Job Discussion Forums

[southofreality]

When considering the poll put forth, one should consider that Japan reportedly has the highest average age of any country on the planet.
The population percentage of elderly people in Japan is about 21%.
This could account for some of the old-fashioned thinking regarding foreigners here.

All in all, the poll isn't too revealing. I have to agree with Glenski; The 80% or so that support basic human rights for foreigners is pretty good. Combine that with the low number of reported hate crimes in this country and I'd say Japan is a pretty good place to live for most of the foreigners who visit this forum.

[VanKen]

[km618]

[mfaulkner]

If you think you can learn a lot of Chinese in a year, I'd like to remind you that they write entirely with kanji and that the accent is much more complicated. (In summation, Japanese would be much easier to learn.)

Anyway, my best friend (who, for the record, is half-Japanese), went to Japan on a high school exchange program. He really enjoyed it, but ended up coming back after only four months, in part because he found Japanese people to be somewhat two-faced. Generally very polite to your face, and then as soon as you are gone they are quite willing to release all the rudeness or negative comments they kept inside. (Obviously in no country is it considered proper to be openly rude to people; however, Japanese people apparently take politeness to an extreme such that it can be difficult to read past that.)

[J.]

period in Japan can be wonderful. People do generally treat "guests" very well and if you are in the country or a small city you will be quite popular just because you are someone new (and have some experiences of other countries probably to talk about). There is still somewhat of a cachet to being an English-speaker. You may have a little "shine" the way someone from Europe might at home. It does wear off after awhile, especially if you are not an intrinsically interesting person with some substance beneath the "exotic" exterior. But it will give you a good experience for a few years at least. If you are only staying 1 year, then you have nothing to worry about at all.

Japanese people can be nice or not just like others around the world, but the longer you stay the more restrictions and rules and "shoulds" you will encounter and some of these things can make for an extremely claustrophobic life here. Even Japanese people speak of the freedom of travelling abroad, and when they return their faces actually shine with enthusiasm and good health. Of course that might be said of many countries, but I do think personal freedoms here are subsumed to the greater good. Unfortunately the greater good doesn't seem to take much account of "foreigners".

[gonzarelli]

About the article I mentioned,

I was most surprised when the article said," Fifty-four percent of respondents in the 2002 survey said foreigners' rights should be equally protected, down 11.5 points from the 1997 survey and the lowest figure ever."

Down 11.5 points. Lowest ever. That was my point.

[Alberta605]

I did a quick Google search on Racial Attitudes of Japanese University Students.

I can find only 1 research on the Net about this regarding foreigners, and it has hairs allover it! 1977! The report did find that attitudes towards foreigners were roughly the same as those of American and Danish students. It would incredibly interesting if JALT or some other organisation involved themselves with a cross-cultural update on this.

Stories about the attitudes towards foriegners in Japan are numerous.

The first case I remember was in 1997 - a Brazilian successfully sued a shop in Tokyo for throwing him out and for showing a sign 'Japanese only' in the window.

A less successful example from 2004 involved a naturalised German with a Japanese passport who was banned from the public bathhouse (along with his 2 American guests) because a group of Russian sailors frequented the bath house and behaved in a drunken rowdy manner. The response of the bath house owner was to ban all non-Japanese.
In the mid-1990s and as you may know the Japanese government eventually signed a 1967 international protocol against racism. Despite this, the judge presiding over the bath house case sided with the bath house owner stating that the implications of the protocol should be considered in a local context.
This case was part of an advanced conversation class program - and from the 8 adult students in the room only 1 stated that the bath house owner and the judge were wrong-minded. It was of course no coincidence that the individual in question was going to the UK to study that same year.

Another student, one of the 7, also quite casually generalised the behaviour of a Brazilian who hit and killed a young Japanese girl with his car to the driving behaviour of all Brazilians. However, the same person didn't seem too keen on the idea that all American servicemen are rapists when provided with the infrequent yet regular incidents on Okinawa. I suppose getting a North Korean nuke in miso soup would be a less desirable event.

There was also the relatively recent case of the foreign warehouse owner who was arrested for a major bank robbery. The evidence for his arrest and trial was simply that the real robbers had stashed the cash in his warehouse for later recovery. There was a wealth of evidence to suggest the warehouse owner had absolutely nothing to do with the crime...but of course he is foreign.

On the other hand, I have left my gym card in 2 restaurants and 1 taxi-cab and each time it was returned to me by them, same goes for my MP4 player. Go figure.

[stuhiggers]

OY-VEY!!

[dreamtolive]

you should keep an open mind

[AndyH]

X2. Forget what you've read, and come to Japan with an open mind. You'll probably be surprised.

[silvercat]

Generalising about Japanese people is as silly as generalising about foreigners

[bluefrog]

[geekpie]

I'm considering Japan as well, though I have the opportunity to travel extensively over the last couple of years across Asia. I'll be back in Japan on my fourth visit next month. It's true that you can't generalise- here in England we have the BNP, a political party that if elected would advocate the expulsion of all immigrants from the UK, but I don't think that way, and neither do my friends. It's the same anywhere you go. I would definitely suggest visiting a country before you live there if you can. Think of how your own country is presented on TV shows and then again the differences in reality. There's no harm in expanding your horizons, but if you're just chasing something thats really a fantasy it's going to be a bit of a letdown. Although going as a tourist gives you a feel for the place, I really don't think you'll get an idea of what the people are like. The japanese tend to be a bit shy and reserved, which won't make it easy if a) you don't speak the language and b) if you're only there for a couple of weeks. From my experiences with japanese people outside of japan though I think you will have every chance of meeting some well adjusted, friendly people if you lived there though.

Are people being two faced sometimes when they smile at you over there? Possibly. There's no way the guy at 7-11 can be that happy to sell me a sandwich. But you wouldn't really expect that anyway. Do all Japanese see Gaijin as foriegn devils? Nope, there are a small proportion but you can't assume they represent the whole.

I think it does leave an impression on me though that the J staff at Nova turned up to work for over two months without being paid and without so much as a whisper! That's definitely a cultural difference

[gaijin4life]

[nawlinsgurl]

I agree with everyone else and say come on over.

I came over here planning to stay for a year and leave, but that was three years ago. Rude people can be found everywhere, even in Japan--but most of the people I have met have been pretty nice. If you look really different from the "norm" people might single you out to ask questions and stare,etc. if you are in a rural part of Japan. I once had some girl follow me from the train to touch my hair!!! (This was when I lived in Fuji) But for the most part, most Japanese people will treat you like any other person.

Definitely read "Hitching Rides with Buddha"! I picked it up b/c it was recommended here on a reading thread and couldn't put it down until I finished. It was definitely one the best books I have ever read! I even passed it ago to some Japanese ppl who also enjoyed it.

Come over with an open mind, like everyone said-and you will prolly end up liking it.