Gwen Stefani Insists She's Japanese While Defending Appropriation Accusations

Famous artist Gwen Stefani recently proclaimed that is Japanese despite being born to an Italian American father and an Irish American mother. The singer was born in Fullerton, California, and lived in the state for most of her life until she achieved stardom.

Over the years, Stefani has raised the ire of the public due to her appropriation of several cultures. She was called out recently, in 2022, for her dreadlocks hairstyle in a music video.

Stefani one-upped her previous antics recently by claiming she is an entirely different race. While talking about her 2004 Harajuku Lovers Collection, the artist said she is Japanese and referenced her exposure to the culture.

Keep on reading to learn more.

California-born Stefani just claimed that she is an entirely different race from her parents. The artist joined Allure Magazine in an interview on Tuesday and told the interviewer, who is Asian, that she is Japanese. Neither of Stefani's parents is Asian, more or less Japanese; hence there is no indication that she is truly from the country.

The interviewer initially asked Stefani about her currently controversial 2004 Harajuku Lovers Collection and what she may have learned from the experience, including praise, criticism, and everything else.

The artist went on to talk about a story she had stated previously concerning her father's Yamaha job and how for almost a decade, he traveled from their California home to Japan. "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," she said.

Stefani added that after years of seeing her father go to the country and experience its culture, she was eventually able to travel to it and see Harajuku in all its glory for herself. Despite the lack of ethnic ties, Stefani noted, "I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese, and I didn't know it.'"

The uttered words did not elicit a response from the interviewer, and Stefani backed up her comment by saying, "I am, you know." She went into detail concerning what she explained was the "innocence" of her love for Japanese culture. Stefani then described herself as a "super fan."

"The Voice" judge continued, "If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn't feel right. I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture."

"[It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed, then that's dividing people, right?"

Allure further noted that during the interview, Stefani called herself Japanese twice and at some point 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."

A day after the interview, the artist's representative reached out to the magazine, claiming that the interviewer had misconstrued Stefani's words. When asked by Allure to give an on-the-record statement and clear up the comments, the reps declined.

While talking to Paper magazine in May 2021, Stefani made a similar comment concerning her "Harajuku Girls," claiming that sharing one's culture helps with growth.

She said, "If we didn't buy and sell and trade our cultures in, we wouldn't have so much beauty, you know? We learn from each other; we share from each other, we grow from each other. And all these rules are just dividing us more and more."

Following the release of her debut studio album in 2004, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby," Stefani launched her "Harajuku Lovers" fragrance four years later. After the launch, the artist was accused of appropriating the subculture of Japan's Harajuku in her marketing band album artwork.

Stefani had also traveled with four "Harajuku Girls," at the time, as her backup dancers. The group served as the artist's entourage and was the inspiration behind Stefani's fragrance bottles.

The artist has been accused of cultural appropriation in several other instances dating back to the 90s. At the time, she was dating Tony Kanal, her Indian bandmate, and was occasionally spotted in a bindi, a mark that adorns the forehead of Indian women. 

Stefani also recently caused some commotion after her appearance in "Light My Fire" by Sean Paul, where she had on dreadlocks and attire that had the colors of the Jamaican flag.

While speaking to Billboard in 2019, the artist said, "I get a little defensive when people [call it culture appropriation] because if we didn't allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be? You take pride in your culture and have traditions, and then you share them for new things to be created."