Singer Gwen Stefani is facing backlash for a statement she made in a recent interview.

Speaking with Allure magazine, the 53-year-old singer described her love of Japanese culture and said, “My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.”

The Italian American singer made the bold statement when Allure senior editor Jesa Marie Calaor asked her to speak on cultural appropriation accusations she received during her Harajuku era.

She told the outlet, “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. … [It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we’re not allowed then that’s dividing people, right?” Stefani said.

Stefani added that her father sparked her love of the culture after sharing stories of his travels to Japan. She claimed he told her about the captivating performance scene in the country, detailing “street performers cosplaying as Elvis and stylish women with colorful hair.”

She described how her obsession with the culture grew when she began to travel as an adult.

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