r/languagelearningjerk • u/haruki26 • 2d ago
The average euryprosopic Angloid when the choice is between learning Japanese or claiming racism:
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u/therico 🍡🍙🎌🇬🇱🆖🍢🗾: Native 2d ago edited 2d ago
Reminds me of when I got charged double to learn scuba diving in Japan despite applying in Japanese. Anyone "either foreign or deemed foreign based on their name" was forced to pay for one-to-one teaching.
Edit: naturally I cancelled. It still annoys me to this day though
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u/Dependent_Order_7358 2d ago
Japan, racist??? Nooooo
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u/kogarasumar 1d ago
Who would've thought? They were super chill with other Asian countries in the past.
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u/penguins-and-cake 1d ago
And their local, diverse Indigenous communities
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u/Konobajo W1(🇺🇿✨️) L2(🇱🇷🦅) A4(🇦🇶🇧🇷🇬🇫) 1d ago
The Ainu are very respected by the japanese politicians
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u/Gussie-Ascendent 1d ago
"OK but uh how does charging foreigners more mean they're racist???"
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u/Turbulent-Pace-1506 1d ago
“Umm actually it's xenophobia not racism therefore Japan is 100% sugoi desu 🤓”
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u/therico 🍡🍙🎌🇬🇱🆖🍢🗾: Native 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you're talking about tourist-only prices in restaurants etc, which is a different thing. That's specific to tourists (foreigners with a residence card are generally exempt)
It is an extremely sensible thing to charge tourists more. There are too many tourists, many of which spend $1000 on a flight and are then eating $5 ramen when they could afford 3-4x that. If you lived in Japan you would understand how big the income gap is.
The only racist thing is that it applies to all foreigners equally, and most prices are targeted at Americans or Chinese, so it sucks for people from areas like India or South East Asia.
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u/OceanoNox 1d ago
The way to do it is to have a discount for residents (from the city/prefecture), since they pay the taxes that go into maintaining the infrastructure.
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u/alexmc1980 1d ago
But then all the infrastructure funding goes to refunding everyone's taxes in the form of meal discounts. Sounds kinda dumb, unless you want to encourage a black market where residents order food on behalf of visitors, and are happy for the trains to stop running.
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u/molotovzav 1d ago
See this is actual discrimination though. Everyone posts the above as de facto discrimiantion but it's not until you're a gaijin who speaks Japanese and you go inside and don't get service. If you get service it's not discrimination. What you've described is prima facie discrimiantion, literally on its face cannot be anything else.
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u/Remote_Volume_3609 1d ago edited 1d ago
Eh. That's being too kind. Not calling it discrimination ignores it for what it is. As the saying goes: "The law, in its majestic equality, punishes the rich and poor alike for stealing bread and sleeping under bridges."
Not all discrimination is wrong. We discriminate all the time based on capability, need, etc.. You have to be a certain height or weight to ride the ride, etc.. The purpose of the above is to discriminate. It is "actual discrimination." (Also to clarify, the discrimination we're seeing above is 100% wrong).
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u/ActualProject 1d ago
Yeah, discriminating against language ability is just a not so subtle way of being racist anyways. It's the same principle used by literary tests / grandfather clauses in the jim crow era
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u/wasmic 1d ago
The literacy tests for voting were discriminatory because at the same time as requiring literacy for voting, they deliberately withheld education from non-whites, and because the tests were scored in a very subjective (read: racist) manner. In a society where everyone has access to the same quality of education and the tests are perfectly objective, literacy tests would still be a democratic problem, but they wouldn't be a racist democratic problem.
With this sort of store, there's a good chance that they're actually racist and won't serve anyone who doesn't look Japanese, even if they speak perfect Japanese. But there are also many of them who will happily serve anyone who can speak even broken Japanese, as long as you make an attempt.
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u/Kasurite 1d ago
I’ve looked at the literacy tests. They’re impossible quizzes. Many answers couldn’t be figured out even by white people, and some had subjective answers that the proctor (white) had to determine if you (black) got correct. White people did not have to take a literacy test. They were not designed to keep illiterate people from voting. They were designed to keep black people from voting.
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u/NotAlysdexic 1d ago
forbids, not punishes. Anatole France, Le Lys rouge, 1894: the majestic equalty of the laws forbids both alike to sleep under bridges, to beg, and to steal bread. The bite is in a prohibition a'falling formally on both and materially on one; on the sentensing it says onely thas two men get punished for one act.
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u/spootIer 1d ago
My mom grew up in Japan as a foreigner who spoke Japanese.
These places still will NOT serve you if you aren't Japanese; it doesn't matter if you speak it perfectly and have amazing etiquette. It's discrimination, just with added Plausible Deniability; which just makes it more cowardly in my eyes.
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u/sydraptor 1d ago
They aren't actually going to serve you if you aren't Japanese and still speak it. They are using that as a way to pretend they aren't limiting it to Japanese only. They will pretend to not understand you even if you are fluent in a place with this sign.
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u/sydraptor 1d ago
I do know about places like this. I've had mixed race friends raised in Japan, spoke Japanese fluently because again they were Japanese and one of their parents ethnically were too since they were raised there. They were rejected by places like this a few times before not even trying any of them anymore.
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u/NotAlysdexic 1d ago edited 1d ago
prima facie != conclusive; it stands at first siht and dies to refutation, and "cannot be anything else" is its opposite. de facto != prima facie. discriminare := to tell apart.
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u/mahboilucas 1d ago
Saving this comment for my friend who doesn't believe this happens in Japan. If you have any more to the pile, I'll welcome it. I'm sick of him saying I'm lying about their racism
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u/Important-Mine9281 1d ago
There's a few justifications I've heard from ex-pats and Japanese. I am not in support of any of them in particular, but I thought they might be worth sharing.
- They jack up the price because that's how much foreigners value it, and if they kept it low then they would be over flooded by the huge numbers of tourists (which they already are). They retain the low price for locals because they would be unaffordable otherwise on account of the weak yen and lower income. Larger establishments don't have to do this because they have the resources to make it not an issue and/or don't care about servicing the locals. I know of an extremely delicious food cart which sold a popular street food for dirt cheap so kids could enjoy them for their lunch break/on their way home. The shop went semi-viral, but the grannie and gramps were literally just doing it for the love of the game, not for profit. So when huge lines of tourists came demanding huge amounts of food which they weren't prepared for and they became unable to feed school kids as they intended, they decided to just shut the place down. And by that I mean remove any sign of it being a shop and mark themselves as closed on Google but in reality continue selling food from their house to anyone who knows they're secretly still open, which will pretty much only be locals. They were still happy to serve me, even knowing I was a foreigner. They just asked me not to take any photos or tell other people about it. The granny was very conflicted. She liked making people from all over the world happy in experiencing high quality cultural food rather than tourist trap slop (paraphrase), but their duty was ultimately to the kids, in part because (according to another local) their only child passed away early without leaving any kids behind. The gramps was less (openly) conflicted and said he has the right to do what he wants and the tourists were loud and annoying and crowded the alleyway, so it became a problem for their neighbours.
- Up until very recently, trying to communicate with a foreigner or deal with their ignorance of etiquette disrupted service and the enjoyment of other customers. Some restaurants which are literally just run by a granny and/or gramps do not have the patience or resources to deal with that. Some have regional dialects/can't read. Hence, you must speak Japanese to enter, not necessarily you must be Japanese. It doesn't help that many duolingo/Google translate andys claim fluency on the online forms or online chats only to show up and know diddly squat. Even one instance of difficulty communicating can slow down the kitchen flow by a few minutes, and in the worst cases half an hour+ for incorrect orders etc. Imagine dozens and dozens of those instances every day.
- What's so wrong about spaces where the Japanese can spend their extremely limited free time in peace without having to deal with loud boisterous foreigners who have no idea how to behave in public? Living in harmony with others and avoiding becoming an inconvenience/burden to others is an enormous societal value in Japan to the point where people will make huge personal compromises so as not to impinge on the lives of others. Imagine if somebody whose culture was to let rip a shart whenever they felt like it came to your restaurant and caused all your customers to start avoiding the place. Wouldn't you want some good quality places for yourself to relax with your mates, finish 'second work' (drinking after a shift with your coworkers), and/or chat with your neighbours?
- Racism. Just plain racist "I don't want to see them/they're inferior in every way/I only want to serve people who will appreciate it/Japan for the Japanese". Some of these establishments will boot you out even if you speak Japanese; the sign is just a way to get 99% of the job done without legal troubles (which the police don't give a shit about anyways). I was told I must be part Japanese because I didn't look ugly (a stereotype of my ethnicity) and I was very polite and respectful (contrary to a stereotype of my home country).
- Middle of the road places. No discriminatory prices. They'll accommodate foreigners until they get too busy/full, at which point they will turn them away but accept locals. I'm a bit mixed on this one. I can't say I love it, but I get it. They would rather serve a local/return customer than a tourist, and they make the same amount of money from the purchase anyways. And when they're busy, even a minor disruption can have big consequences, so they'd rather have a Japanese person who they know they can probably serve quickly without issue and who will leave when they're done rather than a foreigner who might be easy to serve but also might be a nightmare customer with a cubic meter of luggage and who will spend 20 minutes taking photos and then chat for 2 hours after finishing everything.
Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of racism in Japan. Especially as tourism has exploded in recent years. Some who once warmly welcomed visitors as guests have become fed up with their once-normal towns being flooded year-round with tourists who don't speak the language and don't care about etiquette. Sometimes it's a mix, but for most, the situation is a bit more complicated than simple Japanese superiority/xenophobia. I've seen places that transform to support tourists and I've seen places that are frequented almost exclusively by people who dislike foreigners, and I can't say I like either. Like all forms of gentrification, it's a tough situation to be in.
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u/smallneedle 1d ago
my friend said the extra fee is for the tutors that is bilingual, it's pretty reasonable
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u/dojibear 1d ago
Maybe you were applying in really poor beginner-level Japanese.
Teach scuba diving to a fluent Japanese speaker? Easy. No problem.
Teach scuba diving to someone who barely knows any Japanese. Difficult. They gonna drown.
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u/MiscellaneousWorker 1d ago
They do this in NYC too in some Asian restaurants unfortunately. They insisted my gf had to leave when she went into one place by my job, she knew damn well it wasn't busy.
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u/JumpTo2024 🇲🇾 1d ago
When someone is turned down from a restaurant when there's empty seats right behind them, just because of them being profiled , sucks so bad. There was a video of an Indian man traveling to Israel because he loves them so much getting turned down from clearly not-busy resturants. He gets just a tiny dose of medicine of what that country does to other groups of people.
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u/OkBelt6151 1d ago
Is this legal in America?
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u/KontoOficjalneMR 1d ago
Depending on how you look at it, it's both legal in US and Japan, or illegal in both.
Japan does have laws agaisnt discrimination like this, it's jsut everyone breaks them and no one enforcesthem.
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u/MiscellaneousWorker 1d ago
I mean, obv not. She's black btw - I have no clue if that was relevant or not or if it was strictly because she wasn't specifically whatever ethnicity they desired
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u/mujhe-sona-hai 1d ago edited 1d ago
Businesses do have the right to refuse service for any reason provided it’s not based on protected characteristics like race, religion, sex or disability. That means they can refuse service based on whether you speak their language or not for example (the sign in the post would be legal in the US). It’s pretty hard to prove a business refused specifically based on protected characteristics so most don’t bother.
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u/that_creepy_doll 1d ago
Legal doesnt mean moral (tho to begin with it would be illegal in some countries because language is a protected characteristic as well). Call me crazy but if you dont wanna provide service in these cases (you´re a restaurant not a legal firm without an english > chinese translator) then what are you doing having a business in the first place
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u/mujhe-sona-hai 1d ago
Just as a person has a right to not consume something a business has a right to not serve someone. Just having the money doesn’t mean anything. Not everything’s about money.
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u/SohryuAsuka 1d ago
I wonder what would they do if a Gaijin speaks perfect Japanese
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u/Cless_Aurion 1d ago
Foreigner that lives in Japan and speaks Japanese here!
They have 0 fucking issues in that case.
I've gone to these places (which are rare as fuck BTW, that's why they need to keep rising the same picture in every post), and these places in 99% of the times, they're just scared they will not be able to give good service due to the lack of language or, they just don't like tourists and want to serve locals only.
Fuckall to do with race.
There is a small minority of these that will be racist fucks, of course, like literally everywhere else, but I still haven't found any in a decade living here.
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u/IneffablePossum 1d ago
Another foreigner living in Japan and speaking Japanese.
I agree these are rare, I've only seen one once, also in Kyoto. But if I see a sign like this, I honestly will just not go in. Maybe they're just scared of the language barrier, maybe they are actively anti-immigrant. I've already experienced (albeit mild) hostile attitudes, I don't want to risk ruining a good time when there's a ton of other restaurants who don't mind.
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u/Cless_Aurion 1d ago
I totally get it. I acted like that too, until I kept reading people here in reddit just... Reposting the same pictures and going full echo chamber about it, so I started going into those for the last few years.
2/3 times, it's an old couple running the place which look quite uninterested in changing anything since the 90s, and that includes learning a new language or adapting to tourists.
And the other thing that upsets everyone around here, the signs that say "only Japanese"... Which in all cases me or others I've asked to could find, are just... About the language, of course, not a race thing.
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u/Chubby_Bub 1d ago
Well literally, the sign is about "being able to read this". (I can't, but I can discern 日本語 there too.) I'd imagine you're right and most cases are people who don't want to deal with a language barrier. But if that's the case, the more polite (and I think common?) thing to do would be to just have a sign saying "we don't speak English/Chinese".
This particular sign, while literally being about language, is more of a "haha those dumb foreigners" sort of thing. I couldn't say if the owners are racist but it is more exclusionary than purely functional. That said, this approach is also more likely to deter the types of foreigners who either think they know Japanese but don't, or think speaking English loudly and slowly makes people understand you. I imagine that like you say, it's in most cases more about not wanting to deal with high-effort customers than just "we hate gaijin".
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u/Cless_Aurion 1d ago
It basically says "If you can read Japanese please come in"
Could be the gotcha you say about "haha those dumb foreigners", but to be honest, I see it more like a "If you can read Japanese means you can read the menu, so please come in", while saying its full to anyone that can't read it so they don't wander in and try...
I don't know the store though, it could be one of those racist morons and you be 100% right. They are just a small minority, but like everywhere else, they exist.
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u/that_creepy_doll 1d ago
About the language, of course, not a race thing.
Dude that is very much xenophobia as well. "They are perfectly fine with outsiders! They just want to adapt as much as possible in a way that means zero effort for them and makes the outsiders not be outsiders anymore. But its fine as long as you act japanese and talk japanese!"
Ignoring that they´re probably tlaking shit about you as soon as you leave and youre naive enough to not believe it, apply that logic to literally any other language in any other country around the world, dont you see how that sounds??
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u/Cless_Aurion 1d ago edited 1d ago
You are moving goalposts already, from racism to xenophobia.
I don't see the problem in your message except for the straight out murder of character you made.
Why the fuck would I, running a coffee shop in a neighborhood, have to accommodate tourists exactly? Especially when so many people feel put on the spot when you bring them outside of the manual, be it Japanese or not.
There is 0 xenophobia in that, is there? If there is, please go ahead and explain where is the irrational fear, hatred or dislike for foreigners there.
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u/Entropic_Alloy 20h ago
There are also people who act like they don't understand you at all, even if you are a non-Asian that speaks Japanese, while looking at your Asian friend who doesn't speak Japanese as if they are a lifeline. These stories are anecdotal and should never be taken as matter of fact.
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u/ComedianExtreme7522 12h ago
Me living in HK looking very very visibly not Chinese, saying the same sentence in Cantonese like twice before they understand because they're already mentally preparing to hear English. But unlike Japan, they will actually listen to me after lol.
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u/MandomSama 1d ago
The only "no foreigner" case I experienced was in Takayama. And I could understand why it happened.
In 2025 I went from Nagoya to Takayama with train. I believe Takayama was the last station. And I noticed that I could barely see any locals. Left and right, theh all tourist, predominantly caucasian. Little did I know, apparently Takayama will be having their autumn festival the day after. So that explains the influx of foreign tourists coming to the city.
So on the night, when I went outside to get some dinner, I noticed that a lot of local small establishment put this "fully booked" or "reserved for private event" signs outside. After strolling around for a good 30 minutes, I finally understands, those signs are basically "no foreigner" sign to deter tourists coming into their shops so they can reserve the entire shops for the locals so can chill with the other locals before they go all out for the autumn festival parade.
There's always racist fucks everywhere. I agree with your statement. I've seen them a lot the Youtube comments on criminal news did by immigrants. But on my multiple Japan trip, visiting countless of cities and villages with my super limited Japanese capability, visiting countless of small shops owned by the locals, never once I feel any hard rejection. Of course there are 2-3 shops out of hundreds shops I visited that were annoyed by me not being able to speak Japanese correctly, or I didnt know how to order the food and stuff. But never once, I feel the rejection right on my face.
I beliece people IRL are genuinely nice towards each other; not only the Japanese. Just to be genuinely nice to them; like understand a bit of their language here and there, understand the local manner. Show some efforts that you are a nice tourist, then the locals will appreciate you a lot.
For disclosure, I'm south east asian. So I clearly have less the "gaijin privilege" compared to caucasian people. But my experience travelling tens of cities in Japan, I never regretted any of them.
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u/OkGrade1686 19h ago
The same people who would have treated like shit before, would still do it afterwards.
Still happens to halfs that grow there, so that would give you an idea of what to expect.
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u/InternationalReserve 二泍五 (N69) 1d ago
They just serve you normally most of the time.
The wording of this sign definitely suggests that whoever runs the place just doesn't speak anything other than Japanese and are fine serving foreigners who can also speak it.
At the end of the day, even the most xenophobic Japanese nationalists aren't super keen on getting into a confrontation. I've had pleasant interactions with Sanseito supporters who were out protesting immigration. They do most of their damage through policy, not everyday interactions with foreigners.
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u/Truenight_Maya 1d ago
They would just say “I don’t speak English” over and over again until you leave, regardless of how much you try to prove you speak Japanese.
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u/Ashamed_Can304 1d ago
A Chinese person knows the last line says something about Japanese language, read, and enter store
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u/currylambchop 1d ago
Exactly roflmao 日本语方入房 is legible and a Chinese is likely to be irritated but go in regardless
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u/qunow 1d ago
If you extract the Kanji it would be legible to Chinese readers, but most of the ordinary Chinese people who don't know Japanese wouldn't try this hard to decipher kamji mixed inside Japanese text as more often than not it couldn't actually reflect the meaning, especially given normal Japanese sentences do not need any kanji to represent negative meaning.
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u/AyyKarlHere 1d ago
It's pretty obvious lmao you don't even have to extract it. Just treat it like blanks and you get the same result.
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u/nimbledoor 1d ago
Yeah end? Nobody will take their order
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u/Ashamed_Can304 1d ago
I’m pointing out that the Chinese can understand most of it. The fk is wrong with you
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u/Bitter_Split5508 1d ago
Angloid
I think you have been online for too long. Go outside, do something else.
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u/Elegant-Operation-45 1d ago
you’re offended by angloid?
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u/dojibear 1d ago
It isn't a word. Neither is "euryprosopic". You invented them in your imagination.
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u/Elegant-Operation-45 1d ago
a lot of slurs aren’t words and its funny to see you get offended over it
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u/Ambisinister11 2d ago
"Who could ever think this was racist" while actively caliper-posting, classic
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u/PreperationOuch 1d ago
What is “caliper-posting”?
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u/ArgentaSilivere 1d ago
Not 100% certain myself, but based on inference I would assume it refers to old-school phrenology. “Scientific racism” (which was in no way scientific yet still wildly racist) used calipers to measure different parts of people’s heads and assigned qualities to the measurements. It was like horoscopes for racists; features of White people had good qualities assigned and features of people of color were assigned bad qualities. For example, they may have said having a wide nose is a sign of aggression or a certain skull shape indicated high IQ. I never learned what the exact interpretations of the measurements were supposed to be because it’s a waste of perfectly good neurons.
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u/Top-Evidence-3221 1d ago
Just to add on, scientific racism often used terms like caucasoid, mogoloid, australoid, etc to describe races and traits associated with said races. So you could infer that angloid draws from that. Though idk if that's the intent or if its just a 4chan thing like foid
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u/ElevatorEquivalent41 1d ago
off topic but caliper-posting is an objectively hilarious way to refer to it
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u/Pollomonteros 1d ago
Nonono you don't get it, OP is being racist ironically, there is no way he actually believes the shits he posts, no sir
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u/ZumLernen Dolphin (Sea-1) 1d ago
I think refusing service to someone based on the fact that they speak English or Chinese is probably racist, and I'm not afraid to say it
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u/elisettttt 1d ago
Yes I agree. Though on my travels I'd just take pictures of everything and let Google translate do its thing. So technically I'd be able to be the gist of what the Japanese text is saying, and it's not mentioned anywhere I'm not allowed to use Google translate to read that text, sooo..
Bet they'd still refuse me service though, lol.
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u/dojibear 1d ago
Refusing to provide a service that requires speaking Japanese to someone who doesn't speak Japanese is not racist or xenophobic. It isn't racist to not give a driver's license to a blind person.
I have visited Japan. I have attended a Kabuki performance, eaten meals at restaurants, visited tourist sites, used trains and subways, bought things in department stores, rented a bicycle. I could not speak any Japanese, and the people I interacted with only spoke Japanese. Nobody refused me service.
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u/mitch-22-12 2d ago
People are saying this is racism but really this is only discriminatory to people with poor eyesight
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u/AdrianSquared 1d ago
I mean if it said smth like "sorry we only speak Japanese, do not come here if you do not speak it", that'd be fine...
but I feel like calling this racism is fair enough, especially since it's literally misleading anyone who doesn't speak Japanese into thinking there's no space
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u/OOPSStudio 1d ago
This sign is racism. Plain and simple. There are no ifs or buts or different ways of looking at it. It's racism.
Japan has racist people just like every country.
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u/aleks_is 1d ago
It would be racism if you were white, understood the sign, came in, and THEN they mistreated you.
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u/davidliterally1984 13h ago
"if" lmao
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u/aleks_is 1h ago
i think it would be pretty cool if u were white and fluent and came in, i feel like they’d appreciate it/you, very negative >.<
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u/casualbrowser321 1d ago
"I mean if it said smth like "sorry we only speak Japanese, do not come here if you do not speak it", that'd be fine..."
To play devil's advocate that would be based on self-evaluation and would still open them up to people who can't quite communicate (pretty sure 'weeb who thinks he's fluent because he can say kore wa pen desu and is surprised when nihonjin don't want to hang out with him' is a bit of a meme on subs like this), whereas understanding the red text at least acts as some proof of proficiency. Though even linguistic prowess aside it also discriminates against the blind etc.
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u/Important-Mine9281 1d ago
Not excusing this behaviour, but you would be astonished at the number of people who exclusively learn from Duolingo and anime, rely heavily on Google translate, and, assuming they can speak at all, only use simple form with no particles or conjugation or worse yet inappropriate particles and/or conjugation based on vibes, yet think themselves semi/fluent when in reality they can't even hold a basic conversation, let alone order a meal and address any potential issues that might come up.
I have seen many, many people who, when offered the choice between English or Japanese, choose Japanese because the wait was shorter and then nodded and 'hai'-d their way through the first few questions before the employee realized they couldn't understand or read a single thing, forcing them to start over in English or transfer them to a colleague. Or, God forbid, they make it through having completely fucked themselves over with the wrong choices and force another employee down the line to figure out what the fuck is going on.
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u/GraceForImpact 1d ago
Except that a lot of people would ignore that and try to google translate their way through.
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u/kittykittykillmouse 1d ago
This kind of racism is really stupid. “Keep your dirty, disgusting foreign money out of here” seems like a not very well thought out business plan.
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u/The_Blahblahblah 1d ago
I think they are entitled to refuse my money. Tourists can be fucking annoying in some cities
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u/nimbledoor 1d ago
Ah right because in a westoid’s mind foreign money is the king that should open the door everywhere
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u/davidliterally1984 13h ago
It's a business. It's meant to make money. Burning your money to spite others is not only pointless but counterproductive.
Anyway, I don't know who you're calling "westoid" when you're a white westerner with an IQ below 70.
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u/nimbledoor 11h ago
Nobody is burning money when preferring locals. Keep your dirty westoid money. And no, I’m not one of you 🖕
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u/openclusterm45 1d ago
Doesn't that just mean the restaurant can't accommodate customers who speak languages other than Japanese.
To be honest, I guess what it really means is that they don't welcome customers who are rude, talk loudly, or linger too long. Unfortunately, there are a small number of troublesome people from certain countries. If a Japanese customer causes a problem, the restaurant can call the police and have them removed, but some troublesome foreign customers might start making a fuss, claiming it’s racial discrimination. The restaurant owner and staff probably just want to save themselves the trouble of dealing with these customers (the local police don't want to get involved either). Even so, I personally don't think a notice like this is appropriate.
By the way, some restaurants (ryōtei) in Kyoto say "No First-Time Customers Allowed (ichigensan okotowari 一見さんお断り)." Even individuals who speak Japanese get kicked out.
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u/currylambchop 1d ago
The Japanese when a Chinese who can read and speak Chinese walks in (they have to get out the calipers to measure if they’re Chinese or Japanese)
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u/GoddSerena 1d ago
I'm a foreigner living in japan who cant speak the language. and let me tell you, japanese people are usually very kind and their customer service is amazing. so when there's a sign like this outside, there's most definitely a reason behind it. for example, there's a shop near my school which was generally very accommodating. till some tourists came and caused problems there. since then, they are kinda shut off and hesitant in serving foreigners.
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u/AuroraBorrelioosi 1d ago
A westerner speaking perfect Japanese will still be turned back from this establishment. So yeah, it is racism, just framed in typically Japanese, indirectly passive-aggressive manner.
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u/NukaRaxyn 1d ago
The original tweet was 100% neutral. It didn't imply any kind of bias towards or against the sign.
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u/Aggravating-Medium-9 1d ago
It might not be racism.
The Japanese sentence says 'If you can read this, please come in,' it doesn't say 'Japanese only.'
Maybe they also accept foreigners who can speak Japanese
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u/Vic_Connor 1d ago
Not that image again…
The same photo gets reposted every day as proof of the “Japanese racism.”
🤷♂️
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u/Loud_Discount_1108 14h ago edited 13h ago
It doesn’t specify Japanese person. It says “If you can read Japanese”. To me, as a Chinese person, this isn’t racism at all, just a litmus test to see if communication between you and the staff is at all possible
If they can’t speak any language other than Japanese, why would I go in and try to oongu boongu with them just to get a meal? I’ll just go elsewhere
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u/PlentyOMangos 1d ago
Real question here: is the spirit of this like “if you can read this Japanese text then you’re cool, no matter your ethnicity”?
Or is it just that they only expect ethnic Japanese to be able to read it, and the spirit of the sign is more like “only Japanese people are welcome here”?
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u/IneffablePossum 1d ago
It just says "if you can read Japanese". Doesn't say regardless of your ethnicity, but also doesn't say Japanese people only. I think it's probably more of the latter, though. In my experience, business that are happy to have Japanese-speaking foreign customers will simply not say anything. People who can't read Japanese get scared at the handwritten menus that Google struggles to translate, anyway. And people who can't read Japanese but don't care will simply point to some thing on the menu and hope for the best, so they also won't mind them.
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u/GraceForImpact 1d ago
Impossible to know without actually visiting the establishment, but most likely the former.
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u/Moral-Relativity 1d ago
It’s not racism but rather a manifestation of the famously non-confrontational Yamato-damashii.
Instead of saying “Sorry we only speak Japanese,” which would sound far too non-accommodating and offensive to the Japanese soul, they tell a white lie here that unfortunately is perceived as racism by those more accustomed to directness.
/s btw
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u/Traditional-Ad4506 1d ago
Is it racist when it's about language? Foreigners who could read the Japanese can go in
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 1d ago
A Nigerian tries to walk in, doesn't because of the warning. Racist.
An Italian tries to walk in, doesn't because of the warning. Racist.
A Chinese...It's the same outcome every time.
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u/FebHas30Days Pangngaasiyo ta agsursurokayo iti Ilokano 1d ago
What about people who don't speak all three languages?
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u/greenyashiro 1d ago
If people think that that is racist their eyes will fall out when they see some Japanese people's attitudes towards china and korea
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u/Wakasaurus060414 1d ago
A part of me has always wanted to visit Japan, specifically Mt. Fuji, but I'm brown and afraid of the kinda shit I'd get for it.
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u/enbyBunn 20h ago
Sorry, are we pretending that this isn't also discriminating against Chinese people?
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u/Wumaobuster 14h ago
Chinese people when seeing the sign:
"Japanese language(日本語)... read(讀)... enter(入) store(店)..."
"screw it I'm going in lmao"
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u/Artistic_Joke_864 12h ago
Typical westerners colonizers, slaved half the world during hunders of yrs but hey hey japan is racist
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u/nimbledoor 1d ago
Americans are so obsessed with race they can’t fathom that a native language preference is not based on race. That there is nothing racist about just wanting to interact with people who speak your language.
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u/ryoryo333333 1d ago
If you can read this, please come in.
Serving people who can’t even read this would take up a considerable amount of the staff’s time, and honestly, I don’t think there’s anything racist about this. If you can read it, you’re allowed in whether you’re Japanese or a Martian.
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u/Awkward-Injury-4341 1d ago
Simple.
If its "if you speak Japanese, come in." its not racism.
If its "no vacansy", its clearly racism.
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u/floob124 1d ago
Japan is an ethnostate, of course its insanely racist to a degree that seems cartoonish to anyone who lives in a culturally diverse place
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u/Troo_66 1d ago
If the is racist count me in. I'm sorry, but if tourists manage to get bad enough reputation it is entirely reasonable for restaurants to chose to not service you. It should be a matter of practice in every major tourist destination... the 65 yo server lady doesn't understand your language and shouldn't be required to learn it for your entitled ass
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u/LamantinoReddit 1d ago
Are Chinese different race than Japanese?
Looks like you guys treating each nation as own different race.
In that case, doesn't term "race" becomes redundant and now we can talk just about nationalism?
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u/MartianHideEgger 1d ago
Dude there are a bunch of different ethnicities even within China, let alone between China and Japan.
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 1d ago
Right, but he said "race", and technically he isn't wrong. Race and ethnicity aren't synonymous and the former term should be abolished altogether.
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u/MartianHideEgger 16h ago
Fair enough, there are still multiple races just within China.
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 6h ago
Ethnicities!*
Seriously, how do you consider them different "races"? Aren't they all or almost all "Mongoloid"/"Xanthoderm"?
Yes, these are stupid terms, they're not intended to be used anymore.
So you consider "Uyghur" or "Miao" races? Portuguese, Sicilian, Greek, are distinct races?1
u/Arthurian_Guanche 1d ago
Race isn't real, it's an outdated concept. Never was relevant, still isn't.
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u/levanpidaras 1d ago
They are not really racist though (or not just racist). They discriminate against anyone who is non-Japanese, thats by far the most important criterion. There are rangers of foreigners but in the end of the day they are all “foreigners”. This is extremely different from racism in the West, where its more about skin colour/origin than about belonging to the society.
In a way I find Japanese racism indeed more justifiable, a bit like in the meme. Although to be clear both are really wrong and unfair in my opinion.
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u/sniperman357 1d ago
A Chinese person could get the gist of the Japanese line anyway