> I guess one can say that generalizing something so dire about an entire population would also, perhaps unwittingly, be racist. Would it be racist to say that

> I guess one can say that generalizing something so dire about an entire population would also, perhaps unwittingly, be racist. Would it be racist to say that slavery in the pre-Civil War United States south was a societal issue? Or to say that racism in Nazi Germany against Jews was a societal issue? I don't think so. (I give these example to demonstrate that there is some line a society can cross where you'd hopefully agree it's an issue.) I don't know whether the claims are true or not about Japan, but I don't think it's inherently racist against the Japanese to claim that xenophobia or racism are societal issue there. To believe that all such accusations are inherently racist is to believe in a form of moral relativism in which no society can ever be justifiably called racist.