Yoko Tani - Early Life

Early Life

Her birth name was Itani Yōko (猪谷洋子). She has occasionally been described as 'Eurasian', 'half-French', 'half-Japanese', and even 'Italian-Japanese', all of which are incorrect.

According to contemporary French sources, her father and mother -- both Japanese -- were attached to the Japanese embassy in Paris, and Tani herself was conceived en route during a shipboard passage from Japan to Europe in 1927, hence given the name Yōko (洋子), one reading of which can mean "ocean-child."

According to Japanese sources, the family returned to Japan in 1930, when Yoko would still have been a toddler, and she did not return to France until 1950 when her schooling was completed. Given that there were severe restrictions on Japanese travelling outside Japan directly after WWII, this would have been an unusual event; however, it is known that Itani had attended an elite Catholic girls' school in Tokyo (unnamed, but probably Seishin, which the Japanese Empress Michiko also attended), and through it secured a Catholic scholarship to study at the University of Paris.