President Joe Biden said that the U.S. economy was growing “because we welcome immigrants” and that other countries were held back economically by anti-immigration policies.
Yeah, I read the headline and my first thought was “and? Japan is practically legendary for xenophobia”. Talk with literally anyone who doesn’t look Japanese who has spent any time in Japan and they’ll have at least one story of a time they were discriminated against for not “being Japanese” even if they’ve lived there their entire lives. They’re usually fairly polite about it, but they’re absolutely xenophobic (with a healthy dose of low key racism).
Japan is one of those countries I’d really like to visit at some point, but as a 6’3" white dude, I know full well I’m gonna stick out like a sore thumb and almost certainly be on the receiving end of some xenophobia there. That’s fine, I can deal with it, and there are so many awesome things to see and do in Japan that I’m confident the experience would be extremely positive, but it’s still something on my mind.
The good news such as it is, is that they’re not really malicious about it. This isn’t the US style “we don’t like your kind around these parts”, so much as it is “how cute, the silly foreigner thinks he’s people”. They probably won’t even say anything negative to you, they’ll just side eye you and bad mouth you behind your back, maybe pretend not to understand what you’re saying even if you’re speaking perfect Japanese. Not that everyone in Japan is that way of course, but it’s very common there.
If you’re just visiting, particularly if you stick to the touristy parts, you probably won’t have any problems at all. It’s really only once you try to stay for more than a week or two and start having to do normal day to day stuff like trying to establish a bank account, or taking a daily commute that the xenophobia really kicks in.
Yeah, I read the headline and my first thought was “and? Japan is practically legendary for xenophobia”. Talk with literally anyone who doesn’t look Japanese who has spent any time in Japan and they’ll have at least one story of a time they were discriminated against for not “being Japanese” even if they’ve lived there their entire lives. They’re usually fairly polite about it, but they’re absolutely xenophobic (with a healthy dose of low key racism).
Japan is one of those countries I’d really like to visit at some point, but as a 6’3" white dude, I know full well I’m gonna stick out like a sore thumb and almost certainly be on the receiving end of some xenophobia there. That’s fine, I can deal with it, and there are so many awesome things to see and do in Japan that I’m confident the experience would be extremely positive, but it’s still something on my mind.
The good news such as it is, is that they’re not really malicious about it. This isn’t the US style “we don’t like your kind around these parts”, so much as it is “how cute, the silly foreigner thinks he’s people”. They probably won’t even say anything negative to you, they’ll just side eye you and bad mouth you behind your back, maybe pretend not to understand what you’re saying even if you’re speaking perfect Japanese. Not that everyone in Japan is that way of course, but it’s very common there.
If you’re just visiting, particularly if you stick to the touristy parts, you probably won’t have any problems at all. It’s really only once you try to stay for more than a week or two and start having to do normal day to day stuff like trying to establish a bank account, or taking a daily commute that the xenophobia really kicks in.