Job Discussion Forums

[Warrior10]

Hello,

I'll be heading to Japan within the next 3 months and while I realize the amount of foreigners is increasing, it still is very much a homogenous place, even in the big cities like Osaka or Tokyo.

I'm of Indian descent, however I am Canadian. In Canada the society is quite diverse so no one really looks at you more than once.

How will it be for me, any insights? Good or bad, whatever - culture shock is a good thing. Will I inspire any stares/curious looks/contemptuous looks in Japan? My gf is Chinese but she may visit me later on. Are they much Indian people in japan? How about Korea?

Thanks in advance. Cheerio.

[canuck]

Don't worry about it.

[seastarr]

You will get some looks I'm sure. I am caucasian and I got quite a few looks. I don't know that you will get anymore looks than anyone else that isn't Japanese. Most of the time, I didn't mind the looks, they usually came from kids. Adults are not so obvious about it, you might get a glance here and there. The only thing that ever really bothered me was when older ladies wouldnt sit beside me on the train and then give me the evil eye because I was sitting beside the only empty seat. I lived in a mid-sized city. The other teachers that I knew were mostly a caucasian mix of some sort. There were a couple of teachers who's ethnic makeup was Asian. In a few cases Japanese staff was not so nice to them, especially one girl I worked with who was half Japanese. I think it had to do with her being mixed maybe. Being Canadian, this suprised me because we are quite diverse here and I rarely notice anyones ethnic background. While I was in Japan, I noticed more because there were so many less people. I may have this stat wrong, but I think Japan is 99% Japanese. I would make sure you go in with the idea that it is an experience. If you got offended everytime someone whispered or looked at you, it would make for a very long stay. Usually people were just curious I think. Usually saying you are Canadian is enough of an answer for most. I had a few students ask me about my makeup because I am half Jewish and quite dark, with blue eyes, but it was always just because they were curious, not because they wanted to judge me for it.

[Apsara]

With the influx of a lot of people working in IT there are a lot of Indian people or people of South Asian descent in Tokyo these days- I have a Pakistani-Canadian friend who lives here and she has never mentioned being stared at more than any of us get stared at, which is less and less these days. You might be surprised by the number of visibly non-Japanese people in Tokyo nowadays- it is increasing all the time.

11 years ago when I first arrived here I often saw kids pointing me out to their parents (I'm Caucasian), but even the little kids hardly give me a second glance these days. In a small village somewhere like Tohoku it is definitely a different story.

[Venti]

[japan_01]

Japanese people RARELY if not NEVER speak what they are thinking. If you don't analyse too intensely you will be fine.

[TK4Lakers]

If you go out to Tokyo, you should be fine. There are foreigners and English and English speakers all over the place.

However, if you go out to the inaka (countryside) where generations of families have lived there for decades and decades...you might get stares, and a lot of them. It's annoying at first, but then you get use to it.

You might get stares in Tokyo...but don't worry about it. They might just be admiring how cool and good looking you are.

[gaijinalways]

Check out debito's site (David Arwinkle) and that will give you some idea of what doesn't happen .

[Deicide]

[fion]

I dont want to be negative, but am going to pass on a comment made by the guy in the pakistani supermarket where I buy basic necessities when I have time. He reckons business is very bad because some of his customers are being stopped by the police maybe three times between the station and the shop. So the customers give up on this nonsense and stop coming to the shop. These customers are, mainly, highly qualified computer guys from Madras, but the Japanese police, not knowing the difference, assume that the customers are Osama bin Laden and give them are hard time.

This, remember, is hearsay. It doesn't happen to me, because even a Japanese police officer would have a hard time mistaking me for Osama bin Laden, but it's possible that it happens to south asian people more often than it should.

Japan, with its low birthrate, needs qualified foreigners. But maybe some of the local police boxes have not really got the message yet.

[Warrior10]

Thanks for the responses, folks. More and more I understand that you just have to wait and see and whatever happens, it's what you make of it. Standing out can be cool, just depends on how you look at it.