Yeah, there won't be any Japanese businessmen burning crosses on your lawn or whatever. Assholes like Shintaro Ishihara are about as bad as it gets (in "polite"

Yeah, there won't be any Japanese businessmen burning crosses on your lawn or whatever. Assholes like Shintaro Ishihara are about as bad as it gets (in "polite" company anyway), and you could probably have a 15-minute chat with him, as a Westerner, without realizing he's a racist old shit (not to mention sexist as well). On the flip side though, if you're planning on staying long-term you should get used to whatever racism does exist, even if benign, as there is no escaping it and it is pervasive. If you can't do that then it's probably best to start making plans to leave. Japanese culture is not headed in any sort of direction where it's going to change, and the population is so overwhelmingly ethnically Japanese that enclaves are pretty much a non-starter as well. Unlike (so I've heard) the US, no matter how long you live here, no matter how well you speak the language, you will not ever truly belong regardless of where you go, who you associate with, community you join, et cetera. Oh, and the job market for software engineering here is rubbish ;-)