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I've heard stereotypes but does anyone have first hand experience with how they were treated as foreign residents in Japan?

kyleblarson 2y ago
I haven't officially been a resident but have spent a ton of time in almost all areas of Japan. It's extremely location dependent but in my experiences in rural Japan as a gaijin there can be some initial coldness in interactions but if you show even the least amount of effort to speak the language and respect the culture that coldness evaporates.
darth_avocado 2y ago
It’s a mix. I’m general if you respect their customs and the way of life, people in general will treat you well. Even if someone doesn’t like you they will try to treat you well, since Japan is supposed to be a polite society and treating others poorly also reflects poorly on an individual. That being said, it does come with it's own share of “foreigners not allowed or welcome” experiences. There’s also racial undertones to those experiences, where some set of people will have worse experience than others.
fenomas 2y ago
It's past 2am in Japan so maybe not the best time to get answers, but as I head to bed here's my two cents. The concrete daily-life answer is, I've virtually always found it an incredibly welcoming place. With very few occasional bits of garden-variety discrimination ("oh sorry this apartment isn't available for rent to foreigners"). But individuals are nearly always nice - obviously polite, but usually nice as well. And society in general is far more accommodating to foreigners than one might expect a society to be to ~2% of its population (putting English on road signs and so forth). But over the years I've noticed that lots of people online are super confident that Japan is deeply racist, which is wildly at odds with my experiences here, so I've thought a lot about where that comes from. And personally my view is that racism, as the term is generally used, isn't a meaningful thing to talk about with respect to Japan. The Japanese (broadly, oversimplifying) don't see the world in terms of race - they divide the world into Japanese and non-Japanese, and things like skin color or nationality are very distant lesser concerns. And in general, they don't at all see Japanese things as better than non - Japan is mostly fascinated with foreign things, and in many contexts looks up to them as superior to local ways. But Japan does always, always see non-Japanese things as other, and separate. And as such people are often quick to, say, attribute differences of opinion to "oh I guess that's how foreigners see this, but I'm Japanese so I see it differently", and such. And when one is on the receiving end of that, and constantly treated as separate, it can feel like racism (though I think it's misleading to model it that way). Oh, last thing to add is that regardless of how they see or treat foreigners, the median Japanese person nearly always harbors some level of dread at the thought of talking to a foreigner, since that means using English. ~Every Japanese adult took 6-10 years of English in school, and in most cases they are almost entirely unable to use it in conversation for various reasons, so many people here view using English the way I'd feel about suddenly being given a quiz in my worst subject from high school. As such, tourists who go around using English may mistake people's reactions for standoffishness or hostility - but if you live here and learn even the most absolute basic Japanese, you find everyone melts and things go fine.
- wnc3141 2y ago
  This is so rich in detail and nuanced, and gives me such a real portrait of ones experience. What would you say the governments posture toward easing immigration looks like?
jandrese 2y ago
The way I've heard it is the people are nice, but the government is racist and reactionary as all get out. Apparently their electoral system has this weird setup that entrenches conservative old dudes who fight against change tooth and nail.
eska 2y ago
Very positive. On the rare occasion I feel like negative experiences are due to ignorance not malice. It’s easily balanced out by “positive racism”, e.g. some stranger at a bar paying for my beer because he never spoke Japanese with a white guy in his life. Real racism in Japan is about Chinese and Koreans. Non-Asians make up less than 1% and just aren’t relevant, e.g. racist parties never talk about them in speaker announcements from busses.
tmm84 2y ago
As a resident of Japan for over a decade I have been treated the same as any Japanese person. Many of my paler obviously American/European friends think they get treated differently but they work/live in the "English teaching" bubble. I like to think that bubble is just like that to everyone involved (this is opinion and I haven't walked in their shoes). Then again, if you're looking for something to complain about you'll find it.

kyleblarson 2y ago

I haven't officially been a resident but have spent a ton of time in almost all areas of Japan. It's extremely location dependent but in my experiences in rural Japan as a gaijin there can be some initial coldness in interactions but if you show even the least amount of effort to speak the language and respect the culture that coldness evaporates.

darth_avocado 2y ago

It’s a mix. I’m general if you respect their customs and the way of life, people in general will treat you well. Even if someone doesn’t like you they will try to treat you well, since Japan is supposed to be a polite society and treating others poorly also reflects poorly on an individual. That being said, it does come with it's own share of “foreigners not allowed or welcome” experiences. There’s also racial undertones to those experiences, where some set of people will have worse experience than others.

fenomas 2y ago

It's past 2am in Japan so maybe not the best time to get answers, but as I head to bed here's my two cents. The concrete daily-life answer is, I've virtually always found it an incredibly welcoming place. With very few occasional bits of garden-variety discrimination ("oh sorry this apartment isn't available for rent to foreigners"). But individuals are nearly always nice - obviously polite, but usually nice as well. And society in general is far more accommodating to foreigners than one might expect a society to be to ~2% of its population (putting English on road signs and so forth). But over the years I've noticed that lots of people online are super confident that Japan is deeply racist, which is wildly at odds with my experiences here, so I've thought a lot about where that comes from. And personally my view is that racism, as the term is generally used, isn't a meaningful thing to talk about with respect to Japan. The Japanese (broadly, oversimplifying) don't see the world in terms of race - they divide the world into Japanese and non-Japanese, and things like skin color or nationality are very distant lesser concerns. And in general, they don't at all see Japanese things as better than non - Japan is mostly fascinated with foreign things, and in many contexts looks up to them as superior to local ways. But Japan does always, always see non-Japanese things as other, and separate. And as such people are often quick to, say, attribute differences of opinion to "oh I guess that's how foreigners see this, but I'm Japanese so I see it differently", and such. And when one is on the receiving end of that, and constantly treated as separate, it can feel like racism (though I think it's misleading to model it that way). Oh, last thing to add is that regardless of how they see or treat foreigners, the median Japanese person nearly always harbors some level of dread at the thought of talking to a foreigner, since that means using English. ~Every Japanese adult took 6-10 years of English in school, and in most cases they are almost entirely unable to use it in conversation for various reasons, so many people here view using English the way I'd feel about suddenly being given a quiz in my worst subject from high school. As such, tourists who go around using English may mistake people's reactions for standoffishness or hostility - but if you live here and learn even the most absolute basic Japanese, you find everyone melts and things go fine.

wnc3141 2y ago
This is so rich in detail and nuanced, and gives me such a real portrait of ones experience. What would you say the governments posture toward easing immigration looks like?

jandrese 2y ago

The way I've heard it is the people are nice, but the government is racist and reactionary as all get out. Apparently their electoral system has this weird setup that entrenches conservative old dudes who fight against change tooth and nail.

eska 2y ago

Very positive. On the rare occasion I feel like negative experiences are due to ignorance not malice. It’s easily balanced out by “positive racism”, e.g. some stranger at a bar paying for my beer because he never spoke Japanese with a white guy in his life. Real racism in Japan is about Chinese and Koreans. Non-Asians make up less than 1% and just aren’t relevant, e.g. racist parties never talk about them in speaker announcements from busses.

tmm84 2y ago

As a resident of Japan for over a decade I have been treated the same as any Japanese person. Many of my paler obviously American/European friends think they get treated differently but they work/live in the "English teaching" bubble. I like to think that bubble is just like that to everyone involved (this is opinion and I haven't walked in their shoes). Then again, if you're looking for something to complain about you'll find it.