do it on sept 26 and ill be there, straight from london lol
FRJ, most likely but dont put me down yet cuz its kinda early and i dont know what that weekend is looking like yet. I will let you know before the deadline though
hey guys, im sure this question has been asked many times…
is japan really that racist towards other asian races? i heard white people and black people are adored in japan though.
how bad is it? really?
It’s terrible. The other day this one japanese person told me “to go back to Canada you dirty jew.”
I couldn’t believe she would say that in front of her grandkids.:nono: Every Japanese person I have met has been racist as fuck. Especially towards Inuits. <----they’re asian right?
come here and experience it yourself. lol
i met mostly nice people, though i cant deny that theres probably racism here and there(like any other places in the world), im just not a fan of making a blanket statement because i know better that its not true.
oh and im asian btw
no we are not racist! it is not our fault all other races are inferior and should worship the pubes that I shed. God had a master plan for us, but the Germans had to fuck it up and lose to some damn yankees and yapee brits.
What other race has brought such wonderful things such as; Nintendo, tentacle pron, Daigo, sushi, pocky, ganguros, low quality weed, 2chan, arcades so thick with cig smoke you can draw pictures in them, pachinko, school girls, girls with hairy bushes like chewbacca’s scrotum, etc.? Thats right NO ONE. We will forever live in infamy while all the inferior races will be wiped out when Oda Nobunaga rises from his grave and exterminates all you worthless peons by crushing you with his manly mustache.
Anybody who calls us racist must be a Chink-a-dink. Cause ALL Chinese people have AIDs, SARS, Leprosy, and possibly whooping cough. Thats right! ALL 1.3+ BILLION of them. Damn I sure hope God sheds a tear for them and they all drown in said tear which is made out of molten magma and fat balding mens’ sperm.
but those Viet gooks are sure nice people 
BTW: if you didnt know all asians are racists toward other asians.
racist :mad:
If we ever meet I am going to punch you in the teeth. Like, really hard man!
Racism is only a serious issue if you want an apartment or hooker. Besides that it’s so subtle that you won’t even care until you’ve been here for years.
so what you guys are saying is, racism over there is no worse than say, in USA or Canada?
ok, now i have to assess if i really want to teach English over there 
no jokes though, last night i was talking to my buddy who had visited japan. he was hella bitter about the racism in japan because he said he went to 5 different massage parlours and they all said “japanese people only”. then he kept ranting to me about how racist japan is hahaha
why your buddy even wanted to go to a “massage parlour” is beyond me. only reason to go is if you got bored of regular girls.
and Calibur since you called me racist you must be chinese and therefore know kung-fu. I guess this will be the age old battle of kung-fu vs ninja magiks. I can summon a dolphin with lasers coming out of its cock. What have you!?
I would think that every massage parlour in Korea and China would at least react similarly… no? (Idk about Thailand though)
This is actually a complex question, which deserves a detailed answer. You might want to get something to drink and get comfortable. No doubt people here have suffered from forms of xenophobia/racism. I know I have. Don’t let it spoil your opinion of Japan and Japanese people, because there are a
lot of nice people here. However, the way that Japanese culture works
can really come across as racist to those that don’t understand the
culture. It’s not easy being Japanese.
Keep in mind that Japan is basically 1/2 the population of the US put
into a living space of about 1/4 of the size of California.
There is racism here. Period. However, not ALL the things that
Japanese do that are considered racist are actually INTENTIONAL
racism. Just ignorance. (Let’s not get into an argument that racism
= ignorance, you know what I mean by the distinction.)
Two examples of Japanese “racism” that aren’t really racist:
One. Japanese assuming every foreigner is American. Japanese can’t
tell who is from which country. I admit I’m bored with the tired
response/excuse, “Can you tell who is Chinese? Japanese? Korean?”
(Yes, I can actually.) America is simply the most familiar country
for Japanese.
Two. Clubs/Public Baths, etc. that are “Japanese Only”. There can be
racist reasons for someone to put up this sign but it’s safe to say
that the majority of these signs are because a couple of foreigners
that came before you made other people uncomfortable by being
jackasses or whatever. It could definitely be possible (and is) that
the other customers are racist but 9 times out of 10, the
establishment putting up this sign is just wanting to keep his regular
clientele happy because they are his bread and butter.
Japanese like to say they are not xenophobic, just shy. But they are
still hugely ignorant of the world around them despite all their
travel shows, etc. and like to use the ‘island nation’ excuse. The
reason why you will never reach all Japanese is because a big part of
the culture is "sweeping bad things under the rug to preserve harmony"
that so they won’t admit a lot of things.
Why do Japanese people do things to strangers things they would never
do to each other? They have a strong distinction between ‘uchi’
(being on the inside) and ‘soto’ (being on the outside). If you want
to be taken seriously, you have to be uchi. If not, you won’t get
much consideration. If you are soto, what you get is basically
neglect. You are invisible. Foreigners are soto most of the time.
Even Japanese who have lived abroad for and extended period of time
are soto.
Japan is uchi, abroad is not, so you can act as you please outside
Japan. Japanese considers their homogeneity to be one of their
biggest strengths. Japanese have always lived closed to each other,
so any idea of individuality, of not relying on another person has
been completely removed from their psyche. Living in Japan, you
consistently experience concern. People are always looking after you.
You can’t get away from it.
Leave your headlights on in the daytime and every single oncoming car
will flash at you to tell you. At the train platform, you get a
steady stream of announcements telling you: Where the train is
currently, when it will arrive, how crowded it is, how to stand back
in order to avoid any accidents, whether to hurry and get on board or
wait for the next one - if you have to wait you might as well finish
reading your newspaper, but remember to fold it like this so you don’t
block anyone with your elbows, move away from the doors to that others
can move in and out, ‘the next stop is ___’, Please don’t leave
anything behind, etc. etc.
Announcements like this are constant and everywhere. What happens is
that Japanese are so conditioned by this that they are unable to think
for themselves unless they are given options. Want proof? Do you
work at a restaurant? Want to make a Japanese tourist’s head explode?
Ask him what he wants to drink first before he even gets to see a
menu.
Toilet paper packaging tells you how to open it and what to do with it
after you’ve opened it. You get congratulated for doing the simplest
tasks. Everyone is considered middle class and accommodated/hand held
through their formative years. Japanese are brought up to care and
feel deeply for each other but feel they can’t do it for everybody so
the uchi/soto divide is to break it down into manageable portions,
like a type of self-preservation. Japanese cannot live on their own.
You have to be careful that you’re uchi with the right people. The
ins and outs of being Japanese are not easy, especially for Japanese.
To Japanese, all non-Japanese are gaijin who are not and can never be
the same as them. Where we say, “Why can’t they be like us?”, they
say “Why can’t we be like them?”, dye their hair, wear coloured
contacts and bleach their nipples. As you know, Japanese have a love
affair with America. They love travel and English can be found in
many places and things here. Because of all the research, studying,
and visiting, the Japanese think they know the rest of the world
better than any foreigner will ever know them. Therefore anyone who
speaks Japanese and shows an appreciation of Japanese culture is
called a ‘henna gaijin’ (weird foreigner). They are convinced that
foreigners will never know them, but if they keep at it, they will
know the foreigners.
Japanese don’t do direct questions or answers. Any question asked is
looked at as a call for action. If you ask a Japanese how they see
themselves, 99.99% chance you won’t get an immediate straight answer.
This is often misinterpreted as a superiority complex.
There are so many cultural variables, such as Uchi/Soto
(inside/outside), On(obligation), Tatemae/Honne(official position/true
self), that are ingrained into Japanese from birth that they get the
mindset of, “Why should things be defined if everything is understood
without being explained?” For this reason, if you really want to make
a Japanese want to jump off a bridge, keep asking him/her “Why?”.
Being asked to define/explain something, such as what it is to be
Japanese, is taken like a confrontation. Many Japanese go their whole
lives never asking themselves this question. Basically, Japanese are
trained to read each other’s minds. What I mean by this is that it’s
not necessary to have or express an opinion. In fact, it’s better for
a Japanese woman to be called ugly than opinionated. This has been
misinterpreted by non-Japanese to mean that Japanese women are
completely subservient and are content to come second to males. (This,
and the whole ‘panties in the vending machine’ thing is so old and
over) A direct translation of ‘opinionated’ does not even exist.
Because preferences are rarely voiced, you have to be a mind-reader in
Japan. The best example of unspoken mutual understanding is
"yoroshiku". I’ve seen it translated a hundred different ways -
“Regards”, “Please do whatever you can for me”, etc. It’s much deeper
than that. How I would translate yoroshiku would be, “I understand
that you have understood what I want you to do. I leave it up to you
to finish the task, expecting it to be done in the way I want it to be
done. I thank you for understanding me and agreeing to take the
trouble to do the task.” Japanese are masters of deliberately
misunderstanding each other to save face. Things that might hurt
people’s feelings or cause controversy are better left unsaid. It’s
important to save face and to save face of others.
I could go on forever explaining cultural ideas such as enryo,
nemawashi, etc. but this is already well into tl;dr territory. Everyone is
part of some group and the group comes first. What is generally
considered racism is the fact that people see these cultural factors
everywhere in Japan but do not experience them because they are soto
and so these rules do not apply.
Japanese act humble and downplay any praise they are given but deep
down they are proud at heart and want to be seen as hard-working
people, up to every task. But their ideal is to be super-clever in
secret. If you read Japanese literature you’ll see that it’s all
about human frailty and change. Japanese are especially attracted to
elusiveness, hence the ‘rockstar treatment’ of foreigners at first.
People who stay here a long time feel "Fuck this, I can’t believe
after everything I do, Japanese are still so racist to me, I’ll never
be accepted even though I speak the language and respect the culture’.
This is because fleeting things are beautiful, lasting things are
not. This people are just in the background to Japanese. Japanese
have centuries of history which they revere but they are not tied to
tradition because that same history basically defines flexibility.
That’s why Japanese are so crazy about cherry blossoms. Every spring,
the beautiful petals that never last long enough, drop to the ground
and are swept away without a trace. This doesn’t mean that Japanese
are easy to let go, in fact they are extremely sentimental, they just
accept change because they know that nothing should last for ever.
This is why you get new products and innovation and constantly
changing fads.
What’s my point? There are racist Japanese, perhaps more so than
anyone else, but don’t be discouraged to come here. A lot of things
that seem racist are just different thinking/different culture. Japan
definitely has it’s fair share of shitheads but a little understanding
goes a long way.
I know what you’re thinking,
“Whyyyyy?”
Japanese have what’s called a “Gaijin Complex”. Apparently it’s better to be a gaijin and do everything like foreigners do. So, thats why you are treated like a rockstar here and it’s almost like people are ashamed to be “asians” here.?The general consensus is that it all comes from post-war treatment from the GHQ and I think it makes sense. Japanese had to change their views/values completely (forced by foreigners of course) so that a little nation like this would never ever ever everrrrrrr turn against America again and if they do, they will get crushed like they did in 1945. It’s kinda sad that after 65 years its still there. Also I do think that Japanese ARE proud of themselves and want to think that they are not THAT bad…but it’s almost like they’re not allowed to think or be proud of themselves, if that makes any sense.
They lost the war at the end but before WWII, to win against Russia and China that time, was pretty amazing I think. I mean look at the size of these countries compared to Japan! So there was definitely some Yamato-damashii there. Japan must have had something to win and I admit that, but Japanese or I could never say this because if anyone does, Japan gets shit on from all those asian countries that Japan colonised in the past. I personally think Japan is a big pair of titties from being the “loser of WWII” to the strongest economy in Asia currently. I do have much respect for those who literally worked their ass off to make Japan what it is now but a lot of people feel these things can’t be said, again, because of other asian countries. So I feel that Japan is stuck in the middle of “Americans” and “other Asian nations” and could never satisfy both of course and chose to be just “weak” as in “do whatever they ask us to do” kinda way. If Koreans say Japan has to apologize, they do it even though Japan has done formally apologized a loooooooooooong time ago and so many times since then, it’s never ending.
So what Japanese had decided was that… “Fuck it, we could never satisfy anyone outside so nevermind them. Lets just exclude them from deep inside our culture so we can have our little world.”
I could be completely wrong.
:lol:
ohhhh wow wintermute hahaha that is the longest response i’ve ever gotten
thanks for that. i learned a lot and i understand what you’re saying about it’s not intentional racism. i dunno if my skin is thick enough for that shit.
are you living in japan? what are you doin there?
Wintermute just reminded me that I am a soto japanese :shake: oh well! fuk dem japs! AMERICA FUCK YEAH!
btw China has overtaken Japan for the 2nd biggest economy this year. Japan’s economy is going down with no end in site.
I would be naive/whipped to say that racism does not exist in Japan, but yeah I believe a lot of it is unintended. I want to clarify that because I don’t want to insult any of the SRK family on this board that have experienced genuine racism (myself included) by coming across as implying they don’t know what’s up about racism here, it can be pretty bad indeed.
It’s like the old psychology game where you tell someone to look around the room for a good 2-3 minutes and then get them to close their eyes and ask them a completely out-of-the-blue question like, “list all the green things in the room”. Most people won’t get everything because they weren’t looking for it. Sometimes people see things that aren’t really there and/or miss important things so it’s not always as bad as it seems at first.
I hope the SRK crew can make informed decisions and make the most of their time here whether temporary or permanent. You don’t need to have that much of a thick skin, a lot of this stuff is so subtle you might not even realize it. Basically there are milestones living in Japan depending on how long you stay where you get different realizations, epiphanies, lose yourself and find yourself again, etc.
I know I tend to ramble on too much but there’s so much disinformation out there (cough gaijinpot) that people soak up because it sounds legit. Sorry about that.
I live in Ashiya (??) which is a bit more laid back than other places in Japan. Due to certain ??? (Non-disclosure agreements) I can’t go into detail about what I do but basically I am in the design/engineering field.
Thanks guys for finding my rants useful. Much appreciated.
I’m soto too man, I meant no offense by it. You can be “uchi” with certain groups here. There are many many layers in the uchi/soto dynamic. Besides you’re uchi with the SRK Japan crew. We da best.
I’d like to think I’m somewhat accepted as a (semi?) “uchi” member of Japanese society in Ashiya but as soon as I leave my neighbourhood, right back to soto. It wil always be that way simply because I’m not a native Japanese and therefore I “just wouldn’t understand”.
The difference between citizenship and permanent resident status is you get to vote on which Prime Minister is going to do the least amount of screw-ups. You’re still not “Japanese Japanese”.
This attitude is in everything, even the language. (ie. “chichi/otousan”, “haha/okaasan”, etc.)
So don’t sweat it.
I forsee China making big waves within the next 5-7 years. They’re already buying up everything in Tokyo. Japan needs to get their act together but they are effectively crippled by retarded Prime Ministers. Those that vote basically have to try to guess which party with fuck up the least.
There needs to be some changes. “Yes we KAN?” I dunno, not feeling too confident…
Anyone up for meeting at the Osaka Sega Avion loctest on the 11/12th?
no offense taken wintermute. btw are you of Japanese ethnicity?
my parents immigrated to California right before I was born, so my upbringing was very Japanese; I learned Japanese in conjunction with English, I remember watching recorded VHSs of Doraemon, Ampan-man, Ultraman, and the like, ate traditional Japanese food, went to afternoon Japanese school, saw Japanese TV shows like HEYHEYHEY on the Japanese TV time on the local channel, my moms was a tea ceremony teacher. So I have shades of being very Japanese. Still I turned out to be very American. And therefore my closest friends were Americans of many races, including Americanized Japanese people. I did know a group of Japanese people who were very Japanese but I wasn’t very close with them.
So I find myself more comfortable around “gaijins” and that’s probably the reason why I find my self soto. I don’t think Ive ever called up a Japanese person to hang out, unless its a girl. I’m subconsciously not wanting to be uchi.
But there are many things in my life that I have to get straightened out before all that so I don’t sweat it much! Except for this damn heat!
A question then, do you think Japan would be better off voting directly for their prime minister ala American president style? The politicians would still be as inept I figure, but there would be more accountability and they might try harder to not fuck shit up. I mean Japan is a modern industrialized nation that doesn’t have civil war turmoil like other countries yet we’ve gone through 4+ prime ministers in the past 2 years!? Ridiculous.
Yes, I’ve always thought that the Prime Minister should be directly elected by the people.
I definitely see where you’re coming from and I think a lot of Japanese Americans are the same sometimes. If I think about it, out of all the Japanese who have lived overseas that I know, they don’t have any close friends that are “pure-Japanese” who haven’t lived (not visited, lived) overseas before. They basically hang out with people that have the same upbringings or non-Japanese like me. I also notice that they don’t appear to have close non-Japanese friends who never LIVED out side of their countries. I think that might be the same for many Japanese who have lived overseas???
I guess I want to be uchi in a way, with people I feel close to and so I am uchi with my friends. I think it’s best not to think or even wonder if one is Japanese or non-Japanese or what because I’ve seen those thoughts totally screw with my friend’s heads and get them quite unhealthy mentally.
It’s not my place (or anyone’s IMO) to say, but I don’t think you need to worry about feeling Japanese or non-Japanese, you have both sides and can be proud of both. Your parents are Japanese, you’re Japanese by blood and according to law (Jus sanguinis). You were raised in America, you’re American according to the Constitution (esp. 14th Amendment). You have full irrevocable rights to both identities as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve lived in so many places I don’t have a cultural identity really. But “for the record” I was born in England to English parents, raised in Canada/US and then moved to Japan.
So how bad do Japanese Brazilians have it out there? From what I’m told they’re treated exactly like non-Japanese Asians…
EDIT: for that reason I told people I was Japanese American when I went there.