After reading this post and this short article I knew I had to comment. I empathize greatly with the soapbox update. I made a comment on the post, but I feel this is a very important matter. I have felt completely alien in this country on the border of unwelcome. I have had to jump through many hoops just to be able to stay here for only a couple months. Imagine the foreigners who live here permantly, this is just one more hoop that they are forced to jump. It seems extremely unfair. Can Japanese people do no wrong? Why aren't they considered able to be terrorists? It is unfair that native Japanese do not have to such lengths as permanent foreigner residents And since foreign residents are not allowed to vote, how can they hope to get their rights back? How can they voice their opinion? It also seems like saying that this law passed is to prevent terrorism is just an excuse to discourage and further alienate foreigners coming to this country. Is this law just an embodiment of Japan's historical mistrust of foreingers?
This article just cemented my feeling of alieness. It seems that places go out of their way to alienate foreigners. Everywhere I go there is english signs, english menus, and people talk to me in english. Why do they always assume I do not know any Japanese nor couldn't possible understand such a complicated language? I came to this country to learn the language, how can I learn if I am given "special treatment?" I also feel like eyes are on me all the time as if a foreigner is a rare site and something incredible to behold. This might have been true in the past, but in this gloabalized world now, you see foreigners on tv, sightseeing around Osaka, or living in Japan. I just want to be treated like any other Japanese.
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2 comments:
But you are not Japanese, so you can never be treated as such. Living here for a while, one learns to understand and even cope with it. One develops strategies to deal with it. One even realizes that Japanese people do not do such seemingly discriminatory practices out of a sense of malice. Often-times the Japanese want to be good hosts, thus they attempt to speak the language of their guests. The problem arises, however, when 1) guests turn into long term residents and 2) such discrimination becomes institutionalized by the government. Is the Japanese government making rules in response to terrorism? Are they doing it because America "tells" them to do it? Are they doing it out of a sense of nihonjinron?
The previous comment missed the point of your message completely. The problem in Japan is that the Japanese refuse to treat foreigners as similar beings *despite* their nationality or appearance. The premise that you cannot become Japanese is also false--foreigners can become Japanese citizens. What the poster wanted to say is, you cannot change the color of your skin.
Other problems with the previous poster's message.
(1) Living here for a while, people learn to understand it and deal with it.
Yes, some people learn to cope with it, but most people despise the way Japanese treat foreigners.
(2) Japanese do not discriminate out of malice.
This doesn't matter. Discrimination is discrimination. The problem in Japan is that discrimination has become so common place that everyone thinks it is fine. Whites felt this way in the U.S. in the 19th century. No whites thought that it was odd or wrong to discriminate against blacks and few did so with "malice." We all, of course, understand what was really going on, though.
(3) The problem arises when guests turn into long-term residents and discrimination is institutionalized by the government.
Wrong and wrong. The problem arises long before then, for the reasons I have just put forth. Also, institutionalization of discrimination is simply one obvious form of discrimination, but it is hardly the most malicious form. The much more pervasive and harmful form is social discrimination, which is not codified but immensely more damaging.
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