Quote Originally Posted by Ma Cherie
First and foremost, I want to ask has there been any kind of attempt to educate the average japanese about different races and cultures? From all the rumors I have heard it seems to me that some japanese tend to display their ignorance about other cultures. I am not trying to sound like a racists, but I wonder if there has been an effort made to try to educate some japanese people about other races. And most importantly, will they be open minded to learning about other cultures?
It may seem very contradictory, but many Japanese are interested in foreign countries and cultures, and are ignorant about them at the same time. Fore example :
- Japanese do travel a lot - for short periods, though, and rarely attempting to learn about the local culture apart from the food.
- There are more foreign language schools per square metre in Japan than anywhere else in the world, but Japanese are famous worldwide for being poor at speaking any foreign language.
- Japanese have imported and copied so much from the West and other countries that it would seem natural for them to feel somewhat international. Al Japanese can read the Roman alphabet although it isn't used in Japanese.
-There are thousands of foreign (mostly English) katakana words in Japanese, and the number increases fast each year. What other language on earth continually imports so many words from outside nowadays ? But yet, the words are often given a different pronuciation and meaning from the original ones, principally because of the ignorance of the masses who use them and the little care of the authorities to educate them.
- Japanese are often eager to learn about "foreign countries" (gaikoku), but always seem to end up with the simple stereotypes and not much beside. At worse, they mix all countries up and create false stereotypes that are valid for all foreigners.

So it seems that there is a real desire from many Japanese to learn about the "outside", but they very rarely seem to have the ability to get it right(even among those who have lived abroad). I think it may be due to the influence of an overly prejudiced and simplistic society. Another cause is the lack of critical thinking instilled by the Japanese education system, as well as a general tendency of the Japanese population to be interested in simple things (food, sex, manga...) or stress too much the importance of emotions over rationality (as seen in Japanese TV programmes, series, movies and manga). Unfortunately, emotions without critical thinking lead to easy stereotypes, or when negative, to prejudice and racism (even dormant or non-violent, it's still racism).

One of the results of the lack of critical thinking of the Japanese is that many of them do not hold strong opinions, and indeed are very influenceable. This may seem bad, but it can also be a very good thing, as most Japanese will not have the self-motivation to act "in an extreme manner" without support from the group. So, even being racist, they are hardly aware of it themselves, because they care little about what it means, and don't think much about the implications. Most Japanese have little interest in politics because they are too fickle to hold strong opinions that requires a critical or rational judgement. I think that this is not only typical of the Japanese, but all (South-) East Asians. To illustrate, throughout China's history, people's loyalties could shift easily from the losing to the winning side, because they didn't fight for a cause or principle (including religion), but for more down-to-earth reasons such as food, money or power.

I believe that East Asian societies share this lack of critical thinking and strong practical sense, in addition to a strong collectivism (as opposed to individualism). The positive side is the lack of extremist movements and people fighting for their beliefs or ideas. The negative side that people are fickle, influenceable, and have difficult to have their own opinions and judgement (easy targets for casual stereotypes and prejudice).