Gwen Stefani reportedly claimed during a recent interview with Allure that she was Japanese.
Stefani’s interview veered in a strange direction when interviewer Jesa Marie Calaor asked Stefani a few questions about her 2008 perfume line, Harajuku Lovers — named after a region in Tokyo that is known for its distinctive fashions, according to Mediaite.
The “Hollaback Girl” singer responded by sharing a story about her Italian-American father working in both California and Japan when she was young. “That was my Japanese influence, and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline, and it was fascinating to me,” Stefani said.
Then she took it a step further: “My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it … I am, you know,” she reportedly said.
Gwen Stefani did not need to, YEARS after her ‘japanese’ era, then say “I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.” It’s just disrespectful. and ofc gotta attack the black person for having empathy for other poc<3 love it pic.twitter.com/dxmGt8qbIl
— elise 🧸 (@pillow4rt) January 10, 2023
Stefani reportedly went on to very confidently declare herself to be Japanese, according to Mediaite.
“I spent 32 minutes in conversation with Stefani, many of them devoted to her lengthy answer to my question about Harajuku Lovers. In that time, she said more than once that she is Japanese,” Calaor wrote.
Stefani also claimed she was “a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl,” during the interview. (RELATED: ‘I Put Myself In Crazy Situations’: Pamela Anderson Sets The Record Straight On Her Wild Life, Infamous Sex Tape)
Child, leave Gwen Stefani alone. I grew up in NYC. I’ve been inspired by many different cultures. If she loves other cultures too then that should be a positive, not a negative.
— Divo (@DivoAndTheCity) January 10, 2023
The singer has repeatedly been criticized for cultural appropriation due to her use of Japanese culture. The artist previously featured a group of four Japanese-American backup dancers known as the Harajuku Girls in her performances and music videos, wrote a song about them and even created an animated TV series about them, which ran from 2015 to 2019.
Now, she’s reportedly claiming to be of Japanese heritage herself.
Calaor noted that Stefani didn’t make the claims in a :malicious or hurtful” way, but just truly embraced the culture as her own.