Just when you thought it was safe to go to the bookstore

[Ganma]

I have to disagree with this. There have been plenty of stories about foreigners who have stayed to help out. And Japan has been very thankful for all the foreign aid coming in.

Rarely are NJ residents praised for the good they do for Japan, such as increasing our taxpayer base, contributing to the labor force, even sticking around to raise funds and deliver supplies to the Tohoku disaster bareas. Instead, we get sentiments like "Japan must be rebuilt by us Japanese only" from the Asahi Shimbun (March 20) and Prime Minister Naoto Kan's speeches.

[Taro Toporific]

[Samurai_Jerk]

Pompous asses like photos where they look like pompous asses assumedly.

Showing his true colors now btw, not sure if this article has been linked yet:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110503ad.html

Wow. There are so many things wrong with that editorial. I have officially lost what little bit of respect I had left for Debito. I really hope he stays in Canada forever. He'll probably take up the cause of discrimination against Asian immigrants being Japanese and all.

By the way, I can't believe he's claiming to have just coined the term sheeple. Or that he talks about "herds" of sheeple.

[Yokohammer]

I have to disagree with this. There have been plenty of stories about foreigners who have stayed to help out. And Japan has been very thankful for all the foreign aid coming in.

Quite true. There have even been a few TV programs devoted to covering the foreigners who stayed or deliberately came to help. I personally haven't seen or heard any NJ bashing at all. Admittedly I don't get out much, but that's my experience.

[Yokohammer]

I have officially lost what little bit of respect I had left for Debito.

I see sort of a common thread with guys like Debito and Adelstein. They make a splash with a certain type of story, and then they push a bit too hard trying to repeat their success. The result is that they end up exaggerating and even embellishing to the point of tedium. Instead of moving on, they become obsessed and lose perspective. One-hit wonders of a sort.

Just my opinion, of course.

[Mulboyne]

I don't recognize his description of how foreigners have been represented in the Japanese media since the earthquake. I think he would definitely like gaijin to be explicitly scapegoated because it would validate his world view.

As usual with his stuff, underneath the hysteria and misrepresentations, there is a genuine point to be made about how foreign labour fits in to the economy but I don't think he is capable of articulating it successfully.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I don't recognize his description of how foreigners have been represented in the Japanese media since the earthquake. I think he would definitely like gaijin to be explicitly scapegoated because it would validate his world view.

As usual with his stuff, underneath the hysteria and misrepresentations, there is a genuine point to be made about how foreign labour fits in to the economy but I don't think he is capable of articulating it successfully.

I always though he was a bit of a whiner and prone to exaggeration but I could see his underlying agenda and sympathize with where he was coming from to a certain extent. However, this time he was so off the mark that it actually made me angry.

[legion]

By the way, I can't believe he's claiming to have just coined the term sheeple. Or that he talks about "herds" of sheeple.

Next he will shock us all with a new, as yet unheard theory, 9-11 was an inside job!!!!!

The guy is a dick, his initial little beef over the sento showed he was a dick, his argument was that since he was Japanese he should have been allowed into the sento, so basically he was saying that discrimination against anyone without a Japanese passport was still OK

That article is barely readable, it's a convoluted version of the bitch fight flyjin threads on gaijinpot.

I get a feeling for all his efforts Debito has never really been accepted here, and he resents the fact other gaijin are.

[cstaylor]

One-hit wonders of a sort.

[Mulboyne]

Only today, I was reading a Yomiuri piece (Japanese) about ALT's helping with recovery efforts in Iwaki.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I think it would be deliciously ironic if all the gaijin helping out in disaster-struck areas decided to focus their efforts on helping out onsens...

[Iraira]

I get a feeling for all his efforts Debito has never really been accepted here, and he resents the fact other gaijin are.

Thank you, I think you completely hit the nail on the head. Some people just ooze bitterness and negativity, and others respond to it in ways that just further solidify the twisted belief system of the bitter negative one. Over the years, Debito entered the realm where almost any action can be tweaked into a meaning that further defines his beliefs. He exists there with nothing else to keep him warm.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Thank you, I think you completely hit the nail on the head. Some people just ooze bitterness and negativity, and others respond to it in ways that just further solidify the twisted belief system of the bitter negative one. Over the years, Debito entered the realm where almost any action can be tweaked into a meaning that further defines his beliefs. He exists there with nothing else to keep him warm.

Tsk...don't be such a racist...

[Iraira]

Tsk...don't be such a racist...

I'm just being a good American, since we're the best at creating racist stereotypes for just about any group out there. I'm actually trapped in my place right now, forced by gf to watch the ice skating thing from last weekend...which she made me tape.....anyone else think Canada's Patrick Chan looks like a completely deranged serial killer whacked out on crank?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

anyone else think Canada's Patrick Chan looks like a completely deranged serial killer whacked out on crank?

Don't know him, haven't seen him, but judging by the description it's still preferable to the average male figure skater who seems more suited for saunas, bathhouses and the like. Then again, that's assuming Patrick's "Chan" is a surname and not a diminutive...

[Mulboyne]

[Samurai_Jerk]

From his new blog post:

It seems that Debito is trying to justify what he feels deep down inside is his own abandonment of Japan. There has hardly been a plague of "NJ" being bullied by either their Japanese or foreign colleagues for leaving. Nor has the Japanese media been bashing people for leaving or ignoring gaijin contributions. I'm sure there have been a few editorials that have been critical and some sensationalistic articles in the weekly tabloids but those hardly refelct an overarching trend.

I'm sure my Japanese is not anywhere near as good as Debito's. However, for him to interpret the PM's call for the Japanese to work hard to get themselves out of this mess as racist and exclusionist is either intellectually dishonest or or a level of paranoia that borders on mental illness.

[TennoChinko]

[Catoneinutica]

I sure wouldn't want to be him, ejected from his house, paying child support for two kids he can't see. It's a measure of how dire things must be for him that some kind of Canadian sabbatical would seem like greener pastures.

[TennoChinko]

I sure wouldn't want to be him, ejected from his house, paying child support for two kids that have no interest in seeing him. It's a measure of how dire things must be for him that some kind of Canadian sabbatical would seem like greener pastures.

Fixed it a bit.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

In all my decades living in this cutry, I swear I have never come across a Japanese as racist as Deadbeato.

[sublight]

Dude's such a wound-up ball of anger and insecurity, he's never going feel 'accepted' anywhere he goes, and it will always everyone else's fault.

Looking back through the years, I don't think he's ever really stood up for anyone else; it's always been all about him, regardless of the issue. I'm sure he'll try the same shtick in Canada, but it won't be nearly as easy for him to get a steady audience there ready to listen to his whining on a regular basis.

My predictions:
He either ends up working at a manga shop in Manitoba and falls off the radar completely, or becomes an ultra-right blogger/columnist using his experience in Japan as proof that white culture is under attack from racist Asians.

[TennoChinko]

Should add: "or, gets charged and convicted of sexual harassment and assault after he discovers too late that the clumsy awkward sexual propositions he makes on his female students is harshly rejected in politically-correct Canuckistan -- where Charisma Men are surrounded all-around by huge chunks of Kryptonite".

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I must admit to having one thing in common with Deadbeato...an overwhelming urge to sue the arse off an Otaru onsen working his arse off to try and make a living.
Deadbeato reckons the bloke was racist.
I want to sue the bloke for giving Deadbeato a soapbox to stand a squeal racism for more than a decade now.
Fuck off to Canada with your persecuted American complex and stay there.

[legion]

Damn you guys are harsh

Has anyone here actually met him in person?

[Catoneinutica]

Damn you guys are harsh

No shit. Is there a wikileaks document dump or something where I can find lurid details about Debito's Klan membership and his sensual fondling of the buttocks of his female (and male, too?) students?

[IparryU]

No shit. Is there a wikileaks document dump or something where I can find lurid details about Debito's Klan membership and his sensual fondling of the buttocks of his female (and male, too?) students?

never heard of that one... will google that up now.

[Greji]

Damn you guys are harsh

Has anyone here actually met him in person?

Yup, on several occasions and he will even shout. Also, he is not quite the extremist that some would have him.

[Mulboyne]

In one of his comments to a recent post, Debito calls for a tourist boycott of Japan.

Tourists should stay away also because of the constant public disservices of the GOJ. Call it a form of economic sanctions, if you will.

[sublight]

Convenient timing. Is he taking credit for this month's drop in visitors?