Weird things that get blamed on gaijin / gaikoku

stephenmunday · 8 Jun 2004

My wife told me that when she had bad hayfever at the Japanese school where she works one day, the Japanese teachers told her that it was all because of these weeds with yellow flowers (I don't rememeber their name now) that grow around the rice fields. According to these teachers, the said weeds were "from America" and brought hay fever to Japan - where it had been a hitherto unknown phenomena.

Hmmmmm......

What other unlikely things have you heard blamed on foreigners or foreign countries?

janimagee · 8 Jun 2004

back in the mid-eighties when AIDS was starting to hit the news in Japan I heard "you are AIDS" when I walked down the street. This would have been `87 or `88.

stephenmunday · 8 Jun 2004

That's real nice!

Actually, there was something else I forgot to add in my first post:

As you know if you have been living in Japan in recently, foreigners have been blamed for a rise in crime. The interesting thing (according to an article on a site called quirky japan) is that although foreigners make up 1.39% of the population, they are responsible for 1.35% of the crime. (And a large portion of this crime is that social scourge - overstaying one's visa.) In other words, Japanese people are statistically more likely to commit crime than foreigners.

janimagee · 8 Jun 2004

this is kind of the other side of your question but, I had a (medical) doctor tell me that he had heard that americans/gaijin DON`T get KATAKORI. He thought that was a unique problem among Japanese (because they work so hard) . This was his belief.
and don`t forget the "RICE SHOCK" after typhoon #19 (10 or 11 years ago?) when we had to eat GASP imported rice from GASP thailand and usa. People were trying to come up with interesting recipes to make the rice edible...

stephenmunday · 8 Jun 2004

I remember being shocked by the rice shock. Maybe the Thais conjured up the typhoon and sent it to Japan deliberately....

Regarding the medical story, the flip side of that is when Japanese Dr.s get mad at foreign women (I am thinking of Caucasian friends here) for getting "too fat" when pregnant. They seem to overlook that fact that different races seem to have different body proportions.... A rare case of universalism....

Buddha Smoker · 8 Jun 2004

stephenmunday said:
As you know if you have been living in Japan in recently, foreigners have been blamed for a rise in crime. The interesting thing (according to an article on a site called quirky japan) is that although foreigners make up 1.39% of the population, they are responsible for 1.35% of the crime. (And a large portion of this crime is that social scourge - overstaying one's visa.) In other words, Japanese people are statistically more likely to commit crime than foreigners.

Which is true but I never say it...because if you request certain stats from the Japanese government then you will get other number...

80% of crime is by foreigners and (40% of that is by US military)..

stephenmunday · 8 Jun 2004

Hi Buddha. Where did you see those stats?

janimagee · 8 Jun 2004

back to the weight gain thing, and this is tmi I know, but, my doctor warned me throughout 3 pregnancies that I was gaining too much weight, (and I wasn`t by american standards.) I just said yeah yeah I`m o.k. I got really tired of the "big baby" and "giant baby" comments after each ultrasound too.

Buddha Smoker · 8 Jun 2004

stephenmunday said:
Hi Buddha. Where did you see those stats?

I got them from the city hall in Chiba (Kashiwa) in the alien registration section and the similar figures from the Manual Labor Contract division in Tachikawa about 3 years ago. I have to dig through some boxes but I might still have it (not sure). If so, then I'll scan it and post it.

Spaceghost · 9 Jun 2004

Why do the US military commit so many crimes?

Buddha Smoker · 9 Jun 2004

Spaceghost said:
Why do the US military commit so many crimes?

Mainly because they know this is not their country and alot of them don't want to be here. After they find out what they get away with then they slowly start committing crimes. That's my opinion.

dreamer · 9 Jun 2004

Gosh...scary however you're certainly right...

Buddha Smoker · 9 Jun 2004

dreamer said:
Gosh...scary however you're certainly right...

Yes, it makes you wonder sometimes? I've seen some bad examples and heard some really bad stories.

stephenmunday · 9 Jun 2004

Looking forward to seeing those stats, Buddha. I think a lot of us will be interested.

Ewok85 · 9 Jun 2004

Get blamed for poor economy due to SARS, BSE, war in iraq, etc etc. I cant remember being blamed for anything in particular though.

Buddha Smoker · 9 Jun 2004

stephenmunday said:
Looking forward to seeing those stats, Buddha. I think a lot of us will be interested.

Don't get too excited yet..I have to find them (the paper) first but I'll do some digging this weekend. Like I said, I'm almost positive I still have it somewhere.

den4 · 11 Jun 2004

Isn't this kind of like the negative version of the grass is always greener on the other people's yard?

I used to hear similar things in the US when the Oklahoma bombing occurred in the Fed building, until they learned it was one of their own homeys that did it....

Then there was the case of the "white" woman who killed her two sons in a car and claiming a "black" man had done it, only to learn later it was she...

time for some people to begin looking in the mirror again, before blaming others of their own hangups..

Buddha Smoker · 11 Jun 2004

den4 said:
Isn't this kind of like the negative version of the grass is always greener on the other people's yard?

I used to hear similar things in the US when the Oklahoma bombing occurred in the Fed building, until they learned it was one of their own homeys that did it....

Then there was the case of the "white" woman who killed her two sons in a car and claiming a "black" man had done it, only to learn later it was she...

time for some people to begin looking in the mirror again, before blaming others of their own hangups..

Great points and the Japanese are going to have to be careful if they don't want it to start happening in Japan.

stephenmunday · 11 Jun 2004

It is true that there is racism in many countries. What I was getting at with my original post was the weirdness of some of the stuff that gets blamed on foreigners and foreign countries here. Most of it just makes me laugh, some of it makes me angry and pretty much all of it makes me wonder what they are thinking. (Like the colleague who warned my wife not to go to one of the local movie theaters because "a lot of foreigners are there." My wife, being a white American, is clearly one of these "foreigners", but that did not seem to be an issue to the person making the comment.)

nekosasori · 11 Jun 2004

stephen, wouldn't "foreigner" in that denigrating context mean "dark-skinned/non-caucasian foreigner"?

I have seen and heard plenty of different foreigners being blamed in Ireland as well - demise of the Celtic Tiger, decline in tourism, rise in taxes, rise in crime rates... actually, almost every negative bit of news, sadly.

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