Would highly recommand getting cursed by the bio spoiler! Long watch but incredibly informative. You are not immune to propaganda.
Japan, where racism doesn’t usually get the same criticism it does elsewhere for whatever reason…
Japan cast cat girl, it was super effective. All knowledge of atrocities was erased from western nations.
They get an easier pass because their products are top-notch. Toyota basically invented Six Sigma/a globally used process for manufacturer defect elimination. A Japanese automaker invented QR codes. They have Nintendo, anime, etc. They changed and continue to impact the world in highly recognizable ways, not by merely cheap products (China), cheap labor (India), etc.
lol Nintendo
They get an easier pass because the US needed a vassal state in the Pacific.
Tldr if your good enough at engineering you can be as racist as you want to be unless you’re white.
I guess I should’ve said that I wasn’t dismissing it, but was trying to find possible explanations. My understanding is that their xenophobia is more from a sense of caution rather than a more traditionally racist view like, “Inferior being!” That’s just a total hunch, though.
That is because they have soft power.
I think it’s more so that what looks like them being polite to most is meant as something extremely rude. Also not to mention the love affair most have with Japan online.
IMO, they have a similar thing going on as the US does where one of their largest exports is culture.
The veneer is peeling on the American Empire, but Hollywood and American media giants (and credit card companies) still hold massive sway over much of the world’s cultures, and Japan holds similar power with the export of anime and manga, as they are often one of the few things people know Japan through (that, and stuff about feudal era Japan and samurai as the Japanese counterpart to the American cowboy).
PR is one of their biggest products, whether it’s through their media or the reputation of the quality of their consumer goods, etc.
Japan is too far away and too aligned with the west to receive criticism for racism
I’m not sure being aligned with the west means much while people are extremely critical in and outside western countries about racism.
Most westerners don’t care about racism beyond its utility to attack something they already don’t like. Same with homophobia. How much “tactical homophobia” did we just see against Lindsey Graham by people who probably think they’re allies because they don’t like a lot of people who are hostile to LGBT+?
Have you been anywhere? Racism is just a full on aspect of most places I’ve been west or not. Like anyone Asian whatsoever is just mchina or anyone white whatsoever from anywhere is mzungu and both get treated differently than wafrika. Same to locals, if you’re dealing with a hiring manager and you are in his tribe you’ll likely get the job, if you’re a different ethnicity then probably not.
They’re hateful, but they’re cute.
This. Also the massive online love affair with Japan and anime sure does a lot to distract people from the less savoy aspects of Japan.
Just like the cats.
Not racist. You can learn whatever language you want. In fact you don’t even need to learn Japanese. You can just use a translator app. This only is discrimination against those too lazy to do either.
Lol right, well go in there and see if that works.
In Japan many stores don’t let in foreigners / tourists. This is an instance of it.
Yep, one cafe in Kyoto said that they were by reservation only and I’d have to come back the next day. The entire cafe was empty except for one Japanese couple. Was immediately obvious what was going on.
oh yeah, like only letting in three middle school students at a time. we have similar limitations here in statesia to limit knife fights
Its also discrimination against those who can read all 3 languages but have poor eyesight so they can only actually read the larger text English.
My wife is southeast Asian. Going to Japan, I felt a lot of like… weird energy at times where they just kind of looked at me. I never felt unsafe, just judged. I told my wife this, who said she felt the complete opposite. People were normal to her. She blended in.
She was born and raised in the States, and we traveled to a bunch of States (fuck Missouri) where she really felt unsafe like if she didn’t leave town, they would make us. And Ive shared before how we got a “Go back to your own country” from other people, and even one showing off his gun.
Do I feel like Japanese racism is uncalled for? Absolutely. Again, I never felt unsafe. So it’s really interesting to see this perspective in the comments like this is the worst disgusting attitude in the world because someone snubbed them vs feeling like you’re not wanted/you should leave for your own safety.
As someone in a similar situation, there are differences in the racism are stark.
They treat you differently but far more often than not, it is just curiosity or looking for entertainment from a zoo animal. They are not hostile or aggressive.
The “zoo animal” thing seems about right. Sometimes they look at you like they think you’re about to start flinging shit around. Sometimes they’re curious about how the zoo animal is going to do something simple like handle chopsticks. Often they don’t make eye contact or keep their space because they don’t want to have to interact with the zoo animal.
OTOH, part of their being polite is that if the gaijin actually asks them for help, they’re obligated to try to help.
Overall, I liked it. As an introvert, I don’t like countries where people approach the foreigner and try to practice their English on them. There are also too many countries where you’re frequently approached by someone who wants to scam you, or wants you to give them money.
They are not hostile or aggressive.
… until you try to open a bank account with them ad a foreigner. Tourists are fine and tolerated but become an expat and you’ll have a much steeper time.
Why do white immigrants often call themselves expats? I’ve never heard anyone who wasn’t a well-off immigrant white guy self-describe that way.
I lived in Japan for 2 years. I had several expat friends with stories of going to the hospital, being told they were full, their Japanese wife showing up, and suddenly they have space. Other stories of legal disputes between a Japanese person and a foreign immigrant will always go to the Japanese person. Japanese culture is very non-confrontational, but don’t think their brand of racism is safer. If we’re comparing racism and deciding one is less bad than the other, we’ve already partially accepted that it has a place in society.
Never heard of a restaurant posting a sign on the door saying they’re full.
Japan will put signs out saying they’re full and to queue from x position. Some will list an approximate time. If they take reservations and are full for the day, it will usually say that. Especially in urban areas, we can have some quite small restaurants.
Interesting. Thanks for explaining.
Yeah that’s more of a hotel thing. I’m guessing this is that influencer trick of intentionally lying about a detail so people will make comments to correct you, giving you free engagement.
I agree. And I’m replying to this comment to skew the numbers.
I don’t see signs like this where I live either. But when I went to Japan I did see this a couple times. Not a racist sign like this one, but signs saying “we’re full” in Japanese, at restaurants. Different cultures do things differently, I guess.
Probably not worth visiting them anyways…
Yeah thanks for filtering yourself out of places I would like to give my business to.
Found the weeb.
Would a weeb want to avoid racists? I think maybe the tone didnt carry in text there
plot twist: I’m a Japanese
Im confused here. Its bad to not want to spend money at places like this?
I think they misunderstood your comment as directed to the person you were responding to instead of the restaurant
On Okinawa, the red light area routinely used to refuse “chocolate men” for being “too strong”
Isn’t it xenophobia more than racism?
Expecting internet people to know this word is too much
Japan has a very homogeneous population, so xenophobia and racism are quasi indistinguishable.
Both are bad though.
Just on a different level
I’ve heard that people in Kyoto are very uppity and generally anti-tourist
Important to note that English is the global lingua franca.
So tourists from Mexico, Nicaragua, Sweden, Adygea, Italy, Rojava, Tajikistan, and Mozambique etc also use English language while visiting most foreign places.
This is NOT an “American tourists litter” thing.
American tourists speak Chinese?
I do, right into a toilet ( term for throwing up while drunk)
Since when was “speaking Chinese” a euphemism for drunken hurling?
It’s a term my father in law uses
Sounds like your father-in-law is racist.
No, or would you say the term ‘Pardon my French’ is racist?
Everything can be spun to be racist now a days
Probably yes, why would it not be? Or are you suggesting that the French language is only made up of slurs one should excuse himself for speaking it?
Are you American and embarrassed about it?
Your entire post screams so
No, not American. I just read a lot of newspaper about how another tourist got drunk and pissed at the local holy site and such.
I feel sympatethic to anti-tourism, but this sign is xenophobic rather than anti-tourist so wanted to mention that.
Also holy shit #7 from the tesseract list replied to me, I am saving this. So cool :3
Are you not??
A couple of thoughts:
Yes, I’ve heard before, even from people living in Japan, that they are quite xenophobic.
Now, why is this not condemned from the west ? (I know Chinese people and they do remember WW2)
As everything several reasons:
Japan has a great propaganda machine to make their culture look cool AF: anime/manga, the mythology around temples, samurais, ninjas…
The good parts of their culture, specially in contrast to the west: the extreme politeness, how clean and organized they are, civility/safety, super good and maintained public services such transport…
The “pretend WW2 didn’t happen”. They were absolute monsters on WW2, way beyond the nazis, but the combination of doing a 180 towards the west and the atomic bombs made it so the west was comfortable with looking the other way while Japan conveniently forgets his war crimes (for anyone unaware search for Nanjing, be warned is a hard read, but is important not to forget)
The “pacifist xenophobia”. When you go to japan their way of practicing xenophobia is quite passive, like, let’s be clear, you are loud and disgusting for them, but they will never tell you that, and you are probably never going to be in danger. At least as a tourist this is 100% like this, they might even just feel introverted rather than xenophobic. From what I’ve heard from people living there, it gets more clear when you live, but didn’t get any “I’m in danger” feeling from them, so I guess that low key discrimination is like that.
Now, not saying any of that makes it good, but I can understand why there is a different level of pushback than to the USA for example, where if you are brown and meet an angry cop or redneck (or both), you might end up dead.
I know for the fucking internet there is no such thing as grey, is either black or white, but I think the world is more nuanced than that.
BTW, for their work culture alone I would never live there, and while I like an anime or two, I’m not an otaku by any means. I did enjoy my vacation on Japan several years ago, but not more than the one on China or other Asian countries.
Due to their propaganda machine they have alot of soft power (and mainly cause of the “Cool Japan” thing like the post title references)
The discrimination is never direct when it’s regulated. They just try to repress you the legal way. Of course Japan has better regulation than the third world countries (or countries that pretend they are first world but are equally shitty - US, ex Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, etc.).
I thinks it’s source comes more from the behavior of western tourists than anything else.
Really? If it wasn’t for the west all the Asian populations would coexist in harmony?
Have you read any history books?
History has nothing to do with it.
Your curse still lingers 💀 please check the video!
If you could turn the lights out to the entire world for ten seconds, when you turn them back on half of Asia will have killed the other half. And if you ask where everyone else is they won’t even know who you’re talking about.
“Not in front of outsiders” does a lot of peacekeeping. The second the west forgets NK they’re doomed, that’s why their whole foreign policy can be boiled down to “Look at me!”
Not sure how accurate it is to call it racism but definitely discrimination… like literally.
Discrimination due to…? You’re almost there!
Racism is the belief that one or more “races” is superior to the others, or the opposite; that one or more “races” is inferior.
Racial discrimination can be for many different reasons. I’m not saying racism isnt the reason in this case, but without more context we can’t know for sure.
I fear your curse still lingers… You need to watch the video!
That is too narrow a definition of racism. Merriam Webster defines it as a belief that race is determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of one race over another. Racism is also defined as actions that reflect or foster that belief. It can also be systemic oppression of people based on race.
Based on that, you could maybe argue that language is cultural and not racial, therefore this is cultural discrimination more than racial discrimination, but in a place with an incredibly low ethnic and language diversity for the size of its population that’s just a distinction without a difference.
What this sign indicates is that they only want Japanese reading people, and in Japan that’s going to be almost exclusively native Japanese people, so it’s not a stretch to say that they do not want non-Japanese reading and therefore non-Japanese people. A policy like that is reflective of a belief that non-Japanese people do not belong in that business, and that is racist.
Bud, I love Japan. You know they’re the only axis power that still openly celebrates their WWII generals, yeah? It’s racism, Japan is a racist country. Like, definitionally.
This is like going to Jim Crow America, seeing a “Whites Only” water fountain sign and arguing that we need more context to know if it’s racist. You don’t, it is.
You know they’re the only axis power that still openly celebrates their WWII generals, yeah?
Okay so this one is ultra cultural. They still openly “celebrate” deified generals who tried to overthrow the imperial family then cursed the capital after their death to be hit by a plague, natural disasters, and famine, over a thousand years ago. With people from the imperial family dying from it. There’s several people like that who literally have an active cult today, to alleviate their anger. It’s not about being happy with what they did, it’s about appeasing everyone who wielded power and caused fear even after their death, because they have a culture of vengeful ghosts and Chinese Buddhism gave them the idea that people with power in the “real world” court still maintained the same power in the court of the underworld and could cause natural disasters and plagues. That said, I don’t know how many of those cults are still observed by the Prime Minister.
That’s kind of how I’m looking at it. Idk why people are trying to claim it so hard to being racism. What if the person passing by is Japanese American and they actually can’t read Japanese? Like what do you call it then? Japan has been known to actually be racist (e.g. against Naomi Osaka) but this example, on a matter of technicality, I cannot confidently say (without bias) that this is outright racism. (even though it could be)
Legit don’t get why people are downvoting. Discrimination is literally a word. WTF people. FFS
Not the same person, but ability to speak the language. A lot of the places don’t care what your background is so long as you speak the language. This should not be confused with me agreeing with this policy, which I do not.
I’m curious why speaking the language is so important as to take these kinds of measures.
Language barriers
Nope. The language is used as a shibboleth because of racism.
I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t have the energy or care to deeply discuss the nuances of this specific topic. Everybody knows Japan is super messed up and super racist. I’m deleting my above comment because just thinking about discussing Japan’s racism and other really messed up societal issues gives me a headache. And then all of the people here, English as second language or not, who don’t understand nuance, sarcasm, or are looking for a target to be mad at, this specific subject-bundle just isn’t worth it to me - bro that just ain’t me right now, sorry. I’m out. Have fun. 🤝
I thought blahaj was supposed to be better than this.
:(
I like my prejudice right out in the open. Just like this
As a fully white motherfucker, that’s hillarious, I love it
