Gwen Stefani interview: Netizens slam singer for cultural appropriation, calling herself 'Japanese'

Gwen Stefani is facing fire for making a controversial statement about being a Japanese in an interview. The singer recently opened up about her beauty brand GXVE. In the same, she also spoke about her first beauty line, Harajuku Lovers fragrance which was inspired by Japan’s Harajuku culture. When prodded that it could be misconstrued as cultural appropriation, Gwen said she is actually of Japanese ethnicity (something that is not going down too well with netizens).

Gwen doesn’t have any linkage to Japan in terms of background (as far as it’s known in the public). Her father is an Italian American while her mother is Irish American.

So when Gwen Stefani said, "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," referring to the influence her father's frequent travels to Japan had on her – people didn’t really mind. But when she said, "I said, ‘My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it’,” on visiting Harajuku herself – netizens lost their cool.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Gwen 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."

The singer also said that it "should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed then that's dividing people. The music, the way the girls wore their makeup, 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?"

Meanwhile, this is how people are reacting to Gwen's comments: