The “Japaneseness” may lie in the illusion of safety which induced the two women to let their guard down.

那种对日本人的偏见也许源于认为，这使得那两位女子放下了戒备。

youdao

Some people are even obsessed with denying their Japaneseness.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

The plan's author, Hidenori Sakanaka, a former Tokyo immigration chief and now head of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, envisages a multicultural Japan in which, he says, reverence for the imperial family is an option rather than a defining trait of Japaneseness.

ECONOMIST: Japanese immigration