Gaijin vs. Gaijin
The battle for foreign expat supremacy
There’s a Little Britain character whose catchphrase is: “I’m the only gay in the village.” In the same way, every gaikokujin would like to say “I’m the only foreigner in Tokyo.”
This might sound reasonable since foreigners who move to Japan are probably not necessarily doing it to be surrounded by their peers, but this feeling can go to ridiculous extremes. At times I’ve been with a group of foreigners outside a bar, only for someone to say, “Better not go in that one—it’s filled with expats.”
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You only have to surf internet forums to see the extreme level to which this self-righteous “I’m a real Japan resident” attitude goes. Some poor guy asks about an English-teaching job and is treated as a loser who can’t make it in his home country. But these posts are projections of the commenters’ insecurity rather than attempts at genuine advice.
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It’s easier to feel superior by looking down on others than it is to admit that your career is going nowhere, or that a large part of the society you live in won’t ever truly accept you. It’s hard for a “dinosaur” to recognize that from the moment of setting foot on Japanese soil the newbie isn’t so far away from him or her, in terms of social status.
...battle continues...
