Yellow cab (stereotype)
Encyclopedia
is a term referring to an ethnic stereotype
of Japanese
women, and by extension other Asians, suggesting that they are sexually available to foreign men. The term combines the use of "yellow" to refer to Asians and the image of a yellow taxicab
which can be "ridden at any time." It specifically refers to wealthy women who travel overseas or to foreign enclaves in Japan seeking to meet foreign men
. The term is alleged to have been coined by English-speaking foreigners who encountered such women in the late 1980s, but was quickly appropriated by the Japanese media as a way of sensationalizing and censuring the women's behaviour. The Japanese term is transliterated
from English.
district of Tokyo
, United States Forces Japan
bases in locations such as Yokosuka, Yokota
, Misawa
, Iwakuni, Sasebo
, and Okinawa as possible locations in Japan, and Hawaii
, New York
, and the West Coast
in the United States.
Sources disagree as to the question of power in these relationships. One argument analyses the phenomenon in terms of consumer patterns: the women are in the financially superior position due to the strength of the Japanese yen and their own disposable income, and are using their power to purchase sex; one such woman even described her foreign boyfriends as "pets". The opposing argument puts the phenomenon in the context of a larger "romanticization and eroticization" of the West and specifically of English
speakers by Japanese women, and asserts that it is actually the Western men in such relationships who have power. However, the phenomenon is not limited to the West; some women also seek out local tour guides in Bali
and Thailand
as "holiday lovers".
Women engaged in these activities sometimes assert that it is no more than a female reflection of the much larger phenomenon of Japanese men's sex tours to foreign countries; some scholars agree with this self-assessment, bluntly referring to such women as "female sex tourists
". In terms of the women and their relation to Japanese society, some authors describe the women's taking-on of foreign partners, especially men of African descent, as "socially, economically, and politically liberating" and a threat to Japanese men; others point out that the pursuit of foreign men was neither a permanent rejection of Japanese patriarchy nor of Japanese men themselves, and that many women engaged in such relationships eventually went on to marry Japanese men.
's 1991 book Yellow Cab, which featured interviews with and reporting on young Japanese women overseas. (Her research assistant George Sarratt later denounced major portions of the book as fraudulent.) Television broadcasts on the phenomenon especially focused on relations between black
men and Japanese women, and the stereotypically perceived danger of being infected with AIDS
; Japan's TV Asahi
aired a segment on the subject in 1992 which included several staged scenes; Tokyo Broadcasting System
followed up with a 90-minute documentary in 1993.
The use of the term by Japanese men has been described as "reverse orientalism
". However, the controversy itself was used by women's media to engage in critique of Japanese male behaviours; such critique was often characterised by "relentless denigration" of Japanese men, as in Makiko Iizuka's 1993 book, The Guys who Can't Even Hitch a Ride on a Cab. In contrast, women labelled as "yellow cabs" have also been known to reappropriate
the term as a mark of pride; in particular, Amy Yamada
is "notorious" for using her work to "flaunt" her image as a "yellow cab", a trend that was apparent in her work even before the emergence of the "yellow cab" stereotype, as in her 1985 book Bedtime Eyes, which won that year's Bungei Prize
. Japanese hip hop
artist Hime
, the self-described voice of the "Japanese doll", also turns the stereotype on its head, stating that being a "yellow cab" means that the woman is in the "driver's seat".
In response to the negative media coverage, Japanese female professionals in the New York City
area organised the ; they asserted that the image of Japanese women overseas had been damaged by the media and that the phenomenon was nowhere near as widespread as the media coverage attempted to portray it to be, and sought to combat the negative coverage. The protest group also questioned whether the term was truly widespread in the United States, as the documentaries claimed; one telephone survey of 200 people they conducted in the New York area did not find a single individual familiar with the use of the term "yellow cab" in this sense.
The group continued to be active until late 1993; they were later criticised for their "legacy of denial and disavowal of the possibility of Japanese women's racialized desire for foreign men". Scholars studying their activities described their attempts to deny or downplay the phenomenon as an "image battle", and one which they lost; women returning to Japan from studying or working overseas often reported that they suffered insulting insinuations about their sexual behaviour. The reporting on the phenomenon in Japanese media was generally supplanted in the mid-1990s by a "new panic
" regarding women's sexuality, specifically the enjo kōsai
(compensated dating) phenomenon.
Ethnic stereotype
An ethnic stereotype is a generalized representation of an ethnic group, composed of what are thought to be typical characteristics of members of the group.Ethnic stereotypes are commonly portrayed in ethnic jokes.-Ethnic stereotypes:*African Americans...
of Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
women, and by extension other Asians, suggesting that they are sexually available to foreign men. The term combines the use of "yellow" to refer to Asians and the image of a yellow taxicab
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
which can be "ridden at any time." It specifically refers to wealthy women who travel overseas or to foreign enclaves in Japan seeking to meet foreign men
Gaijin
is a Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien". This word is a short form of gaikokujin , which literally means "person from outside of the country". The word is composed of two kanji: , meaning "outside"; and , meaning "person". Thus, the word technically means "outsider"...
. The term is alleged to have been coined by English-speaking foreigners who encountered such women in the late 1980s, but was quickly appropriated by the Japanese media as a way of sensationalizing and censuring the women's behaviour. The Japanese term is transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
from English.
Social context
Women described as "yellow cabs" can often be observed in so-called "border regions" consisting of highly transient, ethnically and culturally mixed populations. One scholar studying the "yellow cab" phenomenon listed the RoppongiRoppongi
is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous as home to the rich Roppongi Hills area and an active night club scene. Many foreign embassies are located in Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike...
district of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, United States Forces Japan
United States Forces Japan
The refers to the various divisions of the United States Armed Forces that are stationed in Japan. Under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, the United States is obliged to defend Japan in close cooperation with the Japan Self-Defense Forces for...
bases in locations such as Yokosuka, Yokota
Yokota
- Place names :* Yokota Air Base, an US Air Force Base located in Tokyo, Japan* Harima-Yokota Station* Iyo-Yokota Station* Yokota, Shimane** Izumo Yokota Station* Iwami-Yokota Station- Family names :* Yokota family* Jaguar Yokota...
, Misawa
Misawa
-Surname:* Mitsuharu Misawa, professional wrestler also known by the given name of Mitsuhara* Bastion Misawa, a fictional character also known by the given name Daichi-Places:...
, Iwakuni, Sasebo
Sasebo, Nagasaki
is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. As of 2011, the city has an estimated population of 259,800 and the density of 609 persons per km². The total area is 426.47 km². The locality is famed for its scenic beauty. The city includes a part of Saikai National Park...
, and Okinawa as possible locations in Japan, and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
in the United States.
Sources disagree as to the question of power in these relationships. One argument analyses the phenomenon in terms of consumer patterns: the women are in the financially superior position due to the strength of the Japanese yen and their own disposable income, and are using their power to purchase sex; one such woman even described her foreign boyfriends as "pets". The opposing argument puts the phenomenon in the context of a larger "romanticization and eroticization" of the West and specifically of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
speakers by Japanese women, and asserts that it is actually the Western men in such relationships who have power. However, the phenomenon is not limited to the West; some women also seek out local tour guides in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
as "holiday lovers".
Women engaged in these activities sometimes assert that it is no more than a female reflection of the much larger phenomenon of Japanese men's sex tours to foreign countries; some scholars agree with this self-assessment, bluntly referring to such women as "female sex tourists
Sex tourism
Sex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary...
". In terms of the women and their relation to Japanese society, some authors describe the women's taking-on of foreign partners, especially men of African descent, as "socially, economically, and politically liberating" and a threat to Japanese men; others point out that the pursuit of foreign men was neither a permanent rejection of Japanese patriarchy nor of Japanese men themselves, and that many women engaged in such relationships eventually went on to marry Japanese men.
Coverage in Japanese media
There was coverage of the "yellow cab" phenomenon as early as 1987, but public attention to it received a major boost from Shōko IedaShoko Ieda
is a Japanese writer of non-fiction. She is known for titillating novels replete with interracial sex scenes, and has aroused a great deal of controversy in Japan; her works have been accused of "demonising female sexuality". She rose to public prominence through her 1986 book Gang Wives, about the...
's 1991 book Yellow Cab, which featured interviews with and reporting on young Japanese women overseas. (Her research assistant George Sarratt later denounced major portions of the book as fraudulent.) Television broadcasts on the phenomenon especially focused on relations between black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
men and Japanese women, and the stereotypically perceived danger of being infected with AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
; Japan's TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
aired a segment on the subject in 1992 which included several staged scenes; Tokyo Broadcasting System
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
followed up with a 90-minute documentary in 1993.
The use of the term by Japanese men has been described as "reverse orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
". However, the controversy itself was used by women's media to engage in critique of Japanese male behaviours; such critique was often characterised by "relentless denigration" of Japanese men, as in Makiko Iizuka's 1993 book, The Guys who Can't Even Hitch a Ride on a Cab. In contrast, women labelled as "yellow cabs" have also been known to reappropriate
Reappropriation
Reappropriation is the cultural process by which a group reclaims—re-appropriates—terms or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. For example, since the early 1970s, much terminology referring to homosexuality—such as gay, queer, and faggot—has been reappropriated...
the term as a mark of pride; in particular, Amy Yamada
Amy Yamada
born February 8, 1959, is a popular but controversial contemporary Japanese writer who is most famous for her stories that address issues of sexuality, racism, and interracial marriage, topics not typically discussed openly in Japanese society....
is "notorious" for using her work to "flaunt" her image as a "yellow cab", a trend that was apparent in her work even before the emergence of the "yellow cab" stereotype, as in her 1985 book Bedtime Eyes, which won that year's Bungei Prize
Bungei Prize
The is a Japanese literary award given by publishing company Kawade Shobō Shinsha. It was first awarded in 1962.-See also:* List of Japanese literary awards- External links :*...
. Japanese hip hop
Japanese hip hop
Japanese hip hop is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop generally tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, taking from the era's catchy beats, dance culture, and overall fun and...
artist Hime
Hime (rapper)
is a Japanese hip hop artist. She released her debut solo album Hime hajime in October 2003 and is part of DJ Honda's studio. Her works are notable for their use of Japanese cultural themes, including tanka metre and sampling of kabuki and bunraku narrations. Her works also often touch on themes...
, the self-described voice of the "Japanese doll", also turns the stereotype on its head, stating that being a "yellow cab" means that the woman is in the "driver's seat".
In response to the negative media coverage, Japanese female professionals in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
area organised the ; they asserted that the image of Japanese women overseas had been damaged by the media and that the phenomenon was nowhere near as widespread as the media coverage attempted to portray it to be, and sought to combat the negative coverage. The protest group also questioned whether the term was truly widespread in the United States, as the documentaries claimed; one telephone survey of 200 people they conducted in the New York area did not find a single individual familiar with the use of the term "yellow cab" in this sense.
The group continued to be active until late 1993; they were later criticised for their "legacy of denial and disavowal of the possibility of Japanese women's racialized desire for foreign men". Scholars studying their activities described their attempts to deny or downplay the phenomenon as an "image battle", and one which they lost; women returning to Japan from studying or working overseas often reported that they suffered insulting insinuations about their sexual behaviour. The reporting on the phenomenon in Japanese media was generally supplanted in the mid-1990s by a "new panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
" regarding women's sexuality, specifically the enjo kōsai
Enjo kosai
means "compensated dating" and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship and, possibly, for sexual favors. The female participants range from primarily school-aged girls to housewives. A common misconception is...
(compensated dating) phenomenon.
See also
- AmejoAmejois a Japanese derogatory term meaning American- girls and is directed to young Okinawan women who date male members of the U.S. armed forces, specifically white...
- Asian fetishAsian fetishAsian fetish is a slang term which usually refers to an interest, attraction or preference for people, culture, or things of Asian origin by those of non-Asian descent...
- Sarong party girlSarong party girlSarong Party Girl is a derogatory term used in Singapore and in Peninsular Malaysia.It describes a local, solely Asian woman who usually dresses and behaves in a provocative manner, and who exclusively dates and prefers white men. This can be considered a variant of the Pinkerton Syndrome...
- Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians