When Gwen Stefani visited Tokyo, she exclaimed, “My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.” She has talked about how Japan has influenced her style, music, and beauty products.
The 53-year-old No Doubt singer relied on the Harajuku subculture for her 2004 debut solo album Love.Angel.Music.Baby, which was inspired by the Tokyo neighborhood noted for its vibrant street art.
In 2008, she introduced her perfume, Harajuku Lovers, which came in doll-style bottles and was modeled after the singer and her four Japanese-American backup dancers at the time.
Stefani was asked what she had discovered from that phase of her career in the 2000s in a recent interview with the US publication Allure. She claimed to have been affected by her father’s 18-year journeys between their California home and Japan due to his employment with Yamaha.
She remarked, “That was my Japanese influence, and it was a society that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic, (with) such a focus on art, precision, and discipline, and that was interesting to me.
After visiting the problematic area of Tokyo, Stefani told the magazine: “I said, ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it. Obviously, I am.”
She was quoted by the magazine as calling herself a “big fan” and claiming that her relationship with Japanese culture is “innocent.”
“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,” she said.
“I think it was a time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American beautiful culture. (It) should be OK to be inspired by other cultures because if we’re not allowed then that’s dividing people, right?”
According to the story, Stefani claimed to be Japanese three times and to be “a little bit of Orange County girl, a little bit of Japanese girl, and a little bit of English girl” at another time.
A spokesman for Stefani was quoted as saying that the author “misunderstood what Stefani was attempting to convey.”
In addition, Stefani told the magazine that she identifies with the Hispanic and Latinx neighborhoods in Anaheim, California, the city where she was raised.
“The music, the way the girls wore their make-up, the clothes they wore – that was my identity. Even though I’m an Italian American – Irish or whatever mutt that I am – that’s who I became because those were my people, right?” she said.
When your feel connected to your root, you experience new energy and self-confidence. You feel calm, centered, and ready for what life brings.