first post about xenophobia ...

[Riri]

This is my first post and I am new here...so I dont know it works or not...

I am senior year student in Tokyo and my graduation thesis's theme is xenophobia in Japan...

Xenophobia means ...an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. in Japanese "Gaikokujin Kyouhu shou"

I wanna know what do foreigners really think about it.If you have been to Japan before and felt/noticed zenophobia things...I mean like discrimination or prejudice against you from japanese people... Tell me about ur experience.



Riri

 

[nice gaijin]

If you did a search for "xenophobia," you could find some very recent posts that you'd find relevant.

 

[MajideSaiaku]

Descrimination against foreigners is one of this forums strongest subjects.

Theres always someone with an opinion on it, even those who have no actual knowledge of Japan.

Look around and do searches and you will find plenty of material.

Also feel free to PM some of the regular members here, most have been to Japan and have an opinion on it.

Opinions range from Japan haters, thought to disgruntled foreigners, up to Japan-fetishizers.


My only real experience of descrimination was a Japanese lady living in the same apartment building, always looking at me as if I was carrying a big knife and had a big neon sign in Japanese saying "I am going to kill you".

Great example for her little kids, great example.

You'll find most folk who've been to Japan have all had their own unique experience, some swear they have had nothnig but descrimination and xenophobic behaviour, others would say they havnt had so much as a dodgey look, most, like me, fit somewhere in the middle.

Enjoy your stay and feel free to return to the forum and join in, were always looknig for a fresh perspective on things, especially ones from Japan itself.

 

[Mike Cash]

Nuri is right.

I would just add that those with the most experience of it long ago got tired of typing it up over and over and are less likely to actually contribute anything to the thread.

 

[yukio_michael]

Here's my thread on it, What to do about a racist, exclusionary Japan, & why?

...and, though I am not a fan of Japanese Immigration, a department whose job it is, I think to keep foreigners out--- or at the very least, make it as difficult as possible for them to get in... I can hardly say any actions taken against me were the impetus of outright racism...

Like Nuri, living in Japan, you would get more stares during a week in which a foreigner was charged with a crime (usually kidnapping a child, or murder)... Regardless of where that foreigner was from, you could expect the stares and looks of caution to increase.

It's not that there weren't crimes being commited if not worse crimes, by Japanese, it's just that these types of stories about foreigners are just the type of sensationalist news that Japan's socially responsible & morally concious news agencies like to report on.

Cough.

 

[Riri]

Thank you for the reply everyone.

I did searched xenophobia first,but most of them says why japanese people do that? or talker's thinking.Some of has their experience though.I wanted to know what japanese did to foreigners.

So,Nurizeko san,arigatou gozaimashita to have told me about ut experience!]

and other ppl.thanks!!

 

[Kyoko_desu]

I'm more like numerophobic and I still need to use my fingers to do math.

I know lots of Englishphobic Japanese people of all generations around me but I really don't see any young people with xenophobia if the word's definition I have is not wrong.

 

[yukio_michael]

I'm more like numerophobic and I still need to use my fingers to do math.

I know lots of Englishphobic Japanese people of all generations around me but I really don't see any young people with xenophobia if the word's definition I have is not wrong.

I always got along well with young people in Japan--- My girlfriends' co-workers children always wanted to come over to play---

I never experienced any problems with any kids in Japan. And anyways, kids learn from their parents--- that's where the problem lies.

 

[ricecake]

I've never for one second thought Japanese are natural born foreigner-haters,however both Chinese and Koreans' general perception is they are traditionally culturally clannish and less incline to accept NON-Japanese based on their strong sense of Yamato identity.

 

[taehyun]

I know lots of Englishphobic Japanese people of all generations around me but I really don't see any young people with xenophobia if the word's definition I have is not wrong.

Well, I live in the same place like Kyoko.
Obviously the perception is different. I have experienced xenophobia , by many young girls and boys around me in the university, however, I must tell also that there are many bright and friendly young people too( many of them I've met outside the university)

Xenophobia...Well, for example three old ladies who jumped immediately out the onsen after I and two other women appeared.But that was in a small town in Nagano.Such thing has never happened again.

 

[gaijinalways]

Surprising it only happened once!? Nine years chugging away, stuff happens. Of course, witha lot of imagination, you can always find an excuse (timidness, etc) but I have been a lot of other places, and except for Thailand or China, you don't get the kind of wierd stuff you get here even when you speak the language. I still think it's attributable to xenophobia, things such as;
moving away on the train for no obvious reason (except when it's obviously and loudly stated, sex, size, age doesn't matter), service difference, or the usual I don't speak English when you are speaking Japanese, no matter how long you lived here that people are surprised you can speak Japanese, people who refuse to eat in the same part of the restaurant, mixed children being bullied because they have foreign parents, students who think that you are demanding assuming it is because you are a foreigner, Japanese who think that Japan is somehow unique (no, just the belief that it is, is), the continual belief that much of the crime is caused by foreigners, despite the fact that many of the prisoners are Japanese, people who follow you around loudly talking about gaijin..and on and on, people that are amazed that you didn't marry a non-Japanese

 

[taehyun]

Yes, you are absolutely right!
I just stopped paying attention (maybe because don't go out much ),and forgot...
Anyway, Riri just wanted some particular case and I wrote what I remembered. Those ladies looked really funny!We laughed a lot!
Wish her good luck with her thesis!

 

[Thunderthief]

It is natural for humans to fear things they don't understand. This is why humans made religion, and try to come up with scientific explinations for everything they don't understand.

Fear is the driving force behind human creativity, discovery, and science.

... explains it all so i dont have to

 

[bobchiin]

Young children in Japan are not yet indoctrinated to be a "good" Japanese
so they can still act fairly natural, though of course some of their parents feelings will have rubbed off. The jr. high school's job here is make sure that each and every son or daughter of Japan understands that they are much better than everyone else. Rascism is such a natural act for them that they have no idea that they are even doing it, and anyway, if you weren't a gaijin then you would understand that my way is the correct one. Gaijin means outsider but in most cases it is used to refer to the "White" foreigners regardless of country origin. Kokujin "Black" foreigners are anyone of dark skin, again regardless of country. Now, compare that to Chugokujin, Chinese, and Kankokujin, Korean, it is quite obvious that gaijin is in fact as it is used in everyday life very rascist. And, yes, I've had people that I have known for years and know that my name is Bob and I came from the US refer to me to my face as gaijin. Bob or Americajin would have been just as easy to say but wasn't even considered. Children of mixed marriage here are referred to as "hafu" half, that is, they have half Japanese blood and half something and you can't be really sure that they think the half something is human or not. Jr. high school children are taught that they are from "one" race with no connection whatsoever with any other, dare I say, Asian race. That all Japanese people have black hair and black(brown) eyes. That all good Japanese obey ,without question, what the people in authority order. That whatever the government or media says it is absolutely correct and there should be no reason to question it. And that the Japanese were really victims of World War II. The whole social system here is set up to be rascist and to make sure that the next generation continues to be so.

 

[ricecake]

The jr. high school's job here is make sure that each and every son or daughter of Japan understands that they are much better than everyone else.

That all good Japanese obey,without question,what the people in authority order.That whatever the government or media says it is absolutely correct and there should be no reason to question it.And that the Japanese were really victims of World War II.

Nationalism and ethnocentricism have always been part of school curriculum and propagated by mass media outlets in Japan.

It's some ignorant foreign fools talk nonsense about Japan needing nationalism.

 

[caster51]

The jr. high school's job here is make sure that each and every son or daughter of Japan understands that they are much better than everyone else

we are taught we are blessed more than everyone else
it mean we are just lacky
therefore Japan must contribute to everyone , societies and foreign countries

 

[undrentide]

[rant] Reading some of the comments by certain posters, I often wonder if there is another country on this planet which is also called Japan... I was born and brought up in Japan but they are so strange and foreign for me, so different from what I know. (big sigh)[/rant]

 

[bobchiin]

we are taught we are blessed more than everyone else
it mean we are just lacky
therefore Japan must contribute to everyone , societies and foreign countries

Yes lucky.
May I ask you a question? When you were in jr. high school and if you went to school with your hair dyed blonde. What would have happened?

Contribute to everyone. Help?
Another question. How many adoptions are performed in Japan yearly?
The figures are easy to find.

 

[caster51]

May I ask you a question? When you were in jr. high school and if you went to school with your hair dyed blonde. What would have happened?

teacher sure got angry..

Contribute to everyone. Help?
Another question. How many adoptions are performed in Japan yearly?
The figures are easy to find.

I dont know...
many adoption are needed to contribute to everyone?
i dont think so at all.
to contribute for peace is also to contribute to everyone

Japanese cuiture is a shame culture...
human porpose is only...
I want you to be pleased.
I do not want to be defeated.
I want to contribute.
I want you to praise me. ... so on
I want to do for something..etc
that is it.
however, to contribute everyone need declaration to everyone.
how to contribute is just a target..
we can choose that under these purpose

 

[Mycernius]

we are taught we are blessed more than everyone else
it mean we are just lacky
therefore Japan must contribute to everyone , societies and foreign countries

I'm English. We know we are more blessed than anyone, we don't need to be taught.
Sometimes I think the idea of xenophobia against foreigners is found in most countries, especially if you do not look like the natives. In the UK I have heard mutterings against anyone who isn't white or talks with a foreign accent, or kids taking the mickey out of them behind their backs. I not sure if it is more common in an island nation. I know that the British can be very insular when they want to be and sometimes will use the word foreigner as the Japanese seem to use the word Gaijin "but he's so foreign" or "You just don't understand because you are foreign"

 

[bobchiin]

teacher sure got angry..

Why?? Isn't blonde a natural hair color.

I dont know...
many adoption are needed to contribute to everyone?

As the number two economic power in the world, I thought you meant contribute as in "help" the more unfortunate in the world. Adoptions is a great way of doing this. http://www.fww.org/famnews/0629a.html
Helping begins with compassion, but Japan doesn't even have compassion
for your own orphans. So Japan substitutes compassion with money.

i dont think so at all.
to contribute for peace is also to contribute to everyone

Oh? How exactly has Japan contributed to world peace? There is a lot of talk about peace in Japan, but I have not seen much action to help anywhere. When did Japan set up peace talks to stop fighting somewhere.
Where did they mediate a cease fire agreement. Or maybe you mean that Japan contributes to peace because the Japanese government did nothing when Japanese citizens were kidnapped by North Korea. Even the most peaceful of intentions by the JDF of helping to rebuild a country or giving aid to another country is met with anger by the Japanese people. I'm sorry, but peace in Japan means exactly that, the rest of the world doesn't matter.

 

[Thunderthief]

Japanese schools are not to much different from how white american schools were in the 1940's-50's. At least in the fact that they brain wash the students into believing they are the superior race and anything else is sub-human.

Sadly in Japan, unlike the United States there were never enough minorities to lead a cultural revolution, and they just remained as-is with very minimal improvements over the decades.

 

[doinkies]

teacher sure got angry..

Why?? Isn't blonde a natural hair color.

The thing about dying your hair blonde in Japan is that most people who dye their hair blonde are generally people such as ko-gals or yankii street punks. This is why dyed blonde hair isn't allowed at schools.

 

[yukio_michael]

we are taught we are blessed more than everyone else[,] it mean we are just lacky therefore Japan must contribute to everyone , societies and foreign countries

Can you tell me just what Japan's foreign policy actually is, because I'm having a hard time determining what sort of policy, if any policy exists outside of one designed to cater to Japan's own economic growth.

From The Economist... (May 6th 2004)

Rich countries can help their poor counterparts in all sorts of ways, besides just giving money. They can also, for example, open their markets to imports, accept migrant workers and offer peacekeeping troops to bolster stability. So the Centre for Global Development (CDG), a research outfit, has teamed up with Foreign Policy, a bi-monthly magazine, to construct a Commitment to Development Index for 21 rich countries. In its second annual stab at this, published in the May-June issue of Foreign Policy, Japan has once again finished last.

Of the seven broad categories the index considers, Japan scores very poorly (14th or worse) in all but one (see chart). The only category where it makes a decent showing, landing in the middle of the pack, is in technologyﾂ―a questionable measure that tries to capture global spillover effects from a country's R&D.

...And so forth... Article, here.

There's so much in that article thats worth quoting that I can't begin to quote all of it, suffice it to say that Japan has never really had a sterling history of actually helping people (in fact, a good percentage of the past century has had Japan actually trying to ham-handedly make amends with the countries it has in some way harmed) without being directly required to do so. It's an economic necessity for Japan to assist the United States in its policy, but this certainly wouldn't be a first choice for them.

Let's look at the facts before we start saying how great and generous Japan is and how blessed they must feel.

 

[bobchiin]

The thing about dying your hair blonde in Japan is that most people who dye their hair blonde are generally people such as ko-gals or yankii street punks.

I know, these are the only people who dare to fight the system. In the only way they can, by being different.

This is why dyed blonde hair isn't allowed at schools.

This is easy to believe to be true if you are not exposed to what they teach at schools in Japan. There is nothing blatant about the process. It is a slow erosion of the idea that all people are equal. "Japanese people' hair is black.
People' hair is black. Are you Japanese?" And the student's hair is dyed on the spot at the school, black. Still not too bad you say. Well, couple this with the word "chigau". "Chigau" means different, but it is also used to mean "waruii"(bad). When you start teaching your children that different is bad, then you are teaching RASCISM. The hair dyeing is just a minor thing in the larger whole. I have a student in her late twenties who says that she had her hair dyed at school continually, but she wasn't doing anything to her hair, it was just naturally a brown color, different is bad.