Japan Questions.

I am hoping in the future to go live in Japan, but like everyone else, I have my own concerns as well. For those who lived or are living in Japan, I would like some clarification about their culture. I am going to be blunt (some might be repeated) so just answer accordingly to what you know and feel that is true according to your experience.

I read on a lot of sites that Japan is known for their xenophobia and discrimination. If this is true, how do they treat foreigners/miniorities? I am Asian and a lot of people have mistaken me for "Japanese" (I do not look like Japanese at all). How did you respond to this?

What is their family-oriented beliefs? I know that they teach their children to respect elders and authorities.

How do teachers deal with bullying?

What are some things that they place high importance on (i.e., respect for elders)?

How much do I need to make to live in Japan?

This is what I have for now, but I will post up any more questions that I have in the future. Thank you for all who answer.

Allow us a question first, if you would, please.

Have you looked into your eligibility for a visa to come live in Japan? If you're ineligible, then there wouldn't be much point in typing up answers to your questions.

Yes I have. I would at least love to live there for 3-4 years.

What category of visa will you be coming under? What sort of work do you plan to do here?

Are you planning to bring your children with you and put them in school? (Trying to understand your concern over how teachers handle bullying).

Japanese discrimination is almost entirely benign in nature and by and large completely overblown by foreigners who attribute everything they don't like to discrimination when, if fact, they do little or nothing to make meaningful attempts at assimilation. A large part of it is also down to white foreigners who for the first times in their lives are finding out what it means to be a minority and who revel in b*tching about it. A certain subset of the foreign population is responsible for blowing the whole thing out of proportion and giving people who have never been here a totally mistaken idea of what the situation really is.

What sort of xenophobia and discrimination have you heard so much about? Yes, Japan is still reeling from its self-imposed 200 years of isolation, but modern communications today (e.g., Facebook, Internet, smart phones) helps to spread a lot of the world around this tiny country. There will always be some measure of xenophobia, but what level of it are you concerned about?

If your plans are to live and work here, just focus on getting qualified in the field that interests you.

What is their family-oriented beliefs? I know that they teach their children to respect elders and authorities.

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Traditionally, yes, but children these days seem to be drifting more and more into being juvenile delinquents or spoiled brats or social misfits (because they shut themselves off from their families and because they use cell phones instead of face-to-face communication with friends). Look up "classroom chaos", too. You will still find a lot of families that have grandparents living with them, and for the most part, students still treat their teachers with respect.

How do teachers deal with bullying?

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Case by case. If it's brought to their attention, it will depend on the situation. Why do you ask this?

What are some things that they place high importance on (i.e., respect for elders)?

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This is a huge topic! How would you answer it if someone asked about your own culture?

1. not speaking out (the adage "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down" is still prevalent)
2. honne vs. tatemae (at all levels, from the personal to the type we see from the government and companies when something has gone afoul)
3. cleanliness (sometimes to a fault, but other than erasing the chance to combat allergies, keeping one's home and office and city clean is still a darned nice thing)
4. following orders blindly (that darned old patriarchal society rule of thumb not to question things, openly at least)
5. the "old boys" (OB) network (which involves women, too, but which starts in school and advances to university; it basically states that you link with people like superiors/peers and advisors (teachers) who can help you later in life to get jobs or promotions, etc.)
6. tradition (look up any festival for an example, or traditions about visiting one's family grave)

How much do I need to make to live in Japan?

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This will depend on your personal lifestyle, but figure that subsistence wages for the average person will be roughly 200,000 yen/month. Depends on where you live, too (urban vs. rural environment).

I do not have any kids, but Education and Religious work are my purpose for going there. I LOVE their culture and their language. I've always been drawn to Japan for some reason. My reason for asking is I know that each culture deals differently and how do teachers in Japan deal with these things. I understand that shame is a part of the culture, so I'm not sure if "confronting" the parents is the best way.

Also, I do care about discrimination but I'm not concern about it either. I don't think every second whether I'm being discriminated or not. I just want to know the basic gist of how to respond to these kind of thing if they do occur. I wonder if it should just be ignored and move on?


---------- Post added at 19:05 ---------- Previous post was at 18:58 ----------
Thanks for the information. As for xenophobia and discrimination, a big one that I commonly hear they don't like people who are "different" from them (or they tend to be "boxy"), or if you don't speak Japanese they give you that "look". You might as well learn Japanese if you live in Japan right? I want to clear up any misinformation about Japan. I think Japan is a great country, but too many rumors about Japan not being a great country is driving me crazy.

Are you planning to come teach under the JET Program?

If there is a discipline/bullying problem at school, you won't be called upon to speak to the parents or in any other way be involved in resolving it so it really isn't something to worry about.

I have thought about teaching under the JET program. It is my first option, but I also have some friends who lives there as well. I'm thinking about connecting my religious work with them while teaching under the JET program. It doesn't sound possible though because they are two different things under two different network.

You said you are Asian and that tends to come with its own bag of worms. My best friend is Korean adopted American. We lived in Japan together and it caused her a lot of stress. She could speak enough Japanese to get by and her face was Asian, so when people looked at her, they either thought she was Japanese or Korean, so they weren't as interested in talking to her. No one was mean to her, they just ignored her and wanted to talk to the white girl. However, another friend of mine who was actually Japanese born American said that he got by fine. People expected him to speak Japanese but were really understanding when he didn't. I have heard other people say that they believe they didn't get a job in Japan because they were Asian but I can't say if that is true or not.

Anyway, a lot of the things you are concerned about (like bullying or family values) you will really never deal with. Bullying will be handled by the actual teachers (you will just be an ALT) and all of those issues will be handled in Japanese so you won't be able to do anything about them, even if you wanted to.

Thanks for the information. I just want to be culturally sensitive. That's why I ask what to do with bullying if it does appear.

Education and Religious work are my purpose for going there.

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You didn't mention religion in your other thread (and you didn't have to start a second one). Are you Mormon? Born again? What religious reasons are you referring to?

Glenski said:

You didn't mention religion in your other thread (and you didn't have to start a second one). Are you Mormon? Born again? What religious reasons are you referring to?

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Well the purpose was the other thread was different from this one, but I guess the other thread just started merging into this thread. Feel free to merge them (or delete them) into the same thread.

Born again Christian. Again, my "ideal" religious work is to work in orphanages. I mean I know I want to do something with orphanages but I just don't know how realistic it will be or not.

Have you looked into missionary work? I highly doubt it would be possible to get a visa for just plain-old working at an orphanage. It would probably be necessary to be on a missionary visa and working at an orphanage run by the mission. Volunteering at one on the side while working as a teacher would be good, though, if your schedule allows for it and there is a facility nearby which would both need and accept your help.

So now that I know where you are coming from, let me give you some information about what you are up against.

The Japanese social service system is very messed up. There is a stigma associated with orphans. So they have a lot of personal and behavioral issues. Learning English is not often a high priority for them or the people who run the orphanages. There are many religious run orphanages but few (if any) foreign-run ones. So, you would have to either just find somewhere that would take you as a volunteer, like Mike said, or wait until your Japanese got a whole lot better to try to work at one on a more permanent basis. Please note though, the vast majority of orphanages are Catholic.

I went to a Christian college in Japan and most of the teachers from the states were actually on Missionary visas even though they taught at the university. They also had to maintain some level of volunteer work to keep that status. That may be one way to go, though those jobs are hard to find if you are not in Japan already. (A lot of people chose to take a bad job just to get the visa, get over there, and look for a better one. also one of the main reasons why most JETs don't go past one year) If you are thinking about doing straight missionary work though, that will be somewhat harder. You will need to have some money saved up and you will find the work very tiring. However, since you have never been to Japan, doing a short term mission program might be a good way to start. You could get a feel for the lay of the land and maybe even get some job interviews while you are over there.