Thoughts from posters here on discrimination.

[derrick_odd]

Just curious how people who have been here for a while feel about the direction Japan is going in terms of discrimination, multiculuralism, etc. With the UN's visit coming up, an aging population, and the economy getting worse, I wonder.

I would assume that it is slowly getting better and that it very much depends on the area you're living in. I'm in a small town full of elderly folks. The people who want to talk to me are generally kind, understanding, and extremely patient with my crap-___ Japanese skills. Those are not, are REALLY not. In general, I feel pretty lucky with my experience so far, considering some of what I've read on these boards, on online news magazines, and various web sites.

Thoughts, ideas. Just curious.

Thanks.

[Che]

There are tonnes of people here who are racists, but I've seen worse.

coming from rural australia it't nothing new.

Can't compare it with previously, as only been here a few years.

[JayJay]

People back home IMO as just as rasicist as here. The difference is they kinda know its wrong and try to make up excuses for it.

Japan is a completely different can of worms. There are no skinheads, Asian gangs (I know Yakusa, but thats not what I meant), Moari gangs, Islander gangs, etc, etc or any of that rubbish and your hardly likely to be attacked because of your skin colour.

However the government and "the man" in Japan (which back home tries hard to stop discirmation IMO) not only accepts discrimination, I find, more than Joe Public, is the main offender. I cant help but feel the irony when immergant groups (which often include Japanese) call for rights back home (and rightly so) but dont even think twice about the situation in Japan.

But like Ive said before, the Korean-Japanese and other Asians have it far worse than us Westie, so I cant really complain.

[JayJay]

Id like to add Japanese culture discrimates heaverly and not just by race. I know people at work who are discrimated by age, gender, background, populatily, you name it. Of course being Gaijin, we get hung up on the race thing, but I think, the Japanese themselves often have to put up with discrimation from their own a lot too.

Basically being an outsider is bad, and we are always outsiders.

[electric_japan]

In this society you can't fight it,numerous times I have seen,saw things, but I just ignore as I am kinder in my ways here,and must be.

To be honest about the situation my former address was worse as I saw economic migrates try to scratch and claw there way into something using all there own dreamt up fantastical brute force,I felt more lost there.

[derrick_odd]

Interesting feedback.

So I'm interested now in how ya'll cope. When you see something or experience something that's discriminatory, what's your MO for dealing with it?

With some things, I've noticed that it's OK to say something like "that's a little racist" or what have you, and people apologize and make an effort to curb their behavior, even if they don't agree with you, which is a wonderful thing, IMO. Other times, especially when it's between Japanese folks (for instance, I have a teacher at my school who is abusive), any intervention is often frowned upon and useless--intervention y me or a J-teacher or student. How do you walk away from something like that come to terms with it? Sometimes I can say "That's Japan" and let it be, and other times, it really bugs me.

[JayJay]

Sometimes I can say "That's Japan" and let it be, and other times, it really bugs me.

Yes and thats because some people are sweet people but say something racist or xenophobic out of ignorance. Its all those years being bought up on Nihonjinron (like Japan is the only country with four seasons, etc) and you cant really blame them. They usally dont mind being corrected as long as you do it diplomatically.

Others (especailly older men) are real redneck bastards, really do hate others of a partiualar group, feel they are really superior and really want to hurt your feelings. They're the ones that bug me.

[electric_japan]

JayJay you've hit the bulls-eye,no matter how much harder it get's things just don't change.
Easy to recognize difficult to switch off.

[User Name Deleted]

I wouldn't say that Japanese were necessarily more or less racist than people in other countries, but there is much less awareness of racism as such.
At an institutional level racism is a lot worse than western countries, due to the lack of legislation prohibiting it.

[freetoken]

Apparently the Japanese are currently being victimized by the Koreans here:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20050703TDY02001.htm

Clearly, this must call for UN intervention, must it not?

-ft

[stillnosheep]

It all makes total sense:

Quote from link below:

"The number of cases in which people in Tokyo had their pockets picked by South Korean groups rose to 750 during the first half of this year [...] until recently, South Korean pickpockets armed with kitchen knives, stun guns and tear-gas sprays were active in Tokyo, Osaka and other large cities[...] On Tuesday, as many as 10 cases were reported of people in Tokyo having their pockets picked, allegedly by South Korean gangs.

So just count the number of people who report waking up without their wallet, mix in a bit of rascist nonsense, deduce that everybody reporting a lost wallet is a victim of the evil South Korean stun-giun wielding pickpocketing menace and ... Voila!

[observer]

Apparently the Japanese are currently being victimized by the Koreans here:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20050703TDY02001.htm

Clearly, this must call for UN intervention, must it not?

-ft

I am not quite sure what point you are trying to make here...

Well, I suppose your post above could be interpreted in various ways, but I do not wish to risk putting words into your mouth, so would you like to clarify your intention with the post above?

[freetoken]

Meant it exactly how stillnosheep interpreted it. I mixed in a reference to the other thread, on the UN rep coming to Japan, just to relate the two concurrent threads.

In no western country could the referenced newspaper article be printed without a storm of protest, but here.....

Not that I think the Japanese are really any more racist, in malignant intentions, than many other people around the world. However, the society they have built over the centuries enables them to be stupendously insensitive, and to get away with it, without causing the clamour it would in other societies.

-ft

[waller]

..

Not that I think the Japanese are really any more racist, in malignant intentions, than many other people around the world. However, the society they have built over the centuries enables them to be stupendously insensitive, and to get away with it, without causing the clamour it would in other societies.

-ft

Well put!

[observer]

Thanks for the clarification, freetoken.

I also do not believe that the Japanese are any more racist than many other countries, but sometimes their insensitivity can really show...

What riled me about that article was not the fact that they mentioned the national origin of the criminal groups; if exposing the national origin of the criminals is to serve the public interest, then ok, so be it. Fine with me. Go ahead.

The problem of that article with me is, the article mentions and hammers at it over and over and over again - most of those little paragraphs in the article contain the phrase 'South Korean gangsters/pickpockets'. (If you don't believe me, go check it out). Readers are not stupid, just a couple of times is enough; why do they need to repeat the national origin of the criminals so many times - even helpfully(?) inserting the words [South Korea] in the quote of a police official who apparently did not mention it. If you recognize that the Japanese communicate so much by subtle hints, you will see that repeating those phrases so many times is like taking a full page ad about 'evil foreigners'...

(Also, take note of the bias in perspective: another way to interpret the decision of the criminals not to arm themselves is that they do not want to cause unnecessary bodily harms to others and make a fuss. Is it not?)

But then again, the news source is Yomiuri - I have come to expect that kind of lines from those guys after all.

In any case, I thank freetoken for bringing this to my attention. Japan still has some ways to go in learning to live with others...

[Code Rot]

There is no doubt about it, Japan is a racist country, and it suffers from a kind of racism which is different from that of other parts of the world.

It might not be the most scientific way of putting it, but I would say, that racism in Japan is "Chinese style racism". That is, Japanese people have a Chinese style view of other races. Japan inherited the view that China was the center of the Universe -- the Middle Kingdom. In the classical Chinese view of things, anybody who didn't live in China was a barbarian (a "gaijin".) Japanese people centuries ago inherited the Chinese system, but made Japan the center of the world. According to the traditional Japanese view of the world, there are only two kinds of people: Japanese and "gaijin". One is civilised, and the other needs serious lessons in how to behave! Which is why if you a gaijin, so many Japanese will be concerned about your chopstick skills!

Here is my view on the different kinds of racism in the world:
EUROPEAN RACISM: If you are not white then you are a barbarian, and you need to be EDUCATED.
(The Iraqi War was the latest attempt by white men to EDUCATE a barbarian people -- the trouble was, the Iraqi people are well educated and have read all about Nelson Mandela and Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and they know that no nation deserves to be colonized by another! Nobody deserves to live under an occupation force. So the Iraqi occupation will not work, and the Americans will be forced to leave Iraq empty-handed, one day soon!)
CHINESE/JAPANESE/KOREAN RACISM: Foreigners are barbarians, and are incapable of being educated. Therefore, you can exploit barbarian countries and their economies, but under no circumstances shall the barbarians be allowed to enter the home country. They will only cause uncertainty and strife.

This of course is the traditional view, and I know a lot of Japanese people have got over this kind of thinking. Perhaps once every week or so in Japan you have to deal with a racist situation. It is not that bad, but still too much, but what can you do -- a certain segment of the population are foolish and still cling to such foolish ideas as racism.