The historical evolution of the terms used to describe Half Japanese people in Japan is interesting. One of the earliest terms referring to half Japanese people was “ainoko”, meaning a child born of a relationship between two difference races. This label however inferred social problems such as poverty, impurity and discrimination due to the negative treatment of Hafus back then in the 1940s.

The word was then gradually replaced from the late 1950s by the label “konketsuji” which literally means a child of mixed blood. However, soon this too became a taboo term due to its derogatory connotations such as illegitimacy and discrimination. What were central to these labels were the emphasis on blood impurity and the obvious separation of the half-Japanese from the majority of Japanese.

In order to correct the negative nuance of half foreign-ness, a new term was created in the 1990s: “daburu,” deriving from the word double. It emphasises that Hafus are not half anything but one person with two different heritages. However this word has been rarely used by the Hafus themselves due to its overemphasis of positive self-assertion, and many feel that Hafu is acceptable.