Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo View Post
1) they associate me with lower-class economic immigrants. I was told by one of my English-school employers, while negotiating the salary, that "foreigners come to Japan to make easy money because Japan is a rich country". I automatically replied that my country had a higher living standard and higher salaries than Japan, as did most Western countries (see article).
I couldn't have hold my laughter if I were in that position.. As the article point out, Japan doesn't look at all like a first-world country in some aspects!!
Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo View Post
2) they discriminate against people who belong to an equal or higher social class, are equally or better educated than them, equally rich or richer than them, etc.
It seems like you are saying it is ok to discriminate against people of lower class and not against others. I know you don't mean that, and that you say it is understandable (from a historical/social point of view) why people would discriminate against people of lower classes, right?

Anyway, it is indeed very frustrating that I and other people are being discriminated against. I think it is because many foreigners, including me, do not understand and follow every little rule in Japan. These constant culture shocks form the image of foreigners being different than Japanese. Sure, there are also Japanese people who break the rules or are impolite sometimes, but they don't stand out in the crowd.

Speaking of "standing out", don't you think the fact that foreigners are easy to detect is also causing this racism? In Europe you can hardly see any difference between many people, Dutch, German, English, Belgian.. We all look the same. (Although I love to argue that we Dutch are different than you Belgians ) In Japan, any non-Japanese person would stand out immediately. This simple "they look different, so they must also be different from the inside"-way of thinking.. I think that factor also contributes to the in-group/out-group bias.

Nonetheless, it is indeed frustrating, and from comtemporary western views it is.. Not good. But hey, what can you do about it?