The Africans in Roppongi and Kabukicho
 

I've never met more annoying people than these. They grab your hand trying to lead you to their bar, or follow you for 20-30 meters trying to sweet talk you into visiting their "business."

I can't possibly be the only one annoyed at them. Aren't there any plans or something to illegalize what they do?

haha, Nigerians and Ghanians are the least of troubles that you can get into when visiting the 6 trees.

Lol I came across guys like this!! All up in my face in Shinjuku handing out leaflets all like "hey man! Talk to yo brotha!" just looked at them all confused and said "Sorry no English" and they left me alone.

What is so bad about Roppongi? I watched this programme on NHK World and it looked fine.

:D lolz yeah and i watched programme about king snake cobra and it lookede so snuglicious, no idea why people are so concenred about it

HIP HOP CLOTHES BROTHA

I GIVE YOU BEST PRICE

Doesn't this ruin the image of the other black foreigners?!

I suppose if you were racist and weren't able to paint a race with such broad strokes it might.

How is what they do "illegal"??

Are they trying to lure you into a bar and then kidnap you??

I've met one of these guys, he was cool, speaks really good Japanese. They're just trying to make money like everyone else.

When they spike your drink and clear out your credit cards, then that is illegal.

That's not a proper answer.

No I know what you mean....but what about the Japanese people that have NEVER seen black people except the ones they see on TV and on Roppongi. Wouldn't they quickly stereotype black people in general?

P.S
I'm asking this because I'm black myself and I'm curious about this a bit.

I wonder if the Japanese receive e-mails from Ghana and Nigeria asking them to fork over thousands of dollars (Yen, in this case) to be able to claim millions from an anonymous prince there.... Perhaps banking laws are stricter in Japan and the transfer of monies is more regulated than in the States. But I bet more than the fair share of Americans have been duped by Nigerians and Ghanians regarding those e-mails. And maybe it has to do with greed in the States and not so much in Japan? If people from those countries appear to have a bad reputation, it's mostly because of that, in my eyes.

I did run into a few Nigerians, but it was in Ikebukuro. I didn't trust them one bit and I just spoke Spanish to them and they quickly left me alone....

Do these guys bother Japanese people? It is my understanding that they target foreigners.

I see them going after Japanese all the time. I'd say a very strong majority of the time, like 80 percent or more.

With someone like myself it's hit or miss. Because I wear fitted caps (and a lot of them specialize in Hip Hop style), sometimes they'll try and peddle me the same style hats for more than double what I would pay in America. But other times they'll ignore me for that same reason because they know that I know how much their products are actually worth. This is why they target the Japanese more. For a foreigner vacationing in Japan, if they're interested in the hip hop style, they know what the prices are for the goods. And if they're only going to be there for 1-2 weeks, most people wouldn't buy the stuff for double or triple price. But the Japanese don't have places like the LIDS store where they can get these goods, and they don't really know what the products go for in America. I'll flip through men's style magazines and be shocked at what the Japanese are paying for the kinds of stuff the Nigerians are selling.

I expect so,it doesn't happen so much here I don't think.

sleep robber
Smuggling of drug
Sales of drug
Smuggling of arms
marriage fraud
Sales of counterfeit credit card
Rape
rip-off@credit card

The ability that sniffs danger and the speed from which it runs away are first‐class.

Three people who live in Kanagawa Prefecture and ・・・・・・ of embassy ‥
oh, the telephone rang.

This is what a lot of Japanese people think when they see Nigerians or other black Africans. Sadly, the things listed above occur quite commonly, and make life more difficult for those good people who work hard and play by the rules.

Any bar or shop which uses Nigerian hustlers to bring in customers is controlled by what the Japanese call "anti-social forces", known to us as the Yakuza.

The yaks bring the Nigerians over and get them married to women who work in yak-owned hostess clubs or brothels (known here as "soapland" or massage parlors). This is the marriage fraud part. The yaks have strong control over everyone who works for them, especially Africans, whom they can have deported at any time. These unfortunates are the leg men in drug deals, extortion, and fraud, and they do the dirty work so the yaks can keep their hands clean if something goes bad and the police get involved.

Outside of Tokyo and Osaka - I don`t think this is necessarily the case.
There seem to be a fair number of black Africans (well, enough that I have encountered one or two groups of more than 3 people a year) in the Nagoya area... And the image held of them by most people around here tends to be a positive one.

They are considered (very!) friendly, warm, and hardworking people. The image is a pretty good one, really. Being somewhere that the criminal element isn`t so prominent really makes a difference in popular perception.

However, black Africans and African Americans tend to be viewed somewhat differently... Although that may be more to do with attitude and presentation than nationality.

It's a shame...I personally "play by the rules" and sometimes have to push a little harder to shed off a few stereotypes and prejudices here in Canada, so I don't think that will be something hard to do in Japan since I already know how to deal with it.

Either ways it's something that most visible minorities have to deal with (not only blacks, arabs in Europe and eastern Canada, aboriginal people in Western Canada, latinos in the US, etc) and that is unfortunately because of a handful of people that do stupid things.

I guess I was thinking more about the guys working at night trying to get people to go into their bars than the guys selling clothes and sneakers.

nigerian night "workers"
 

IIRC, there was a thread here dedicated to warnings targeted specially for foreign tourists not to go in such kind of bars.

If you're not stupid and go in large groups, there's really nothing to worry about. Even though I hate most of them, I've got to admit that they can hook you up with some awesome shisha and reasonably priced drinks.