I just discovered the public comment pages of Tokyo's Minato Ward goverment website, where citizens write letters to the local government, who respond in writing online. There are a few gems in there from the local nut cases, pertaining to us FG and our apparently lousy manners. Here's my amateur translation of one:About Minato Ward resident foreigners
I've seen articles over and over again in Minato Koho [the monthly Minato newsletter] saying 1/10th of people living here are foreigners, and it makes me feel unpleasant. I live in the ward but since there's no supermarket I often travel by bus and train, but foreigners' manners are bad. Since the earthquake, Japanese people take every opportunity to bring back the good old fashioned Japanese spirit. Giving special kind treatment to foreigners is strange, and it's too bad for the young people if things continue this way. "When in Rome, do as the Romans", so if you're in Japan, you should have Japanese manners and good sense. Minato Ward should not take special care of the 10% foreigners, and should treat them the same as Japanese people. Please give direction and management to the foreign people to make them have pleasant manners and consideration.
The above was the only one that didn't specifically complain about black people. Here are a few more I found.. I'll try to translate when I get a moment, if nobody else beats me to it.
About foreigner manners
About foreigner manners
About foreigner manners
(Actually I like the last one the best. It features a black husband and wife couple that did not move out of the way while walking near Roppongi on a narrow one-way street, forcing the Japanese person with his/her shopping bags to nearly bump into a passing car. He/she concludes with "I get in a bad mood every time I go out. Do something about it!")
To their credit, the Minato Ward official response to each of these notes is very polite and talks about the ward's goals of increasing intercultural communication. But basically the implied message to the complainers is "fuck off, we're not going to do anything about it".
P.S. on a different topic, here's a fun one from a fellow FG complaining that Minato Ward has not translated all leaflets into foreign languages and does not provide enough free foreign lawyers: About ward resident services for foreigners
