Have you encountered discrimination or prejudices in Japan ?

[Mikawa Ossan]

Hello, again, Taiko666! It's nice to be able to have a rational discussion about such an emotional topic!

His choice is rational in that he's reduced the risk of a similar misunderstanding, but the downside is he's excluding perfectly acceptable customers and is contributing to the creeping exclusionism in Japan.

I think of that as his loss, not mine. Creeping exclusionism? I think I know what you're referring to, but I just don't see it. Yes, I've seen that immigration in getting more strict about enforcement and whatnot, but that's how it should have been from the beginning, IMO.

It's understandable but not excusable. Just as a barber in another country refusing to serve Japanese because he once had an unpleasant experience with a Japanese customer would be inexcusable, and illegal.

I seem to remember hearing on NPR talk in certain places in America where public services are not being offered any longer to illegal immigrants (perhaps it was still only in the talking stage. I don't recall perfectly.) Is that not at least similar?

I don't think many foreigners search out situations where they suffer discrimination. Just going about one's daily life does the trick.

I guess I must just be one of the lucky ones, then.

Of course being refused entry to a bar per se is not a human rights violation. But being refused any service on the basis of your race/origins certainly is. And I don't think it's even necessarily a citizenship thing. Most exclusionary establishments may refer to 'foriegners' but they acually seem to mean 'non-Japanese looking' people.

At what level does it become a human rights violation? Can store people not decide whom they wish to serve? I understand your point about the rights of the customer, but what about the rights of the storekeeper? Can not the storekeeper take steps to avoid problems in the future?

They may well be minor inconveniences for you, but they foster a culture of discrimination which permeates through many layers of society, causing huge problems in other areas, especially for people who have almost no choice but to live here (eg children of immigrants.)

I suppose we just have to disagree. Yes, people do often have to pay for the sins of others, but I think in Japan this is where personal responsibility kicks in. I think that as foreigners, and by this I mostly mean non-citizens, the onus is on us and the children who have no choice but to live here to fit in as best as possible. It's a tough world, but it's the world we live in.

I have a hard time getting up in arms about the things being discussed here. You can call this relativism if you like, but bhat does bother me are things like the human slave trade, which is very much alive and well all over the world, including Japan. Maybe it's called something else nowadays, but it is here.