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A New Perspective on Hashtag Use: Racial Discrimination
Osaka Prefectural Tennoji High School: Nina Otsuka Kanon Egusa Shiori Ichihara① Introduction
Prejudice and discrimination can be difficult subjects to discuss. However, there are very good reasons to get past our discomfort and face these important issues. In
recent days, the great results of the multiracial people, such as Naomi Osaka, Rui Hatchimura in the sports world, and in addition entertainers have been in the spotlight.
Due to the way the media portray them, hafu, biracial people, are very subject to many stereotypes and biases. What is worse is we discriminate those who have roots in
multiple races without knowing it. Some Japanese high school students have faced discrimination during their trips abroad, namely racism. We were forced to face the factthat we are a member of racial minorities. Realizing that racism needs to be eliminated made us look for “racism” in our daily lives. That is why this study is focusing on
hafu discrimination.

<Hypothesis>
Japanese high school students are not aware of the racism against multiracial people, resulting in them unknowingly using discriminatory evaluations(implicitly or explicitly). Therefore, by raising awareness about hafu discrimination, it will encourage them to choose their words more carefully.

③ Results② Methods
Group 1
Group 1
Group 2
Group 2<Samples>Group 1
Group 1
Group 2
Group 2

We conducted a survey on 70 students from Tennoji Prefectural High School.
They were split into two groups:
・Group 1 was shown an article about hafu Discrimination (36 people)
・Group 2 was not shown the article. (34 people)
Article reference:

NHK 外国人 “依存” ニッポン

<Experiments>
They were given a survey paper with 6 questions:
1. Do you have any roots in foreign countries?
2. Do you admire “hafu” people? (+ the reason)
3. Are you interested in foreign culture?
4. Do you think all foreigners who live in Japan should learn Japanese?
5. Do you agree with the acceptance of foreign workers?
6. What is your image of “hafu” people?

Group 1
Group 1
Group 2
Group 2

Group 1
Group 1
Group 2
Group 2・Group 1 read the article before answering the questions. Group 2 was not shown
the article, and they were just told to fill out the survey.
・They were told to freely write their answers for question 6 and the reason forquestion 2. They were told to pick from “yes” or “no” with the other questions.
Question 1 was the only question with the option to pick “I do not know.”④ Discussion
Group 2Group 1<Question 1 – Yes, Question 2 – 1/3 Yes>
・A shared view on accepting foreign workers
・Topics on identity crisis and discrimination were brought up
・Some stereotypical words such as “big beautiful eyes” and “bilingual”<General>・The amount of non-respondents is very noticeable.
It can be said that they do not have enough knowledge about hafu, or are notinterested in them.
<Question 1 – Yes, Question 2 – 2/3 Yes>
・Opinions on appearance
・Hafu from Asian countries are undescribed・Very biased<Question 1 – I don’t know, Question 2 – 0/3 Yes>
・A shared view on not admiring hafu
・Their image of hafu is half-Filipino or half-European
・They perceive hafu as a foreign being<Question 1 – No, Question 2 – 20/30 Yes>
・Some opinions about hafu being no different than pure Japanese・Views on how everyone should be respected no matter what race or nationality
they are・It can be said that by teaching the subjects about hafu discrimination, they
considered that in their answers<Question 1 – I don’t know, Question 2 – 2/2 Yes>
・Both interested in foreign countries
・Envious of hafu’s appearance・It doesn’t seem to matter whether you are born with foreign roots or not<Question 1 – No, Question 2 – 16/29 Yes>
・Many opinions on appearance
・Some said that hafu are the same humans as Japanese
・Hafu may be discriminated, may be perceived as a different being
・”Cute” was the most reappearing word

⑤Future Direction
We will create a hashtag on Twitter about hafu discrimination. This is called hashtag activism, which is defined as a discursive protest on social media united througha hashtagged word, phrase or sentence. This type of online protest brought renewed attention to the power of digital activism in shaping public discourse. That is why byutilizing hashtags, we would like to raise the awareness about hafu discrimination to Japanese high school students. To measure how much our hashtag spread, we will use
the function on Twitter where you can see how many times your tweet has been retweeted, and how many times the hashtag has been used.