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[taikibansei]

Debito provides a 'how-to' guide for dealing with discriminatory businesses in Japan.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20041130zg.htm

An excerpt:

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"I don't like black people! Shoo!"

This is what Steve McGowan, an African-American resident of Kansai
for nearly a decade, alleges was said to him last October at a nearby
eyeglass shop.

A past customer (he had accompanied his Japanese wife purchasing her
glasses there), McGowan had been impressed enough to bring along a
South African friend as a potential customer.

This time the owner, seeing two black people outside
window-shopping, met them at the door to bar their entrance. "Move to
the other side of the street! Don't touch my store window!" McGowan
says he was told.

McGowan has since filed a damages suit with Osaka District Court.

In a land of proliferating "Japanese Only" signs
(http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html), with businesses excluding
"foreigners" first and answering questions later, this sort of thing
could happen to you.....

[Akula the shark]

I read the article in question. When I was faced with not being allowed into a bar due to being non-Japanese, I threatened to sue them. They soon backed down. When these racists realise that there may be some consequences to their actions, they may start to think before they act in this way.
The Japanese government though is equally bad for not making laws against this kind of nonsense.