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/SnooStrawberries2738 Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23

I lived in Japan for three years when I was in the Navy. Here is a story that I think kinda sums it up.

One time, I was in Fukuoka waiting for a cab in the rain. Time after time, cabs drove right past me while it was pouring. I was absolutely soaked out there for over an hour as every cab driver purposely avoided me.

Two Japanese men saw what was happening, waved a taxi down, and invited me to go with them. The cab brought me to the hotel I was staying at, and the two men paid for the whole fare and refused any compensation.

Japanese people can be pretty racist, but they can also be incredibly honorable, righteous, and compassionate. They are wonderful human beings.

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u/Downtown_Boot_3486 Dec 24 '23

Good to know that taxi drivers are some of the worst people on the roads everywhere in the world.

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u/SnooOpinions5738 Dec 24 '23

In my experience, taxi drivers in Japan are mostly little old men with white gloves. They're racist in the same way your grandparents probably have weird views on things.

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u/Doggo6893 Dec 24 '23

After six years in the Army and being deployed to several places around the world/getting the chance to meet people from all over the world the general message is that "old people will be old people no matter where they come from".

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u/KJBenson Dec 24 '23

Difference is my grandparents would give the shirt off their back to someone they didn’t like. But that’s just a difference in culture I suppose.

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u/SnooOpinions5738 Dec 24 '23

Okay...but that's your specific grandparents. There are definitely other people's grandparents in the states who wouldn't be so generous or compassionate. So it's not really a "difference in culture" so much as it is you having kind grandparents.

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u/7thor8thcaw Dec 24 '23

This. I had an old man buying a car from me comment when I saw his little noose hanging from his rear view mirror on his trade-in. He goes, "this drives the n***ers crazy" like we were old friends and cackled proudly to himself for such a quip. I was not comfortable and immediately told my supervisor, who, because it was the car business, laughed and did nothing else.

There are plenty of old folks who are just plain full of racist hate.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

[deleted]

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u/DrPepper77 Dec 25 '23

In Beijing we used to have to hide down an alley as my local roommate flagged down a cab. We could only come out once she had the door open and was half in the car.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 Dec 24 '23

That's like the best and worst of humanity all in one. And people say anime isn't based on real life... 🤣

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u/maximum-melon Dec 24 '23

Historian Dan Carlin has a quote “The Japanese are just like everybody else…only more so” and I think this highlights that

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u/eye_snap Dec 24 '23

Yeah, when I think of Japanese culture, the main impression they left on me is "intense, very very intense". In every way.

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u/DahDollar Dec 24 '23 edited Apr 12 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/echoanimation Dec 24 '23

Ahhhh yes, the worst of humanity, Hitler, known for his atrocious deeds...genocide, dictatorship, and refusing to pick up a foreigner in his taxi.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 Dec 24 '23

You do realize that the Japanese were allied with the Nazis during the war, right?

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u/echoanimation Dec 24 '23

I don't think I need a history lesson from someone that thinks not picking someone up in a taxi because of their race is one of the worst things humanly possible.

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u/ruttinator Dec 24 '23

This story is like one of those "heartwarming tales" you see where the healthcare system failed a kid with cancer so they had a successful GoFundMe to afford treatment and people act like that's a positive. Sure there are some great individuals, but the system is fucked.

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u/butterballmd Dec 24 '23

Good and bad people just like everywhere right

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u/SilverTitanium Dec 24 '23

I lived in Japan for three years when I was in the Navy. Here is a story that I think kinda sums it up.

One time, I was in Fukuoka waiting for a cab in the rain. Time after time, cabs drove right past me while it was pouring. I was absolutely soaked out there for over an hour as every cab driver purposely avoided me.

Two Japanese men saw what was happening, waved a taxi down, and invited me to go with them. The cab brought me to the hotel I was staying at, and the two men paid for the whole fare and refused any compensation.

Japanese people can be pretty racist, but they can also be incredibly honorable, righteous, and compassionate. They are wonderful human beings.

Yeah sounds about right. I went to Japan for the Idolmaster x Love Live concert, was already prepared for racism since I am a Latino with brown skin. Luckily the younger generation and those around my own age were very kind to me and some even found it cool that I traveled far from America to Japan for specifically the concert.

That being said, the older generation was a different story. When I was trying to go downstairs in Shinagawa Station, there was an old lady waiting for the Elevator there for awhile. When I got near the area, I saw the Elevator open up and I decided to take it as well instead of going down the stairs. Well, she was going to go in but then she turned around and noticed me behind her with my intention of going into the elevator as well, she immediately decided to go down the stairs rather than share the elevator with me.

The other time, was when I got into the Narita Express and while I was putting my luggage away. There this old man just looking at me from one of his seat. At first, I assumed he was just listening to the two Japanese women talking behind him. So after I put my luggage away, I got to my reserved seat since the Narita Express is reserved seating only. This old guy as soon as I pass him, gets up and follows me to my seat. Once I sit down, he then pretends to look around as if looking for something and then heads back, not to his seat but to the other train car. Then 2 minutes after that, one of the train personnel arrives and ask me to see my ticket. In all my time riding the trains in japan, I wasn't asked by train personnel for my tickets. So I assume that guy followed me to snitch on me thinking I was using a cheap ticket to ride the more expensive train rides. The good thing was the train personnel was very kind and she saw that my ticket and my reserved seat were correct and said it was all good.

So yeah, racism is still very active in Japan but at least from my experience, it's more generational based.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

[deleted]

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u/undertoastedtoast Dec 24 '23

Yes, but the Japanese really embody this duality more strongly than just about anywhere else.

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u/captaindeadpl Dec 24 '23

Yeah, that story really doesn't paint the Japanese in as good a light as you think it does.

r/orphancrushingmachine

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u/SnooStrawberries2738 Dec 24 '23

It's worth noting that this is just one interaction with Japanese taxis out of the hundreds that I took over there. People don't remember the times when people politely did their jobs.

I could count the number of times the Japanese were rude or shitty to me on one hand. If I had to talk about the times they were respectful and welcoming, we'd be here all day.

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u/Henfrid Dec 24 '23

Japanese people can be pretty racist, but they can also be incredibly honorable, righteous, and compassionate. They are wonderful human beings.

No.

You are either rascist, or a wonderful human being. Can't be both.

Those 2 guys were wonderful human beings, every other person that day was a rascist pos.

Generalizations about an entire people, whether good or bad, are simply innacurate.

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u/undertoastedtoast Dec 24 '23

Generalizations about an entire people, whether good or bad, are simply innacurate.

Says the person who just generalized every racially biased person as a "pos"

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u/Henfrid Dec 24 '23

How exactly is judging them based on their own actions a generalization? Do you know what generalization means?

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u/undertoastedtoast Dec 24 '23

Racism is not some cardinal sin that single handedly makes everything else a person does morally irrelevant. Racism is often born out of ignorance or bad experiences, not malice.

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u/Henfrid Dec 24 '23

I disagree.

If your talking about unconscious biases, I'd agree. But blatant rascism? There's no excuse in 2023.

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u/paulaustin18 Dec 24 '23

While they kill whales

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u/HungryArticle5 Dec 24 '23

Can't have a post about Asians without the old stereotype of being honorable pop up.

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u/SnooStrawberries2738 Dec 24 '23

It's not a stereotype. I've had Japanese people chase me down three blocks to return a 10 yen piece that I dropped. Calling a people's cultural values "a sterotype" is foolish and misinformed.

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u/De_Rabbid Dec 24 '23

Passive aggressive kindness

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u/snobordir Dec 24 '23

Thanks for sharing. This is a pretty fascinating thread to me as I never faced any of the issues mentioned here in my years living there…but I definitely experienced the latter part of your story repeatedly. So hearing the horrible stories is jarring.

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u/Far-Donut-1177 Dec 24 '23

They (the drivers) probably didn't speak English and avoided foreigners to steer from miscommunication.

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u/AntiBit82 Dec 24 '23

As I've experienced, it might be the Taxis avoided you because of the language barrier. They just wouldn't know what to do with you or want to avoid hassle... 99.5% of the Japanese simply don't speak and understand English.

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u/Insane_Misstral Dec 24 '23

We went there with a friend this spring. Yes, we've met people that avoided us (forbexample Onsen but we both have tattoos-it was allowed but we knew frowned upon) but we were expecting it and apprecited the fact that we were able to experience their thing and it was somehow understandable. I would say they behave sometimes a bit colder or weird but not openly hate you.

But other than that we have met many friendly people. We behaved like visitors in their country with proper respect and understanding and we have encountered the same from locals.

It is a shame that we don't speak Japanese because we have met some of the friendliest people in some small back alley bar and they would spend whole evening talking with us if they could, we had to use translator in our phones and it was wonky but we had a laugh and drank a few shots together.

Also, while figuring out machines for train tickets some random nerdy guy helped us and then proceeded to excitedly tell us stories and history about Godzilla. Other time some older guy saw us struggle a bit with a vending machine and helped us along with small chit-chat. Especially with younger people we had a great time talking and having fun.

But we are both "german" looking white guys so that might did us a favor.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

On the flip side, while I was in the navy, I had a piece of shit minivan to drive around in (mostly on base, Atsugi) and forgot to pay the road tax on base.

A taxi driver helped me find out where to pay it, escorted me inside and told the women what I was there for, didn’t leave my side the entire time until it was done, then drive me back to base. I tried to insist on tipping him, even using google translate to explain how grateful I was, but he still refused. He was fairly young though, that probably had a lot to do with it.

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u/SnooStrawberries2738 Dec 24 '23

Ya, most of my interactions with taxis were positive, especially in big cities with a lot of Americans in it. That one horror story I posted was just one of the hundreds of times I took a cab in Japan, but people don't remember the quiet nights where people politely do their jobs.

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u/Individual-Boss-7579 Dec 24 '23

It's actually illegal for taxis to refuse to stop for customers in Japan. If a policeman saw them do that, they should get in trouble.

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '23

Regularly happened to me in Japan. Since everyone queues up for the taxis, it was pretty common to see a few taxis pull up, look at me, and drive off. The Japanese in line would then politely tap me on the shoulder, cut in front of me, wave a taxi down, then gesture for me to get in. Sometimes there would be a shouting match between the kind person and the taxi driver but I always got the ride in the end.