Talking about racism in Japan can be a contentious issue as it was when talking about the sexism in Japan , so I want you to have clear in this post I am always expressing my personal opinion. If asked if I consider Japan a racist country, would say no but ... The "but" is that one must be well integrated into Japanese society and be fully adapted to their culture to realize that Japan is not as racist as the pint some people who just come on holiday a couple of weeks.
Some comments from people who say that Japan is a macho country may be people saying that there are certain premises that do not support foreign real estate that many do not rent apartments to foreigners, that many companies do not hire foreigners etc. Is this true? If this is true. Is this racism? No, I do not think, I just think it's a cultural difference.
For example, do not let local foreigners, most of them related local business and Kyabakura or other similar business of Kabukicho if. This is usually because most of the gaijin (foreigners) to be this kind of sex-related premises do not have a sufficient level of Japanese to be able to be talking with the local girls and understand how the local payment method etc. For this reason, what the Japanese want to avoid are problems and have a client in the local who can not attend either because they do not know how to communicate with him or the only person who speaks English on the premises can not be all the while making translator, is why, before encountering these problems, the Japanese do not knowingly provide any services in English, prefer to make that perfectly clear. I know a case of some foreign friends who went to a local commissioning these and told them not to foreigners, when my friends got to talking with a Japanese guy fluid to the door then let them go smoothly. If you have ever heard of the ordeal of renting an apartment in Japan, you know one reason why it is difficult to rent an apartment in Japan is because 60% of the owners of the apartments (not real estate) will go to say no without even having gone to see the floor, simply because they do not rent apartments to foreigners. This comes in part for the same reason explained above that point. When you rent an apartment if the owner of the apartment which is responsible for dealing with complaints when they mess up something in the house and not a company with people who speak English, probably the owner of the apartment did not speak English, so do not want problems of rent an apartment to a foreigner and then you can contact by phone or understand every letter of the town hall, water, gas etc to come home and are only in Japanese. In addition to this we must add another of the dangers facing the homeowner is that the alien is to be home one day without saying anything and let the last month without pay, or the house destroyed and so on. As a Japanese, I could still do something by legal means, but being a foreigner who no longer resides in Japan, as almost impossible for them to do anything. We must also say that foreigners are much more fame than the Japanese party-goers, so that damage to the floor may be higher those caused by a foreigner in a house that makes a Japanese. The Japanese are well known for how careful we are with all their belongings, foreigners simply are not. There are many cases when asked if they rent apartments to foreigners or not, begin to ask what country you are, where you work, how long have you been in Japan and so on. Normally the Chinese have it so much harder than the Europeans and all this makes sense. And who alquilariais you your apartment, a Spanish with a good job or a Romanian / Gypsy who has no job?
As for foreign companies that do not accept returns for the same old problem. Speaking Japanese is something that many foreigners control a lot, talking a Japanese business attire is something that no longer can do so many foreigners, but the Japanese writing business with all that that implies in relation to the kanji, is something that very few foreigners dominate, and that may be essential for a company to communicate by email. In addition to this we add the problems that a company would mean having to get the work visa to a foreigner.
There may also be cases where foreigners have noted that people look bad in public places or places like that, this may also be because the Japanese are very peaceful and not raise much scandal, while we like to talk in foreign so loud. For foreigners, to be talking loudly on the train and moving may seem normal, but the Japanese simply, this is one thing I do, so you can look bad if you do these things or speaking by phone while on the train.
Like this, there are a lot more examples of those who could speak like that of the urine test to the police that some foreigners in Japan or the case of anti-foreigner when many began to emerge anyos AIDS case Japan . Well, AIDS is something that was introduced from outside Japan, so it made sense that the Japanese were afraid of contact with foreigners. For urine analysis, since foreigners still a very small minority in Japan, almost always there is a drug case in Japan, happens to be selling the drug was a stranger, so it makes sense that the foreign are more suspects for this kind of test. As I said, I think this is a problem of cultural adaptation rather than pure racism.
What do you think? Have you noticed racism in Japan?
