Japanese Racism (Part 8 - more comments)

Well, as a friend of mine said, it's trendy almost fashionable to bash Japan these days. And from the comments on the post (see Part 1 for the address), I know he's right. So, let's continue.

"No kidding. I was currently in japan for about 6 monthes. I thought it would be nice to get out of the US and see another country. What a load, I was X’d out of many shops, restraunts, and bars. All this just because I am an american. Screw Japan."

I have never had this happen to me. I know it exists because I've seen photos of signs on the internet, but I've never seen any in my time in Japan, and the ones that I do know about are way out in the sticks or near military bases where GI's tend to cause trouble. I'm going to write a lot on this later. Anyway, to take this away as your idea of Japan - I can't help but think this is a lie or someone trying to cause trouble.

"In Oahu, in a Japanese family restaurant a few blocks off the main drag, we ordered the same breakfast as the Japanese family next to us. When they arrived, ours was about half the size of the other family’s. Taking the Shinkasen from Kyoto to Tokyo, I was obviously shunned; the whole car was full, but nobody sat on the seats adjacent to me."

Oahu? Different values, different culture. Can't comment. The trains? yeah, people don't like to sit next to foreigners here generally. It can be racism/stereotypes (foreigners are more likely to commit crime) or it can be they're afraid they'll get asked something in English, it can be that foreigners are generally bigger and take up more seat room, or in the case of a shinkansen, it can be that there was just no one who'd purchased one of those seats. The foreigner crime thing and stereotypes etc is for another post. And as the person who wrote the above mentioned, that was the 80s/90s.

"I just spent 3 months in Osaka, and not once did anything so overt happen to me. The only thing I really noticed was that the guys who hand out Pachinko flyers would usually turn their backs when I came by…but I don’t play pachinko."

I think this is a more typical experience of Japan. This guy probably knows most foreigners don't play pachinko, or he doesn't want to have to deal with English - but more than that, the people handing stuff out on the streets are usually told a certain demographic to give the stuff out to. My Japanese friends have argued sometimes when they didn't fit the type of person required.

If you read the comments on that site, I would say Rusty Spoon is about 70-80% right in his big explanation, minus a few points.

And, the last one, because I'm bored and gonna finish this.

"I find it hard to believe that you’ve lived in Japan for 13 years and just now are seeing racism in the country. Not only does Japan have Japanese-only bars, nightclubs, and restaraunts with signs in English that no foreigners are allowed, but they have the utmost contempt for the Koreans, the Chinese, the Americans, the Europeans, etc. I seem to remember that ‘gaijin’ literally means ‘barbarian’."

This is exaggeration and just crazy. Something like 25% of Japanese men marry Korean and Chinese women. Americans and Europeans are generally treated like royalty. Read my previous posts on "racism FOR foreigners".. and "gaijin" as I mentioned way back means "outside person." This is just all sorts of wrong. And, I'm just sick of this. I'm going to try to throw a few more positive posts in before I deal with a topic like this again.