Quote Originally Posted by Glenski
The only stress I have is when people like you say they don't understand why this is so important. Granted, I don't lose sleep over such statements, but it makes me wonder just what is an important issue to you.
When I think about some of the things that are going on in the world I truly can't get as fired up about these issues as some. I just see this as pre-mature drum beating. There is already progress being made and we've been through the examples already. Some people don't see what's already there as being valuable, or else they prefer to focus more on the negatives instead of celebrating the positives. It's really subjective. My experience in Japan was, like others on here, mostly positive. I guess I'm just trying to remain positive. It's not like I don't get what you're saying, I just don't have the same sense of urgency about it.

Are you living in Japan?
Do you have any work-related discrimination thrust upon you?
Ignore the problems, but they won't go away if you do.
Right now I'm back in Canada. I was in Kanagawa/Tokyo last year, and have visited my famly in Hiroshima a few times throughout my life with stays ranging in length from 2 to 6 weeks. I've also done some site-seeing in Osaka and Kobe. I'm planning on returning, as you know from our discussion on teaching accreditation. Admittedly, this is nowhere near as tenured a stay as some, but I have definitely developed my own sense of how Japan works for foreign workers and visitors, and I just don't share some of the opinions that I've read. I've also several friends here in Toronto who are visiting from Japan and Korea and we hang out on a regular basis. Their dislike for foreigners is non-existent, another reason I can't honestly agree with some of what I've read.

For the issues that have been discussed in this thread, I'm not condoning any ignorance, more like patience.

One more dynamic: I was born in and live in a city with high levels of immigration. I know precisely what bothers and doesn't bother me in terms of how newcomers conduct themselves in my country. Often, my ideas are simply an extension of what I've observed and what I feel I should be doing as a guest in someone else's country.

I am curious about this statement you made, too, bakakanadajin:

Quote:many people who go over to Japan do so with false impressions of what to expect and with little or no knowledge of the culture. This exacerbates and probably leads to many of these 'discriminatory' incidents.

Yes, many newcomers arrive with false images, secondhand or outdated information, etc. No arguments there. But how to you see that as contributing to or leading to discrimination here?
Are foreigners to blame for being foreign?
No, but if someone arrives in Japan with a false impression of what to expect and they're ill-equipped to deal maturely with some of the realities that exist outside their own borders I don't think that's Japan's fault either.

And I see this as contributing to the whole argument because it's often a source of unnecessary negativity and can lead to this notion that the Japanese somehow have an agenda against foreigners because X or Y didn't happen they way it was expected to. I certainly didn't expect anyone to speak English when I arrived, I had my phrasebook in-hand and was prepared for the worst. (I'm not patting myself on the back for being a good little gaijin, I'm just saying, I wanted to be prepared.)

By contrast, you'd be amazed how many people get over there and expect everyone to speak English and to be ready and waiting to help them settle in. It just doesn't work like that. This attitude contributes to a lot of frustration and misunderstanding down the road too when other issues crop up. There were many situations where something went wrong and I was completely screwed. I lost my wallet in Roppongi, my phone randomly died on me, bank account issues, not being able to access my own money, getting my alien card, mail not arriving, being turned away at clubs without proper ID, getting lost, etc. Each time the resistance I met wasn't racism in my opinion, it was more like 'hey, I can't speak English, what do you want from me a miracle?' And I think some people do expect a miracle because here in the West we're accustomed to banging our fists on counters and getting things done. That's not the Japanese way. Wasn't all roses either, I did meet a few individuals who were clearly not interested in helping gaijin. All I can say is they were soon forgotten because I quickly ran into someone who was willing to help.

I agree with you to the extent thatr racism persists in subtle forms, that's true the world over, but in my eyes its not as bad as some make it out to be. Also, since a lot of people visit this website looking for info., I feel compelled to offer my experiences as a balance. It's not even meant to be inflammatory or argumentative, just an example of my experiences and reasons vs. others.