from mangas and the like, you get the impression that the general opinion about foreigners is that they are lesser beings. (and a tad retarded) but as we all know, it isn't really smart to get your facts from comicbooks...
so have anyone here been to japan?
are japanese really racist in general?

I wouldn't say racist so much as not really aware of other cultures.

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"Tu es responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as approvoise." Le Renard en "The Little Prince" Antoine de St. Exupery.

well i dont really think theyre racist .
try this site to see

(i hope its not considered spamming )

its a site maintained by a 6 foot african american who teaches english in japan

http://www.gaijinsmash.net/archives.phtml

(warning : some swearing and some chances of pissing yourself while laughing )

read the articles datewise to make sense of em.

what manga have you been reading?
i've never noticed anything like that in manga.

when in japan people were generally really friendly and took me as an opportunity to practice thier english which apperently is required in school. a few people avoided me probably because i made them feel uncomfortable.

I'm gonna start by saying I lived in Japan for a year. Then after that I visited the country another 2 times, and I'm planning to go back again for my fourth visit this July. While studying there, I also visited both elementary schools and high schools to raise awareness about people from foreign countries. I'm sure you can do a search on google about racism in Japan and find a lot of information, so instead of giving information similar to that, I'll just tell you my personal experiences.

Like I've said in a previous thread, I think Japanese people, just think of foreigners as "different". Just look at the Japanese word for "foreigner": it's a combination of the kanji for "outside" and "person". No matter how long you have lived in Japan, you will always be seen as a foreigner, or simply "someone who isn't like them".
I don't think this is conscious racism at all. I just think that Japan, historically, has been isolated from the outside world for so long that it is only now that they are starting to learn to understand people from different cultures. They still don't know how to deal with them. It just takes time.

Its true that there are quite a number of bullying cases in elementary schools against kids of different races---usually the bullies are kids raised from conservative families, usually with parents who are from a farming background in places like Hokkaido or Iwate. Older people have experienced a time when Japan was completely separate from the rest of the world, therefore, they tend to adapt slower to the changing times. Younger people, however, tend to think that foreigners are "cool", and talking to them makes them feel "advanced" in their own culture.

Anyway, I'd say more, but I think this post is long enough, so I'll stop.

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My friend went to Japan. He told me a non-asian went to the same school as him, and as he passed by the classrooms, they'd yell "Ganjin! Ganjin!" Till he got past. He said it didn't happen to him probably cause he was asian and they didn't take much notice of him.

I think that every single country, no matter how polite they are portrayed, will have some sort of racism. I mean, c'mon, what country seriously doesn't have a negative side?

As a long time reader of that website (Back before it even existed and he just posted on his other website, OP9), I'll allow it to be linked to.

With a fair warning, some of the stuff on there make shock some people.

That's all I have to add.

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The first thing that happened to me when I was in Japan, was that I got kicked out from a store for not being Japanese; "only Japanese" they said, and refused to allow me to buy their stuff.

Now, I didn't think too much about it, however, my friend who has been living there for 3 years said "well, it's to be expected, most japs dislikes us westerners."

As time passed, I again, and again, met with racism. mostly they would talk bad about me in japanese, in belif that I wouldn't understand them.

Again, my friend told me "FN(?) is currently here on investigation, because the racism in Japan is really severe."


But really, I don't think it matters that much, almost everyone is racist to some extent, just look at my family, they say I don't belong anymore because I have asian and african friends


I also met a lot of friendly and kind people in Japan, so they're not all racists, but of course, since racism is a negative perspective, it "sticks out", you (I) remember it clearer than all the good things that happened.

I went from Tokyo to Osaka. I only met racism in Tokyo, so I suppose, since Tokyo is where all the westerners go to, the racism might have basis upon their experiences with people who can't behave.

Prejudice sucks



Oh, on another note; I found a link on this board some days ago, that had written about racism in japan, and the person who wrote it, based it on the japanese school system. Interesting reading to say the least, however not sure if it's all true, or if he slanted it to sound worse than it is.

I believe what razril says because (s)he has been there. It's called xenophobia, not racism

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My cousin taught there for a year and didn't deal with anything much other than getting a lot of "You're so tall!"s. Which is funny, considering she's like 5'5" at most. Like someone else said, it seems like it's more of a "different" and less of a "bad" thing. It happens all over too, but usually, again, not in a bad way. I still remember when I was five and visiting the Dominican Republic that the local kids would chase after us screaming "Blanca, blanca!" but they didn't mean it in a bad way, it's just that white-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed people weren't that common down there. And according to my cousin, thta's all she had to deal with. However, she did have a pretty good placement, so her experience may not be typical.

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I think they are scared of us because we are much taller and look different

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I'm sorry, but I just find this hard to believe. I tried to ignore the post, but I just couldn't. I just can't put into words how kind and helpful Japanese people are, so I can't stand them being villified.

Because Japan is a popular country for being "different", every story is blatantly exaggerated. Every country will have a few bigots. I'm sure there are a lot of other countries with much more prejudice and racism than Japan.

Where exactly did you get kicked out? "Japanese Only" places are extremely rare in Japan. In the whole country, there'd probably be around 25-30 of them, tops. (and how many hundreds of thousands of stores are there?) Most of my Japanese friends haven't even seen one in their lifetime. Most of them are not even "stores" as you say they are. They're bars and onsens that were previously open to everyone in areas where there are a lot of rowdy foreigners (like near US military bases, ports, or foreigner strips in tokyo), where the management (mostly those rare people who are so hardcore on rules) had to make the decision to prohibit foreigners from entering because they just don't follow the rules and do not respect the place. It makes it a less fun place for everyone else. They don't even "kick people out"...that's an overstatement. At most they will just tell you politely not to enter. If you understand Japanese, they'd even explain why.



So I am implying here that you can understand Japanese. What did they say exactly? I doubt anyone older than 12 will have something bad to say to foreigners for no reason at all.









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They are obnoxious.

they wanna be cool??

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worrying is just wasting time

I've been kind of in love with Japan for the last 2 year, and I really want to get my masters degree over there, and this is what I was afraid of.
I'm an european so the diferences in our cultures are,plenty, to say the least.
I can get along with pretty much everyone, but I've been warned about japanese reserve towards foreiners.I'm glad someone decided to talk about it here, it helps.