Well by the same token, that just because somebody has collected some bad stories, it is illogical to assume that those stories are the entirety of foreigners' experiences in Japan. It is even more dangerous to try to blanket the entire people of Japan with those stories, especially to imply that those stories represent a majority. I did not set out to say that there was no racism in Japan. I set out to say that the blanket statements that abound in English speaking forums whenever Japan's moral fibre is on topic, are quite often incorrect, and based solely on anecdotes and blanket statements. It is like using the cherry picked racists, the KKK, Christine O'Donnell and the Westborough Baptist Church as an indicative cross section of American attitudes.boholikeu said:
And it is not just myself who would tell you the same thing that I did above. The amount of people calling racism in Japan are a very small part of the total foreigners (this does not include the generational foreign populace, many of whom have been granted citizenship or permanent residency) I have met and do meet regularly. The Japanese have as much potential for racism and predjudice as the average American or whoever, does. The difference is that in a nation like the USA, the racism is masked or so far buried that is difficult to detect and label so. What would a survey of the white populace show if one of the questions involved feeling tension when approached by black people? Many Japanese may answer the same way, but would it be for the same reasons?
The attitude that anecdotal evidence and the actions of individuals defines the nature of the whole populace, is in essence a falacy. When that data is taken to indicate that "if Japanese, is racist", then that is actually racism. In the USA, for example, poeple see different races every day. They are exposed to it constantly, on TV, on the street and in the office. In Japan, that is not so. For the most part, the language of the nation severely retards successful immigration. Perhaps statistics would show that allegations of racism lean towards poeple not yet able to communicate or relate to the Japanese.
The Japanese see the other cultures mostly via TV, media and occasional travel. Yet they enjoy a foreign culture in vast amounts. It is now a myth that "Americana rules". That is not so, and perhaps was only so for a short time, or in some American egos. The Japanese flock to new culture, for this has been their way since the opening up of their country not so long ago. Learning and adaptation, yet retaining what makes their culture unique. But as I said, that latter part is not surprising in that so few people outside of Japan can speak Japanese fluently, and so few Japanese can speak other languages fluently.
So, yes, I am white, and yes, there is more predjudice leveled at other Asians and Black people. Towards Asians, it is mostly an old fashioned predjudice with deep roots in history. Towards black people, it may even have been inherited by early exposure to American ideals of that time. More often than not, Japanese tell me that it is just the "look". They are unfamiliar to them. So different to anybody else they see on a daily basis, and they are so often so much taller and larger. For those poeple is not a matter of race, and therefore can be overcome.
My goal is to show the other side of the coin being shown by other posters, and that side is no exception to the rule. I have my own long experience and the collected experience of hundreds of other foreigners I have encountered, as well those of thousands of Japanese I have interacted with. I live here and I feel Japan thriving around me every day. There is no way that a statement that "Japan is racist" can be justified, and there's no way that direct comparison to the multicultural situations of post colonial nations, or of landlocked Eurpean nations, is suitable. That was my goal.
