult. My point is if you have no information about a subject then the only intelligent option is to not form an opinion about the subject.
And where you’re wrong is that you think your the only one with information.
You also think you have information that others don’t have. Hording that information and not sharing it with others? Yeah, that makes you look childish.
Damn he’s Japanese is good, something to show to the Gaijin haters in Japan?
those kids are mega cute
wish the family all the best
Haha, even Fofana-san (sp) hate natto. That made me laugh a little bit. Pretty fun video. Having that many children has to be quite a challenge any mother. Looks like they are getting by just fine. I’ll leave all the heated discussion about race and xenophobia to the rest of y’all. I’d rather enjoy something positive today.
Wow, a nice story there. Even though I don’t completely understand Japanese the story was pretty clear. His Japanese is very good, as I’d imagine for someone who has been in the country over 13 years. I think he and his family seem to be getting on with life just fine, they seem hardworking.
Why for are all these comments in English?
It is an English language blog featuring items about Japan. What did you expect?
Holy crap 5 kids and she still looks good god damn i want her motabolism <— srry if i misspelled but jeeze I hope I can still look that good after having all those kids and they’re soo cute together. It seems like relationships between an asian person and a foriegner lasts longer than 2 of the same race…..
Aww… they look so happy together!
Best wishes to all of them.
I can sympathize with this couple here. Personally I am half african american and japanese (japanese mother african american mother) and my parents moved back to the usa because of all the social problems we were dealing with. I wish the best of luck to this family and all interracial families everywhere.
Great Couple with a happy family…
any Japanese woman out there looking to marry a Black Man???
Why the fuck do Japanese people still get surprised at foreign people mingling with one of their own, like if they’ve just praised with the best shit ever? Like when I went to Tokyo, I went to Club Asia, I was just dancing normally, before hand my friend told everyone I was from New York, and everyone was acting like everything I did was from New York, and that I was like some type of god, I liked the feeling, but I was like “geez, these people are ridiculous.”
Some black french dude walked in, he was a cool dude, we talked for a while, but like everyone was acting like he was the best person ever too, and me and him talked about the attention, and he’s like “that’s the main good thing about being here, otherwise you have to struggle.” Because all he does is construction, which is probably what I’ll have to do when I live there with my wife lmao.
Life isn’t perfect- yet I can’t help but think that Japan is a pretty decent country inspite of the xenophobia accusations. Perhaps much of what is interpreted as unfriendliness is simply curiousity and or fear of the unknown.
I wish this couple the very best.