Originally Posted by Gloobey (Post 24140)

What`s bad in Japan? Where do you want me to start?
Firstly, it’s probably the most racist country I’ve ever seen. It is not at all uncommon for people to rush on to a packed train, see that I’m a gaigin and head for another seat or stand up rather than sit next to me. The kind of racism I’m talking about is not overt but just accepted. We - by which I mean all foreigners - are second class to them.
Then there is the insincerity of the Japanese in business. Forget all this honour stuff, there is none. They will happily screw you over the first chance they get. They are a very insincere race and, frankly, not very trustworthy.
Then there is this myth of the Japanese being the politest people in the world - rubbish! I have seen more rude and inconsiderate behaviour in this country than anywhere I have ever been - and I am very well traveled. OK, if you go into a restaurant or shop, the service is always good and they always have a smile on their face...but this is them making money. Again, very insincere.
Then, they are just really weird. Every other night, there is a story on TV about someone chopping his sister up and putting her in plastic bags in the bottom of their wardrobe or a wife killing her husband and carrying his head on the train to dump it somewhere. Trust me, they are sick.

To be honest, I don’t understand why you are all so fascinated with this place. I promise you, you would not feel this way if you lived here.

...Public transport is awesome, though.

Originally Posted by Ichirin (Post 24186)

So everyone is called Gai-Jins ? even if you're on a trip ?

Originally Posted by jasonbvr (Post 24331)

First let me say that the only thing I find lacking is the way you have to go out of your way to eat vegetables and how expensive food is. Plus, I have a few problems with the education system, but it's not my say how they torture their kids. Other than these two, I think Japan is pretty cool.

Well, if you don’t mind me saying so, you’re being incredibly naive there and you are quite obviously a raving Jfan-boy! Japan is absolutely riven with problems peculiar only to Japan, things that you just don`t see anywhere else in the world. Just today, I heard about a man who killed his father in an argument over...bathroom ventilation.

I`m sorry, that ain`t normal。

Gaijin just means foreigner, it is not some sort of racist slur. I often get kakoi gaijin (cool foreigner) or the guys at the bar call me the genki guy (friendly) because I will sit and hang out even though we don't understand half of what the other one is saying. (I should really study more.)

Yes, but you are just studying here, right? Try working, running a business, owning property....the simple fact is that the Japanese do not really want gaijin here, we are an inconvenience. I have been told on more than one occasion that the Japanese police are not here for the protection of gaigin - once by a policeman! They will happily let gaijin try to kill each other in fights outside of clubs in Ropongi and not get involved simply because they are gaigin. A friend had his bike reversed over by a black Mercedes - yeah, right! - in Shinjuku right in front of a koban with three policemen sitting watching. They did nothing....`cos he was a gaigin. Not their problem.

Now for my response to some of has been said of Japan's negative aspects. As far as sincerity in Japanese culture they do lack the openess and honest that you find elsewhere because of social customs. Social norms in Japan dictate that you act in a different way around your family and friends than in public and business relations. There are Nihongo words for which mean public face and private face. Their politicians often blatantly lie to them and everyone knows they're lying but they still go, "Oh, what a nice thing to say or that sounds like a good idea." Another example of how this works, the teachers at school all act like they love each other and get along fabulously. Outside of school, they will go home and bitch and complain about their coworkers to their families. Why do they act this way? They say it is to make society run more smoothly. Yes, they give little gifts to one another to give the impression that they like everyone but in reality they (some of them) do it because its expected of them. But hey, it is their culture and they can do with it whatever they like.

Yeah, I know all of that rubbish, but what you are forgetting is that they want to deal with us on a level playing field, yet the rules here in Japan are stacked heavily in their favour. I for one am sick to death of hearing about `...the Japanese way`. That simply doesn’t hold water anymore, especially when the Japanese way is so badly flawed. Their business model is hopelessly outdated and positively archaic. They have not moved with the times and constantly expect to be cut some slack simply because they are Japanese. I ask you, would you expect the same consideration anywhere else in he world?

I own property here, I run a company, pay tax to the Japanese government, my wife is Japanese and I have a young half Japanese, half English son. Yet, I am expected to carry around an alien registration card at all times and, in principle at least, I can be detained if I am stopped and don’t have it with me. This is the same consideration given to migrant workers from elsewhere in Asia who are here on short term contracts and send all of their money home. I am deserving of more consideration than that, but the Japanese government are content to lump all of us gaijin together as an inconvenience. In ten years of living in the UK, my wife was never treated this way….

Racism in Japan does exist but it rarely manifests in to action unlike say a lynching in the US. When you go to any country where you are not easily blending in with the majority, you are going to attract attention anyways in both directions good and bad. Half Japanese kids in Japan do have problems in some schools, but the schools have a larger overall problem with bullying anyways. Maybe I just don't notice dirty looks any more or rudeness, but I learned a long time ago how to ignore the ignorant from the racist people in the US. "Huh, huh, jason gonna come back all slant eyed with ching, chong talking girlfriend." Yeah, racism is everywhere so you just learn to brush it off.

Again, you conveniently choose to miss the whole point. In the US or the UK, the attitudes you talk of are condemned. Here, nobody gives it a second thought - it’s just the way it is, totally acceptable. They are Japanese, we aren`t. We will always be inferior to them. This is institutionalized racism. You know about the whole three K jobs thing, right?

...and don’t even get me started on how women are treated here - that really gets me angry.

Great place to visit, but you REALLY don’t wanna live here.

Anyways, I gotta go to class. There certainly is a lot of naivete on JF about the reality in Japan, but you can't say it is totally opposite from these perceptions and all bad. Ja ne...