The Names You Imagine

Every Japan obsessive carries a version of the fantasy: the city, the aesthetic, the quality of attention Japanese culture brings to ordinary things—and somewhere in there, unavoidably, the women. The names you imagine. Yumi, Nanami, whatever. You’ve absorbed enough anime and J-drama to have assembled a fairly detailed imaginary Japan in your head, and eventually you wonder whether any of it translates into something real.

A video circulated from RocketNews24 a while back—street interviews where journalists asked Japanese women about dating foreigners: non-Japanese speakers, men of different ethnicities, different backgrounds and heights. The answers were more open than the stereotype allows. Race wasn’t a dealbreaker. Language was an obstacle but not necessarily a wall. The general consensus landed somewhere between "sure, why not" and "depends on the person," which is the same answer you’d get from women in most places on earth, which is probably the whole point.

The approach of cosplaying as Goku to hit on Asian-looking women at gaming conventions remains inadvisable regardless of what any survey says. The distance between "Japanese women are open to dating foreigners" and "this specific behaviour will help you" is the width of the Pacific. But the video at least suggests that if you actually make it to Tokyo with something resembling a personality, you’re not automatically disqualified. The Yumis and Nanamis and Hotarus of the world are apparently open to it. Now you just have to get there.