Talk:Ethnic issues in Japan

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[edit] Old discussions

Honestly, different people have different experiences. I've heard stories about racism against Japanese/Filipino relationships and Eurasian students in Japan (called "mongrels" or whatever); on the other hand, I've heard Japan is a more tolerant country than, say, Korea.

Also, did Beat Kitano really make that comment about Japanese women being "whores" for dating non-Japanese? If so, then he can go to hell, and I'm sure not watching any of his movies again.


Nanshu, you are obviously Japanese, and seriously uninformed about the realities of your country. Objectively, Japan has many pluses, but also many minuses. The plus & minus balance shifts depending on what color foreigner you are.

Racism is racism, sexism is sexism, and so on. Japanese racism is the SAME ugly beast found throughout the world, and what the hell is so unique about Japan anyway?

Similar to the way "Jew" means the race & the religion, "Japanese" means the race, the language and the nationality - to you. The United Nations recently condemned Japan as having intense institutional discrimination.

I have been told by Japanese people (when I lived in Japan) that there is no racism in Japan. But wishing it does not make it true. I was turned away from restaurants (in Tokyo, 1992) my girlfriend was called a whore on the train (because she was with me, a foreigner). In fact, when Beat Takeshi said on national tv "Japanese women who date foreigners are whores, and they date foreigners because they cannot get a Japanese man" it did affect my daily life.

Most of the 'crimes by foreigners' are VISA violations. The Japanese government does not separate the types of crimes in order to make it look like foreigners commit lots of crimes. Ask any Japanese about the first AIDS case in Japan, nad they will probably tell you it was a homosexual foreigner. In fact, 3 months earlier, a Japanese salary-man returned from a posting in Thailand, where he contracted AIDS, but the Japanese government chose to wait for a foreign case to grab media attention first.

I would like to see more facts in these articles.

This article has a lot of problems. First of all, the stuff is NOT racism because it has nothing to do with race as 211.5.123.232 wrote:

Also unlike nations like the U.S.A. racism in Japanese is not directed so much at people of a particular race or ethnic group but rather those who are "non-Japanese".

Isn't it just exclusivity against outsiders that can more or less be seen everywhere. If we keep this, this should be moved to a right place. --Nanshu

I agree, this article is very biased with little evidence. Many of my friends visited Japan and did not face any discrimination and many were Filipinos. I hardly believe the Pinocchio inccident for it will create an outrage in the world. This is a serious problem in Wikipedia for racist people who hates Japanese will make the Japanese people evil. Look at the Koreans and the Chinese hatred at Asian Cup.
While I think that the article is heavily biased and contains numerous inaccuracies, I think Japan's nationalistic exclusivity, where it exists, is very racist; 'Japanese' means 'Japanese by heritage' -- ie, 'looks Japanese and can trace roots back to Japan' -- and is little different from any other sort of racism. Consider Alberto Fujimori's easy repatriation to Japan and Arudou Debito's difficulties being admitted to a Japanese onsen despite holding Japanese nationality. --Tlotoxl 04:37, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)
They are different in nature. The former is an administrative case and the latter is a cultural issue.
Still, "outsider" does not depend on race. Ex-inhabitants of a city find it difficult to blend into a rural community. This is the same in substance. --Nanshu 01:03, 11 Oct 2003 (UTC)
I disagree (no surprise there, perhaps :) ). The case of Alberto Fujimori's easy repatration and acceptance by the Japanese indicates to me a sense of racial cohesion -- it doesn't matter that a Japanese race doesn't exist, the right look and the right last name means your 'in'. The opposite is demonstrated by the case of Arudou Debito (and his mixed children) not being allowed into an onsen. He and his daughters were all Japanese citizens, but were excluded on the basis of race. How can that not be an example of racism? That racism is (to a degree, I don't think that Japan is that bad, on the whole) a part of cultural does not mean that it is not racism. I agree that not all ostracism is racism, but when there are clear examples of ostracism based on race, how can that be anything but racism? -- Tlotoxl 03:32, 11 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Again, they are different in nature. Fujimori has dual citizenship. That's all. Or do you think jus sanguinis is racism? Debito's case seems racism, but ironically that's a product of the onsen manager's attempt to avoid racism.
The following is my personal opinion that isn't directly related to this article. Debito and Japanese left-wing activists are too busy with expanding rights but they forget to work out practical solutions to establish a climate where these rights are assured. They are complainers who expect others, not themselves, to resolve issues. In the case of onsen, he doesn't propose a method to distuinguish sensible people from unwelcomed hooligans. --Nanshu 02:57, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)
How was the manager attempting to avoid racism by barring onsen entry to people who didn't 'look' Japanese? I agree that some rights activists risk creating a negative environment for visible minorities in Japan even as they make progress in having rights recognized (not expanded, mind you -- Arudou and his kids were discriminated against on the basis of race, a violation of the Japanese constitution; it's not even a question of foreigner-rights). I'd hardly call Arudou left-wing, though, just because he thinks his kids should be allowed, as Japanese citizens, to be treated with the same dignity as other Japanese citizens.
As for Arudou not proposing a method to distinguish sensible people from unwelcome hooligans -- I would think that a) that's not his problem and b) the answer is already obvious: people should not be prejudged on the basis of the colour of the skin or the height of their noses. If the onsen manager wants to discriminate, he's still welcome to discriminate against individuals based on their previous history with the onsen. If that's not sufficient, he could simply verbally inform "suspicious looking individuals" of the rules of etiquette or make the onsen member-only, where membership requires the applicants to answer a simple questionnaire. These may not be great solutions, but they are workable and imo they certainly beat violating the Japanese constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Getting a little bit off topic... ;) -- Tlotoxl 06:47, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Nanshu has made a point already. The truth is there is really such a racism issue in Japan as the West has. Notice Korean and Japanese are the same race after all. There is no Japnese race. It yet does not mean no discrimination. The content itself is insigtful, but the title and headings are probably misleading. -- Taku

How about moving the article to discrimination in Japan or something? It is rarely known but koseki issue for instance is one of very important aspects that cannot be found in the West. I am a Japanese national living in the US and was very surprised when I was able to obtain a social security number. In Japan, Japanese means really different than you mean Americans in the US. This kind of mindset is often called mura shakai in Japan and I think it is unique to Japan, regardless if it is good or not. -- Taku

No it's not unique in Japan. China is pretty much the same. It's hard to get a Chinese citizenship if you don't have any relation to anyone born in China. The asian concept of nationalism is very different from the western multicultural model. One can call himself/herself as a Canadian/American or even British/French as long as he/she holds a passport/citizenship ID of the said country. For others to denounced that would be racism. In Asia, you have to actually named and looked like the people of that country in order to be accepted as a "national" of that country. For many Asians, nationality and citizenship is one and the same thing.
I just find it ethnocentric for many Japanese to think that they are unique in the world. Such as in this article, mentioning having Kanji as something that is unique. Well the Chinese have the WHOLE set of Chinese characters that foreigners have to decipher. How does that make Kanji the unique thing about Japan that foreigners have to face? I'm not saying that the japanese langauge isn't unique, i'm saying to call Kanji as something uniquely Japanese that is a stretch from the truth. All foreigners have difficulty with the local language no matter what foreign country he's in. The article makes it seems like kanji makes Japanese the hardest language to learn, which is just nonsense. --Kvasir 20:59, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
I prefer a more general topic like Foreign people in Japan. --Nanshu
I think it might make sense to change the topic from Racism in Japan to Multiculturalism in Japan or Ethnic tensions in Japan or something like that, but Foreign people in Japan seems wrong since Okinawans and the Ainu (and zainichi Koreans, by almost any sensible definition other than the Japanese government's) are not foreigners in Japan. -- Tlotoxl 03:32, 11 Oct 2003 (UTC)
They look better. I disagree on Zainichi, but that's not the point here. --Nanshu
Since no one is going to move, I did it. Let me know your thoughts. I like a word ethnic, which implies foreign people by definition. -- Taku 03:45, Oct 16, 2003 (UTC)

I expected to find something here about the Ainu and more about the Okinawans. Rmhermen 20:29, Oct 10, 2003 (UTC)

Would anyone care to back up the 'roughly 25% of TV programs' statistic? I know a lot of crimes in Japan are blamed on Chinese, but the statistic seems suspect. This is an encyclopedia and as such is surely not a place for anecdote and free speculation. -- Tlotoxl 11:21, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Here is the number from NPA's yearly factbook since I thought you could use real numbers. Now keep in mind that this year's persecuation rate is around 25%, Japan is surrounded by the sea, and China is a communist nation and a travel permit is required to go abroad. The decision is up to you.
In 2002, 16.212 foreigners were caught committing 34.746 crimes; of those 12.667 cases (36.5%) and 6.487 criminals (40.0%) were Chinese. Brazilian committed 5272 cases (15.72%) and 1186 criminals (7.3%). Korean committed 2815 cases (8.1%) and 1738 criminals (10.7%). They are top 3 countries with number of criminals. So it is okay statistic wise to have 2 in 5 foreign criminal be Chinese.
Now the total number of crime cases committed in the same year is 546.934 by Japanese and 24.258 by foreigners, the ratio is roughly 27-1. This looks okay at first but when you compare categories, it becomes really clear that there is a problem. Japanese committed 6925 violent crimes but of those, 2531 are arson and rape. While foreigners committed 323 violent crimes but only 42 cases are classfied as such. At this point, ratio goes up from 33-1 to 22-1 and this isn't a good number.
Lesser known but more troublesome is that foreigners act in group when committing a crime. Of 24.258 cases, 14.919 cases (61.5%)have one or more accomplice while Japanese cases are only 101.911(18.6%). More troubling is of the crime committed by two or more, for Japanese, 63.7% are pairs, 19.0% are triples, 17.4% are four or more. In comparison, for foreigners, 24.4% are pairs , 34.5% are triples, 41.1% are four or more.
Revth 18:41, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Are there people called "second-country person"? I don't fully understand the meaning of sangokujin.

The term sangokujin was originally meant as 'the group of people from countries not involved in WW2' and was a term of law. The English translation of this should be 'Third party'. So, sangokujin actually point to two ethnic groups; North and South Korean because their country didn't exist, Chinese from the Manchuria and to the lesser extent Taiwanese because they were the part of Japan. So "second-country person" of your question would be Allied nation that fought Japan in WW2.
Revth 16:46, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I have a question to all 'foreigners :)' whether their countries have landlord make a contract in the contractee's native language. While the fact that writing Japanese is difficult is a cause of the problem to the lenting issue, I think this is a quite peculiar issue with odds unfavorably stacked against Japanese.

Revth 18:58, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Did heavy rewrites and added more informations mainly on Japanese attempts to stop descrimination. I think it looks a lot better now. Revth 18:52, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)


How Japanese 'Know' Criminals are non-Japanese

Can we just condense this into a single sentence?

"The Japanese media frequently reports that unidentified and unapprehended criminals are "foreign" or sometimes from a particular country, based on linguistic clues provided by witnesses or victims." -- Paul Richter 08:37, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Difficulty assimilating into Japanese Society - Kanji

Nothing in this paragraph is specific to Japanese society -- anywhere in the world, if you can't read the language, it's an obstacle to assimilation. And with the latest change, it's starting to sound like a travel guide...

Unless someone defends it, I'm going to delete it. -- Paul Richter 09:39, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

Kanji are a problem specific to Japan (well, and China too, of course). Whereas you can get by in most other countries in the world by reaching fluency in the spoken language and learning a smallish alphabet, Kanji offer a much bigger obstacle to assimilation than Greek or even Malayalam. Take out the bits that sound like a travel guide if you want (like 'even Japanese get lost') and reword the paragraph if you want, but IMO you can't have an article about ethnic issues in Japan without mentioning a major stumbling block for foreigners who would otherwise quickly assimilate. -- Tlotoxl 10:20, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

True, kanji may be a stumbling block for foreigners in Japan, but what are you suggesting Japan to do? You cannot force the Japanese to change something so central to their culture, simply in order to make foreigners assimilate with ease (the other difficulties regarding assimilation, such as the koseki, are things the Japanese can change. The language is not.) You don't see Americans simplifying their language so that Japanese immigrants have an easier time pronouncing the letter "r". Besides, the Japanese did not make the language difficult on purpose so that they could exclude foreigners --- it simply turned out that way through history. This issue does not belong in this article, whose main focus seems to be racism towards foreigners in Japan. It gives the readers the misconception that the Japanese are making efforts to purposefully exclude foreigners.

I think the paragraph on Kanji is irrelevant here. ALL foreigners face a language barrier. Whoever wrote the paragraph responding it has a valid point. The language issue isn't unique to Japan. It has nothing to do with racism and ethnic issues. I don't see a racism article on the US, for example includes a paragraph on English and how hard it is for others to learn. --Kvasir 21:06, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

"Gaijin, Gaikokujin"

I am fully Japanese by blood, currently a citizen of America, but I have also lived in Japan. I have always wondered why people who are not native to Japan take the term "gaijin" or "gaikokujin" to be offensive or racist. It is certainly not slang or a racist term such as "jap" "chink" or "kite" (please excuse my use of these words. I am only typing them to give examples of racial slangs in English and to illustrate a point). "Gaijin" and "Gaikokujin" are simply the Japanese translations of the word "non-native" or "someone not native to Japan," but never in my experiences in Japan have I understood it to be derogatory. It is used in the same way that people in the United States identify me by saying "you are an Asian." For an untrained eye, it is hard to recognize a person's exact nationality at first glance (many Americans cannot distinguish my nationality at first glance. They often guess I am Chinese or Korean), so it is instinctive to use a general term such as "Asian" or "African American" or "Caucasian" in case you are unsure. The Japanese also use those terms "hakujin" (for Caucasian) and "kokujin" (for African American), but they also are accustomed to having the term "gaijin" when they feel like being even more general. It is certainly not mentioned in a condescending or derogatory manner (at least I never heard it used in that manner). I realize that many people are indignant because they are still labeled as "gaijin" despite the fact that they have Japanese citizenship. You might also be thinking it is unfair that someone like me, a Japanese person living outside of Japan, is not labeled a "gaijin". However, you should not feel offended. I do not feel offended when someone calls me "Asian" or "Japanese" despite the fact that I have American citizenship. Besides, if you have watched popular Japanese T.V. shows nowadays, you would know that the term "gaijin" is used in a extremely positive light. David Beckham, the caucasian soccer player from England, as well as Ilhan Mansiz, the asian soccer player from Turkey, are so popular among young Japanese girls that they are frequently revered with the honorific title "sama". The African American fighter Bob Sap is also extremely popular, and many South Americans are also earning a name as K-1 (a fighting tournament) grows in popularity. Mixed-Japanese, including the popular idol and comedian Becky, are also gaining fame. Furthermore, the recent "Korean-boom" in Japan had many Japanese women swooning for Korean actors, and many Japanese men running after the Korean singer BOA. Also, "gaijin" are so popular (high demands) among eikawa classes (English classes) nowadays that English-speaking Japanese people, even if they are completely fluent, are often rejected from jobs as eikawa teachers. With increasing Western influence (particularly American) on popular Japanese culture, the term "gaijin", at least in my opinion, has more of a positive note than a negative one.

[edit] Burakumin, Kanji

Although they are mentioned in passing (and a link is given), it would be nice to have more information on the burakumin in Japan. As a "gaijin" in Japan I have experienced situations like those mentioned in this article, but compared to the employment and marriage-related discrimination that many burakumin face, they seem like simple annoyances.

I would vote to eliminate the kanji reference as well, or at least re-word it given its Anglo-centric POV. The overwhelming majority of foreigners in Japan are from China and Korea, countries who use (or at least study, in the case of Korea) Chinese characters ... therefore kanji actually EASE "assimilation" into Japan for the majority of foreigners. Also, the first line of the section states, "Although not racist in intention there are many differences between Japan and other countries that can cause difficulty for non-Japanese not including the difficulty of mastering Japanese" ... wouldn't kanji be included in this statement?

CES 06:48, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, more information on burakumin would be good. Originally the article was just about "anti-foreigner racism", so that's why burakumin weren't discussed much. I knew a girl who's parents had her fiance's family checked out in the registry to make sure he wasn't a burakumin. She said that if he had turned out to be one, the marriage would have been off because she couldn't raise her kids to be ostracised. What seemed weirdest to me was that she never even considered "the other option": just leave the country and raise your kids somewhere else.
Anyway, as for kanji, since it's as big a problem for Vietnamese as it is for Russians as it is for Indians as it is for English, surely it's not Anglocentric. Originally the article specifically mentioned that it was not generally an obstacle for Koreans or Chinese, but someone noted that kanji are no longer studied in Korea, so that bit was removed. Next, while zainichi Koreans certainly do constitute the overwhelming majority of "foreigners", I think they really belong in a section all their own -- obviously Kanji isn't an obstacle for a foreigner who is born in raised in Japan, regardless of his or her ethnic background. The kanji & language section is specifically about obstacles for foreign-born residents of Japan who are trying to assimilate. Of whom, I suspect, kanji-savey Koreans and Chinese no longer represent an overwhelming majority. -- Tlotoxl 08:43, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
My point (the inital objection) was that difficulty with the language was not specific to Japan. Yes, attaining fluency is difficult, but it's a matter of degree. Every culture has a spoken language and most have a written, some are more difficult than others. But there is no human language which it is outright impossible for a foreigner to become fluent in.
On the other hand, it is no more possible for a foreigner to have a koseki than it is to change one's parents. That's why koseki and (to a lesser degree) inkan are not the same kinds of barrier as language. They are constructs of the culture which inherently assume Japanese ancestry. --Paul Richter 14:44, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I don't know whether you have ever studied Japanese but I'll put it this way, by knowing 2,000 words in English, one can read over 90% of articles in a newspaper. To attain the same level of understanding in Japanese, the number is 20,000, ten times as many as in English. Beside learning whole new sets of script to write, a non-native also have to learn 10 times as many words to become fluent and this doesn't include intricate combinaions required to use them. This may not be a problem for some, but it should be a big problem for most people.
Also, every year, Japanese invent well over 300 new words and of those, some 100 words remain in use replacing old words. Old or non-social people would invariably fall out of this race and start using the "arcane" Japanese. It is a bit like updating OS, a new version of OS will someday become too much for old computers. A same age group would speak the same version of Japanese unless he or she had specific taste for using old words. Non-natives could not and would not be able to use the same version of Japanese, the current Japanese in use is not 100% compatible with old "version" of Japanese that their age groups use and learning Japanese, current one of course, take them further and further away from the version of Japanese they should be speaking.
Unless, a non-native take time to indulge in old books and TV shows and study "arcane" Japanese, from their birth to the current date, and even then it IS impossible to become "fluent". So many words are missing from records and the "feel" of their use is impossible to record. Even a native speaker like me knows how so many words have become obsolete and talking about words I know and had used to younger generations means nothing, it's like teaching how to shoot arrows and fight with a sword to the US Army. Many of the things simply ceased to exist while others lost their importance and they will never have same meaning. A non-native will be using the version of Japanese that doesn't fit his or her age and will never be "fluent" enough, unless he or she is young or spent extremely long time in Japan. Revth 16:51, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)
  • I think we're getting a little off topic here (inevitable given the open-ended nature of the "Difficulty assimilating into Japanese Society" header) ... the question should be whether kanji (and the Japanese language as a whole) is an ethnic issue. The language issue is not one of ethnicity or citizenship. Consider, an American (or German or Korean, etc.) could be born and raised in Japan, fluent in Japanese (because language learning is of course unrelated to what country you are a citizen of) but still have difficulties getting his inkan approved or entered in a koseki because of his nationality. I think if the header title was changed it would help: "Difficulty assimilating into Japanese Society" can include anything from chopsticks to driving on the left side of the road. Considering the topic of the article, a title like "Other ethnic issues complicating assimilation" might make it more specific. CES 07:26, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
You're right, bad choice of words. But still ... according to the Japan demographics article, Chinese and Korean immigrants make up 60% or so of all "foreigners" in Japan ... I do not know the status of hanja learning in Korea, but I guess my main point is that, as Mr. Richter mentions, it seems like the koseki issue vs. kanji issue are on completely different levels ... maybe expanding the introductory sentence to something like the following would appease everyone: "Although not racist in intention there are many differences between Japan and other countries that can cause difficulty for non-Japanese not including the difficulty of mastering Japanese and kanji" Or "Chinese characters" or something like that.
As for the situation mentioned about burakumin raising children ... although leaving the country is of course an option (a last resort of sorts), it seems sad that such strong racism persists within a race that prides itself on its one-ness. CES 02:48, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] "Japanese rarely discriminate by factors like place of birth, personal wealth and social upbringing"

I call bullshit on this sentence. Does anyone want to defend it? - Sekicho 13:41, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)

Nope. There's ample evidence to the contrary. Exploding Boy 15:26, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)
The article also states that Japan is a very homogenous society where people rarely interact with foreigners. If interaction is rare, then occurances of discrimination is at most rare as well. In either case the statement uses a vague quantifier for something that is hard to measure. I am hesitant to remove statements on the basis that it is not strongly critical of Japan (something about an NPOV policy that I've read in the past..). —Tokek 3 July 2005 20:20 (UTC)

[edit] Japanese government

Addition by anonymous User:61.213.252.127, moved to Talk

Facts, please. The foreign population is 1.45%. The foreign crime (cases) last year was 1.8%. (NPA stats.) Ignore the numbers supposedly going up (they actually have gone DOWN year-to-year in some years) and focus on the actual percentages. These facts tell us that there is no foreigner crime problem in Japan and the media and politicians are doing what the media and politicians do everywhere: blaming the weak for a society's problems.

[edit] Robots

Can it be said that the obvious acceptance of robots in Japan comparing to other countries is influenced by the dislike of foreigners? In other countries, unpleasant jobs are left for foreigners.

No, I do not see how robotics is in any way relevant to xenophobia. Robots in Japan are looked on with hope, awe and admiration (which should be quite obvious with all the anime concerning robots, as well as the wildly popular robot Asimo) --- in no way are they viewed as "replacements for foreigners", which you seem to be implying. In case you have forgotten, America is famous for its ethnic diversity, and yet it is also one of the forerunners of robotic technology. Clearly there is no correlation.

There is the joke: When it comes to a labour shortage, there are 3 solutions: robots, women, and foreigners. Well theres a lot to be said about robots.

[edit] I question about this article. Where is the reference?

"Japanese children who are not born in Japan, or whose parents are not 100% Japanese, may experience racism from a very young age and can even be subject to beatings by their peers and adults, but mostly they are merely ignored. One recent example is of a 9 year old boy of 1/4 American heritage whose teacher aggressively pulled his nose while yelling "Pinocchio, Pinocchio" until his nose bled. Initially the school refused to confront the issue until the boy's parents became incessantly vocal. The confused child was quoted as asking his parents if he was "dirty" because he was 1/4 American. The teacher, a member of the Japan Teachers Union, was forced to resign."

I really wonder about this paragraph because there is no reference and name of the accused. This is highly unlikely since Japan is becoming more and more internationalized and Actually the Japanese adore mixed people because of the beauty. I have deleted it. I would suggest that it can be put back unless it has proper backup. Thanks

This case is legit. The teacher also pulled his ears calling it "Mickey Mouse Penalty" or his cheeks (Anpanman) etc. He also said a number of quite disturbing things to the child after learning of his ancestry, such as "You should die fast. Jump off your mansion's roof today" or "You are stained because your blood is mixed". Here are some links about the case :

http://www.asyura2.com/2us0310/nihon9/msg/280.html http://www13.ocn.ne.jp/~ryouran/html/souka_8.html

It saddens me to see that such a high profile and mature culture like the Japanese is engages racisms acts, one would think they would make a difference to not follow ethnic hate like Americans excesively do with black, latin, irish, muslims.. etc. Anyway, I cannot begin to see what good extreme nationality would do to any nation, it is true that the conservation of cultral aspects is a major task in every country(hell, i'd be proud if my country would had invented the anime) also music, arts and all those aspects cannot be lost just for globalization, but people, we have seen entire references to cultures long ago gone be kept in many manners(if you don't belive me go see all the information that's on celtic people and their mitology).

The evidence is sufficient enough to say that there is a racist problem in Japan and to even deny that the Nanking massacre ever ocurred (like some high profile japanese have done) is a direct offence to the sense of humanity ported by every human being. And also i do not understand why chinese people are that bad seeing, Japan cannot deny that they were haevily influenced by chinese culture long ago, and that their writing system is based in their, their custumes, etc, go and see if arabic countries (who share a strong conection in the past) are attacking each other. Japan is a very proud country and they have ALL the reason to be, I mean come on, their anime is a global success troughout the world(who doesn't know Dragon Ball or Tsubasa), the have games(like Final Fantasy, not only this but many) that can gather a large fan comunity in every single country, their movies are starting to make it to other countries very far away, many poeple are attracted to Japan women... But to not see that the whole world (excepting nationalist) is asking for unity and sharing of cultural things underliying a message of "hey, let your culture be your ambassador and not you're arm of disspeling people" is nothing but sad and with behaviors like this the world would always be a place of wars and hate.

Globalization and inmigrations CANNOT weak or undo a culture, I'm from Colombia (a country most of you don't even know it exists) we were colonized by Spain with very violent acts, and sure several aspects of their culture sticked to us but let me tell you that our dances, music and literature always make it to our carnivals and fanfares. I hope and I'm sure that someday I'll go to Japan and some Japanese will come close and ask me if i wanna have a drink with him/her and talk about our contries... 190.24.176.52 17:20, 15 December 2006 (UTC)Salim

[edit] kokujin

is "kokujin" the correct word? The link presents it as no kind of pejorative term. Nagelfar 07:58, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

I am a white American who lived in Japan from 1986-1991 and the term "hakujin" was used to refer to a white person and the term "kokujin" was used to refer to a black person. I did not detect that the terms themselves were used in a derogatory fashion. HOWEVER, it is quite obvious that there is an immense pressure to conform and "be Japanese" in Japan. As in all countries there are racists and non-racists; but I can assure you that I saw many instances of the things I'm about to list: Japanese who lived abroad and came back to Japan were considered "tainted" by foreign influence; people of mixed race (half Japanese and whatever) were severly teased and picked upon in school; there is a racial pecking order with pure Japanese at the top and below that, in order were other Asians (except Koreans and Filipinos), whites, blacks, and then Filipinos and Koreans; bars that do not admit foreigners; taxi drivers that don't pick up foreigners (usually older people who had been in WWII); ethnic Korean families who've been there for years that are not allowed citizenship because they're Korean; single Asian women (because the authorities are afraid they're prostitutes). My wife, who is Thai, she was under suspicion with the customs officials when she was single because they were afraid she was a prostitute (which she wasn't) and had trouble getting her visa renewed once because of it. Only because of me intervening did they grant her a new visa. This was all because she was a single non-Jaopanese Asian woman. Most of the Japanese I met were nice and polite, but there is a definite racist idealogy running through the culture and to pretend it's not there is nonsense.Rlevse 17:24, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Kokujin is a black person, there is nothing racist about the word. You can use it freely.

The ethnic slur for black person in Japan is Kurombo, it means blacky, but is as offensive as using the N word in the USA.--Caligvla 06:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic Minorities

The article intro listed some of the "Japanese" ethnic minorities, but as I read on, the article seems to be only about racism against foreigners. Where is the material on the Ainus, Okinawans etc? The article as it stands, should be named "Racism (or Xenophobia) in Japan". There's definitely nothing on ethnic minorities. Refer to the Japanese article linked from this page. Now THAT's what this article should be about if it were to be named "Ethnic Issues in Japan". --Kvasir 21:10, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Citations

I am surprised that this article has not one citation within the text. Especially a line like "In October 2004, an African-American man living in Kyoto Prefecture sued the operator of an optical shop after the operator denied him entry, stating 'Get out. I hate black people.'" makes me think it is the contributor's anecdote which isn't appropriate. Very serious claims are made in this article, and while I believe that it is accurate, citations to reputable sources seem necessary. ThreeAnswers 01:26, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] This Article need Revamp

I think the article is just beating around the bush. The article require focus. There are three core issues I can see from the article. (1) Access to Service (onsen, housing, pub) (2) Illegal immigrants and crimes (3) Assimilation/Integration (Zainichi). FWBOarticle.

I hope people don't get offeded by me saying that this article had "gaijin" bias. The issues relating to Zainich, Ainu, Okinawa and Burakumin should be discussed first. FWBOarticle

This article should deal with the "issues". The fact that some Japanese are racist isn't issue. FWBOarticle

Finished editing. Engrish need to be corrected. Important terms need to be wiki linked. I also think that lot of "cultural" debate degenerate into existential agonies about nature of Japense culture. But me wiping the other sections would offend some people so I leave it as it is. Bye. FWBOarticle

Rearranged the sections. Hope I didn't mess it up too much. But I think this is a better structure. I think several section need trimming. Lot of duplication can be transfered or deleted. FWBOarticle 08:26, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Illegal immingrants and Crimes

I got Abobe file which shows the official crime statistics relating to foreigners. [1] For some reason, I can't read it. Can someone, who can read it just copy paste the statistics. FWBOarticle

Valid discussion should be about proporion of crimes committed by different nationality in relation to their population. The nature of crime, violent or non violent (visas). Prevalence of crime committed by foreign pair or group which indicate that they committed many crimes before getting caught. Validity of media report in case of "linguistic" clue. FWBOarticle

[edit] The English in this article is horrible

I can tell a non native speaker wrote it. It could use a lot of editing. I did a few sections then I got tired.

Me thank you very much. (^^). FWBOarticle

Non-native English speakers are allowed to contribute to the English Wiki, am I right? <Loge>

[edit] Racism section is redundant

Racism issue = Ethinic issues. And all the contents of Racism section is discussed elsewhere in the article. Plus, the article is getting larger than the recommended size. The whole section should be wiped. FWBOarticle 06:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

If you think some content in the section did not deserve deletion, feel free to recover it in appropriate section.. Howeve, please remember that the article is currently at the right size. It may be more appropriate to recovere deleted content in sister article or just recovered as a link in "See also" section. FWBOarticle

[edit] Many establishments in Hokkaido had signs stating "Dogs and Ainu not allowed".

They said the same thing about the Chinese when the Europeans had special privileges in China during the "unequal treaty" era. I believe that accusation has been debunked by a Chinese scholar, and I question if such signs existed for the Ainu in Japan. I am NOT an expert, so please don't get angry.

I also wonder the info is true. I have never heard of it, and after googling a bit could not find any such info too. Anyway, as the infomation of "No Dogs and Ainu" was incorporated on 15:53, 30 January 2006 by user:FWBOarticle, I want to hear from him.

  • The "No Dogs No XXXX" signs were from the USA, NYC had signs that read "No Dogs No Irish", I think we have a case of wishful thinking. However, it wasn't uncommon up until the 1970s for school kids in Hokkaido to throw rocks at Ainu children when they saw them. Today there is a greater respect for Ainu culture, food, music, etc. Japanese are now more interested in promoting and perserving what is left of the Ainu culture.--Caligvla 08:03, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What about Americans?

I believe the WWII generation in Japan has a certain distrust towards white Americans. Just as the Cold War gen. in the US has a distrust towards Russians. - Jim Bart 06:17, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

That's still there, yes, but Japanese people under the age of 65 tend to love the USA and Americans, unless they have some particular reason not to (e.g. that old story about Shintaro Ishihara getting beaten down by a Marine as a kid). This is one of the few countries where the US gets an overwhelmingly positive approval rating (Singapore and the Philippines being the only other examples I know of in Asia). - Sekicho 05:16, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Sekicho is correct, Japanese who grew up during the American occupation have a deep love of Hershey Chocolate and Chewing Gum. US Troops would hand them out to kids. They also we supportive of the US treatment of the Emperor and how Kyoto was spared from destruction. Genearl MacArthur was loved at the time and loved to this day, his office at GHQ is still perfectly perserved. It was a sad day in Japan when he left.

Also don't forget Mongolia where the US is well respected and George W. Bush had a 90% approval rating less than a year ago.--Caligvla 07:58, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Japan for the Japanese

Japanese isn't a race, it's an ethnic/cultural group. Let me make an anology. China --> Britan, Japan --> Ireland, Korea --> Scotland Intranetusa 09:08, September 22 2006 (UTC)


I truthfully see nothing wrong with it. A nation should have a right to protect their culture and race. This isn't the case in Europe and it's leading to riots, and increases in both crime and rape. Japan should not be forced to let in thousands of people from other races and cultures because it's popular in Europe, let them keep their own socieity and not be forced to turn into some third world hellhole like is happening in areas in France, Sweden, etc. Volksgeist 09:08, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Third world hellhole like in Sweden? I beg your pardon? However, these "foreign foreigners" aren't the only ones being discriminated for their ethnicity. As far as I have heard from multiple sources including wiki, the indigenous people get discriminated against as well, though not the same way I imagine (and as such old indigenous people usually are discriminated in any corner of the world they live in). (see here for more info about the Japanese) So, what is the point of this "Japan for the Japanese" talk? I'm somewhat confused, as I thought the issue and point of this page is to discuss topics about what ethnic issues that exist in Japan, not if it's right or not. ZNull 20:30, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
A lot of people were brought to Japan as slaves or forcibly brought to work in slave-like conditions in dangerous mines, etc. Their descendants only speak Japanese and decided to remain.--Sir Edgar 09:12, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Opinion is not relevant here because of the NPOV policy. We're not here to say whether Japan should admit more foreigners, or to say how it should treat the people of foreign ancestry who already live there. We're just reporting the facts. - Sekicho 07:34, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

As a mixed European I must say I agree with Volksgeist. Also Sekicho npov policy is a debatable one considering that the language of rascism is skewed anyway, to be Chinatowns are a racist construct...(sir Mix alot)

I also agree with Volksgeist, trying to preserve ones cluture is not racist in and of itself. Certain aspects of this article would only be considered racist by North American standards and labeling them as such projects a POV--Caligvla 07:53, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Assimilation and Integration section

I think the assimilation and integration section should have these additions:

  • Unlike other countries that only use 1 alphabet set, Japan use Hiragana, Katakana, and Romanji.
  • Unlike Chinese-speaking countries, the same Kanji in Japan have multiple readings-pronunciations, i.e. kun'yomi, on'yomi, & nanori. In standard (Mandarin Chinese) there is usually only one reading per Kanji.
  • Unlike BoPoMoFo in Taiwan/ROC or PinYin in China, the Furigana used in Japan to help read Kanji could be written in 2 different alphabets. Then you find out that if you're singing karoake, the same character has yet another totally different pronunciation.  ;)

-- Adeptitus 23:46, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

And I think this article should stick to Ethnic issues in Japan, not details of the Japanese language. -- Paul Richter 01:54, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
I also agree this is the wrong place for that information, however they are important points and should find a home in another aricle.--Caligvla 07:48, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
I think the article should not only stick to Ethnic issues in Japan, but to issues, not things that can be solved with a few hours of study - usually before one even sets foot in Japan. It should also not be repetitive, and should not list one point as though it were two separate issues, as the above suggestions are/do. elvenscout742 21:37, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
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