Uhm... I'm a rather new member, but this seems like a good place to ask a question I have about Japan. I was in Tokyo myself for a month this summer and it was even better than I hoped, and hopefully I'll be going again eventually. When I was there this summer however I was travelling with some friends, and in the future I hope to be able to go there with my girlfriend as I know many places she probably would like to see Now for the issue... she is Chinese (well technically she is born here in Sweden, but her parents are Chinese). I've heard a lot about Chinese people being discriminated against in Japan, but I'm unsure about how much of it is truth or fiction. Since I've also heard alot about discrimination of western people and I think just about everyone we met in Japan was really really nice, I can hope that most of the discrimination rumors about Chinese people are rumor... but concidering the history and political thingies between the countries it would be nice to know how it really is over there. We will probably go there anyways I guess, but it would be nice to know what the general opinion is over there... Thanks
All foreigners are discriminated against in one form or another, but white foreigners have it the easiest I'd say. Koreans and Chinese have it the worst, as they're more likely to be living there "as a Japanese". That's to say, they were either born there as 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation, and really have no other place to live. They don't get the cushy gaijin jobs like real expats get. It's not like they're lynched or beaten, but I'm sure statistically it's much harder to get a job and whatnot. I have a friend that was 3rd generation Korean. I'm pretty sure even at that point, you have to get a re-entry permit like a foreigner on a working visa, even though you have a Japanese passport. Very horseshitty. The situation is getting better, but not great. In the mid-90's, 3rd generation Koreans (and I think Chinese) were required to register their finger print at their local ward office, while Japanese were not. They eventually bitched long enough and eventually told the government to go fuck themselves. A lot of them are there b/c their parents were brougth over as sex slaves back during the war.
Yeah it is a big issue - too big for a single post. Suffice to say I have only encountered "clear" racism towards Chinese people in Japan on very few occasions. That is basically only a couple of rude remarks and goverment crap. eg. Good (Chinese) friend of mine applied for a student visa to Japan. She was meant to be there for a period of 6 months. However, they would only give her two months at a time and she would have to keep updating it at her local imigration office. I was given a year - no questions asked. eg2. Was watching the tv with an older guy (45-ish Japanese) and there was a piece about protests in China over Japanese policy. Well he launched into a offensive ramble at them - but nothing very bad. Basically I doubt you will encounter issues unless you were living in Japan. Chinese tourists are hardly discriminated against after all. There is negative sentiment, but it is rarely ever directed at individuals.
It must be said -- probably about any country -- that going as a tourist and going there to live are usually completely different stories. If you want to settle down, that's when the stone walls come up: driver's license, credit card, job promotion, etc...
I guess it's worth mentioning that there was a Chinese student (on a student visa) that murdered and entire family and fled back to China before they even found the bodies. Leaves a bad taste in their mouths now when you mention China and student in the same sentence.
Well, I don't really consider living there so I guess at least that won't be an issue. Tourism is good enough for me
You know what really gets me is that if something bad happens the Japanese blame it on foreigners first. As if no Japanese person is going to steal a car. racist isn't in it ! I've been pulled over twice while driving in the last year and asked if the car was mine. The second time I told the police that it wasn't mine and that I had stole it and on my way to the black market dealer to sell it off. Do you know what happened? The dumb fuck believed me !!! Japanese police are pathetic at best ! I tell you, it takes 4 of them just to visit a minor crash scene ! Yakumo
They gotta do something to use the budget. It's not like there's a shortage of police w/ all the crime going on. Why do you think construction sites consist of 4 people directing traffic, and one person digging?
We've discussed this same point a couple of times already. The chinese dislike the Japanese because of lingering WW2 grudges, the Japanese don't teach their kids about WW2 and haven't apologized for the war yet. They also blame foreigners for most of the crime, however the chinese in Japan aren't helping as they do tend to do some crazy things. If you're chinese in Japan, don't expect a welcome. Expect to be stopped by the police a lot. A lot. The police in Japan are generally a joke. If you're anglo and they try to stop you, just wave like a fool say HELLO!!!! KNNICHIWARRRR and keep walking... If you're say, nigerian or chinese, you're screwed though. I almost forgot, but they are fingerprinting all foreigners in Japan now (coming in) Better wear gloves Yakumo, because if you've used the conveni in the last year and left a print and they get robbed, guess who they'll blame first.
this discussion reminded me of a page I found a while back, it's pictures drawn by korean children and that is displayed in some subway: http://aog.2y.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1558 ...that is really f-ed up O_O
Since America is a melting pot, it just depends on how racist the cops are. I cant imagine Middle Easterners having it easy, either. Im ashamed to say, I went to an Olive Garden for dinner once, and our waiter was from the Middle East. He had a low scary accent , and always had a grin, but this grin was a scary one, his eyebrows being arched the whole time didnt help matters either. I then started remembering stories of people using spray bottles to infect buffets around close to where I live. He then proceeded to crush the parmasean on my salad. He stood there a few seconds to make sure I ate it, and I was too nervous not to. :redface: The rest of the meal was great. Now for the scary part: The next day I was VIOLENTLY ILL and vomiting a lot. Coincidence? Maybe? Chilling? HELL YES!
He probably used the toilet and didnt wash his hands. Then rubbed your breadsticks in his giant eyebrows.
Actually if we talk about racist I'd have to say that the Chinese and North Koreans are far worse than the Japanese. You really should see the shit North Korea say about Japan. It really is fucked up ! Those kids pictures posted above are probably North Korean. Even myself as an outsider know that the North Koreans are talking pure shit. There was an article about Kim Jon what ever the monkey in a boiler suit's name is, last month. The article was about the TV broad cast (very scary stuff by the way. They all speak like freaks ! Sounds like a different language than south Korea even though it's the same) celebrating Kim's birthday. During the day it rained but once the celebrations started the rain stopped with a rainbow appearing in the sky. The TV caster in her scary voice said that even God loves Kim and has presented him a beautiful rainbow as a gift !! Fucked up doesn't come close and what's worse is that the majority of North Koreans will believe this since they are brought up in this manner. They have no idea about the outside world. You should see the kids when they do a performance !! They all look like smiling zombies !! Completely unrealistic ! Anyway a big digression from the main point of this topic. Yes, Japanese are racist towards Asians (also whites but no where near as bad) but the Chinese and North Koreans are 100 times worse. South Korea and Japan are actually getting along quite well these days. Yakumo
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: That was great! I've also heard stories about the middle easterners that ran a local gas station in our town got run off after "supposedly" one of them wore a shirt that said "I support Bin Laden." Thats the only bad incident we had. The bad part is, they left the store intact and it became open for buying later. No one bought it for 3 whole years. There were THREE year old cartons and jugs of Milk in the store (as well as candy and cooked foods). They also had trouble cleaning up the melted chocolate from the shelves. I didnt go in but I bet it was nasty. The clean up crew were wearing some body suits head and all for that crap.
China is fucked up in a lot of ways... Like i said, my girlfriends family is from there, and she usually goes there to visit during summers. They have these censorshiplaws about the internet that makes it next to impossible to contact the outside world from internetcafés and similar public places Fortunatly she has relatives that work at some company that has something to do with selling electronics (I think ) and from there she can use ICQ and other applications deemed unsafe by the government. Also the TV-shows seem really freaky and contantly talk about how nice China is, and that other countries are bad and so on... Hong Kong is apparantly a LOT better, and much much more open to the outside world (hey... it belonged to England for quite some time). Anyways... China's biggest issues aren't exactly racism... edit: Also, when I flew to Japan we landed in Beijing on the way to Tokyo... those chinese guards at the airport are fucking scary. They tried to stare us down really bad and questioned us about all sorts of weird things before letting us through... AND WE DIDN'T EVEN LEAVE THE INTERNATIONAL PART OF THE AIRPORT :crying: In Japan we just got waved through and everyone was super-nice They might be racist against gaijins living there but hey, to us they sure were a LOT nicer than just about anyone in Sweden. Love to go there for a month again soon... too bad im a poor student :/
