[Nyororin]

I think the more accurate way to say it would be that "A lot of Japanese don`t like associating outside of the language they`re comfortable in - Japanese."

The majority of foreigners in Japan are tourists and cannot speak Japanese. Even most of those who aren`t tourists are short timers (1 year English teachers) and they also usually can`t speak much if any Japanese. So experience tells the average Japanese person that if they approach and start speaking to someone who looks like they aren`t Japanese - foreign language communication awaits. So unless they have some strong interest in improving a language they`re studying (99% of the time English), they`re not going to put themselves into that sort of stressful situation.

Once it was clear that I could speak Japanese fluently, I never had any problems associating with people or getting them to associate with me.