Job Discussion Forums

[Doglover]

[cafebleu]

Ah, poor Marke - you`ve adopted the host culture`s habit of jumping out of your skin at people who logically present a case against Japan`s deeply institutionalised, deeply ingrained racism both in the system and in the obsession with `blood` and in the need to fear, contain and stigmatise `gaijin` as a daily practice.

You clearly wish to distort my post because it gives you a good serve for completely missing the overt and implicit racism that is affecting a Japanese child born in Japan who is designated an outsider because of her Filippina blood. Yes, as I explained (unlike you my posts provide a solid core of evidence to back up the fundamental premise) it is not simply a matter of immigration laws.

If you believe that I feel sorry that you have let any reasoning and criticial faculties you may have, disappear into the black hole of irrationality that distinguishes so much of what passes for discussion and debate in Japan. As for your pathetic digs at my Chinese husband - you clearly are talking out of your a* there as I have provided ample evidence in previous posts when I lived in Japan about the racism he experienced. There is no need to pander to your ignorance further.

As Akula and other people on this board know, Japan`s nationality laws etc serve to darken Japan`s reputation as a society ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Since you seem to have problems grappling with points based on facts I will make one again - Japan`s notion of being Japanese based on blood is disgraceful and backwards. It is a nasty fascist type philosophy that is widespread and one that is becoming more and more discredited as the 21st century rolls on.

[markle]

[Doglover]

[markle]

cafebleu,
you maybe right, I increasingly find it difficult to not vent my frustrations at the closed-minded antiJapanese axe grinders on this forum. I mean if they are so eager to be victimised then what is the point in me convincing them otherwise. I am enjoying myself here and ready to take the opportunities that present themselves. I feel real pity for those of you that feel so miserable here that you need to denigrate the place and people at every turn and contempt for those that leave but still feel the need to do so as well. Like the saying goes "if you have nothing nice to say... shut the hell up.
I'm building a bridge and getting over it.

[Akula the shark]

Markie,

glad for you if you are enjoying your life in Japan. Apologise all you want.
For the records, I am living in NZ married to a wonderful Japanese woman. I speak Japanese to the point where I have been able to pass level 1 of the JPLT.
My guess is that you are oblivious to a lot that goes on around you, due to a lack of language ability and cultural knowledge.
Japan has a lot of good points, no argument there, but it has its ugly side, and part of that ugly side is how Japanese society deals with non-Japanese, or even those that are not 'pure' Japanese.
You read what I put on the original post, yet you attack me. All I can say, is that you are obviously one arrogant, apologetic non-entity, who having spent a little bit of time in Japan, thinks he knows everything.
Let me leave you in your ignorant bliss.

[markle]

[cafebleu]

As an Englishwoman from one of the most multicultural places in London and in the world in fact, who has friends from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal, France, Germany, Brazil, Peru, People`s Republic of China, Korea, Malaysia, Philipinnes and Japan, I have been building bridges all my life. There has never been a time when I did not have friends from different races and cultures, sometimes very different.

Contrary to the implications in Markle`s last reply that he is the one building bridges while those such as me who criticize the ugly and retrograde practices that are legal/socially acceptable in Japan are somehow people who are racist against the Japanese or bitter or whatever, it is very much a matter of how long you have lived in Japan and how sensitive to racial/social issues you are that determines your response to the worst side of life in Japan. My five years plus of living in Japan have given me great memories but also a disturbing insight to what passes for normality here in regard to outdated, and yes, fascistic notions of race/blood/nation.

And yes, it`s a cop-out to exonerate Japanese people as if they have nothing to do with it. So long as Japan`s outmoded racial/social policies are accepted - officially bas*d children, stateless children who were born in Japan and would be accepted as a national in the majority of countries in the world because of that fact but not in Japan, foreign spouses tacked on to the end of a family registry or not at all because they are not aware of their marriage failing to diminish their lowly status, excessive nationalist `We Japanese` propaganda drummed into children`s heads from daycare centre onward, then these disgraceful, outmoded practices will continue.

And for somebody who has been attacked as not building bridges, having some foreigner grudge against Japan etc etc, funny how I come back here to visit my Japanese friends. Thank goodness they are more enlightened people than you, Markle. I`ve never heard them excuse such practices as outlined above.

[malcoml]

There seems to be a lot of excuses being put forward by foreigners for some mainstream Japanese politcs.
Most of these excuses are put forward by guys who arrive in Japan without ever having had a girlfriend or job before, suddenly they find themselves with a Japanese girlfriend and a easy job aand then suddenly they believe the country can do or has done no wrong.

[cafebleu]

And just to put the Tokyo earthquake of yesterday in a broader perspective - the Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, is a blatant racist who has persistently made racist comments against Korean, Chinese and other Asian people about whom he has used the slur `Sangokujin` a number of times.

Any politician, let alone somebody in that kind of position, would be out on their ear if they used racial epithets so publicly and so consistently as this scumbag did. He does not use `Sangokujin`anymore in public - he simply casts racial slurs by saying that foreigners such as Koreans will riot in the aftermath of an earthquake.

Let me remind Markle and anybody else so eager to sweep this kind of blatant race hatred under the carpet, that Ishihara made and makes those kind of inciting statements publicly with little to no reaction from the overwhelming majority of Japanese politicians, public figures, government and community organisations, and ordinary Japanese. The Korean community and other foreigner communities have of course protested but have been largely ignored.

In 1923, after the Hanshin Earthquake, Tokyoite Japanese went on a riot murdering Koreans of both sexes and all ages because a rumour went around that the Koreans were somehow responsible for it and were looting. The soldiers murdered them, ordinary Japanese murdered them, and those Koreans who fled for protection to the police were beaten to death by the police or handed over to hysterical Japanese mobs.

You would think that having this kind of history, Japanese people today, paticularly in Tokyo, would be very keen to dissassociate themselves from the fascist hate mongerers such as Ishihara. To the contrary his popularity went up after that evil assertion and there has been no apology officially or any real coverage of his incitement of hatred and violence against Koreans etc, in the Japanese media. A few isolated cases aside.

Ishihara`s sick and evil words about the possibilities of foreigners rioting in earthquakes when in fact the Japanese did so before and murdered foreigners, justify racial hate crimes. No ifs, no buts. However, this is considered unremarkable in Japan. That fact alone gives enough information about the deep problems in this society concerning foreigners. Japan is not a country for the 21st century and it will only get worse. Be blinkered or face the reality.

[cafebleu]

More info for the blinkered ones - since yesterday`s earthquake there has been talk about the role of the Japanese emergency services in the event of major earthquakes that cause considerable disruption, injuries, fire outbreaks etc.

Under Japanese law the Japanese emergency services are under NO obligation to assist anybody but Japanese nationals. Do the maths. Nobody but Japanese nationals. The implications of this are very disturbing not to mention insulting. Foreigners pay taxes, fake pensions they won`t get back, support the system, are law abiding except for a minority and yet they are still legally nobodies. No real rights - check out the way a foreign spouse doesn`t have to even be acknowledged on the Japanese registry system.

Crises can bring out the worst in human beings and going by past example, by the racial hatred incited by public figures and the lack of status of and protection for foreigner residents under Japanese law, it`s clear that foreigners are at risk most in crises such as earthquakes. Nobody has to help them and it`s not difficult to see where all the xenophobia here is going to lead if it`s a true crisis situation.

[SEndrigo]

[SEndrigo]

[markle]

I am not going to be made out to be the holocoust denying bad guy here. I am not unaware of the flaws in Japanese society, a failure to deal with xenophobia, institutionalised dicrimination, etc. What I am strenously objecting to is the general misuse of the terms 'racism' and 'racist' with regard to what happens here, especially when applied to western gaijin. We are not talking about people wearing yellow stars, or ethnic restaurants being firebombed. We are not talking about being forced to sit at the back of the bus. Where are the hate crimes, the gangs of youths wandering the streets looking for a hapless gaijin to abuse? These are the real examples of racism that are a thousand degrees up the spectrum from the petty whines put forward so often on this board. It's and insult to people that have suffered real racism, people that have to deal with a real fear of loss of liberty, property even life. We may be at the risk losing a few minor priviledges and you guys are shouting "Help, help I'm being oppressed!"
cafebleu do you really think that Japanese people, some of who you count as your friends, are capable of the massacres perpetrated in the '20's? Seems to me that you have an amazingly poor insight into the people you call your friends.

Finally do you all think the situation is getting better or worse? Personally I see things are improving, slowly to be sure, and from a fairly bad place. The progress isn't bad given that homogenity of the population, which tends to dampen the impetus to change. I mean it took Britian a good 50-60 years to get to the position it's in now and that was aided by the fact that there were so many ethnically diverse immigrants to deal with that change was unavoidable.

[Akula the shark]

Markle,

you are the bad guy here as you are an apologist.
Truth is, things are not getting better for foreigners in Japan, if anything, things are getting worse. You may not like people like me talking about racism, but racism is ubiquitous in Japan, and is to be condemned. People like you are part of the problem when you apologise for Japan.
Why was what happened to the Filipina woman and her first child racist? Do you see people in Japanese society condemning this injustice? No, it doesn't matter to them, as the mongrel kid (in their eyes) and a lesser human being (non-Japanese Asian) are the ones most affected.