Have you encountered discrimination or prejudices in Japan ?

[Glenski]

Business takes advantage of the less industrialized and desperate peoples of the world every day. I do not think this is indicative of an intense hatred of the Chinese race, I think its business taking advantage of a loophole situation.

bakakanadajin, you've completely lost me with the above.

Jimmy Seal,
You are right. I meant that horrible book. Foreigners did not support it, except to buy it just to see what was inside for the sake of shock value and to report it to the publisher, outlet, and main store office. It worked, too. Amazon stopped selling it, and so did the stores.

I'm not going to run down the list and deny every point you've made there, but I'm not in disagreement with you either. There are definitely some horrible things happening these days in Japan

Well, since this web site is about Japan, I'm not going to deal with the rest of the world. I live in Japan, and I post here because things in Japan affect me here. Thanks for agreeing me, but...

Japan simply hasn't had the same influences [as the USA] or the same need to make race an issue in their country.

This IMO is a very lame way of making excuses for the poor treatment foreigners get in Japan. You should really be ashamed of trying to put this point in a serious debate. Let's stop comparing the USA with Japan, ok?

the need for Japan to overhaul its constitution and bring it closer to something like America's or Canada's wouldn't guarantee anyone anything.

Who's talking about overhauling the constitution? They signed an international treaty, but they refuse to enforce laws to accompany that signing. Hypocritical, and consequently damaging.

Racism still exists in the West despite having some of the most advanced democracies in the world. As I see it there is no fault with Japan the country, the nation itself.

Again, I'd like to stay off the topic of the west. And, I guess we have to agree to disagree with the "no fault". You really surprise me, though. You agree there are racial/discriminatory problems here, yet you speak out of the other side of your head by saying "no fault".

I maintain that incidences like the ones people talk about here and the ones in those stories are individuals taking advantage of situations and acting out, they're isolated, it's not systemic.

Again, I totally disagree.