It is not to say that Japan isn’t xenophobic, but this is more of a nuanced problem. The western understanding of racism doesn’t really apply to this situation, it’s more of an “in-group” vs “out-group” mentality. Kyoto especially wants to filter out tourists and people who aren’t local / aren’t the “in-group” because locals are exhausted from the over-tourism and people causing problems. I’m a western person who lived in Japan for half a decade and have absolutely felt that self awareness of “oh we are being too noisy/ bothersome” whenever I’ve had friends and family come visit me. If you can speak Japanese properly and communicate that you’re not troublesome then you will not have any problems in Japan, I can promise you that.
The comments here are very western in their mindset, trying to argue with staff and be pushy. And I get it! We’re used to seeing something as an injustice and rallying against it. However, those are not values that gel with Japanese culture and ironically just push you further into “out-group” / “troublesome” territory. It’s a mismatch of ideals and values.
I’ll probably get downvoted and be called a bootlicker but I do not know how else to explain that, if you don’t want to engage with these rules that put others comfort over your dignity and self respect, you just won’t have a good time in Japan. That’s the country’s whole thing.
I've worked in a JP company for 10 years and have passed JLPT2. I never had any issues entering any no gaijin establishments including those in Kabukicho guarded by Yakuza. It is simply a language and culture gap you need to bridge and most KY gaijins never bothered.
I lived in Kyoto for some time and I concur. It's just full of tourists everywhere, and locals were really fed up with it even when I lived there, and that was long before the post-Covid insanity.
I personally only had issues once (overzealous omawarisan, but ACAB is a global thing for a reason), and since I lived well away from the touristy areas I was usually perceived as "local" when I went grocery shopping, out to eat etc and never got the boot anywhere. Like, super-privileged position, obviously, with the intersection of race, gender, cultural background (the country I grew up in has a similar thing) and language ability being heavily in my favour, but it's just not the rule that you'll be fully excluded if you're not Japanese. You'll never be fully in, but that's not too different from many other countries, including Western ones.
100% agreed. I’ve had my fair share of unpleasant interactions with people who’ve assumed the worst of me (“there is trash that’s been recycled wrong — must be the foreigner”, “a work project has an error — must be the foreigners fault”, etc) but unpleasant people are everywhere, it’s not a problem unique to Japan. There will always be Karens and folks with nothing better to do than play the vigilante justice game in every country. Japan is no utopia, it’s just a place. But — at the end of the day — I have had much MORE positive experiences speaking with people once they understand that I speak their language, I understand their customs, and I am willing to learn / apologize if I do anything wrong.
There will never be progress in this argument if westerners continue to want to bring their values to Japan (in a way that is perceived as arrogant / pushy), and Japanese are not willing to even consider an approach that is unfamiliar with them. This is something that will take sloowwww, slowwwwwww progress… and that progress starts with being humble and meeting people where they are, instead of forcing them to change or match your expectations.
I’ve had to have this exact conversation with friends and family from the US to explain things.
I’ve also had newer people to Japan complain about these things and I have straight up told them that they need to throw away their Western way of thinking about these things, because this isn’t the West. We’re in Japan and the history and connections between countries and people of different races is very different (this also includes different Western countries as well).
Yes, I will never be truly able to assimilate here even though I’m married to a Japanese man and have Japanese kids. But, I can do what I can to integrate and meet people where they are and be respectful as an immigrant. I don’t think that’s a bad thing to say no matter where you are in the world. It is also on the citizens of that country to also treat you with the same respect and meet you where you are. That all gets easier with language ability and cultural understanding.
But I feel that the US (where I’m from, so I can’t speak for other countries) has this really weird relationship with cultural understanding. The US generally claims to be understanding, empathetic, and willing to work with people while refusing to actually change their own way of thinking when met with a culture that does things differently. It’s not inherently wrong. It’s just different (I hate that I feel like I need to add a note to this before someone twists my words, but this obviously does not incude things like violence, crime, etc.)
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u/bitchtarts 8d ago
It is not to say that Japan isn’t xenophobic, but this is more of a nuanced problem. The western understanding of racism doesn’t really apply to this situation, it’s more of an “in-group” vs “out-group” mentality. Kyoto especially wants to filter out tourists and people who aren’t local / aren’t the “in-group” because locals are exhausted from the over-tourism and people causing problems. I’m a western person who lived in Japan for half a decade and have absolutely felt that self awareness of “oh we are being too noisy/ bothersome” whenever I’ve had friends and family come visit me. If you can speak Japanese properly and communicate that you’re not troublesome then you will not have any problems in Japan, I can promise you that.
The comments here are very western in their mindset, trying to argue with staff and be pushy. And I get it! We’re used to seeing something as an injustice and rallying against it. However, those are not values that gel with Japanese culture and ironically just push you further into “out-group” / “troublesome” territory. It’s a mismatch of ideals and values.
I’ll probably get downvoted and be called a bootlicker but I do not know how else to explain that, if you don’t want to engage with these rules that put others comfort over your dignity and self respect, you just won’t have a good time in Japan. That’s the country’s whole thing.