The "Wall of text" style posting is seriously discouraging me from answering in depth... *sigh*
In regard to uniform enforcement - I have only ever seen or heard of the "natural hair color" rule being enforced. As in, "Do not dye your hair." I have heard of a blonde girl getting in trouble for dying her hair black (years and years ago) because it was not her natural color - even though it would have "fit in" better with the other students. I actually attended a Japanese high school. I do not have black hair, but was never asked to dye it in any way - I was directed to follow the rules of not dying my hair at all, just like all the other students.
These days it seems that more school are using the term "natural" to mean "reasonable" or "occurring in nature" rather than the "color you were born with". There are certainly no shortage of Japanese students with various shades of lightened hair.
In regard to the signs... No one has denied they exist. Chances are though, you`d have to LOOK for them to find one (And even if you were looking, there is a pretty low likelihood of spotting one.) They are not a normal thing. You do not see them all over the place. They`re incredibly rare. There are a LOT of people in Japan, and a LOT of businesses. It is inevitable that there are going to be some people with strong racist ideas. That doesn`t mean that the majority of Japan is like that. As I said,
I have been here more than 10 years, have traveled quite extensively and have never seen a single one of those signs, nor have I ever been refused service.
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u want to hide that japan has racist shopkeepers?
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No, he was commenting on the fact that this topic comes up every so often. It is usually (always?) brought up by people who see the stuff on Debito`s site and who have no real experience in Japan - thinking that the situation is much different than reality.
This thread is no exception.
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Getting sick of Debito:
Why I Turned On Debito.org | Japan Probe
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I hadn`t seen that. *applause*
Everyone who uses him as a source of "balanced" information about Japan should read it.