Japan Times talks with three high profile gaijin

[Mulboyne]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Things have changed for the better for foreigners since the old days in Japan. Cries of "Expel the barbarians!" are rare now....

Are they?

But as we enter the second decade of the third millennium, sometimes the old adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same" rings true...

Seems to be the case as far as I can tell.

[IkemenTommy]

Cries of "Expel the barbarians!" are rare now.

Have the editors at JT been smoking ass crack again?

[sublight]

Nah, you've got a fraction of a percent of Japanese that want to start shit (and an even smaller fraction that ever log off 2ch to actually do anything IRL), combined with the subset of gaijin who make their livings screaming 'victim' (and writing regular columns for the Japan Times), against the 99% of both groups that are indifferently comfortable with each other.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Nah, you've got a fraction of a percent of Japanese that want to start shit (and an even smaller fraction that ever log off 2ch to actually do anything IRL), combined with the subset of gaijin who make their livings screaming 'victim' (and writing regular columns for the Japan Times), against the 99% of both groups that are indifferently comfortable with each other.

I hope -- and maybe even suspect -- you're right, but talk to your average punter on the streets about China or Korea (especially the North) and see if you still think there's an apathetic amity.

[Taro Toporific]

[kuainiri]

[kuainiri]

The issues that vex long-term foreign residents Pt.2

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101228zg.html

[Coligny]

Somehow I glossed over that anti-alien aspect of "Ee Ja Nai Ka" in my half-assed studies...

Yeah but did'ya keep some ? they might sell for something nowadays...

[Adhesive]

Japan Times: Mind the gap, get over it - Japan hands

Not a bad idea for an article but I could have done with some more comments from the three interviewees.

I'm really not a big critic of Japan when it comes to this type of stuff, but this article does a couple of things that I'm always uncomfortable with when reading arguments of this type, regardless of the country.

The first is pointing to the fact that most Japanese-style discrimination doesn't come from a place of ill-will. While this may be true, I don't think the danger of discrimination necessarily depends on the feelings that originally motivate it. Instead, I think the danger is that it allows for a much greater possibility of future harm against a group of people to go unchecked. While everything is peachy, the outsiders may be a cute anomaly to be tolerated by the in-group, but when shit hits the fan, their outsider status has much graver connotations.

Second, highlighting the positive effects of discrimination that some fortunate types of gaijin experience (i.e., celebrity status, endless tail, low social expectations, etc.), doesn't make up for the experience that an average dark-skinned, non-celebrity, foreigner may have while living in Japan. Of course these high-profile gaijins are going to have an image of Japanese discrimination that is grossly out of step with your average Brazilian immigrant whose job is the first to be cut when times are tough.

I'm fearful of both the 'benign-intent-discrimination' argument, and the 'positive-effect-discrimination' argument, because I think it encourages some of the more influential gaijin to sit complacently, enjoying their position as adorable curiosities, instead of working to change these ingrained perceptions of foreigners that many Japanese hold. However, I do recognize the argument that making a stink over it will only make matters worse (although I tend to disagree).

Finally, a foreigner obtaining popularity, or a high-position in government, means little more than the existence of an African-American millionaire in 1914. It was still a very shitty time and place to be an African-American, regardless of the level and status obtained by a few.