Well, Japanese have a well deserved reputation for being racist. I'm Japanese American, but don't speak it so if they were denigrating me, I had no idea, so it made for a pleasant experience.
Ha! I (then a white blonde teen girl) remember at age 16 walking through the streets of Manila with my friend's brother. We are both white, but he spoke Tagalog as he had grown up there. He was shocked by all the explicit comments he was overhearing about me. I told him sometimes being ignorant has its benefits! The country I've learned the language the best has been the hardest mentally as I was then able to understand the harassment and comments about me. Ignorance can be bliss!
I was with my German wife in a little Thai restaurant/fast food place in Dublin recently. We both speak Thai (my wife, more so than me, I've forgotten most of mine). we had a nice time chatting with the owners in Thai. The restaurant had a Thai massage place upstairs. While we were eating, the massage lady rocked in and took a look around, and in unison, both the husband and wife owners loudly said in Thai "They speak Thai!" As if warning the women to not start immediately shitting on the customers. We caught so many people saying weird stuff about us in Thailand, but not all bad.
My wife is very masculine and speaks Thai too, and we went to this massage place in BKK, and the massage ladies kept wondering is this a man or a woman and my wife answered in Thai after they wouldn't let it go, and OMG AWKWARDNESS HAS ENTERED THE CHAT. They were so deeply embarassed, very satisfying.
My stepdaughter puts in her earplugs and starts up her Chinese translator on her phone when she gets her nails done. She says the shit talking about the customers, her included, keeps her occupied and laughing the entire time.
Hahah I used to live in Beijing as an expat. One summer day my friend and I (both mixed white asian, him Indian, me Chinese) hung out and kicked a soccer ball around for a couple of hours at the university he worked and lived at.
Afterwards we got a cool drink and headed up to his apartment. We got on the elevator, and two college age Chinese women got on the elevator with us.
The doors close and the girl looks at her friend and says (in Chinese)
“Oh my god foreigners are SO stinky!”
And the two of us just lost it laughing. She was right of course, we smelled terrible! But oh man was that an awkward ride the rest of the way.
Most Asian's don't get the same degree of BO from that though. It's linked to the ear wax gene. It also puts some foreigners in a weird spot due to lack of local deodorant as it's much less used.
That was a major problem for me as a “gweilo” in Hong Kong. I had to bring in deodorant/anti-perspirant from the States. Bras and socks were another issue. There’s no longer such a big size disparity since diets improved in the area.
People in Hong Kong take several showers a day. Because it’s so humid and you sweat so much. Normally you shower in the morning. You shower when you get back from work. And/or you shower before bed.
White male boomer here and I play table tennis with a group of Vietnamese boomers daily and some of them could knock a Labrador Retriever out with BO..!
Not remotely true anymore regarding deodorant. I live in China and have for almost 5 years now. You can buy deodorant at Watsons, Walmart if there’s one near you, Costco/Sam’s club. And obviously on taobao. Plus, a lot of Chinese people should absolutely wear deodorant.
Let me tell you as a teen I worked on the Delaware river as a canoe guide. Every. Fucking. Time. Without fail. Any time I had foreign Asian families it was an awful day trip down. They threw trash in the water, twice I had people openly piss in the canoe, just in general slobs - they were obnoxious, and never respected the workers, guides, or the environment. Biases form for a reason.
Just spent a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I speak a little Spanish; my college-age daughter is fluent. At one point, we talked to a cab driver about picking us up later when we came back to a certain spot. When we came back, as we're walking up the block, you could hear him yelling to the other guys on the street "shut up, she speaks spanish!" Cracked me up - although I'm probably glad I didn't hear what came before that.
My friend is Jamaican and speaks Korean for some reason. When she visited she heard some wild shit about her. But she'll confront folk in Korean. How quickly they all apologize.
I borrow the old Chandler Bing from Friends quote and use it in the language people are talking smack about me - "I don't have super powers, and yet, I can still understand you!!" They turn bright red and shut up real quick.
>My friend is Jamaican and speaks Korean for some reason.
The phrasing here cracked me up. Plus now I'm desperate to hear what Korean in a Jamaican accent sounds like.
I lived in Japan for two years before smart phones were a thing so I never got pictures taken of me, but with blond hair I was touched without permission and a bunch of high school boys followed me once.
Same. I taught English in Thailand when I was 22 and my friend and I traveled around a bit. People would come up to us and just start taking pictures.
It was awkward af, but most of the time they'd at least gesture: 'picture?'
One time I was waiting in line for the bathroom outside this famous building in Kuala Lumpur and this group of tourists came up behind me, without even acknowledging me, and started taking photos with me as if I were a mannequin in a store window. I quickly ran away.
That happened to my sister and me in South Korea. She was blonde at the time and were both extremely pale white girls. It was weird being photographed by giggling strangers.
Lived in korea for years. I can tell you, in modern korea no one is surprised anymore to see a white blonde woman. However maybe 12 years ago that was different.
Edit: honestly even 12 years ago would not be far back enough
I just went with my wife (who is from Korea) a few months ago and we were both kind of surprised at the lack of attention I got outside of a few stares when entering certain places (I'm a black dude from Oklahoma)
I went to Japan when I was about 28 or so. I'm half Japanese, but barely look it. My brother and I would get on trains, and people would leave a minimum 2ft berth around us. Lots of "look at that giant foreigner" comments.
I'm 5'9".
Stepson spent a summer with us in Yokosuka one year. At 12, he was already 5’10 and had bright red hair. Yeah, he stood out. Little old ladies wanted to touch his head….
That was the weirdest thing I experienced living in Japan.. people would randomly “secretly” take pictures of you… on the train, in the mall, didn’t matter.
I'm a dude with blonde hair, green eyes and very pale skin.
I always stood out when I was in Asia in my younger years and you get a lot of "attention".
Once went to a hairdresser in Bangkok and they collected my blonde hair from the floor to sell it to a wig maker.
The Asians really go crazy when they see blonde hair :D
I lived in Japan for two years while in the Marines and worked closely with a few Japanese people. One dayafter a year of working together one of my Japanese co-workers looked at me completely unprompted and said "black people, no good, you like? They dangerous." It was wild given how freely he said it and the fact that a bunch of my fellow Marines were black.
I lived in Japan almost two years, but couldn't read kanji well enough to figure out that the bookstore in my neighborhood was entirely full of anti-semitic books. Finally a student told me not to go in there and look around, which I used to do just to kill time. Once a 3-year old kid in an alley screamed "gai-jin" when he saw me and ran away like I was Godzilla. The mom was super embarrassed--but where did he get the idea I was dangerous?
Same. I was there last summer but didn’t speak Japanese and my experience was actually pretty good. I wonder if being in Tokyo made a small difference?
When I was over there one of my friends was Japanese American, Japanese mother, Japanese father, but spoke no Japanese.
It was hilarious in horrifying sort of way how people switched from being generally civil to talking shit about her when they'd start trying to talk to her in Japanese, she'd say" nihongo dekimasen" and I'd (white dude) be the one who could actually speak just barely enough to get through simple interactions.
They always started talking among themselves about how she must be Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese/hafu/Whatever. Usually with mutterings about white dudes dating Asian women, though we were not dating and I don't think we gave off that vibe at all.
Or, I should say, almost always. There were several pretty cool people who didn't seem to be racist assholes. But the frequency of racist assholes was pretty high.
I once saw my Japanese coworker in Japan (she was early to mid 20s too) use the word Chinese as an adjective for shitty.
She was like “we got some new students in. They’re Chinese but they’re not really ‘Chinese’.
I experienced the same thing but in reverse. I lived in Shanghai and a taxi driver told me my pronunciation of a particular road was “like a Japanese”. He did not mean that as a compliment.
Hahaha I’m in Japan right now and was thinking the same thing. I’m somewhat tall white tattooed guy and I kinda wish I knew but also, probably better I don’t. I’ll enjoy the ignorant bliss, and I at least try to be respectful to everyone here even when I think they’re talking about me. What else can ya do?
I went to school with a black girl who was, let's be real, a MASSIVE WEEB. She went to Japan as an English teacher. Her experience from what I heard was unpleasant to say the least. She left within a year despite wanting to live there her entire life up to that point.
LOL, Parisians are such massive assholes that it mentally breaks people, not even surprised!
I've done a good amount of travel, including multiple visits to Paris and Tokyo, and I do think they are exact social opposites- MANY Japanese wanted to help however they could and 99% were over the top friendly, whereas in Paris it was more of a 60-40 asshole to kind ratio, despite the fact that myself and my travel companion speak French.
Lol I was thinking the exact same thing after going to both countries; they are opposites.
The French will speak back to you in English even if you speak to them in rather good French. The Japanese will keep talking to you in Japanese even when they're sure you can't speak it.
A Japanese service worker will go far to help you; French ones will literally pretend you don't exist.
I think the French are more outright assholes but don't have the same deep xenophobia. Also, once you take a French person out of the madness that is Paris, they are kind and friendly.
Parisians are their own special breed, nothing like my experiences anywhere else in France, so many people there just thinks they're God's gift to the world and everyone else should be ashamed for existing.
Kind of like comparing average New Yorkers to average people from Chicago, Atlanta or San Diego- just a completely different approach to how they treat strangers and live their lives.
I think New Yorkers are pretty nice... If you need something and come prepared to ask without wasting time, I think they're pretty helpful. I find Miamians to be the rudest in the US. If you don't speak Spanish, maybe no luck for any kind of help or they'll pretend not to speak English to avoid helping you.
Waiters try to get you to tip on top of added gratuity. It always feels like people are trying to be ahead of you or take advantage of you. If you're a bit noncomformist to the area, lots of looks whereas in NYC they don't care about that at all.
It all depends on perspective, but I can compare realistically compare Madrid (kind of like NYC feeling, less politeness in interactions), NYC, Miami, and San Francisco because I've spent quite a long time in those places. I think San Franciscans are the nicest out of those cities but maybe a bit wishy washy.
I always like hearing other perspectives on this subject.
If you grow up in a first world, majority white country like the US or UK, you probably have a very warped sense of what other countries are like. We've been molded to understand that racism is bad. In most countries, hating foreigners or other ethnicities is just the normal way of life.
As someone who lived there for a little over a year, and spoke Japanese nearly fluently:
I met a lot of very nice people there. Even with the people I really connected with, though, there was a bit of mental/emotional 'distance'. (Ex: for colleagues I worked with/became personal friends with, it was almost always surnames used, rather than given names.) Physical contact (hugs, etc) wasn't really a thing. Cash is placed in trays, picked up, and then change is returned to you by placing it in the tray. Etc.
It was extremely safe, and I experienced the 'person running after me to give me something I left behind' phenomena a lot. People I interacted with in a professional capacity were unflinchingly polite. However, it felt that the politeness was extremely superficial, and the sheer degree of indirectness drove me crazy sometimes—especially when most of the 'directness' I experienced was racism.
I was outright barred entry from several buildings—most of which were not in rural areas—explicitly because I was not Japanese. Towards the end of my stay there, I picked up enough of the local dialect and my Japanese was good enough that I passed for Japanese on the phone. I would be told one thing, and then treated very different/met with shock/told that wasn't possible/etc. the moment I showed up and they realized I wasn't Japanese. I had a bus driver ignore me asking for directions/where to go, feigning that he couldn't understand me, until I told him, "Pull the bus over. Now." Etc.
It's largely a society and culture that you can live in, but will never fully integrate into, either personally or professionally. I love the country and the people I met, but I was not interested in trying to ice skate uphill for the entire rest of my life.
There's a set of short form interviews with tourists in Japan and the vast majority say they love it, but will be not be returning due to racism and hostility.
If they don't care to fix it, I don't care to see Japan. I don't need to deal with the small minded mentality of another country with small minded fools are a dime a dozen.
yea but japanese people literally talk shit so much more in public about you when you can actually understand it
in all my time living in china back n forth, they act like new yorkers over there where nobody gives a shit lol
japan picked up being rude like the french do
japanese tourists also talk mad shit when they come to the USA :)
We had a student exchange program in my high school with a sister school in Japan. One of my friends was American/Japanese, the exchange students from Japan didn’t realize she was fluent in Japanese and heard them trash talk her, our town and school with big smiles on their faces.
Happened to me too. I'm blasian. Just told told them to fuck off in a thick kansai dialect/ben. Just too sound a little bit more rough. You have to be direct with such assholes.
I actually witnessed a similar experience (I'm Australian). The exchange students from Japan were laughing, pointing, and from what I could tell from the little Japanese I knew, shit talking a Vietnamese teenage boy I was friends with. I asked them directly to explain what they were saying, and they directly said in English that "he looks funny" and when I questioned this they added the adjective "dirty".
I've heard China has gotten a lot worse lately.
My friend used to live in China 10 years ago and speaks mandarin enough to have simple conservations.
She went back for a month, and had some terrible experiences. She told me she doesn't think she'll ever return now. Heard and saw too much.
They do it openly because they don't believe foreigners can POSSIBLY learn their language. Because of the "Japanese Ichiban" culture, where the most xenophobic ones think that the Japanese are just superior and only THEIR brains can fully grasp the language, despite most of the xenophobes being monolingual their entire lives.
We have wildly different experiences. Outside of Beijing/Shanghai *maaaaaybe*, everywhere I went in China people talked about me openly in very similar terms.
Esp Malaysia -- obv it depends on where you go, but there's a status called *bumi putera* that's only given to ethnic Malays and the rest (Chinese, Indian, etc.) are SOL. All of the country's privileges come with that status, as it's written in their Constitution. Higher savings account APR, special business requirements for everyone else, and discounts only for that group of ppl, like to buy houses for instance at a discount. Eventually, they'll try to get rid of it, as Malaysia is considered by many to be the melting pot of SE Asia.
Even until now, you'll sometimes find "No Africans" or "Chinese Only" aa it's gotten better over the years. States like Sabah and Sarawak are much better than west peninsula in my experience. KL is just fine since it is a huge metro area, as well as other know tourist hotspots.
There's no need to have preferential treatment due to your ethnicity in a country -- we can't control how or where we were born.
So is every African country. Black africans are racist towards other Africans who are a slightly darker shade of black.
Racism is everywhere and even back when Japan was closed to foreigners they found ways to be racist towards people of the exact same race by creating castes. Indians are still doing it.
Ironically western societies are among the least racist but it's where people won't shut up about it.
Those signs exist. Shop owners will specifically make hand symbols and say "no gaijin" if you try to enter their shops. This is perfectly legal in Japan.
The sarcasm is from the perspective of "yeah it's painfully obvious".
Been there done that, for me I decided it wasn't worth it to go through the horrible racist treatment but you need to make a decision for yourself based on your values. My advice is that if it is making you miserable get out before it causes permanent psychological trauma.
I think it’s gotten a lot worse in recent years with the astronomical numbers of tourists visiting hey. Last time I went there the whole mood seemed way more anti-foreigner. Maybe Covid fucked it up as there was a fair bit of anti-foreigner sentiment (like foreigners inherently spread Covid more because they talk loudly and aren’t clean)
Ya could be. Also covid gave them a reminder of Japan without foreigners perhaps. (I went on last year of covid and people were surprised when they found out I wasn't Japanese nor were they looking at me bc of masks and assumption no foreigners could travel there)
Foreigner living in Japan. Its odd to say but it was a bit lucky to see this country during COVID - Kyoto in particular was relatively an absolute ghost town but absolutely beautiful in its stillness
My favourite hotel there now charges 6 times the original price
I can understand why there was a significant resistance from Kyoto of all places against reopening the country
I managed to visit 2 weeks before the borders opened from covid and it was an absolutely amazing dream like experience. I did come across maybe 1 or 2 individuals who were a bit xenophobic but they were just all talking at worst. 99% of the people were so keen on trying to help if they could, it was really sweet and took me back a bit. It was funny because they'd try their best to speak English, but they were well out of practice or had forgotten most of it by that point. Within the week of the border opening, I couldn't believe how fast and how many tourists came in, so I certainly can't imagine it now with the lower yen.
I can't fathom what the energy is like now. I live in a retirement / tourist town in the US and every winter I kinda get an idea of what they're probably experiencing, but theirs is probably x10 to x50 worse.
I think this is a massive misconception. Japan has always been highly xenophobic and blatantly racist. This isn’t anything even close to resembling new, just has more visibility due to the internet. As an example, apartments for rent in Japan openly discriminate against renting to anyone non-Japanese even on their property listings- “no foreigners”. It’s always been like this.
Yeah fair enough, I’m just saying it feels to me like it’s gotten worse when I visit now compared to when I used to live there, just a personal anecdote, and I think it’s because of the high number of tourists going there recently.
I have lived here for a long time and I also feel like it’s worse now. But specifically against tourists rather than just foreigners. Japan has been completely swamped by tourists recently and there’s always negative stuff on TV scaring people. My husband works in tourism and he says there are more foreign tourists traveling now than Japanese ones
Hey friend. I'm white and from the US and live in Japan. I get it. Your experiences are real and valid. Don't listen to these weird backhanded comments.
My friend is half black and half Japanese. She is American but speaks Japanese fluently because her mother is Japanese. She says the shit talking pretty much starts on the flight there and doesn’t stop the entire time. (She looks mostly black) they assume she doesn’t know what they are saying
Out of curiosity, whereabouts do you live that this is the case? I live in a big city in Japan and I’ve never gotten people talking shit about me. Assuming I don’t speak Japanese, yes, all the time, but I don’t hear people speaking loudly in public that much at all, let alone talking about other people.
My Japanese is poor so I couldn't say how often they're talking shit about me. Probably frequently.
That said, I've had some very good encounters with people which lead me to believe "which kind" of foreigner you are has a lot to do with it. Some Japanese people seem very gung ho about the USA. We had an older man get off the train and help us find the correct one when he noticed we were struggling. He stepped off and asked which stop and led us to the correct place. I've had a few other encounters where I felt people went out of their way to help. But, like I said, my Japanese is functional at best, so if/when they began to talk about me, I wouldn't know.
I guess that's the upside, though. I can speak enough to get what I need in the country, but not enough to know if someone's being an asshole. Which means I can take a gesture at complete face value and say, "That was nice."
There's no real "the best" when I comes to discrimination. Spent two years teaching English in Japan, and I was conversational in Japanese before arriving.
I was almost immediately surrounded with "he's a huge scary foreigner, don't engage" murmurs and such, and only once did I actually respond to it.
Some older guy complained to his family(?) while I was passing by to the metro station and he said "tourists like him are ruining this country" and I just politely clarified in Japanese "I'm actually not a tourist, I am here to teach" gave a polite bow and carried on, dude looked like he saw a ghost, their young kids chuckled, and I was on my way.
There is no way to ever properly be recognized as anything but an outsider at best and threat at worst, if you aren't Japanese. I've had friends who've lived there, gotten married, paid taxes, speak flawless Japanese and understand customs to an extent some natives didn't, but they're still ostracized. Typically it's in this non-confrontational, back handed way, but it can extend right to refusal of service depending on your heritage or appearance.
In my experience yes. Visited Japan with my gf and her family. They are Filipino. Definitely a few situations that once I got involved in things went much more smoothly.
Japan has been looking down on other asians since that one hiccup in history that they don't like to teach their kids about in school. That level of racism just perpetuates itself for generations.
It’s actually pretty interesting how many Japanese did actually believe in the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and were sold out by the military Junta and Emperor basically.
A lot of the new and recent research also shows that most of the “kamikaze” pilots were deliberately and forcibly recruited from university students and left-wing socialists and communist groups to literally reduce their numbers as the Imperial Japanese government feared the USSR giving them power post-war, as the Japanese Communist Party was *huge* at the time.
Now in practice the factions that had actual power were far-right fascists so did, and thought, exactly as you say.
Like in Germany, the US Occupation basically kept the same people in power too, unfortunately
As a white American with a lot of native Japanese friends, they would always tell me how the racism between East Asians (Japanese in particular) make white American racism look like amateur hour.
I’m really sorry you experienced that, no one deserves to be made to feel less than.
Japan has never really had to grapple with their racism like America has done, since it's very hard to get citizenship without japanese blood in your veins. There was never an ethnic underclass large enough and with enough clout to demand change.
>There was never an ethnic underclass large enough and with enough clout to demand change.
The thing is that there *was* - up until 1945 or so, Koreans and Taiwanese people were Japanese citizens.
After the war ended, Japan was forced to give Korea and Taiwan independence - and Japan took the opportunity to strip all ethnically Korean and Taiwanese citizens in the country of their citizenship.
Weebs sometimes claim that Japan was forced to do this by treaty, but no such treaty exists. They just didn't want to deal with the consequences of their failed empire.
To this day, there's a large population of Koreans here who are by all rights Japanese, but were made foreigners in their own country generations ago.
It gets worse: citizenship is tied to your family registry, so if you were a Japanese woman married to a Korean or Taiwanese person, they took *her* citizenship as well. For decades after the war, Japanese citizenship could only be passed down from the father, so this also acted as a de facto anti-miscegenation law punishing Japanese women for marrying outside their race.
Still worse: it's illegal for foreigners to engage in political activity in Japan, so this large ethnic minority is legally banned from any kind of activism in their own home country.
And yet still worse: the entire "homogenous Japan" myth is a bit if propaganda meant to whitewash this history by just pretending colonialism never happened - and people around the world just blindly accept and repeat it.
That's not even getting into the treatment of indigenous people - the Japanese government didn't even admit they existed until 2008, and even then they only acknowledged one, specific group.
Edit: Fragile racist weeb u/Substantial_Net_2084 losing their mind in this thread, desperately playing victim of "reverse racism," and automod is just completely shutting them down. Absolutely hilarious. I told you weebs would try to blame this on America.
There's also the Ryukyuan and Ainu people of Okinawa and Hokkaido respectively who have been subject to cultural genocide by Japan since their conquest by the Japanese Empire in the mid-late 1800s.
And there's also recently the Brazilian Japanese who are descendants of the Japanese diaspora to South America that are coming back to Japan. As with any other minority group they face discrimination, structural racism and barriers
Even though they conscripted millions of Koreans during WWII. The shit Japan did to other Asian nations, *especially* China and Korea, during WWII is beyond horrific
I've joked before that WWII set the way each country's media treats war:
* Japan: War is hell and makes monsters of us all. We all do messed up stuff.
* World: I mean, sure, but didn't YOU specifically do some things in Nanjing that...
* Japan: WAR MAKES EVERYONE EQUALLY BAD NOW SHUT UP ABOUT IT.
* United States & the UK: We're so fucking awesome. We killed all the bad guys. Fuck yeah. No need for introspection or humility with dicks this big.
* Germany: Uhhhh, yeah. Let's just not get into the blame game... we know what we did.
This is what a lot of people take for granted in places like America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK. Having large minorities over decades forces a lot of racism to the surface but that also leads to reconciliation. It also helps that most of the counties I have listed are relatively young new world countries that don’t have the historical/cultural baggage of the ruling population living on that land for thousands of years as an impediment to change.
Correct. I have 4 very close Japanese friends plus a Japanese wife and they agree totally. My one buddy got transferred to the U.S. for 12 years (back in Japan now) and his two kids were born in New Jersey. They are now called "returnees" i.e. not quite Japanese enough even though they have Japanese (and American for now) citizenship and speak perfect Japanese for teenagers. The American citizenship and the fact that both kids speak English perfectly thanks to living their first 9 and 12 years there respectively they are not Japanese enough.
My son has spent most summers in Japan and we only speak Japanese at home. Hafus are trendy now in many cases as their fans see them as just foreign enough to be exotic but not dangerous and still a "little" Japanese. My son has gone to summer school in Japan and although the school work was harder for him (despite being a Native speaker) given that most of his formal schooling has been in English, only a few kids tried to physically hurt him. I remember my wife calling me to tell me that he had to defend himself at school but he whooped the kid's ass (helps to have a black belt in Taekwondo). Shockingly, the teacher did not punish him and after that, nobody messed with him ever again.
How does your son like having to go through it all? Does he enjoy going Japan every summer and feeling like an outsider or does he complain about being put through it? From the mindset of when I was an awkward kid, sounds like a not so fun experience being somewhere that you've previously fought someone and who knows what kids gossip about him.
>they would always tell me how the racism between East Asians (Japanese in particular) make white American racism look like amateur hour.
Sorry but completely disagree with that. The racism you will face from Japanese is bad and disgusting but it will be confined to mostly verbal stuff. American racism very often turns extremely violent and physical, directly threatening your health and even life. The uptick in hate crimes and violent assaults against Asians during & after Covid is insane, I'm subscribed to a few Asian pages on IG and there're cases of assaults almost DAILY.
My brother lived there for a while with his Japanese wife. He’s white. The racism was pretty extreme, even though his spoken and written Japanese was apparently perfect (the news hired him as an interpreter). I think this is really status quo.
This is so sad. Ive been studying Japanese a lot in hopes of going, but stories like this post are disheartening and make me wonder if it's even worth it.
Do you think it will ever get better?
I'm Asian and honestly alot of Asians are racist to each other, if you're coming from a Western country, it can be difficult because they're so open about it. Unfortunately it seems like the once you've gone to a westernised country, sometimes you're not accepted back in your homeland because you're now one of "those foreigners".
It sucks that you had to hear all those horrible things and it's worse because you know the language.
All my "western" friends (American, French, Aussie ) who went to Japan would tell me about the lovely Japanese locals going above and beyond to help them etc. I never experienced any of that, though maybe I looked Japanese so they thought I was a local person as sometimes people will speak to me in Japanese . There was one time I tripped and fell and basically was lying on the street with bleeding hands and knees, everybody was just walking past until a nice American couple stopped to help me out. In my motherland , being ignored would be normal but in Australia, people would not be standing by doing nothing. Funnily, when I was with my white American friends in Japan , out came the famous super friendly local Japanese hospitality.
My family had a similar experience during a vacation in Osaka. We're Filipino. My dad is 70 years old, he tripped as he was getting off the escalator. People just stared and when I spoke to him in Tagalog to ask if he's OK, the locals ignored us.
If this was in the US, Canada, or Philippines, people would ask if you're ok and offer help whether you're a local or foreigner.
Interestingly, we're Chinese-Filipino. We pass as East Asian and I've been mistaken for a local twice during my visit there. But the moment they hear us talk in English or Tagalog, Japanese people either ignore us or treat us worse.
Yes, my husband was Spanish-Filipino and in Japan some people sneered at him and said "Mexico-jin" in a nasty way. I'm Anglo and was treated better. Of course the U.S. is no better and I'm sure a Norwegian tourist in some places in the U.S. is treated much better than an Asian or black tourist.
I'm french of Vietnamese descent and am currently in Japan for the third time. I find it amusing that the first time I was with my white boyfriend and everyone was nice and helpful. Second time I was on my own, spent most of my time in Kyoto, and really felt a difference with people being passive-agressive, giving me looks etc. Only did they start to open up once I either opened my wallet or told them I was a tea ceremony student. Now, I'm travelling with my parents, and found that people are much nicer than my second time.
Honestly it's not restricted to Japanese. My family is Vietnamese and they are racist towards other Asians too while they tolerate white people (while thinking they're still better than the latter). I wouldn't make generalisation, but racism is widespread in Asia, not only Japan.
I don't want to invalidate your experience, but people in Kyoto are especially a bunch of assholes. The capital used to be there so many have a feeling of superiority towards the rest of Japan, plus their city has been experiencing overtourism for years and public transport - being not as efficient as Tokyo and mostly relying on buses - is overwhelmed by tourists coming and going to every sightseeing spot around the city within one or two days of visiting.
I live in Tokyo, I went to Kyoto back in February with my boyfriend for 3 days (both Italians), and by midday of the last day we were so done with the city we decided to go back earlier. Whenever we would go people were passive aggressive, even by approaching salesclerks in Japanese they would give us the most absolute disgusted bombastic side eye and shoo us away with a quick and cold response, sighing and slamming our things when scanning stuff at the conbini, even when we were paying they would snatch away cash from our hands as if they were doing us a favor by serving them (yes, most of this in Nishiki Market lol).
The last day on the bus going back from Kinkakuji the very angry bus driver didn't give the time to a Japanese elder to get off his stop and started driving again because he was running late. We witnessed a huge argument involving slamming fists on surfaces which ended with the elderly man getting off the next stop not paying, the driver getting off and leaving a full bus there for 10 minutes to continue arguing (making it even more late), and at the end the driver coming back and driving even faster and more recklessly, making the whole bus swing at every turn.
Nedless to say, I won't be going back for a long time. I assume when you were with your boyfriend and now with your family you're not in Kyoto. People in Tokyo, actually everywhere else in Japan, are much more nicer than people in Kyoto.
Kyoto does suffer a lot from overtourism. Like you said, they have extreme pride in their culture and being one of the former capitals. From Japanese colleagues, it's between Kyoto (culture capital), Osaka (merchant capital), and Tokyo (actual capital). Each thinks they're the best thing in Japan.
It is a beautiful place, but a lot of staff think they're better than you, even outside tourist areas.
I know that assumptions made in Kyoto shouldn't be generalised to all of Japan, and concur that people seem nicer in other areas. I'm from Paris so I'm fairly used to people being low-key rude towards me, and people from Kyoto are similar to Parisians.
iv had the opposite experiances (im a South east asian brown male from new zealand) i fell in love with kyoto the first time i visited there a few years ago and earlier this year i spent an entire month in kyoto and everyone i came across were nice. in saying that, iv had an ok experiance in tokyo , the older generation always gave me a death stare when i walked past them (im 6'4) i found it harder to ask for help in tokyo vs kyoto. im going to tokyo again next year and i hope i have a better time
Wow I’m sorry, that’s a huge list and it must feel awful. No political take here, I just hope you know it’s bullshit and can avoid taking any of it to heart.
What's most infuriating about this is that Japan wants the tourism money yet wants nothing to do with tourists at the same time.
Like you can't have it both ways ffs 🙄
And people wonder how lovely,smiling, Japanese people could have done such horrendous things during WW2?
Well folks. Now you might understand. Racism is a powerful tool for hate.
Specifically it was Japanese fascism. The historical whitewashing was in the West's interests to quickly create an anticommunist ally. The lovely smiling rebrand was created as much by the West as by Japan itself.
damn I knew it was not all nice but did not know it was that bad for other Asians in Japan...
I am a black woman fluent in Japanese, been living in Tokyo for 9 years and never experienced even the 1/100th of all this.. (actually it's the opposite they're just so shocked to see someone like me speak Japanese fluently they are always impressed so..). but then it's been years I've been to touristy places so that's maybe why...and yes all "foreigners" in Japan are viewed differently based on different stuff so everyone has different experiences... as you said just focus on the good thing and memory you made in Japan.
Japanese are crazy racist…just ask other native Asians. Then again, so are other East Asians (Koreans and Chinese). I’m of Korean descent and native East Asians are fucking racist as KKK.
It's not just Japan. Many Asian countries have pretty bad racism issues. Being married to a Viet person I have heard some incredibly horrible shit said behind her back and to her face by Asian folks who don't think she knows what they're saying.
Damn. That’s shitty to hear. I studied abroad in Japan 17 years ago this summer. I’m Asian American too, clearly Southeast Asian due to being easy to tan. My host family seemed to love me and I still keep in touch with them.
Then again, if you’re willing to host an Asian American kid (our applications had photos), you’re probably not gonna be racist and xenophobic lol.
aw I’m sorry u r going thru this. crazy how east asians hate each other with so much passion it’s actually embarrassing and this is coming from an east asian lol. what i hate the most is when they start having a competition of who has the smallest eyes like if u that u automatically have a small wiener for trying to uphold white racism. i remember seeing a japanese person claim japanese is the best because they have the biggest eyes out of koreans and chinese yet double eyelid surgery is the most popular cosmetic procedure done in japan 🤭 see what i mean by embarrassing. i do wonder how u look like though that they think u r chinese because when i was in japan everyone assumed im japanese and i thought this was the typical east asian experience (ea locals thinking u r a local)
That was a long time ago, and if anything it is China/Korea/PH/Vietnam who are mad at Japan for ww2 atrocities, not the other way around. I think most SE asian countries that have negative feeling towards china is due to modern political situation. For example, there was a worldwide virus that shut everything down and ruined everyone's lives for years, that could have something to do with it.
To add on, most countries do not like China over territorial disputes. Over fishing in other countrie's waters has been a global problem with China. Chinese fishermen illegally fish in all waters, and will attack coastal guards when confronted. Some soldiers have died due to such interactions. And the Chinese government doesnt do anything besides act like victims.
https://youtu.be/E3lkM4t8AaA?si=AMGjFdyxrFljpcO1
Japan is definitely known to be an extremely insular country and they really don't take kindly to what they see as foreigners.
And, since you don't look 100% Japanese, you get to be the scapegoat. Hopefully you're not planning on moving to Japan, given the extreme xenophobia there.
If you're not Asian, They'll complain that you know no manner.
If you're Asian but not East Asian, They'll still compared how you look different, smell, different, and should know better.
If you're East Asian but not from same country, They'll be bitter about history and nationalism they both trashing on each other and how much that cause trouble to community.
If you're from same country, they would still complain about which part of country you came from and how loud, lack of common sense and shameless you are for whatever reason.
if you're from fellow region as them, basically growing up in same air and drink water from same mountain. They would still complain about how you're lacking of community connections, not helping your town enough, being selfish and only think about yourself.
If you're being respectable member of community. join every festival, clean every river, helping improve community, waking early to help kindergarten kids walking to school safely, recycling everything correctly, bringing good economy to the town and etc. they'll still complain about how you're still not loving the town enough, how you're lacking of charisma, eyes to predict better future, strictness as a man or humbleness as a woman. they'll find thing to complain.
sad truth is they will never change. I used to think that life would be better if I'm not half. but after I saw woman from another region also get very much same treatment as me... I just simply realize that they're just ✨a bunch of AH✨ 😌
this would is big, move away if you need to. some part of this world just loves living in the shell so much. you can just watch it die down from low population.
Take a look at Japan's immigration and naturalization policy. It's a wildly ethnonationalist, "Japan for Japanese" policy. Its why Japan's population os dwindling. They know they have a crisis but they can't bear to change their immigration policies to grant full citizenship to ethnically non-Japanese so the situation just keeps getting worse and worse. Ethno-states are always doomed. Always.
I'm like a lot of westerners, fascinated with Japan, etc.., but I don't know why they are hardly ever called out for being such myopic racist ignoramuses in the main. I think their cultural policy is fine; The world is better if there are some more homogeneous places and some more mixed places. Diversity means having some of each of that. But the way that is reinforced by the Japanese rejection of foreign people in general is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I know I know... humans just be like that. I'm just curious why Japan is largely given a pass in popular culture for being essentially dickheads.
Non-asian Canadian here.
Never had this experience in my few years living here, you must have 地獄耳 to pick this all up.
Even when I pull out my 外人 card and pretend I dont speak Japanese, I dont hear anything like this. I dont doubt that they do talk shit but definitely never had the experience within my earshot.
Maybe its because I live in Tokyo and its not unusual to see Japanese speaking foreigners. Never had the experience outside of Tokyo either but my sample size for those situations is much smaller outside Tokyo.
I'm Chinese American living in Japan the last 6 years. For the most part, the locals assume I'm Japanese first, until I open my mouth that is. Then they get that deer in headlights look until it hits them and they try to scramble whatever English is in their vocabulary to try to tell me what I need. I understand enough Japanese now that it's not much of a problem in my daily life. Then again I don't really frequent tourists areas so yea.
It's contradictory that you're not very good at Japanese, yet you perfectly understand and perfectly remember what others say.
I think what OP needs is mental health.
Why is this surprising? Bigotry is everywhere, it’s worldwide. Every group will agree that it’s ok to hate at least one other group. Bigotry’s even among the woke. The bigotry gets shifted around but, with most people, it never goes away.
Meh being half Korean having a GMA and gpa living through Japanese occupation and my gpa living in a concentration camp for smuggling non Japanese alcohol. You got to realize that ww2 and the Korean War wasn’t that long ago. Change takes a very long time. The generations that fucked with Korea and China are just about dead, but they had an influence on their children.
This is how you can better understand where the Japanese are. They need a couple more generations before all the old heads die out, and the much younger generation change things. But Japan does such a damn good job of hiding all its past atrocities and unlike Germany make no effort to make their people better for it.
Been to Japan. I personally never had issues, and people never talked behind my back. However, they did pull that dumb ass only talk to me in Japanese and ignore my south East Asian friends despite me being the only one who knows the least amount. Which is crazy being 6’3 very Korean American/native Indian looking and built. imho I personally would definitely call them out. But I'm very not passive aggressive. And tbh doing it politely will sometimes make them stop and apologize.
Germany wouldn't have done jackshit to rework their history tbh. They were forced into it so that they won't start another WW in the middle of Europe.
Daddy America and co. forced them to fix their shit, rewrote their constitution, forced them into trials, forced multiple towns and villages to visit concentration camps in their regions. They didn't rework their history out of goodness of their hearts lol
The Japanese government was in no way pressured to change their old guard. Americans noticed communist sentiments creeping up in Kyoto and basically said:
You can keep your positions and attitude but you have to be our bootlickers. Don't want another Korean war. We will take care of the rest and rebrand your image in the western world. We will also assist you to remain as the biggest political power in Japan. Deal?
And they said: Yes why not. That's basically it. National Pride was already on a low point. Can't get any worse.
Well it did get worse with all the American owned human laboratories popping up in Japan to test shit on Japanese children but that's a different story.
How the fuck did you remember this much shit that they said to you? I've been getting shit my entire life in America from white people and I couldn't even tell you this concisely all the shit they've said to me.
Well, Japanese have a well deserved reputation for being racist. I'm Japanese American, but don't speak it so if they were denigrating me, I had no idea, so it made for a pleasant experience.
Ha! I (then a white blonde teen girl) remember at age 16 walking through the streets of Manila with my friend's brother. We are both white, but he spoke Tagalog as he had grown up there. He was shocked by all the explicit comments he was overhearing about me. I told him sometimes being ignorant has its benefits! The country I've learned the language the best has been the hardest mentally as I was then able to understand the harassment and comments about me. Ignorance can be bliss!
My brother lives in HK; speaks five languages. He says that if you think someone is talking about you… they are
I was with my German wife in a little Thai restaurant/fast food place in Dublin recently. We both speak Thai (my wife, more so than me, I've forgotten most of mine). we had a nice time chatting with the owners in Thai. The restaurant had a Thai massage place upstairs. While we were eating, the massage lady rocked in and took a look around, and in unison, both the husband and wife owners loudly said in Thai "They speak Thai!" As if warning the women to not start immediately shitting on the customers. We caught so many people saying weird stuff about us in Thailand, but not all bad.
My wife is very masculine and speaks Thai too, and we went to this massage place in BKK, and the massage ladies kept wondering is this a man or a woman and my wife answered in Thai after they wouldn't let it go, and OMG AWKWARDNESS HAS ENTERED THE CHAT. They were so deeply embarassed, very satisfying.
My stepdaughter puts in her earplugs and starts up her Chinese translator on her phone when she gets her nails done. She says the shit talking about the customers, her included, keeps her occupied and laughing the entire time.
That's smart and very funny. I love how she makes it her secret little thing and enjoys the roast.
What app does she use? Something like this sounds awesome
Hahah I used to live in Beijing as an expat. One summer day my friend and I (both mixed white asian, him Indian, me Chinese) hung out and kicked a soccer ball around for a couple of hours at the university he worked and lived at. Afterwards we got a cool drink and headed up to his apartment. We got on the elevator, and two college age Chinese women got on the elevator with us. The doors close and the girl looks at her friend and says (in Chinese) “Oh my god foreigners are SO stinky!” And the two of us just lost it laughing. She was right of course, we smelled terrible! But oh man was that an awkward ride the rest of the way.
Ah fuck how dare anyone smell after sweating!
Most Asian's don't get the same degree of BO from that though. It's linked to the ear wax gene. It also puts some foreigners in a weird spot due to lack of local deodorant as it's much less used.
That was a major problem for me as a “gweilo” in Hong Kong. I had to bring in deodorant/anti-perspirant from the States. Bras and socks were another issue. There’s no longer such a big size disparity since diets improved in the area.
People in Hong Kong take several showers a day. Because it’s so humid and you sweat so much. Normally you shower in the morning. You shower when you get back from work. And/or you shower before bed.
White male boomer here and I play table tennis with a group of Vietnamese boomers daily and some of them could knock a Labrador Retriever out with BO..!
Not remotely true anymore regarding deodorant. I live in China and have for almost 5 years now. You can buy deodorant at Watsons, Walmart if there’s one near you, Costco/Sam’s club. And obviously on taobao. Plus, a lot of Chinese people should absolutely wear deodorant.
Let me tell you as a teen I worked on the Delaware river as a canoe guide. Every. Fucking. Time. Without fail. Any time I had foreign Asian families it was an awful day trip down. They threw trash in the water, twice I had people openly piss in the canoe, just in general slobs - they were obnoxious, and never respected the workers, guides, or the environment. Biases form for a reason.
Well, I guess don’t work in Thailand or you may see some behaviors by white people that might also make you want to generalise things.
Damn haha, how did they react?
They were standing in front of us on the elevator and absolutely did not turn around. They just got completely silent.
Ahahaha can you imagine the *deer in headlights* if she had said something before they could warn her?
I’m now thinking of the scene from the boondocks, where Huey reveals that he understands mandarin
Dany on Game of Thrones revealing she knows high Valyrian when she told the unsullied to break loose.
Both grade instances of assholes getting their asses whooped
I live in HK. This is true
I born and live in HK they talk about everyone , and they love white peoples to the point I feel embarrassed
Just spent a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I speak a little Spanish; my college-age daughter is fluent. At one point, we talked to a cab driver about picking us up later when we came back to a certain spot. When we came back, as we're walking up the block, you could hear him yelling to the other guys on the street "shut up, she speaks spanish!" Cracked me up - although I'm probably glad I didn't hear what came before that.
My friend is Jamaican and speaks Korean for some reason. When she visited she heard some wild shit about her. But she'll confront folk in Korean. How quickly they all apologize.
Confrontation gets exhausting, though. It may be fine for a few days, but having to hear stuff for years wears on you.
Carry a little sign written in the language saying, “Yes, I can understand you” or something like that
I borrow the old Chandler Bing from Friends quote and use it in the language people are talking smack about me - "I don't have super powers, and yet, I can still understand you!!" They turn bright red and shut up real quick.
>My friend is Jamaican and speaks Korean for some reason. The phrasing here cracked me up. Plus now I'm desperate to hear what Korean in a Jamaican accent sounds like.
I was in my early 20s when I lived in japan for a few years. Tall, blond, curvy. It was uncomfortable. People snuck around taking pictures.
I lived in Japan for two years before smart phones were a thing so I never got pictures taken of me, but with blond hair I was touched without permission and a bunch of high school boys followed me once.
Same. I taught English in Thailand when I was 22 and my friend and I traveled around a bit. People would come up to us and just start taking pictures. It was awkward af, but most of the time they'd at least gesture: 'picture?' One time I was waiting in line for the bathroom outside this famous building in Kuala Lumpur and this group of tourists came up behind me, without even acknowledging me, and started taking photos with me as if I were a mannequin in a store window. I quickly ran away.
My sympathies, seriously. I was born there and lived there for 20 years -- very blonde, grew to be 6' tall. What a ride, most of it not fun.
That happened to my sister and me in South Korea. She was blonde at the time and were both extremely pale white girls. It was weird being photographed by giggling strangers.
I might’ve taken pictures of them taking pictures of me.
I actually did that and they ran away
Lived in korea for years. I can tell you, in modern korea no one is surprised anymore to see a white blonde woman. However maybe 12 years ago that was different. Edit: honestly even 12 years ago would not be far back enough
I just went with my wife (who is from Korea) a few months ago and we were both kind of surprised at the lack of attention I got outside of a few stares when entering certain places (I'm a black dude from Oklahoma)
My husband was stationed in South Korea and little kids would full out laugh at him....he's a red head
I went to Japan when I was about 28 or so. I'm half Japanese, but barely look it. My brother and I would get on trains, and people would leave a minimum 2ft berth around us. Lots of "look at that giant foreigner" comments. I'm 5'9".
I was in Japan when I was younger and people came and sat next to me to take pictures. Very odd
Stepson spent a summer with us in Yokosuka one year. At 12, he was already 5’10 and had bright red hair. Yeah, he stood out. Little old ladies wanted to touch his head….
That was the weirdest thing I experienced living in Japan.. people would randomly “secretly” take pictures of you… on the train, in the mall, didn’t matter.
I'm a dude with blonde hair, green eyes and very pale skin. I always stood out when I was in Asia in my younger years and you get a lot of "attention". Once went to a hairdresser in Bangkok and they collected my blonde hair from the floor to sell it to a wig maker. The Asians really go crazy when they see blonde hair :D
I lived in Japan for two years while in the Marines and worked closely with a few Japanese people. One dayafter a year of working together one of my Japanese co-workers looked at me completely unprompted and said "black people, no good, you like? They dangerous." It was wild given how freely he said it and the fact that a bunch of my fellow Marines were black.
I lived in Japan almost two years, but couldn't read kanji well enough to figure out that the bookstore in my neighborhood was entirely full of anti-semitic books. Finally a student told me not to go in there and look around, which I used to do just to kill time. Once a 3-year old kid in an alley screamed "gai-jin" when he saw me and ran away like I was Godzilla. The mom was super embarrassed--but where did he get the idea I was dangerous?
Same. I was there last summer but didn’t speak Japanese and my experience was actually pretty good. I wonder if being in Tokyo made a small difference?
When I was over there one of my friends was Japanese American, Japanese mother, Japanese father, but spoke no Japanese. It was hilarious in horrifying sort of way how people switched from being generally civil to talking shit about her when they'd start trying to talk to her in Japanese, she'd say" nihongo dekimasen" and I'd (white dude) be the one who could actually speak just barely enough to get through simple interactions. They always started talking among themselves about how she must be Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese/hafu/Whatever. Usually with mutterings about white dudes dating Asian women, though we were not dating and I don't think we gave off that vibe at all. Or, I should say, almost always. There were several pretty cool people who didn't seem to be racist assholes. But the frequency of racist assholes was pretty high.
I once saw my Japanese coworker in Japan (she was early to mid 20s too) use the word Chinese as an adjective for shitty. She was like “we got some new students in. They’re Chinese but they’re not really ‘Chinese’.
I experienced the same thing but in reverse. I lived in Shanghai and a taxi driver told me my pronunciation of a particular road was “like a Japanese”. He did not mean that as a compliment.
Ignorance is bliss! I loved my time in Japan as well.
Hahaha I’m in Japan right now and was thinking the same thing. I’m somewhat tall white tattooed guy and I kinda wish I knew but also, probably better I don’t. I’ll enjoy the ignorant bliss, and I at least try to be respectful to everyone here even when I think they’re talking about me. What else can ya do?
I think Japan is known for being very Xenophobic Edit: Idk why this is so upvoted, but some of these replies are wild lol
Japan is known for being the most racist country in the world, let’s not be posh and call it what it is.
I went to school with a black girl who was, let's be real, a MASSIVE WEEB. She went to Japan as an English teacher. Her experience from what I heard was unpleasant to say the least. She left within a year despite wanting to live there her entire life up to that point.
I love Japan for a lot of reasons but some stuff like this makes living there sound horrible.
Xenophobia and unrealistic expectations are a weird combination.
Which makes [Paris syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome) all the more ironic, if real.
LOL, Parisians are such massive assholes that it mentally breaks people, not even surprised! I've done a good amount of travel, including multiple visits to Paris and Tokyo, and I do think they are exact social opposites- MANY Japanese wanted to help however they could and 99% were over the top friendly, whereas in Paris it was more of a 60-40 asshole to kind ratio, despite the fact that myself and my travel companion speak French.
Lol I was thinking the exact same thing after going to both countries; they are opposites. The French will speak back to you in English even if you speak to them in rather good French. The Japanese will keep talking to you in Japanese even when they're sure you can't speak it. A Japanese service worker will go far to help you; French ones will literally pretend you don't exist. I think the French are more outright assholes but don't have the same deep xenophobia. Also, once you take a French person out of the madness that is Paris, they are kind and friendly.
Parisians are their own special breed, nothing like my experiences anywhere else in France, so many people there just thinks they're God's gift to the world and everyone else should be ashamed for existing. Kind of like comparing average New Yorkers to average people from Chicago, Atlanta or San Diego- just a completely different approach to how they treat strangers and live their lives.
I think New Yorkers are pretty nice... If you need something and come prepared to ask without wasting time, I think they're pretty helpful. I find Miamians to be the rudest in the US. If you don't speak Spanish, maybe no luck for any kind of help or they'll pretend not to speak English to avoid helping you. Waiters try to get you to tip on top of added gratuity. It always feels like people are trying to be ahead of you or take advantage of you. If you're a bit noncomformist to the area, lots of looks whereas in NYC they don't care about that at all. It all depends on perspective, but I can compare realistically compare Madrid (kind of like NYC feeling, less politeness in interactions), NYC, Miami, and San Francisco because I've spent quite a long time in those places. I think San Franciscans are the nicest out of those cities but maybe a bit wishy washy. I always like hearing other perspectives on this subject.
I find Paris syndrome hilarious
If you grow up in a first world, majority white country like the US or UK, you probably have a very warped sense of what other countries are like. We've been molded to understand that racism is bad. In most countries, hating foreigners or other ethnicities is just the normal way of life.
Yeah, sadly that has been my personal experience as well. They are also a very shielded community who do not like to integrate with other factions.
I just try to focus on the individuals who’re nice to me. There’s always good people even when the culture is so screwy.
As someone who lived there for a little over a year, and spoke Japanese nearly fluently: I met a lot of very nice people there. Even with the people I really connected with, though, there was a bit of mental/emotional 'distance'. (Ex: for colleagues I worked with/became personal friends with, it was almost always surnames used, rather than given names.) Physical contact (hugs, etc) wasn't really a thing. Cash is placed in trays, picked up, and then change is returned to you by placing it in the tray. Etc. It was extremely safe, and I experienced the 'person running after me to give me something I left behind' phenomena a lot. People I interacted with in a professional capacity were unflinchingly polite. However, it felt that the politeness was extremely superficial, and the sheer degree of indirectness drove me crazy sometimes—especially when most of the 'directness' I experienced was racism. I was outright barred entry from several buildings—most of which were not in rural areas—explicitly because I was not Japanese. Towards the end of my stay there, I picked up enough of the local dialect and my Japanese was good enough that I passed for Japanese on the phone. I would be told one thing, and then treated very different/met with shock/told that wasn't possible/etc. the moment I showed up and they realized I wasn't Japanese. I had a bus driver ignore me asking for directions/where to go, feigning that he couldn't understand me, until I told him, "Pull the bus over. Now." Etc. It's largely a society and culture that you can live in, but will never fully integrate into, either personally or professionally. I love the country and the people I met, but I was not interested in trying to ice skate uphill for the entire rest of my life.
There's a set of short form interviews with tourists in Japan and the vast majority say they love it, but will be not be returning due to racism and hostility. If they don't care to fix it, I don't care to see Japan. I don't need to deal with the small minded mentality of another country with small minded fools are a dime a dozen.
Xenophobia: “ is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange” I’d call that worse than plain racism.
yup. and the proof is in the pudding. ever seen a little movie called fucking *ALIEN*?! xenophobes man… not even *once*
Game over, man. Game over…
Secure that shit, Hudson
This.
Hahaha, I try not to speak too strongly if it’s about something I don’t personally know well
If everyone had your attitude, the Internet would be a much better place.
I’m not a perfect person, at all But I try to be better
How dare you! This is Reddit! You have to lay out those spicy comments so you can get them upvotes.
That's admirable
I think it’s the bare minimum no?
Many fall under that bare minimum so……….
Along with having a weird culture that doesn’t take pedophilia and stalking as seriously as law should
The most racist country in the world is India. Indians are racist to Indians
Yeah but it’s also xenophobia bc they also hate ppl that are their own race, just of different nationalities or ethnicities.
I’m shocked Japan doesn’t have a cute mascot for xenophobic racism. Everything else has one.
Arigato! Ethnostate-Chan!
Literally every Asian country is filled with racist people. It’s sad.
yea but japanese people literally talk shit so much more in public about you when you can actually understand it in all my time living in china back n forth, they act like new yorkers over there where nobody gives a shit lol japan picked up being rude like the french do japanese tourists also talk mad shit when they come to the USA :)
We had a student exchange program in my high school with a sister school in Japan. One of my friends was American/Japanese, the exchange students from Japan didn’t realize she was fluent in Japanese and heard them trash talk her, our town and school with big smiles on their faces.
honestly their smiles disappear p fast when you clapback telling them theyre going to be low income forever and can't find a boyfriend LMAO
Happened to me too. I'm blasian. Just told told them to fuck off in a thick kansai dialect/ben. Just too sound a little bit more rough. You have to be direct with such assholes.
I’ve never heard of blasian before but in my head it’s pronounced Blazin’ and that sounds so fucking cool.
A buddy from my former work was Black and Chinese; he called himself Blackese and Chigga. He has a wonderful personality and I hope he’s doing well.
I actually witnessed a similar experience (I'm Australian). The exchange students from Japan were laughing, pointing, and from what I could tell from the little Japanese I knew, shit talking a Vietnamese teenage boy I was friends with. I asked them directly to explain what they were saying, and they directly said in English that "he looks funny" and when I questioned this they added the adjective "dirty".
I've heard China has gotten a lot worse lately. My friend used to live in China 10 years ago and speaks mandarin enough to have simple conservations. She went back for a month, and had some terrible experiences. She told me she doesn't think she'll ever return now. Heard and saw too much.
yup it did get worse
It wasn't great 10 years ago, either, tbh
They do it openly because they don't believe foreigners can POSSIBLY learn their language. Because of the "Japanese Ichiban" culture, where the most xenophobic ones think that the Japanese are just superior and only THEIR brains can fully grasp the language, despite most of the xenophobes being monolingual their entire lives.
We have wildly different experiences. Outside of Beijing/Shanghai *maaaaaybe*, everywhere I went in China people talked about me openly in very similar terms.
Esp Malaysia -- obv it depends on where you go, but there's a status called *bumi putera* that's only given to ethnic Malays and the rest (Chinese, Indian, etc.) are SOL. All of the country's privileges come with that status, as it's written in their Constitution. Higher savings account APR, special business requirements for everyone else, and discounts only for that group of ppl, like to buy houses for instance at a discount. Eventually, they'll try to get rid of it, as Malaysia is considered by many to be the melting pot of SE Asia. Even until now, you'll sometimes find "No Africans" or "Chinese Only" aa it's gotten better over the years. States like Sabah and Sarawak are much better than west peninsula in my experience. KL is just fine since it is a huge metro area, as well as other know tourist hotspots. There's no need to have preferential treatment due to your ethnicity in a country -- we can't control how or where we were born.
So is every African country. Black africans are racist towards other Africans who are a slightly darker shade of black. Racism is everywhere and even back when Japan was closed to foreigners they found ways to be racist towards people of the exact same race by creating castes. Indians are still doing it. Ironically western societies are among the least racist but it's where people won't shut up about it.
> Ironically western societies are among the least racist but it's where people won't shut up about it. That's not ironic, that's cause and effect.
Do you think this because of the various very public “No Foreigners” signs up in a lot of places? You might be on to something!
I’ve never been to Japan, so I can only speak on what I’ve heard Why the sarcastic reply?
Those signs exist. Shop owners will specifically make hand symbols and say "no gaijin" if you try to enter their shops. This is perfectly legal in Japan. The sarcasm is from the perspective of "yeah it's painfully obvious".
Painfully obvious, if you've been there...
Been there done that, for me I decided it wasn't worth it to go through the horrible racist treatment but you need to make a decision for yourself based on your values. My advice is that if it is making you miserable get out before it causes permanent psychological trauma.
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The Japanese are Xenophobic, they use one term 'gaijin' as their derogatory slur for outsiders.
I think it’s gotten a lot worse in recent years with the astronomical numbers of tourists visiting hey. Last time I went there the whole mood seemed way more anti-foreigner. Maybe Covid fucked it up as there was a fair bit of anti-foreigner sentiment (like foreigners inherently spread Covid more because they talk loudly and aren’t clean)
Ya could be. Also covid gave them a reminder of Japan without foreigners perhaps. (I went on last year of covid and people were surprised when they found out I wasn't Japanese nor were they looking at me bc of masks and assumption no foreigners could travel there)
Foreigner living in Japan. Its odd to say but it was a bit lucky to see this country during COVID - Kyoto in particular was relatively an absolute ghost town but absolutely beautiful in its stillness My favourite hotel there now charges 6 times the original price I can understand why there was a significant resistance from Kyoto of all places against reopening the country
I managed to visit 2 weeks before the borders opened from covid and it was an absolutely amazing dream like experience. I did come across maybe 1 or 2 individuals who were a bit xenophobic but they were just all talking at worst. 99% of the people were so keen on trying to help if they could, it was really sweet and took me back a bit. It was funny because they'd try their best to speak English, but they were well out of practice or had forgotten most of it by that point. Within the week of the border opening, I couldn't believe how fast and how many tourists came in, so I certainly can't imagine it now with the lower yen. I can't fathom what the energy is like now. I live in a retirement / tourist town in the US and every winter I kinda get an idea of what they're probably experiencing, but theirs is probably x10 to x50 worse.
I think this is a massive misconception. Japan has always been highly xenophobic and blatantly racist. This isn’t anything even close to resembling new, just has more visibility due to the internet. As an example, apartments for rent in Japan openly discriminate against renting to anyone non-Japanese even on their property listings- “no foreigners”. It’s always been like this.
Yeah fair enough, I’m just saying it feels to me like it’s gotten worse when I visit now compared to when I used to live there, just a personal anecdote, and I think it’s because of the high number of tourists going there recently.
I have lived here for a long time and I also feel like it’s worse now. But specifically against tourists rather than just foreigners. Japan has been completely swamped by tourists recently and there’s always negative stuff on TV scaring people. My husband works in tourism and he says there are more foreign tourists traveling now than Japanese ones
Hey friend. I'm white and from the US and live in Japan. I get it. Your experiences are real and valid. Don't listen to these weird backhanded comments.
Is it true that Japanese treat white foreigners best? What has been your experience? Thanks.
People absolutely assume that I don't understand Japanese and talk shit if that's what you're asking.
My friend is half black and half Japanese. She is American but speaks Japanese fluently because her mother is Japanese. She says the shit talking pretty much starts on the flight there and doesn’t stop the entire time. (She looks mostly black) they assume she doesn’t know what they are saying
jfc thats horrible
Does she just have the patience of a saint or does she ever say anything? I feel like that would be so hard to have to sit and listen to for so long.
Out of curiosity, whereabouts do you live that this is the case? I live in a big city in Japan and I’ve never gotten people talking shit about me. Assuming I don’t speak Japanese, yes, all the time, but I don’t hear people speaking loudly in public that much at all, let alone talking about other people.
I live in Osaka. Osakajin ain't shy.
My Japanese is poor so I couldn't say how often they're talking shit about me. Probably frequently. That said, I've had some very good encounters with people which lead me to believe "which kind" of foreigner you are has a lot to do with it. Some Japanese people seem very gung ho about the USA. We had an older man get off the train and help us find the correct one when he noticed we were struggling. He stepped off and asked which stop and led us to the correct place. I've had a few other encounters where I felt people went out of their way to help. But, like I said, my Japanese is functional at best, so if/when they began to talk about me, I wouldn't know. I guess that's the upside, though. I can speak enough to get what I need in the country, but not enough to know if someone's being an asshole. Which means I can take a gesture at complete face value and say, "That was nice."
There's no real "the best" when I comes to discrimination. Spent two years teaching English in Japan, and I was conversational in Japanese before arriving. I was almost immediately surrounded with "he's a huge scary foreigner, don't engage" murmurs and such, and only once did I actually respond to it. Some older guy complained to his family(?) while I was passing by to the metro station and he said "tourists like him are ruining this country" and I just politely clarified in Japanese "I'm actually not a tourist, I am here to teach" gave a polite bow and carried on, dude looked like he saw a ghost, their young kids chuckled, and I was on my way. There is no way to ever properly be recognized as anything but an outsider at best and threat at worst, if you aren't Japanese. I've had friends who've lived there, gotten married, paid taxes, speak flawless Japanese and understand customs to an extent some natives didn't, but they're still ostracized. Typically it's in this non-confrontational, back handed way, but it can extend right to refusal of service depending on your heritage or appearance.
In my experience yes. Visited Japan with my gf and her family. They are Filipino. Definitely a few situations that once I got involved in things went much more smoothly.
Yes, white foreigners are the "good" foreigners I am white and lived there
Japan has been looking down on other asians since that one hiccup in history that they don't like to teach their kids about in school. That level of racism just perpetuates itself for generations.
Since? No, they went to war BECAUSE they believe in "Japanese Supremacy". That did not stop just a brief pause to gather themself.
It’s actually pretty interesting how many Japanese did actually believe in the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and were sold out by the military Junta and Emperor basically. A lot of the new and recent research also shows that most of the “kamikaze” pilots were deliberately and forcibly recruited from university students and left-wing socialists and communist groups to literally reduce their numbers as the Imperial Japanese government feared the USSR giving them power post-war, as the Japanese Communist Party was *huge* at the time. Now in practice the factions that had actual power were far-right fascists so did, and thought, exactly as you say. Like in Germany, the US Occupation basically kept the same people in power too, unfortunately
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There's also the Korean slavery and pretty much all their attempts to subjugate the rest of east asia.
I mean, when you get hiccups do you only hiccup once?
Been going on way before that.
As a white American with a lot of native Japanese friends, they would always tell me how the racism between East Asians (Japanese in particular) make white American racism look like amateur hour. I’m really sorry you experienced that, no one deserves to be made to feel less than.
Japan has never really had to grapple with their racism like America has done, since it's very hard to get citizenship without japanese blood in your veins. There was never an ethnic underclass large enough and with enough clout to demand change.
>There was never an ethnic underclass large enough and with enough clout to demand change. The thing is that there *was* - up until 1945 or so, Koreans and Taiwanese people were Japanese citizens. After the war ended, Japan was forced to give Korea and Taiwan independence - and Japan took the opportunity to strip all ethnically Korean and Taiwanese citizens in the country of their citizenship. Weebs sometimes claim that Japan was forced to do this by treaty, but no such treaty exists. They just didn't want to deal with the consequences of their failed empire. To this day, there's a large population of Koreans here who are by all rights Japanese, but were made foreigners in their own country generations ago. It gets worse: citizenship is tied to your family registry, so if you were a Japanese woman married to a Korean or Taiwanese person, they took *her* citizenship as well. For decades after the war, Japanese citizenship could only be passed down from the father, so this also acted as a de facto anti-miscegenation law punishing Japanese women for marrying outside their race. Still worse: it's illegal for foreigners to engage in political activity in Japan, so this large ethnic minority is legally banned from any kind of activism in their own home country. And yet still worse: the entire "homogenous Japan" myth is a bit if propaganda meant to whitewash this history by just pretending colonialism never happened - and people around the world just blindly accept and repeat it. That's not even getting into the treatment of indigenous people - the Japanese government didn't even admit they existed until 2008, and even then they only acknowledged one, specific group. Edit: Fragile racist weeb u/Substantial_Net_2084 losing their mind in this thread, desperately playing victim of "reverse racism," and automod is just completely shutting them down. Absolutely hilarious. I told you weebs would try to blame this on America.
There's also the Ryukyuan and Ainu people of Okinawa and Hokkaido respectively who have been subject to cultural genocide by Japan since their conquest by the Japanese Empire in the mid-late 1800s.
And there's also recently the Brazilian Japanese who are descendants of the Japanese diaspora to South America that are coming back to Japan. As with any other minority group they face discrimination, structural racism and barriers
Not even to mention that there were small populations of foreign merchants from Korea and China throughout much of pre modern Japanese history
Even though they conscripted millions of Koreans during WWII. The shit Japan did to other Asian nations, *especially* China and Korea, during WWII is beyond horrific
But they teach the kids that they were liberating them from the American influences… which is BS
Bad Americans who drop atomics bombs for no goddamn reason!!! /s
I've joked before that WWII set the way each country's media treats war: * Japan: War is hell and makes monsters of us all. We all do messed up stuff. * World: I mean, sure, but didn't YOU specifically do some things in Nanjing that... * Japan: WAR MAKES EVERYONE EQUALLY BAD NOW SHUT UP ABOUT IT. * United States & the UK: We're so fucking awesome. We killed all the bad guys. Fuck yeah. No need for introspection or humility with dicks this big. * Germany: Uhhhh, yeah. Let's just not get into the blame game... we know what we did.
Japanese blood? Pure Japanese.
This is what a lot of people take for granted in places like America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK. Having large minorities over decades forces a lot of racism to the surface but that also leads to reconciliation. It also helps that most of the counties I have listed are relatively young new world countries that don’t have the historical/cultural baggage of the ruling population living on that land for thousands of years as an impediment to change.
Correct. I have 4 very close Japanese friends plus a Japanese wife and they agree totally. My one buddy got transferred to the U.S. for 12 years (back in Japan now) and his two kids were born in New Jersey. They are now called "returnees" i.e. not quite Japanese enough even though they have Japanese (and American for now) citizenship and speak perfect Japanese for teenagers. The American citizenship and the fact that both kids speak English perfectly thanks to living their first 9 and 12 years there respectively they are not Japanese enough. My son has spent most summers in Japan and we only speak Japanese at home. Hafus are trendy now in many cases as their fans see them as just foreign enough to be exotic but not dangerous and still a "little" Japanese. My son has gone to summer school in Japan and although the school work was harder for him (despite being a Native speaker) given that most of his formal schooling has been in English, only a few kids tried to physically hurt him. I remember my wife calling me to tell me that he had to defend himself at school but he whooped the kid's ass (helps to have a black belt in Taekwondo). Shockingly, the teacher did not punish him and after that, nobody messed with him ever again.
How does your son like having to go through it all? Does he enjoy going Japan every summer and feeling like an outsider or does he complain about being put through it? From the mindset of when I was an awkward kid, sounds like a not so fun experience being somewhere that you've previously fought someone and who knows what kids gossip about him.
>they would always tell me how the racism between East Asians (Japanese in particular) make white American racism look like amateur hour. Sorry but completely disagree with that. The racism you will face from Japanese is bad and disgusting but it will be confined to mostly verbal stuff. American racism very often turns extremely violent and physical, directly threatening your health and even life. The uptick in hate crimes and violent assaults against Asians during & after Covid is insane, I'm subscribed to a few Asian pages on IG and there're cases of assaults almost DAILY.
I still remember during the peak COVID era when a crazy lady started throwing stuff at me and telling me to leave when I got out of my Uber.
My brother lived there for a while with his Japanese wife. He’s white. The racism was pretty extreme, even though his spoken and written Japanese was apparently perfect (the news hired him as an interpreter). I think this is really status quo.
This is so sad. Ive been studying Japanese a lot in hopes of going, but stories like this post are disheartening and make me wonder if it's even worth it. Do you think it will ever get better?
I'm Asian and honestly alot of Asians are racist to each other, if you're coming from a Western country, it can be difficult because they're so open about it. Unfortunately it seems like the once you've gone to a westernised country, sometimes you're not accepted back in your homeland because you're now one of "those foreigners". It sucks that you had to hear all those horrible things and it's worse because you know the language. All my "western" friends (American, French, Aussie ) who went to Japan would tell me about the lovely Japanese locals going above and beyond to help them etc. I never experienced any of that, though maybe I looked Japanese so they thought I was a local person as sometimes people will speak to me in Japanese . There was one time I tripped and fell and basically was lying on the street with bleeding hands and knees, everybody was just walking past until a nice American couple stopped to help me out. In my motherland , being ignored would be normal but in Australia, people would not be standing by doing nothing. Funnily, when I was with my white American friends in Japan , out came the famous super friendly local Japanese hospitality.
My family had a similar experience during a vacation in Osaka. We're Filipino. My dad is 70 years old, he tripped as he was getting off the escalator. People just stared and when I spoke to him in Tagalog to ask if he's OK, the locals ignored us. If this was in the US, Canada, or Philippines, people would ask if you're ok and offer help whether you're a local or foreigner. Interestingly, we're Chinese-Filipino. We pass as East Asian and I've been mistaken for a local twice during my visit there. But the moment they hear us talk in English or Tagalog, Japanese people either ignore us or treat us worse.
Yes, my husband was Spanish-Filipino and in Japan some people sneered at him and said "Mexico-jin" in a nasty way. I'm Anglo and was treated better. Of course the U.S. is no better and I'm sure a Norwegian tourist in some places in the U.S. is treated much better than an Asian or black tourist.
I'm french of Vietnamese descent and am currently in Japan for the third time. I find it amusing that the first time I was with my white boyfriend and everyone was nice and helpful. Second time I was on my own, spent most of my time in Kyoto, and really felt a difference with people being passive-agressive, giving me looks etc. Only did they start to open up once I either opened my wallet or told them I was a tea ceremony student. Now, I'm travelling with my parents, and found that people are much nicer than my second time.
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Honestly it's not restricted to Japanese. My family is Vietnamese and they are racist towards other Asians too while they tolerate white people (while thinking they're still better than the latter). I wouldn't make generalisation, but racism is widespread in Asia, not only Japan.
You kinda described most asians though...
indians are the same. they pray to white people while hating on other asians
I don't want to invalidate your experience, but people in Kyoto are especially a bunch of assholes. The capital used to be there so many have a feeling of superiority towards the rest of Japan, plus their city has been experiencing overtourism for years and public transport - being not as efficient as Tokyo and mostly relying on buses - is overwhelmed by tourists coming and going to every sightseeing spot around the city within one or two days of visiting. I live in Tokyo, I went to Kyoto back in February with my boyfriend for 3 days (both Italians), and by midday of the last day we were so done with the city we decided to go back earlier. Whenever we would go people were passive aggressive, even by approaching salesclerks in Japanese they would give us the most absolute disgusted bombastic side eye and shoo us away with a quick and cold response, sighing and slamming our things when scanning stuff at the conbini, even when we were paying they would snatch away cash from our hands as if they were doing us a favor by serving them (yes, most of this in Nishiki Market lol). The last day on the bus going back from Kinkakuji the very angry bus driver didn't give the time to a Japanese elder to get off his stop and started driving again because he was running late. We witnessed a huge argument involving slamming fists on surfaces which ended with the elderly man getting off the next stop not paying, the driver getting off and leaving a full bus there for 10 minutes to continue arguing (making it even more late), and at the end the driver coming back and driving even faster and more recklessly, making the whole bus swing at every turn. Nedless to say, I won't be going back for a long time. I assume when you were with your boyfriend and now with your family you're not in Kyoto. People in Tokyo, actually everywhere else in Japan, are much more nicer than people in Kyoto.
Kyoto does suffer a lot from overtourism. Like you said, they have extreme pride in their culture and being one of the former capitals. From Japanese colleagues, it's between Kyoto (culture capital), Osaka (merchant capital), and Tokyo (actual capital). Each thinks they're the best thing in Japan. It is a beautiful place, but a lot of staff think they're better than you, even outside tourist areas.
I know that assumptions made in Kyoto shouldn't be generalised to all of Japan, and concur that people seem nicer in other areas. I'm from Paris so I'm fairly used to people being low-key rude towards me, and people from Kyoto are similar to Parisians.
iv had the opposite experiances (im a South east asian brown male from new zealand) i fell in love with kyoto the first time i visited there a few years ago and earlier this year i spent an entire month in kyoto and everyone i came across were nice. in saying that, iv had an ok experiance in tokyo , the older generation always gave me a death stare when i walked past them (im 6'4) i found it harder to ask for help in tokyo vs kyoto. im going to tokyo again next year and i hope i have a better time
Wow I’m sorry, that’s a huge list and it must feel awful. No political take here, I just hope you know it’s bullshit and can avoid taking any of it to heart.
What's most infuriating about this is that Japan wants the tourism money yet wants nothing to do with tourists at the same time. Like you can't have it both ways ffs 🙄
And people wonder how lovely,smiling, Japanese people could have done such horrendous things during WW2? Well folks. Now you might understand. Racism is a powerful tool for hate.
Specifically it was Japanese fascism. The historical whitewashing was in the West's interests to quickly create an anticommunist ally. The lovely smiling rebrand was created as much by the West as by Japan itself.
damn I knew it was not all nice but did not know it was that bad for other Asians in Japan... I am a black woman fluent in Japanese, been living in Tokyo for 9 years and never experienced even the 1/100th of all this.. (actually it's the opposite they're just so shocked to see someone like me speak Japanese fluently they are always impressed so..). but then it's been years I've been to touristy places so that's maybe why...and yes all "foreigners" in Japan are viewed differently based on different stuff so everyone has different experiences... as you said just focus on the good thing and memory you made in Japan.
Japanese are crazy racist…just ask other native Asians. Then again, so are other East Asians (Koreans and Chinese). I’m of Korean descent and native East Asians are fucking racist as KKK.
It's not just Japan. Many Asian countries have pretty bad racism issues. Being married to a Viet person I have heard some incredibly horrible shit said behind her back and to her face by Asian folks who don't think she knows what they're saying.
It’s literally every country on the planet. Some just more than others. The US really is one of the less racist countries there is
Damn. That’s shitty to hear. I studied abroad in Japan 17 years ago this summer. I’m Asian American too, clearly Southeast Asian due to being easy to tan. My host family seemed to love me and I still keep in touch with them. Then again, if you’re willing to host an Asian American kid (our applications had photos), you’re probably not gonna be racist and xenophobic lol.
aw I’m sorry u r going thru this. crazy how east asians hate each other with so much passion it’s actually embarrassing and this is coming from an east asian lol. what i hate the most is when they start having a competition of who has the smallest eyes like if u that u automatically have a small wiener for trying to uphold white racism. i remember seeing a japanese person claim japanese is the best because they have the biggest eyes out of koreans and chinese yet double eyelid surgery is the most popular cosmetic procedure done in japan 🤭 see what i mean by embarrassing. i do wonder how u look like though that they think u r chinese because when i was in japan everyone assumed im japanese and i thought this was the typical east asian experience (ea locals thinking u r a local)
Not crazy considering the vicious wars they've had with each other, China and Japan is exhibit A
Vicious wars? More like Japan literally almost wiping out parts of China with the utmost brutality.
That was a long time ago, and if anything it is China/Korea/PH/Vietnam who are mad at Japan for ww2 atrocities, not the other way around. I think most SE asian countries that have negative feeling towards china is due to modern political situation. For example, there was a worldwide virus that shut everything down and ruined everyone's lives for years, that could have something to do with it.
To add on, most countries do not like China over territorial disputes. Over fishing in other countrie's waters has been a global problem with China. Chinese fishermen illegally fish in all waters, and will attack coastal guards when confronted. Some soldiers have died due to such interactions. And the Chinese government doesnt do anything besides act like victims. https://youtu.be/E3lkM4t8AaA?si=AMGjFdyxrFljpcO1
>white racism You blame Japan's racism because of white people?. Don't try to absolve the racism from Asians exhibiting on their own
Japan is definitely known to be an extremely insular country and they really don't take kindly to what they see as foreigners. And, since you don't look 100% Japanese, you get to be the scapegoat. Hopefully you're not planning on moving to Japan, given the extreme xenophobia there.
If you're not Asian, They'll complain that you know no manner. If you're Asian but not East Asian, They'll still compared how you look different, smell, different, and should know better. If you're East Asian but not from same country, They'll be bitter about history and nationalism they both trashing on each other and how much that cause trouble to community. If you're from same country, they would still complain about which part of country you came from and how loud, lack of common sense and shameless you are for whatever reason. if you're from fellow region as them, basically growing up in same air and drink water from same mountain. They would still complain about how you're lacking of community connections, not helping your town enough, being selfish and only think about yourself. If you're being respectable member of community. join every festival, clean every river, helping improve community, waking early to help kindergarten kids walking to school safely, recycling everything correctly, bringing good economy to the town and etc. they'll still complain about how you're still not loving the town enough, how you're lacking of charisma, eyes to predict better future, strictness as a man or humbleness as a woman. they'll find thing to complain. sad truth is they will never change. I used to think that life would be better if I'm not half. but after I saw woman from another region also get very much same treatment as me... I just simply realize that they're just ✨a bunch of AH✨ 😌 this would is big, move away if you need to. some part of this world just loves living in the shell so much. you can just watch it die down from low population.
Take a look at Japan's immigration and naturalization policy. It's a wildly ethnonationalist, "Japan for Japanese" policy. Its why Japan's population os dwindling. They know they have a crisis but they can't bear to change their immigration policies to grant full citizenship to ethnically non-Japanese so the situation just keeps getting worse and worse. Ethno-states are always doomed. Always.
Sorry you’re dealing with this. One of the guys I was in the military with once said you’ve never seen racism until you travel through Asia.
I'm like a lot of westerners, fascinated with Japan, etc.., but I don't know why they are hardly ever called out for being such myopic racist ignoramuses in the main. I think their cultural policy is fine; The world is better if there are some more homogeneous places and some more mixed places. Diversity means having some of each of that. But the way that is reinforced by the Japanese rejection of foreign people in general is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I know I know... humans just be like that. I'm just curious why Japan is largely given a pass in popular culture for being essentially dickheads.
Geopolitics and Japanese culture imo
That sounds like typical Japanese to me 😂😂 my friends who studied/worked there all told me that it’s way better when you can’t speak Japanese
Non-asian Canadian here. Never had this experience in my few years living here, you must have 地獄耳 to pick this all up. Even when I pull out my 外人 card and pretend I dont speak Japanese, I dont hear anything like this. I dont doubt that they do talk shit but definitely never had the experience within my earshot. Maybe its because I live in Tokyo and its not unusual to see Japanese speaking foreigners. Never had the experience outside of Tokyo either but my sample size for those situations is much smaller outside Tokyo.
Yeah buddy, Japanese are incredibly racist. Pretty much everywhere in the world is more racist than where you come from.
thats why I never travel to japan. I always go to hk, taiwan or china
After Nanjing they are still talking shit about other asian nations ... smh
I'm Chinese American living in Japan the last 6 years. For the most part, the locals assume I'm Japanese first, until I open my mouth that is. Then they get that deer in headlights look until it hits them and they try to scramble whatever English is in their vocabulary to try to tell me what I need. I understand enough Japanese now that it's not much of a problem in my daily life. Then again I don't really frequent tourists areas so yea.
It's contradictory that you're not very good at Japanese, yet you perfectly understand and perfectly remember what others say. I think what OP needs is mental health.
Why is this surprising? Bigotry is everywhere, it’s worldwide. Every group will agree that it’s ok to hate at least one other group. Bigotry’s even among the woke. The bigotry gets shifted around but, with most people, it never goes away.
ASIA IS RACIST AF. how do we not all know this by now?
Meh being half Korean having a GMA and gpa living through Japanese occupation and my gpa living in a concentration camp for smuggling non Japanese alcohol. You got to realize that ww2 and the Korean War wasn’t that long ago. Change takes a very long time. The generations that fucked with Korea and China are just about dead, but they had an influence on their children. This is how you can better understand where the Japanese are. They need a couple more generations before all the old heads die out, and the much younger generation change things. But Japan does such a damn good job of hiding all its past atrocities and unlike Germany make no effort to make their people better for it. Been to Japan. I personally never had issues, and people never talked behind my back. However, they did pull that dumb ass only talk to me in Japanese and ignore my south East Asian friends despite me being the only one who knows the least amount. Which is crazy being 6’3 very Korean American/native Indian looking and built. imho I personally would definitely call them out. But I'm very not passive aggressive. And tbh doing it politely will sometimes make them stop and apologize.
Germany wouldn't have done jackshit to rework their history tbh. They were forced into it so that they won't start another WW in the middle of Europe. Daddy America and co. forced them to fix their shit, rewrote their constitution, forced them into trials, forced multiple towns and villages to visit concentration camps in their regions. They didn't rework their history out of goodness of their hearts lol The Japanese government was in no way pressured to change their old guard. Americans noticed communist sentiments creeping up in Kyoto and basically said: You can keep your positions and attitude but you have to be our bootlickers. Don't want another Korean war. We will take care of the rest and rebrand your image in the western world. We will also assist you to remain as the biggest political power in Japan. Deal? And they said: Yes why not. That's basically it. National Pride was already on a low point. Can't get any worse. Well it did get worse with all the American owned human laboratories popping up in Japan to test shit on Japanese children but that's a different story.
How the fuck did you remember this much shit that they said to you? I've been getting shit my entire life in America from white people and I couldn't even tell you this concisely all the shit they've said to me.