I am a white guy living in the rural Japan. I can tell you lots of stories of other expat white people accusing me of being a "Japan-o-phile" (apparently a bad thing) because I adopted a Japanese way of life. People have often warned me that "they [the Japanese people] will never accept you" and "you know you will never be Japanese". I get far more racism from these expats who feel betrayed that I have happily integrated into Japanese society than I ever have from Japanese people.
Racism exists everywhere. Living in Japan has been the first place where I've lived as a visible minority and it has been an eye opener. Being obviously different is hard in many ways. There are people who stare at you, or people who wonder if/how you are different from them. There are people who are afraid of you for no reason other than you are different. Very occasionally there are people who are abusive and rude, but most of the time it is mostly a mixture of ignorance and curiosity (and maybe a little bit of fear of the unknown thrown in).
It can be quite a problem for some people. Many people take offence at practically anything and can't let anything slide. They feel it is morally wrong not to take a stand about being treated differently. They feel you are morally wrong if you happily agree to be treated differently.
For me, probably like a lot of people who read HN, I have always been different. I have never fit in anywhere. Even though I was visibly the same as everyone, my way of thinking, my religious beliefs, my values have always been different from the norm. I suffered greatly in countries where everyone assumed that I was the same as them. As a visible minority, I am free to be different. It makes me happy even if sometimes it causes problems.
"Expats in Japan frequently question why I would live in rural Japan with people who don't look [and by extension, think] like me", would be a true statement for me. In my opinion this is likely true of any visible minority population anywhere. It definitely hurts me and I suspect it hurts the author as well, which is probably why he wrote about it in that way.
I wouldn't call it racism, either. Recognizing that different cultures and peoples are different isn't racism, and I wouldn't ever expect people to treat me as a Japanese, because I'm not one. That doesn't mean I'm not treated as an equal, it just means I'm not treated as the same (as I'm obviously not).
I'm thinking of writing a blog post or something about this in a positive light, since most of what you read about Japan in English is from the perspective of people who have a bone to pick with their experience. There's positives and negatives of being an integrated minority in what is by some definitions an ethnostate. I might even say there's some "minority privilege," depending on the situation.
I live in rural Japan. I've been here for 6 of the last 8 years (worked 2 years in the UK in the middle). In my estimation, Japanese people are not particularly racist. I've lived in Canada, the US and the UK in my life. I've seen less examples of problematic racism here in Japan than in the other places I've lived. As others have pointed out, the things that you tend to see are mostly just curiosity or ignorance. For example, people will stare at you in the country side. Children will come up and talk to you for no reason except that they've never met a foreigner before. People are surprised if you can use chopsticks, speak Japanese and read/write Japanese (actually the last one will particularly surprise people). I've occasionally had women with children waiting at a bus stop leave when I arrived, presumably because they were afraid of waiting at a bus stop alone with a foreigner around. That last bit is nothing I haven't seen everywhere in the world.
There is a certain cache to being a foreigner in Japan, especially if you are white and of North American or European background. It's harder for other people like Brazilians, Koreans and Chinese in Japan. However, I have never seen racism to the level that I've seen in other places that I've lived. I think that's not necessarily because Japanese people are less racist. It's just that Japanese culture does not encourage people to speak their mind openly about such things. If people are racist, you just aren't going to know about it most of the time.
I have to say that Japan is an extremely hard place to live as a foreigner if you wish to hold on to your foreign values. Japan is also a place where there is a strong sense of moral right and wrong. This sense is often directly opposed to the moral sense that some foreigners have (especially Americans in my experience). Because of this, some people have an incredibly rough time here. Unable to cope with the idea that a different set of moral values is OK, some people come away with the idea that Japanese people/culture is bad. It is particularly easy to come away with the idea that Japanese culture is racist because of the inside/outside nature of society (either you are inside a group or outside; the rules are different depending on where you are; you can't just decide to join/leave a group; etc).
Anyway, living here is very nice if you can adopt a 100% Japanese lifestyle. Either that or if you can just not care about not fitting in. I've seen both work well (the latter is exceptionally difficult, though). The problem is that many foreigners think they can pick and choose from Japanese culture and their own home culture. This is usually extremely bad and if you ever go to Japan, I would try to avoid that.
Having said all that, immigration is dramatically easier here than any of the other countries I mentioned. To work you just need a job offer and a university degree. The cost is fairly low (I think the visa costs about $1000).
I don't know how realistic coming here for retirement is, unless you have a lot of money. You can sponsor your own visa as a business person if you start a company with $50k capital (which is quite low compared to other countries).
Land and housing is quite cheap where I live. You can easily buy a small (2 bedroom) house for $100k. Large north american style houses go for about $300k. Cost of living is quite low, but there are certain things that are very expensive. A good example is that fruit and vegetables are often twice the price that you'll be used to (or even more). However, food is a pretty small percentage of most people's budget. In contrast, eating out is very cheap here, if you eat Japanese food. It's very, very easy to get a huge meal of healthy food for about $5 in the country side. Even in Tokyo, you could easily eat out for $7-$10 per person (in fact, I did so this weekend). And there is no tipping.
People trying to assimilate in Japan... most of them will always remain foreigners in the eyes of their new country and fellow citizens. No matter what they do. Simply because they don’t look the part.
Regarding their attitude towards people from other Asian countries. Well, let’s just say I’m glad to have lived there as a white kid.
However it’s true; in Japan you’ll rarely, if not never, face any outwards violence or hostility as a foreigner.
But, let’s be honest: you’ll rarely face any sincere and authentic outwards anything ¯\_(?)_/¯
> You will never be completely trusted as a foreigner in Japan, nor will you ever completely fit in.
In my experience this is not really true (though if you read it literally, then it is ;-) ). If you speak, read, write and act like a Japanese person, then people will treat you as if you are Japanese. You will fit in. There are racist people in Japan, but not any more than I've seen in any other country. Japanese culture being what it is, you also won't really experience blatant racism out in the open even if you meet racists.
Having said that, attitudes are much different in the big city than the countryside. When I go to Tokyo or Osaka, everyone initially expects me to be a tourist. When I'm at home in rural Shizuoka, everyone expects that I live there (because there aren't a lot of foreign tourists). But even in Tokyo or Osaka after talking to someone for more than about 10 seconds they know that I live permanently in Japan and treat me that way.
My Japanese is not even that good (although I am very fluent in the areas where I have fluency). I rarely make social mistakes any more and people treat me just like they treat everyone else. I fit in here more than I fit in anywhere else in the world.
If you have difficulty fitting in, then it's likely that you're missing some nuance. Since nobody spells it out for you, it's definitely hard to figure out, but not impossible. You just need to watch what other people do in that situation and then start doing the same thing. The other main thing is to feel OK about being Japanese -- which a lot of foreigners don't in my estimation.
I wouldn't call it racism because this behavior isn't unique to japan... it's unique to humanity. It will happen everywhere where you look and drastically different from anything the local population has ever seen before.
Only certain places have a unique culture where such treatment is deliberately frowned upon culturally. We are from the west so equality seems normal but it is not the default. If you decide to live in Asia, expect the default, it's not actually racist; it's normal.
Generally you just don't like being treated as a foreigner. But that's actually what you are. Don't expect to travel to another place and have them treat you as a local.
I've been to Japan, and I didn't want to be treated like a little prince, I wanted to be treated like everyone else. Not better and not worse.
But it wasn't like that. People always tried to speak to me in English even when I demonstrated I could speak in Japanese. I saw onsen with "no foreigners" sings in front. Because my "race" can't be easily identified, I was more often than not asked where I am from, where my mother is from and where my father is from. I've heard of incidents where people of Arab-looking descent are stopped and questioned by police officers.
Are these examples of racism? Probably not (at least from my experience and perspective), however they are in my view, examples of a deep "us and them" attitude which ignores the fact that culture can be learned. Maybe it's naive of these people (or me), or there is some xenophobia etc.
I think perhaps the most convincing thing for me (not an example of racism) is where we have the situation of someone who has taken up a "Japanese" life in that he has become a citizen, has lived in Japan for an extended period of time and interacts daily within society. Most Japanese would not consider this person Japanese - but what more could such a person do to be Japanese?
This identity issue is provided from the outside, for inside he can feel as Japanese as he wants and get nowhere. On the other hand, if we were to put the situation with the US or perhaps a Western European country, we would see that a person would probably be more readily accepted as an American or a Brit.
Does racism exist? Probably, but it's certainly not as plain and commonplace as little hints of xenophobia and anything foreign being perceived as not-belonging or a little novelty.
Every time this pops up, I feel compelled to point out that in the 8 years I've lived in Japan (over a 10 year period), I haven't found this to be true.
There is racism in Japan, just like everywhere. When I lived in Canada, I saw a sales manager where I was working throwing how CVs with Indian names. I asked him what he was doing. "There's no point in hiring someone whose name I can't even pronounce", was the reply. In the UK I couldn't get on a bus without somebody complaining about how dark people were taking over the country. Racism is everywhere.
It's a good point that in Japan you will almost never run into racism in polite company -- because, as you say, it is considered impolite. However many expats who live here complain about racism. What's going on?
IMHO it's not racism, it's culturalism. In my experience, if you speak Japanese well and you know how to act as a Japanese person, you will see almost no racism. However, if you are a visible minority (as I am) people often expect that you are ignorant of Japanese culture. They put on the "you are a guest" routine, which is fine except that it wears thin when it is your home. One or two gestures and a word or two of fluent Japanese almost always snaps them out of it.
Just to illustrate the difference, I once went to Takayama with my wife (who is Japanese). We stayed at a traditional ryokan (inn). Takayama has a very famous festival and fairly large old town, so it is popular with tourists. Because my wife changed her surname to mine, the woman running the ryokan assumed she was not from Japan (although she is very obviously of Japanese ethnicity). It took quite a while for the woman to twig that my wife was, in fact, Japanese and lived in Japan. It was the first time my wife experienced that difference and it surprised her quite a bit.
I have experienced some racism in Japan, but I really don't think that it's all that much different than anywhere else. Sometimes I think that people don't see the racism where they live -- often because they are not a visible minority. When they become a visible minority for the first time, it's a shock. When I went to University the CS department was composed mostly of foreign students from China or India and most of my friends were from there. It was the first time that I really noticed the racism in Canada.
I've run out of time, but at least in my experience, it is relatively easy to live in Japan if you decide to be Japanese. They don't do melting pot here. If you want to hold on to your own culture and to act like you did in your home country, you're going to have troubles being accepted. But if you decide to accept Japanese culture completely, I don't think you will run into any problems. The if part is hard, though, and I've seen many people run into the brick wall that is Japanese culture.
I can tell you that in Japan, the vast majority of problems face are cultural and language related. If you speak Japanese fluently and you know exactly what you are supposed to do, then you will have very little trouble being accepted into the culture. If you hold on to a western view point and hold western values, then you will have difficulty being accepted by most of the society.
I remember someone telling an interesting story on this topic, which I think illustrates the issue very well. If you happen into a neighbourhood that has a sumo training centre (called a heya), you will often see a sign on the wall that says, "No foreigners". Discrimination is not illegal in Japan.
An acquaintance of mine (and a foreigner) was well hooked up with a particular heya and he asked some vising friends if they wanted to visit the heya and watch the sumo wrestlers train. When they arrived at the heya, his friends saw the sign and asked if it was really OK. He replied, "If you know how to properly make an appointment, then you are Japanese as far as they are concerned."
I've been here 10 years and I'm definitely accepted by my family and my neighbours. And if there are people who don't accept me, then I will be the last person to hear about it (because that's Japanese culture). I won't say there isn't racism, but it's really on par with every other country I've lived in (Canada, US and the UK).
As a visible minority in Japan, experiences like this are extremely commonplace. In fact, I think the frequency is the most troublesome part.
Every time you step out of the house there is someone there to remind you you are foreign. Just moments ago I bought some donuts and the woman in the shop awkwardly gestured at me instead of speaking to me.
Obviously, this is not the end of the world and it's nothing to lose sleep over but I would advise people thinking of coming to live in Japan that attitudes and norms around race are quite different.
I personally think a lot of it is understandable and doesn’t necessarily result in negative discrimination like you might imagine.
Understandably, usually foreigners like myself don’t understand all the rules of politeness in Japanese culture, and it takes a lot of time and labor to do so - I try my best, but most Japanese people will expect that I will fail to abide by those rules all the time.
The reaction to this sometimes is critical, especially in private (foreigners often have trouble rising the ranks in professional organizations because of this), but often results in people just being lenient on you as a foreigner - if anything it’s much harder to be a Japanese person in Japanese society since people don’t assume that you won’t follow all the norms. I think it would be exhausting to expect all foreigners to abide by all the social norms, and get pissed off everyday when 95% of them fail.
This extends to a lot of things, like foreigners failing to follow the complex recycling system, or doing things as simple as jaywalking or biking through a red light in an empty intersection - things which most Japanese people wouldn’t do.
So while I agree there’s definitely racism, it’s not quite as clear cut as what you’re saying - there’s also just pure practicality at play.
Perhaps, but the discrimination one feels living in Japan is more about the sum total of a bunch of separately innocent actions that, taken together, feel kind of crappy.
I've lived in Japan for about ten years now and certainly sympathize with the author. It's a great place to live, but there are still things that just plain suck about it, too.
It's kind of like this. Imagine, if every time you started a conversation with someone they, just once, wrinkled their nose. If it happened a single time, you might not even notice it, and even if you did it's not really a big deal.
However, after it happens day in and day out with pretty much every person you interact with, it's easy to start doubting yourself, "Am I making a weird face, too? Do I stink? Am I the one causing this for some reason? What's going on?"
The same sort of thing happens with the empty seat. It's relatively harmless as an individual instance. However, after it happens a thousand times, after having anything you share get interpreted, for the thousandth time, as a This Country vs Your Country Compare and Contrast session, after getting ignored in favor of people trying out their English on you for the thousandth time, then it just gets a litte exhausting.
Any of those things is fine in isolation, but the straw that broke the camel's back is the same as the million that didn't.
Yep, I'm familiar with everything you're saying. You definitely don't need language fluency to know that you're being treated differently...just time, and a bit of social awareness. They aren't particularly subtle about it. But in my experience, this is also true of any place where your foreignness is advertised by your skin color or facial structure or height or whatever -- you're just going to be treated like a stranger, because, well, you are one.
I've met a fair number of long-term expats now, and there's a group who have taken this personally, and now have a complex about never being "truly accepted"; then there are the ones who have embraced their otherness. Those latter folks are totally aware they're different, and they just decide that they're going to be themselves, but in Japan. They seem to get along quite well. I've met foreigners who run businesses, many who are married, and even a few who are involved in local government, organizing matsuri, and so on.
Anyway, I'm not suggesting that it's easy, or that I'm in that latter group. I'm just saying that I've seen it, and it's possible, and that it seems to come most readily when you know and accept where you stand.
(Also...for the record, I've heard this exact complaint from expats in every country I've ever visited, including Europe. I was once considering moving to the Netherlands, and I had a dozen lily-white expats telling me that the Dutch are great and friendly and incredibly polite, but it's just impossible to make native friends. So it's not just Japanese people.)
Where I grew up in the flyover parts of the USA as a mixed race kid, my school had around 5 people in my year who weren't either white or black, and experienced some instances of hillbillies and old people complaining about me being there because I didn't blend in. Can't say that the community really made me feel integrated despite being born and raised there. Interestingly my close American friends generally tend to have a similar background.
In Japan if you're hoping to blend in as a Japanese person, that's a pipedream - you're not Japanese, you don't speak, look, act, or think like a Japanese person, and you probably never will. It's not the same as America where anyone can legitimately call themselves American. And that's fine if you ask me, Japanese people have every right to preserve and be proud of their unique heritage.
But people will treat you "as an equal" in day-to-day life so long as you at least try to assimilate (speak some Japanese, be generally polite). So long as you don't hold onto the belief that one day you will be Japanese, then you won't be bothered by the fact that you're different.
I lived in China for some time as well, and that was similar; my friends who have lived in India seem to feel the same way, and I suspect this is the case in any country with a dominant ethnicity or sufficiently distinct culture.
That said I do hear it's harder to climb corporate hierarchy as a foreigner, but it's not something I worry about since I just work for global/foreign companies rather than for Japanese ones. A legitimate concern for others who want to join the rat race, though (still amazed @patio11 subjected himself to that).
Guess it's a difference of values; I for one would easily take walkability over blending in with the crowd, but maybe that's because I never have experienced that even in the USA (and I lived in SF and spent time in NYC, and honestly I have had as much culture shock in those places as I did in Tokyo). I've come to see "equality" as a different thing than how Americans typically view it, and my particular circumstances allow me to navigate around the parts where I would hit a glass ceiling while enjoying the parts where I wouldn't.
Anecdotally, I visited a friend in Hokkaido for a couple weeks and during my time there (as a white non-Japanese speaking person) I was kicked out of two restaurants upon entry for not being Japanese. Racism exists everywhere.
As someone who lived in Japan, most everyone is extremely friendly to your face, especially if you are a tourist and demonstrate some ability to speak Japanese or know about the culture. Out right rudeness is extremely rare, especially in the Kantou region.
But when you live there you learn about the underlying racism.
If you could pass as Japanese, because you are of east Asian descent, you will be fully expected to be completely fluent in the language and culture. If you aren't then you must be extremely dumb, because you are Asian after all. Any insight you might have coming from a western country is disregarded, because why would you know anything the collective society doesn't already know. When I was switching from teaching English to a tech job, I recommended a childhood friend I grew up with in America to take over my position. He was making far less teaching at a much worse eikaiwa school. In Japan, you include a picture with your resume, and when my boss saw that he was Filipino American, he outright said they would prefer someone who looks American and went with a previous coworker I had told him was awful.
If you aren't obviously east Asian you get the opposite treatment. You'll constantly be complimented on your ability to do basic things like pick up food with chopsticks and the ability to say hello. If you can have a conversation, there will be constant "compliments" on it. It gets annoying very quickly.
But when it rears its ugly head the worse is when you try to do anything real in the country a tourists wouldn't normally do. Lots of people in Tokyo bike to various places, but when I studied there we were warned to either buy a bicycle and make sure its registered or just never ride. Borrowing a friends bicycle was outright forbidden. At some point you will be stopped by the police and if you can't prove you own the bike or have permission to ride it, you will be taken in until they figure out the owner. The few students who did get bikes were stopped atleast once every couple weeks.
Depending on perspective the racism can be considered light atleast. Black and brown friends usually would say the annoyances were atleast obvious and evenly applied. The racist landlord will tell you up front that hes going to increase the monthly rent on the apartment you're trying to rent because he "had problems with foreigners" before and you don't have a song and dance with a racist person that really doesn't want to rent to you finding constant issues with your application until you give up. You can quickly scout around to find someone who agrees not to do that or atleast less so. Certain banks will outright deny certain services to foreigners, but if you know the right banks you can get a credit card. The police will bother you, but if you have your gaijin papers they aren't going to beat you or make up charges. For white friends it was usually extremely shocking that such things existed at all and usually were the most vocal about the societal racism they were experiencing for the first time in their lives. But I think it made them more sympathetic generally to people from their home countries.
Despite all of that, I loved my years in Japan. A lot of the smaller annoyances usually go away once you actually get to know people and explain the issues you're having. One girlfriend even took it on herself to explain to new friends how condescending it was to say I can use chopsticks so well after living in the country for multiple years. Often times its ignorance not malice and people understand. But there are definitely issues you will have if you're a foreigner and you move to Japan.
There isnt a mono-ethnic country in the world where you won't face racism much worse than in multicultural societies as you will always be different. People don't call it racism there. its normal for you not to be treated like a japanese as you re not one. and don't worry they will make you feel that everyday. especially when they will see that you speak japanese and that you re not a tourist
Have you ever tried pointing out the obliviousness to your German friend?
I'am an ethnic Chinese living in Japan and essentially blend in. I've also spoken with a lot of other expats, often white who complain a lot about (sometimes positive) discrimination and just once, rather offhandedly, I replied that now you know what it feels like to be a minority. The instant reaction is to become defensive, but after a while, the bulb lights up.
I'm sorry for picking this out from an otherwise great article (though I disagree on a few other minor points), but I can't let this slide:
> That said: is racism a bigger problem in Japan than e.g. in the United States? Oh, yes. Unquestionably.
I disagree. I disagree so very much I don't know if I can even put it into words.
Being the "wrong" race in the US can be a matter of life and death. It's not even fair to compare racism on that level to the kind that exists in Japan. Do I really need to talk about how pervasive racism is in the US? And how extreme it is? Pick your poison: income, education, prison sentences, violence, etc. This should be common knowledge by now. Please, please don't downplay it. It's huge.
It's interesting nonetheless. You really can see a difference between whites and non-whites when they talk about racism in Japan. There's a reason why there's such a difference of opinion. Growing up having the race advantage all your life and never giving it much thought, only to move to country where it no longer applies is a huge shock to many people.
Really. Ask non-whites what they think about racism in Japan. I think you'll find that most people will tell a very different story. It's usually something along the lines of, "The amount of ignorance is astounding sometimes, but I haven't really felt hatred/hostility directed towards me because of my race, which is refreshing." The ignorance is certainly bad, though also isn't all that surprising if you've had no meaningful conversations with someone of a particular race all your life.
Yes, if you're talking about anti-discriminatory laws, there's a world of difference. They're almost non-existent in Japan. Anti-discriminatory laws didn't come about in the US overnight. A lot of people suffered and fought a long war before we even saw a positive change. Again, not exactly fair to compare the two countries here. It doesn't make it right, but let's put it in perspective please. The US has a very, very dark history regarding race, and it's not even close to being over.
There's also one other important difference in my opinion. In the US, you're dealing with extremes on both sides. People who absolutely abhor you for being a certain race or having a certain sexual orientation, and others who will loudly defend your rights and speak out when they see injustice. In Japan, you don't have much of either. Which is worse I guess depends on your perspective... but it shouldn't be too surprising why a lot of people think the former is worse. Hostility is a very difficult thing to deal with.
A lot of the foreigners living in Tokyo misinterpret tiny bits of nothing as hostility and racism
I'm a big guy, sometimes people make space for me on the train or whatever. It isn't racism. I'm a scary and weird looking guy too by local standards, it isn't racism when people gawk a little sometimes. People talk to me like a kid after I completely botch some basic phrase
The only racist thing that ever happened to me in years living there was this: I went to a bar with my white friend, and they said "No American" and made an x sign at us. I asked in Japanese "sorry, what was that you said?" and suddenly they welcomed us in.. I guess they just didn't want rowdy dudes who can't speak the language. Definitely not acceptable behavior from them, but not too bad IMO. I get way worse treatment in the USA for being Hispanic than I ever do for being a foreigner in Japan
The expat community in Tokyo is kinda obnoxious. There are a lot of lazy, burned out guys who complain about everything
Racism exists everywhere. Living in Japan has been the first place where I've lived as a visible minority and it has been an eye opener. Being obviously different is hard in many ways. There are people who stare at you, or people who wonder if/how you are different from them. There are people who are afraid of you for no reason other than you are different. Very occasionally there are people who are abusive and rude, but most of the time it is mostly a mixture of ignorance and curiosity (and maybe a little bit of fear of the unknown thrown in).
It can be quite a problem for some people. Many people take offence at practically anything and can't let anything slide. They feel it is morally wrong not to take a stand about being treated differently. They feel you are morally wrong if you happily agree to be treated differently.
For me, probably like a lot of people who read HN, I have always been different. I have never fit in anywhere. Even though I was visibly the same as everyone, my way of thinking, my religious beliefs, my values have always been different from the norm. I suffered greatly in countries where everyone assumed that I was the same as them. As a visible minority, I am free to be different. It makes me happy even if sometimes it causes problems.
"Expats in Japan frequently question why I would live in rural Japan with people who don't look [and by extension, think] like me", would be a true statement for me. In my opinion this is likely true of any visible minority population anywhere. It definitely hurts me and I suspect it hurts the author as well, which is probably why he wrote about it in that way.
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