Please watch the below video.
The Community Page has commented at length on socially-sanctioned exclusionary practices in Japan. However, it has rarely touched upon their quantifiable, longer-term effects. Exclusionism is bad for business. Why? Because non-Japanese residents are not the only ones affected by “no-foreigner” policies. So are visiting representatives of international corporations. This makes for unfavorable overseas impressions, not only of northern Japan (famous for its decade displaying “JAPANESE ONLY” signs), but also of the entire country.
The author of this article, Arudou Debito, explains further, that the extent of this over the past couple of years has reached 12 cities in Japan.
And this was just all over some Germans, Italians, and British men getting a little rowdy in the bars during the World Cup 2002 which had caused the police to appear on the scene. It is believed that the Japanese had wanted to keep foreigners out of shops, restaurants, bars, doctors offices, salons, and the like the whole time and that the World Cup 2002 just gave them the perfect excuse for them to pull this off.
“In Nagoya this year, I was invited to the Suzuka Formula One auto races as a guest of a Western company supporting this event for a long time,” Jackson recalled. “Walking down the street in Nagoya’s nightlife district with senior reps of this company, people on the street passing out flyers to their bars pulled their hands back when they saw us. We even got refused rides in taxis. That’s pretty stupid. What kind of an image is that supposed to create?”Jackson said this company is considering changing its support to the Shanghai Formula One because of this and other ill-feelings incurred.
“And Nagoya is going to be hosting the 2005 Aichi World’s Fair? You’re joking. Just more people to come to Japan and leave with a sour taste,” he said.
Amazing, isn’t it? A WORLD’S FAIR??? A Homogeneous World’s Fair? Oh no, wait a minute. Foreigners can come, but they can’t stay in a hotel, can’t use the public baths, can’t get into any of the shops or attractions, (God forbid they get sick) they can’t get in a hospital anywhere, and can’t use public transportation except for the trains.
Furthermore, it’s not only visitors or residents who feel the alienation. Japan spends millions annually bringing people over on Ministry of Education Scholarships, and through organizations like The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).Just how long does the Japanese government think it can get away with no redresses for discrimination, including a law against racial discrimination? Can it merely coast along on half-measures while prejudicial policies spread nationwide?
As lawsuits rack up involving refusals at a jewelry store, bathhouses, a real estate broker, a bar, and now an optician, the problem is getting worse.
Oh my. I had no idea the problem was getting this bad. I lived in Japan for 6.5 years, and I never once saw anything like this. I am appalled by the recent change, and stunned that this has reached all the way to Tokyo — of all places. Tokyo, the most metropolitan, modernized, and one of the largest cities in the world is beginning to follow suit in slamming the doors on the faces of foreigners. I am so glad I am not there to witness this. I don’t know what I would do. Racism and discrimination is so very sad, and “sad” is an understatement. It actually makes me sick to my stomach to hear what is going on over there.
Granted, I always knew they had no laws over there regarding discrimination. I had always known that, even in Tokyo, foreigners were denied housing in certain apartment complexes. That was a norm that all foreigners had gotten used to over there. If there’s a brawl between a drunken foreign guy and a drunken Japanese guy outside a bar and the police arrive, it’s normal for the police to side with the Japanese guy. We don’t raise our eyebrows over this stuff. It’s Japan. And naturally, we’re there because we want to be there. However, now (gaijin) or non-Japanese people are given the the x-sign with the arms if seen approaching a shop or any place of business in some areas. The hatred spreading is almost surreal.
Look at this:
HAIR SALON KITAMURA (barbershop)
(Wakkanai Minato 1 chome 1-19, Ph 0162-24-5045)
Roy had also been excluded from this place at the door and despite speaking Japanese. I decided to try my luck. The place was open and the proprietor was halfway through a head of hair. He left to come to the door, where he made an X-gesture with his hands. I spoke in Japanese, “Do you refuse foreigners?” (gaikokujin, okotowari desu ka). He paused, surprised that I spoke in Nihongo, and left his X-ed hands up. I repeated the question, and he said “That’s right.” (sou desu), indicating that he understood me. He went back to his head of hair and I stepped outside, thinking it best not to inquire further.
Says I:”What in heaven’s name would make him want to refuse foreigners? Onsens claim a hygiene problem. Regular stores claim a pilfering problem. But what here? People aren’t getting naked and sharing a bath, and the only thing to pilfer would be shampoo and scissors. What goes?” It goes further.” Reported by By ARUDOU DEBITO
And yet another lame excuse for discrimination….
“HIKOKUSAIKA”(”anti-internationalization”):NON-JAPANESE NOW OFFICIALLY SEEN AS PART OF JAPAN’S SOCIAL ILLS AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED IN THE EVENT OF A DISASTER
WIRE:04/09/2000 03:44:00 ET Japan Troops Told ‘Foreigners’ Likely to Loot, Riot
“TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese troops were told on Sunday to target foreigners to prevent looting and rioting in the event of a major earthquake, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said in an address to Ground Self-Defense Force troops that foreigners were likely to riot and commit crimes because of the breakdown in order.
“Atrocious crimes have been committed again and again by sangokujin and other foreigners”, he was quoted as saying.
“We can expect them to riot in the event of a disastrous earthquake.”
The Japanese slang term “sangokujin” means “people from Third World countries” and was used in post World War Two Japan as an insult for residents from the former Japanese colonies of Korea and Taiwan.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials could not be reached immediately for comment due to the weekend holiday.
A fervent nationalist, Ishihara has angered China by doubting its accounts of Japanese wartime atrocities and referring to it by the derogatory term “Shina.”
After the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923, which killed about 100,000 people, unfounded rumors about riots among Tokyo’s Korean residents led to Japanese mobs attacking and killing several hundred Koreans, many of whom were brought to Japan as slave labor.
Thus Japan is starting to feel the tugs of a pluralist, multicultural society. Some degree of social hesitancy is natural. One of our jobs in this society will be helping make the transition smoother–by urging a more representative legal infrastructure and a more tolerant social policy approach. We do this in hopes that the future will herald a better place for everyone–citizen, immigrant, or visitor–to live. More to come.”
Dave Aldwinckle
Sapporo
Oh, okay. Now, I see where the racism is stemming from — the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake. How many years ago was this? The hate continues….
In another article in The Japan Times written again by Arudou Debito, an African American man accompanied by his wife and his African American friend were told by an eyeglass shop owner, “Move to the other side of the street! Don’t touch my store window!”
To read further regarding “information for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan”, I highly recommend Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwincle’s ACTIVISTS’ PAGE
You’d be surprised how much this man has accomplished so far. Also be sure to read up on PHOTOS OF PLACES IN JAPAN WHICH EXCLUDE OR RESTRICT NON-JAPANESE CUSTOMERS
You will get a lot more information here. It’s very interesting. You will also see the improvements that Mr. Debito has made with his lawsuits as well. Mr. Debito, by the way, is American. You can find his autobiography here! His real name is David Christopher Aldwinckle.
There are still foreigners all over the place in Japan – especially in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. Now, as racism isn’t happening everywhere in Japan, if it happens in a couple of public places, it’s already happened too much. For all those who love Japan, (including myself), let’s all hope that the hatred stops over there sometime soon, and that Mr. Debito progresses even more than he already has. I have a feeling that he will.
I live in Okayama, I am an Australian. I hate all racist.
I have been spat on and yelled at in public and stared at in most places I go.
I have also been refused service at certain places, even if I speak Japanese.
You need to move to the Kanto region or Osaka in the Kinki region because the blatant discrimination is much more rare there.
Quite a long detailed comment ahoy! I hope it is a help.
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Quote one post: “I live in Okayama, I am an Australian. I hate all racist.
I have been spat on and yelled at in public and stared at in most places I go. I have also been refused service at
certain places, even if I speak Japanese.”
Wow, referring to Kara’s comment – being spat on – seems she had come in contact with an especially unique social group or area, well hopefully it doesn’t sound like I’m placing judgment upon them, but who know their reasons why of that context, but still it’s a very negative behavior; one thing is much of Japan isn’t that way, since that behavior is harshly against their social rules. Although being stared is natural for people who aren’t used to seeing someone who looks so different.
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Well regarding the blog post – about racism, it being a by-product of war, it’s a product of cultural stratification of a class system, generally when one group wants to conquer or dehumanize another group of people during war that’s what human beings use, then in return the other group resents them. Racism are institutions, though it’s experienced on individual levels people talk about in terms of who holds power in the society. Wanted to make that clear since most of Western culture tends to stress us to generalize racism with any discrimination or even social conflicts people have; as if they are all from the same box; even heard people these days say it’s natural and “cats and dogs are the same.” Usually people do not understand the differences or contextual reasons, or even why it exist and really I can’t blame them since generally most people do not have easy contact to resources of info that show the actual cultural history in their own views and actual reasons; then highly competitive or defensive social pressures that’s often seen doesn’t help I’m sure; then about Japanese it makes it even more harder since their culture is an “unspoken one,” meaning besides things one can learn in tourist-books or websites, Japanese do not like sharing about their culture social details for reasons I’ll mention in my paragraphs below, and for someone who wants to learn about Japan beyond the outside things and Western media like me it can be a burden.
Yeah, the general-Japanese do not have a cultural idea of actual hate towards other cultures or skin colors, (in fact there is a sub-culture of Japanese women in love with African culture, bumped into one all-Japanese site called “AfroSista,”) it is just Japan’s harsh class system mixed with the history of the Japanese whom never dealt with or saw others who are from different far off cultures, perhaps even after WWII there is resentment. Like you said about most of the country’s entire towns are mostly all Japanese, if you talk differently like different accent different from standard Japanese you can get Xenophobic exclusion reaction from them due to this, just looking different can bring worry due to their history of lack of experience with outsiders, like in these contexts it can’t be mistake for hate.
(People get treated harshly even if their native-Japanese and their just at the bottom of the Caste systems,) however if your a foreigner your probably better off than a lower-caste Japanese citizen; also non-Japanese Citizens are at the bottom of the caste system with lower class Japanese or non-ethnic Japanese majority Okinawa, Koreans, Chinese and Ainu Japanese Brazilian immigrants. It is a system that has strict, very strict social behavior norm. It’s part of the reason why you never see films made by native Japanese about Japan in the same way you see Hollywood films about New York glorifying it.
Like even most of what’s called “Anime” for example is design as a social escape from the feudal nature of the modern Japanese society class system, in terms of a stratified society, (stratified like in the amount of room any individual has to define their social role,) your better off in America than Japan in this case, but on the other hand Japan is cleaner and has low crime compared to the U.S, and most average people don’t keep guns. Also what you do on your own time is actually private and respected as private there, unlike here where everything is quickly to be posted on TV. Native Japanese ideal is always to their people first and any act of making something for a foreign power is always a decision based on acquiring advance technology or weapons for the Japanese,(might be where that term the “Sneaky Japanese” came from.) When the recession happened the executives of Japanese company like Sony cut there own pay checks, and workers shared checks, which is really unheard of in U.S culture huh, sharing you own pay check with your other workers to balance each other, you’d get sued over here haha! Like that old Samurai Ethic didn’t disappear simply because they put the sword away it just adapted and people stopped going to religious Shinto ceremony.
General Japan = to keep strictly and loyal to themselves and respect their native background, not actual hate for one being of different background. Like since knowing some history I can’t blame Japanese if they don’t trust those outside so much, since that’s how conflict works one group shows harm and in return the other resents them. Japanese (in general, not all) are strictly loyal to their own cultural native backgrounds as is, regardless of past wars; hence those signs of “Japanese only,” in some places, and while my common-sense knows not to believe this is the case 100% in every individual scenario – I understand it as the natives just wanting some private places just to their own out of respect of their native background and traditions, and I respect that whole-heartily; sort of like family-get-togethers – for lack of better example. It’s just for some reason I’ve yet to understand much like seeing that “ACTIVISTS’ PAGE” this translates to the many of the American people’s point of view as quite an offense, like some sort of rejection out of cultural hate, and a right to lawsuits and advertise it through internet as well as tee-shirts publicly as conflict about it, which I find deeply disturbing, not simply as a point of view, but the future outcome; since due to understanding a big part of Japanese culture is you do not ever deal, show and solve any social conflicts “publicly,” it’s considered “extremely rude” as one told me, and very “un-Japanese” considering the activist who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan who’s not a native by dealing with native Japanese this has to be understood, I admit I respect the goal much so, especially since I’m someone of mixed heritage, although the American social cultural tendency that stress the ideal that through fair competition hostile or not is the ideal measure to solve conflicts, it is the other way around with Japanese cultural beliefs.
As much there is negatives there is much to be admire, as with any culture; I suppose that’s how life is, for every negative there is positive, and back in forth.
Please pardon this double post; I in my opinion intolerably messed up not to add in my last post that due to some recent rise in political aggression from other nations might also contribute to the rise in Japanese discrimination, who knows what other reasons as well, but the contexts in this blog post such things as murder or slavery for those outside whom do not cause harm are unmistakeably ridiculous; unfortunately I would not be surprised if their government has frighting lack of doing something about the massive crimes such as posted when they do occur.
I notice that’s a big blunder of my last post on my part to not acknowledge those properly, could not rest until I fixed it.