Growing up Japanese (and) American

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!!! (APAHM)

💖 m o r e m a y u k o 💖

🛠m y g e a r 🛠
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🌸a b o u t 🌸
Mayuko Inoue is a content creator and Software Engineer. After working in Silicon Valley tech companies like Intuit, Patreon, and Netflix for six years as an iOS Engineer, she became a full-time creator in 2020. Her work aims to help people find their way through the tech industry by sharing her own experiences navigating this world through technology, career advice, and lifestyle videos. She is passionate about discussions around mental health, cultural identity, and creating technology with empathy and compassion.

✉️c o n t a c t ✉️

🎧m u s i c 🎧

[soranin]

I’m half Mexican and half Filipino. I also asked my dad what I was “supposed to be” when I was younger and he just told me that I was human. Idk. I kinda like that sentiment

[verslaflamme]

growing up American-Japanese and feeling shame for bringing bento to school lunches as a child was soooo real 😭 also equally regretted not appreciating it as much as a kid...

[lemonade]

How many of you guys noticed there’s a cutie sitting besides her?

[yujitsuzuki]

I met many "Asian Europeans" when I went to school in Europe. To me, I saw their struggle a lot since they were also born and raised in there. My experience with racism was not about my name was hard to pronounce for a teacher or kids try to hook you up with same race person but simply others told me to go back home, why are you here or people just talk about what races they prefer rather than other races more openly than U.S. On top of that, those Asians speak a local language, but they were always labeled as something else. When I came to U.S to study, you can still say I'm "Asian American" "Irish American" or whatever identity you have connections too. I didn't really see my friends being able to do that back in the day. What I learned about it was not to think about being Asian or your identity so much though it is still crucial part of your life. Relationships between Asian American, and Asian Asians are not my favourite sometimes, but hopefully everyone of us will be able to look at each other more equally. You are who you are. Appreciate the fact that you can live happily, and have friends who care about you. We all have sad experiences, that remain in our heart, but once we move on, great things are ahead :))

[miamikg]

I love your happy face, I love the energy that you bring to this video.
Very positive!
You go girl!

[terukiito]

Thank you so much for this video. You voiced so many of the same questions that have been floating around in my head for the past several years and I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one! I think I might've had more Japanese people around me growing up than you did, so there's a part of me that has always felt very connected to Japan. But having been born and raised over here, there's a part of me that's just not at all Japanese, whether it's in terms of lifestyle or just the way I think. And like you, as a nisei, I have a hard time also relating to the multi generational Japanese Americans who have a 100+ year history in this country.

And I kind of smiled when you mentioned that you listen to jpop and watch Japanese TV as a way to just stay in touch in Japan because I do that too. And I'm happy to have friends that kind of understand why I'd do this, but I also feel like it's in a sense a bit of an impulse that they won't 100% get.

Watching this, I just thought うわ〜、マジ泣けるわ！And some people might think it kind of silly for me to feel so moved by this videoでも、まぁ…しょうがない！

Cheers from Oakland! これからも応援してます！

[yurilisakimura]

I’m Japanese and American myself and totally agree with the pressure you feel to feel connected to Japanese culture. There’s a significant clash between the 2 cultures that it’s so easy to forget about your Japanese heritage if you’re just trying to survive/fit in to American society. Thank you for sharing this!

[lunaterauchi]

I've never come across a more relatable story! I also grew up Japanese (and) American in a predominately-white space, being bombarded with questions about my obentou, attending Japanese school every weekend, and trying to keep up with J-pop (2010s Arashi & Perfume) to stay relevant within the small Japanese circle. College was definitely the time I could finally take classes about Japanese culture and meet people with similar narratives through JSA.


Growing up Japanese in America is quite neat, but I know I've struggled much due to lack of (accurate) representation, and therefore, identity for who we are to society. But it's kinda empowering because our own stories pave the way within our communities.


I'm used to not relating to any story, so this content was very comforting and refreshing. Thank you!

[-masteryoda]

Love this video! I’m Japanese American and I definitely understand where you are coming from. I appreciate you sharing your experiences and I agree that there are different “types” of “japanese Americans”.

[Neek]

I'm brazilian and my grandparents are japanese. There are a large japanese community in Brazil, most of them are in state of São Paulo, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul. And in almost all city that have a japanese community there is a bulding hall.

[canyounotthanks]

Wow Mayuko I love the duality!!!! Please do more videos like this when you can!!

Also, my parents are from East Africa and I’ve never been. I was born and raised in Canada and I never felt the need to know where I was from....I know that sounds very weird but I felt like I already knew enough but to other people from my country I know nothing! Oddly enough I’m fine with it and I don’t know how this came to be. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed hearing your perspective!!!

[moza]

Mr. Cat gave up at 10:55
Mr. Dog invade at 12:25


are you a good boy!?
yes you are...!!
:D

[allthehui]

Love this video! Thank you for sharing your story. It was so relatable, I remember how much I hated going to Chinese school but now as an adult, I’m glad my parents made me go. I love learning about my two cultures and sharing it with my community!

[Deliknight]

This video was so interesting! As a Filipino American, I’m so glad you talked about this topic. Please talk more about your experiences. What was it like visiting Japan every year?

[AEgogos]

lmao wait a minute. this is the most relatable video ive ever seen youtube LOL. im half japanese half chinese with parents that both immigrated from Japan and hong kong. I went through the exact same existential crisis sometime before college, Im currently a student at UCSD and am also apart of a Japanese org on campus. Thank you for making this video, I agree that I have not come across a lot of japanese american, especially those who have parents that had immigrated. I think people with similar circumstances to you and me will really appreciate what u have to say! Especially the younger ones going middle school and high school. I never comment on videos but i felt like this one hit a little too close to home to not say anything!

[AlexandraSophia]

Even though I’m not Asian American, , , I’m Mexican American so I can relate !!! Also so cool you loved in San Diego, , , I was raised there 🌞🙌🏼

[raky-profile]

We love to see you travelling in Japan, and show us some traditional good stuff in there. Super like!

[ytsersius]

thanks for sharing your story :) it's actually really similar to a lot of asian Australians here who are sort of caught between two worlds since our parents are first gen immigrants. I found it surprising that even though I'm Chinese Australian our experiences aren't too different

[cheryl]

I love this video because I can relate so much to your experience as an Asian American. Especially when you talked about how we had to figure out on our own how to prepare or apply for college since our immigrant parents didn't really understand how the American education system worked. I honestly didn't even know what the SAT was till the end of junior year of H.S. Because of that, I've always felt like everyone around me had it all figured out except for me. Now I am studying computer science in college and ever since I came across your channel, you've been such a role model to me and someone I can identify myself with as an Asian American, as a child of immigrants, and as a woman aspiring to work in the tech industry. Thank you for being such an inspiration to me and so many other Asian Americans.

[willr]

Hola Mayuko! Thank you for sharing your life story! My life experiences are simular to yours. I'm Puerto Rican and American, it's werid to say that because Puerto Ricans are American weather born in mainland USA or on the island. I was born in Florida and I grew up there up until I was 7 and went to live in Puerto Rico for the first time like a year. Even though I been to Puerto Rico as a child, culture shock set in like going to school and stuff is completely different and was awesome! I really connected with my family there and my culture. Then we moved to North Carolina due to my brother asthma and a specialist from Puerto Rico recommended his colleague in Duke University to check my bro out because his life was at risk. Due North Carolina was To me as a kid. It was so different and lot of the kids in school would say comments like the Spanish kid and try to speak Spanish to me when i can completely speak, read, write English lol. I was also introduced to ESL in middle school and I was like why? But I glad I did go because I had a huge crush on this girl, her name is Jen who is Asian hehe😍. So....😳 I kinda blushed right now reminiscing lol... I faced also racism as well and didn't really had friends although I would connect with the Hispanics in my school and other people from different cultures which is great! Those times where rough but I always accepted that I'm Puerto Rican, American, and me. Im learning a third language which is Japanese, because one good thing I got out of ESL is that I like to learn from different cultures and connect with people!