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If your Japanese is near-perfect you can tell them to let you enter the "no foreigners" nightclubs and bars claiming you were born and raised in Japan. Just pic

by Nadya 11y ago

If your Japanese is near-perfect you can tell them to let you enter the "no foreigners" nightclubs and bars claiming you were born and raised in Japan. Just pick a place as your hometown. If it were for racist reasons, they wouldn't let you enter simply because you don't "look Japanese". Not to say the issue doesn't exist at all. Just that it isn't prevalent. If it didn't exist, there wouldn't be this comedy sketch about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80 Although the scenario I experienced was that the waitress asked my Japanese friend what I wanted to order rather than asking me. Assuming I didn't speak Japanese. At most places I ordered food at - they would ask me what I wanted directly. So I wouldn't say it's a common experience either. Just that it does happen and it's because few foreigners speak Japanese! It's a habitual thing, not a racist thing. It happened more in the touristy parts of Tokyo than anywhere else (even in the touristy parts of Kyoto!)

un_ 11y ago
>claiming you were born and raised in Japan. Just pick a place as your hometown. I can't say I have not considered this, but it requires "faking" yourself, even for just a minute. It also demands that you have a high degree of Japanese language. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect people who do not look as though they know the language in a virtually homogeneous society to not know the language. I've heard that the people who encounter this "get around" it by demonstrating that they do know at least something. I read a blog post once that language is one of the biggest barriers; seriously dedicating one's time to learning the language is something that many, many non-native speakers simply miss out on - and, in some cases, go onto assume that this response is because of xenophobia or racism. I haven't been in Japan long enough to give my own anecdotal experience, though.

by Nadya 11y ago

un_ 11y ago

>claiming you were born and raised in Japan. Just pick a place as your hometown. I can't say I have not considered this, but it requires "faking" yourself, even for just a minute. It also demands that you have a high degree of Japanese language. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect people who do not look as though they know the language in a virtually homogeneous society to not know the language. I've heard that the people who encounter this "get around" it by demonstrating that they do know at least something. I read a blog post once that language is one of the biggest barriers; seriously dedicating one's time to learning the language is something that many, many non-native speakers simply miss out on - and, in some cases, go onto assume that this response is because of xenophobia or racism. I haven't been in Japan long enough to give my own anecdotal experience, though.