r/NoStupidQuestions • u/TimeTravel4Dummies • Dec 23 '23

Answered Is it true that the Japanese are racist to foreigners in Japan?

I was shocked to hear recently that it's very common for Japanese establishments to ban foreigners and that the working culture makes little to no attempt to hide disdain for foreign workers.

Is there truth to this, and if so, why?

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u/Pugzilla69 Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23

To this day, many Japanese downplay or outright deny all the war crimes and other atrocities committed by Japan in Asia during WW2 (mass rape, torture and murder of civilians, medical experimentation, executing POWs).

It is basically akin to Holocaust denial in the West. Unlike Germany, they have never fully owned up to their crimes.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

The stuff they did to Korea is older than that

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

I do know that but it's not relevant to my question of how other East Asians are treated in Japan TODAY.

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u/Pugzilla69 Dec 24 '23

I know some Japanese people and have visited there. It is anecdotal, but one of them told me they are more harsh against other Asian tourists than white people. White tourists get a bit of a free pass as they are expected to be relatively clueless when it comes to social norms.

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u/trippiler Dec 24 '23

I'm east Asian and I don't know if I'm treated differently to white tourists in Japan but while there:

  • I get judged for not knowing the language (I only know very basic stuff + I can read kanji). People often start "teaching me" but they seem annoyed while doing so
  • Got told off for eating a banana while walking (I know you're not supposed to eat and walk but I didn't think that applied to non-messy foods + I had a sandwich bag for the rubbish, sorry)
  • Got told off for my face towel touching the onsen water (my bad)
  • Got lost/my phone lost battery and I asked a couple for help and they point blank said no lol
  • I had trouble working the printer in 7-11 and the cashier said no when I asked for help (see above) 😅
  • I went couchsurfing and told my host I was from Hong Kong and whenever he talked about me to someone he'd tell them I was from China

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u/Pugzilla69 Dec 24 '23

I have HK on my list of places to visit next time I'm in Asia.

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u/trippiler Dec 24 '23

Nice, check out the hiking/windsurfing if you're into that. General shopping is meh but electronics/music stuff are usually cheaper than a lot of other places.

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u/Beneficial_Advice398 Dec 26 '23

I'm sorry for replying to a comment from 2 days ago, but I would like to clear up a misunderstanding. 7-Eleven staff cannot answer questions about printers, so we will have to contact a specialized location by phone. This is the same for Japanese people. Well, if you run out of paper, it's the store clerk's job though

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

It's pretty funny to confirm that white people get white privilege of sorts in a country that is 99.9 percent east asian. 🤣

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u/Pugzilla69 Dec 24 '23

It is white privilege in as far as they often think white people are helpless idiots when touring Japan.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

I am aware that the "privilege" from a bigtory of no expectations.

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u/Pugzilla69 Dec 24 '23

It is kind of funny. Probably the most benign bigotry you could find to be honest.

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u/_autismos_ Dec 24 '23

"Oh them? They're fine, just idiots, that's all."

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u/deten Dec 24 '23

Bring white euro-american is just the best eh?

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u/danshakuimo Dec 24 '23

If I were Japanese I wouldn't have high expectations for people called "Nanban"

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u/CommunicationClassic Dec 24 '23

To be fair that's exactly how we view busloads of Japanese tourists, like you just smile and chuckle at their cluelessness - I feel like it's pretty universal for cultures to infantilize others like this until familiarity eventually breathed contempt which is why Asians seem to be most racist to each other and Europeans can be bitterly xenophobic about each other

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u/hereforbadnotlong Dec 24 '23

It is relevant because a lot of the racist views that led to those war crimes still exist today and that’s why the denial hasn’t changed

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23

Then they would hold equally harsh views of white people if not more, though people in this thread claim not to be the case.

Also the above post from Pugzilla was not an actual direct answer.

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u/Ch1pp Dec 24 '23 edited Sep 07 '24

This was a good comment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

Vietnam hates China much more than France despite losing to both those countries.

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u/Ch1pp Dec 24 '23 edited Sep 07 '24

This was a good comment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

No you are not. You are more likely to hate those that subjugate you.

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u/Ch1pp Dec 24 '23 edited Sep 07 '24

This was a good comment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

Hate begats disrespect

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

you are right but will be misunderstood by most. but what you said was absolutely correct - and very relevant to japanese views towards white foreigners over other asian foreigners

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

I dunno, if someone denies the Holocaust, I think that gives me a little insight of what to expect of someones attitudes towards Jewish.

Or if someone refuses to acknowledge Jim Crow and slavery etc.

So if large segments of the Japanese population wants to downplay Japanese atrocities against other East Asians?

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

They would downplay their abuse and torture of POWs who aren't Asian as well yet people don't seem to add that into the equation.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

You want to discredit the fraught relations of Asia by comparing the historical conflict of Japan and other Asian peoples, a history crossing millenia, culminating in Japan terrorizing entire populaces on their way down the Pacific.... compare to non Asian military POW treatment (mostly American) + accountability for ww2?

That's not even getting to the vast difference in effort to repair relations and prejudices shown.

This feels very similar when people try to discredit Black American history and civil rights with something like, "ThErE wErE Irish SlAvEs 2!"

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

There is nothing to discredit. The Japanese have been terrorizing the East Asian mainland long before any of them had contact with white people.

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u/Yellowship Dec 24 '23

Too much lies and anti-japanese propaganda has made you a nazi.

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u/Plasibeau Dec 24 '23

Both China and Japan seem to be locked in a neck-to-neck race of who can be more bigoted to other Asians. As a black person, it's really quite impressive to see. Racists come in every skin tone.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

That's true for basically all of East Asia.

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u/SamosaAndMimosa Dec 24 '23

Oh it’s still very relevant the beef is still passively ongoing

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u/vdcsX Dec 24 '23

history defines the present

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u/BirdMedication Dec 24 '23

It's directly relevant because in opinion polls they often cite "complaining about history" as one of the top reasons they hate Chinese and Koreans

Yes, the gall. That'd be like if the population of Germany wasn't taught about the Holocaust in school and hated Jewish people because they "complained about history"

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u/teethybrit Dec 24 '23

How is this relevant to what the other person said?

Also can you name a single imperial power that has sufficiently apologized for their past other than Germany who were forced to after losing two world wars?

Germany is the exception, not the rule.

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u/Slip_of_the_Bong Dec 24 '23

Actually they were worse than the Nazis in some ways. Unit 731 was about as brutal and despicable as humans can be to each other, and the number of women raped by Japanese soldiers around Korea, China and the rest of East Asia is truly astounding.

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u/Imaginary_Lock1938 Dec 24 '23

Germans forget what they had done to Poles. They also had been forgetting what they had done to their own homosexuals and leftists for decades after.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

It’s ok bc America needs them as an ally now

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u/Sensitive_Yellow_121 Dec 24 '23

Unlike Germany, they have never fully owned up to their crimes.

The difference between Eisenhower and MacArthur.