Yellow cab (stereotype)

Yellow cab (イエローキャブ, Ierō Kyabu) is a disparaging term for Japanese women who travel overseas or to foreign enclaves in Japan seeking to meet foreign men.[1]

The term combines the use of "yellow", a color/racial classification category for people of East Asian origin, and the image of a yellow cab which can be "ridden at any time".

The term was spread to Japan by Shōko Ieda's 1991 book Yellow Cab, and was quickly appropriated by the Japanese media as a way of sensationalizing and censuring the women's behaviour.[2] Later, Yellow Cab was exposed as a fraud, and Japanese media reports were criticized.[3][4][5]

  1. ^ Turner 2000, p. 9
  2. ^ Kelsky 1996, p. 173
  3. ^ Masayoshi Toyoda, 告発!『イエローキャブ』―マスコミ公害を撃つ!, 1994)
  4. ^ "Writer ponders role of men today". The Japan Times. 2001-02-18. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
  5. ^ Kelsky 2001, p. 139