Nice to know!. You got it!, now I'm afraid of going across some streets, maybe some Yakuza will crush me up if they notice I'm foreigner (and that's easy, since I don't have bended eyes T_T).
But, what I'm reading about this topic isn't new to me. Where I live, Catalonia, we have problems even with our spanish comrades. The region where I live (alike a prefecture of Japan) have sort a different mind from the rest of Spain, at least about some topics. But we went even further than Japan in this case. We have been banned by the rest of Spain in some occasions. For example, when Madrid signed on to become the Olimpic city for 2012 year in the Olympic contest of 2005, most of people in my region, Catalonia, they opposed this, and we (all) received a punishement, banning part of our economy. They basicaly blocked Catalonia products being sold in the outdoors of Catalonia. And this is just an example of many we have suffered. Simply despicable, but it's the reality of here. Fortunately, it is someway rare to see many in few time, thank godness.
Sorry whether my English is a little "codified", but I'm not native, as you can imagine. I hope everybody can understand what I've told above. Thanks for the time you spent about reading my post ^^.