Is Japan a Racist Society?

BBC ^ | 11 July 2005 | Chris Hogg

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem.

Doudou Diene, a UN special rapporteur on racism and xenophobia, was speaking at the end of a nine-day tour of the country.

He said Japan should introduce new legislation to combat discrimination.

Mr Diene travelled to several Japanese cities during his visit, meeting minority groups and touring slums.

He said that although the government helped to organise his visit, he felt many officials failed to recognise the seriousness of the racism and discrimination minorities suffered.

He was also concerned that politicians used racist or nationalist themes, as he put it, to whip up popular emotions. He singled out the treatment of ethnic Koreans and Chinese and indigenous tribes.

Mr Diene says he plans to recommend that Japan enact a law against discrimination, which he said should be drawn up in consultation with minority groups.

He said he would now wait for the Japanese government to respond to his comments before submitting a report to the United Nations.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I think you said it. Good luck to the people launching off on their neverending crusades (just read the Letters to the Editor in the Japan Times for the last 50 years), to change 2000 years and a whole people's cultural and experiential mindset. They would have just as much luck as Japanese playing cultural missionaries themselves landing in the USA and trying to change American people's outlook and cultural traits as well. We'd just give them a Bronx cheer and a middle finger. This battle is not worth my time and massaging the egos of those with chips on their shoulders who cannot for whatever reason adapt to Japan, is not my responsibility. Thanks DT.

[Avenger]

Someone in the UN is trying to score some points with China. Fact is that if you are non-caucasian, especially black, you are not going to be treated very well in most of asia - especially in China and Japan. Whenever a liberal tells me that the U.S. is a racist country I ask them if they have ever lived in an asian country - it is a whole different game over there.

[sushiman]

! First, the old fogeys still run the country. "

Exactly , and they sometimes say the stupidest things , which adds to the western perception that the whole country is racist , when in fact , like I've already said , it exists mostly in the older folks .

" What percentage of the Japanese population are foreigners? "

2% .

" How are Koreans and the Ainu treated? "

It's getting better all the time ...

[kabar]

Very well put. I defer to your firsthand experience and knowledge. I have visited Japan about a dozen times over the last 40 years. It is easy to confuse form for substance.

[sushiman]

" Whenever I passed a group of Japanese schoolchildren (perhaps kindergarten age) in Tokyo when I visited ten years ago, they would yell out "gaijin", almost in unison "

I doubt this would occur now . When I first got here 20 years ago it happened all the time . I have travelled all over Japan since then , and I'd say the last time it happened was a good 15 years ago . In Tokyo you'd never see this happen anymore . I live in the boondocks and it doesn't happen !

[snowsislander]

Why this is getting any play in the news is beyond me. As far as I can tell from looking at this brief biographical sketch, this gentleman specializes in finding racism wherever he goes, not in Japanese studies. I daresay that there are many freepers who have more significant experience with and more informed opinions about Japan than this gentleman does.

My guess is that this is just another ploy in similar vein to Jesse Jackson's shakedown tactics, taken up another level to the U.N., which already receives quite a bit of Japanese largesse.

Here's the biographical sketch I found of M. Diène:

---

Doudou Diène

Born in Senegal in 1941, Doudou Diène was a prizewinner in philosophy of Senegal’s Concours Général, holds a law degree from the University of Caen, a doctorate in public law from the University of Paris and a diploma in political science from the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.

Having joined the UNESCO Secretariat in 1977, in 1980 he was appointed Director of the Liaison Office with the United Nations, Permanent Missions and United Nations departments in New York. Prior to this he had served as deputy representative of Senegal to UNESCO (1972–77) and, in that capacity, as Vice-President and Secretary of the African Group and Group of 77.

Between 1985 and 1987, he held the posts of Deputy Assistant Director-General for External Relations, spokesperson for the Director-General, and acting Director of the Bureau of Public Information. After a period as Project Manager of the ‘Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue’ aimed at revitalizing East-West dialogue, he was appointed Director of the Division of Intercultural Projects in 1993 (currently Division of Intercultural Dialogue). In this capacity, he is also responsible for intercultural dialogue projects concerning geo-cultural areas such as the Slave Route, Routes of Faith, Routes of al-Andalus and Iron Roads in Africa. In 1998 he was placed in charge of activities pertaining to interreligious dialogue.

He has taken part in a number of radio and television programmes: Neuf siècles de guerres saintes (May 1996), UNESCO/ARTE; Sur la piste des caravanes: L’endroit de toutes les rencontres (February 1998) and Sur la route des épices (March 2000), UNESCO/NDR/ARTE; and a programme in the Thalassa series on The Slave Route (FR3, April 1998). He is co-author of Patrimoine culturel et créations contemporaines and of Vol. 35, No. 2 of the Journal of International Affairs on the New World Information Order. He has also published many articles on the issue of intercultural and interreligious dialogue in journals such as Archeologia, Historia, Sciences et Vie, Actualité des Religions, Diogenes, etc. Editorial director of From Chains to Bonds, (UNESCO, 1998), he wrote the preface to Tradition orale et archives de la traite négrière (UNESCO, 2001), as well as the editorial of Newsletter No. 2 of ‘The Slave Route’ (UNESCO, 2001).

---

And here is a blurb from the Japan Times about this visit:

"Doudou Diene, a U.N. expert on racism and discrimination, receives an explanation through an interpreter Tuesday about the situation facing the ethnic Koreans in the Utoro district of Uji, Kyoto Prefecture." [Japan Times, July 6th, 2005]

[dsc]

"Growing up in a 99.9% racially homogeneous society, that's to be expected."

I did, in segregated Oklahoma in the 50s.

"Who cares? Acknowledge it, enjoy it, learn about and from it."

I could go back 20 years, but let's just talk about today so far.

This morning I got on the train at about 1100, freshly showered, and dressed in blue pinstripe suit, clean white shirt, tie, and black oxfords (I'm a party animal). It wasn't crowded, but all the seats were full. I grabbed a strap and got ready to stand for the entire ride. A Japanese woman of about 55 or 60 was so grossed out by the proximity of a yabanjin that she got up out of her seat, walked several yards away, and stood rather than sit near one.

And no, she wasn't just being nice and giving a man her seat.

I took it anyway. Joke'em if they can't take a...

A few stops along, the person next to me got off. The seat remained vacant, even though many people were standing.

One thing I really get a kick out of is watching their reactions. They identify the empty seat as the train pulls up; when the door opens they stampede for it, trampling little old granny ladies in their savage rush for the prize.

Then they see me, sitting there in my suit reading a book, and it's like something out of the old Warner Brothers cartoons. They pull up sharply, digging their heels in, like the stubborn mule in a cartoon. Sometimes they even slide a bit. Then they immediately go into, "Seat? What seat? I don't see a seat. I was just going to walk down here a ways and stand." Kind of like when a cat falls off the TV and projects that, "I meant to do that" attitude.

So much for the train.

Getting off at my stop, I decided to get a couple of chocolate eclairs (a dollar each at the cheapest place I know) on the way to the office. There were two girls behind the counter, neither of whom I'd seen before. One was doing something with a cabinet. The other one looked at me, had a minor stroke, then hurried to the other one and said, "It's a gaijin. You wait on him. You wait on him."

Pretty little thing, too. About 20. Too bad she's a vile racist swine.

And those are just the things I bothered to notice on the way to work this morning. If I had cared to, I could have eavesdropped and paid more attention to the people around me, and come up with several more.

""(for those who don't know, "gaijin" is a word much fouler than the word n*gger)""
"If you want it to mean that to you, it will."

No, the word means what it means in the heart of the user, and if you want to get a bead on that, you have to pay attention. You have to put out some effort.

"You must have had (still having?) a bad experience."

Yeah, that's the most common reaction of people who either have just arrived, or didn't pay attention.

The only sense in which that is correct is that coming to terms with an unpleasant truth over a period of years, and having it confirmed and reconfirmed on a several-times-daily basis is something most people would call a "bad experience."

I can't tell you how many times people returning to the states after two or three years have come up to me and said, "You know, when I heard you talking back when I first got here, I thought you were a crank. But really, you were soft-peddling it."

If a person came here and didn't have a bad experience, he doesn't read Japanese, or speak it very well, or is totally taken in by tatemae (What Westerners refer to as "being two-faced." Here, it's a virtue.)

"have plenty of friends"

Sorry, you don't. Friendship requires that both parties accept the other as equally human, and that is simply beyond the powers of a Japanese.

"and would go back in a heartbeat."

Don't. The danger exists that the truth would jump up and bite you, and you'll be much happier with your illusions.

[dsc]

"From whence comes this murderous rage?"

From a stricly enforced, narrow, and narrow-minded conformism, violations of which are severely punished.

Not just every action, not just every word, but even every possible thought falls into one of two categories: strictly required, or strictly prohibited.

Of course, that's crumbling at an acccelerated pace today, so I expect to see significant changes: all bad.

[dsc]

"Japanese are more racist than the average American"

The Japanese are more racist than the average Nazi.

[dsc]

"This battle is not worth my time and massaging the egos of those with chips on their shoulders who cannot for whatever reason adapt to Japan, is not my responsibility."

Oh, if only I could reach the stirrup of your high horse, what joy just to touch the sole of your boot.

Whenever, since 1945, there has been a conflict between US interests and Japanese interests, the Japanese have whipped us like red-headed step-children, precisely because of attitudes like that.

I was involved closely for five and a half years with a dispute between the US military and the Japanese government, that eventually reached the Prez-PM level, and failing there precipitated the first-ever DOJ lawsuit against a foreign entity in their courts. The primary impediment to our eventual success was not our opponents on the Japanese side, but Americans who simply refused to understand what they were dealing with.

The truth is always worth knowing, and writing it off as a matter of "ego" is useful in no way.

[dsc]

"Exactly , and they sometimes say the stupidest things"

Actually, they sometimes slip up and say in front of foreigners what they always say among themselves.

Because their worldview is so pervasively racist, and because they accept that as right and proper, they sometimes simply fail to understand that something they accept as a universal truth will be offensive to the subhumans. They're really surprised on such occasions, because they intended to hide all that, but just never thought that (whatever they said) was one of the things that needed to be hidden.

[jayhorn]

Japanese don't expect anything of hairy, stinking, disease-ridden, ignorant, stupid sub-humans, so you can get away with anything.

Ouch. Guess not much has changed in 2000 years.

I get my perspective from Korea and China, so it's bound to be a bit biased. But I am continually surprised to find what I figured was hyperbole from them is actually pretty much true. There's plenty of racism to go around in Asia, but it seems it's been almost ingrained in the Japanese DNA.

Seems to me that hate never really enters into the Japanese view of other races. You can't hate an animal for acting like an animal. I don't think they were ever disabused of the notion that they are demi-gods. They have merely been stopped from having head-lobbing contests with Chinese peasants.

This love affair some Americans have with Japan continues to amaze me. To think Japanese have changed from what they were to trustworthy pacifists in one generation ... I think not. We amuse them like a pretty pet, but we'll never stand on the same rung as the Japanese.

[MilspecRob]

My (very Anglo looking English speaking) Sister and I were denied service at a former Soviet Nation block restaurant at the corner of Sunset & La Brea in Hollywood.

I wanted to make a fuss when the help refused to wait on us in a almost empty place when they found out we did not speak the language, but Sis and I had had a nice evening & she said "lets just go across the street" I said "OK Sis, (still just seething myself). I was sort of proud of her Oklahoma upbringing when we were leaving she turned at the door and shouted @uck You!

Ya just had to be there I suppose.

[Billthedrill]

It's a little unsettling when you see what's under the mask, isn't it? I think maybe you've been there too long, my FRiend. Time to come up for air.

I'm not making excuses, but over a long association you will encounter - you have encountered - some remarkably vicious stuff. I certainly did. There is more. There is a deep and powerful undercurrent that makes them Japanese, and the realization I reached in my time there is that there is an equally deep and powerful undercurrent that makes us Americans. And, if you will forgive me for getting all mystical about it, that these two deep undercurrents speak to each other, which accounts for our unique cultural relationship. It wasn't a Chinese or a Dutchman or a German or an Englishman who dragged them into the 19th century, it was an American who said "trade with us or we'll blow you up." Before Perry there was the Shogun and after him, battleships and the Tsushima straits, and all of a sudden Japan awakened to discover that it mattered. It is still trying to cope with that.

Best to you. Gan' batte, kudasai!

[DTogo]

Wow, when I went to work on the trains everyday for almost 10 years nobody paid more or less attention to me than the other several dozen (or hundred) sardines packed into the train. The only time I got attention was with the fam when strangers would look, smile, and often make a kawaii ("how cute") comment about the little ones. (In Singapore they just stared, and that was weird, and rude.)

Any apprehensions I sensed in someone sitting next to me was more likely out of the very common "Dang, I hope this gaijin doesn't ask me a question in Engrish..." fear among Japanese than "Dang, I hate sitting next to hairy barbarians" racism. But maybe it was just my youthful charm and good looks. ;^)

I can't tell you how many times people returning to the states after two or three years have come up to me and said, "You know, when I heard you talking back when I first got here, I thought you were a crank. But really, you were soft-peddling it."

Probably the same number of times my family tells me and their own friends how much fun they had visiting us in Japan on many occassions, and the kindness and hospitality they always received from my so-called "friends" and in-laws.

If a person came here and didn't have a bad experience, he doesn't read Japanese, or speak it very well, or is totally taken in by tatemae (What Westerners refer to as "being two-faced." Here, it's a virtue.)

Without getting into the "How many Kanji do you know?" peeing contest, I do read and speak Japanese quite well, and often, and tatemae was a favorite term my fellow Gaijin and I made fun of in the office all the time.

Sorry, you don't [have plenty of friends]. Friendship requires that both parties accept the other as equally human, and that is simply beyond the powers of a Japanese.

Wow, so that's why all my (and there are many) so-called "friends," neighbors and in-laws treated me so poorly when they kept inviting me to their homes, parties, campings, weddings, etc. And they still ask me when I'm coming back. It's a conspiracy!

But again, I prefer to think it's my youthful charm and good looks. Probably Mrs. DTogo's... ;^)

[sushiman]

" This love affair some Americans have with Japan continues to amaze me. To think Japanese have changed from what they were to trustworthy pacifists in one generation ... I think not."

One generation ? The war ended in 1945 my man .

" We amuse them like a pretty pet, but we'll never stand on the same rung as the Japanese. "

Excluding the upper class old farts who run the place , I would say that the vast majority of Japanese actually have an inferiority complex when it comes to most foreigners . They actually admire , and are in awe of , we Americans . I daresay your perspective via Koreans and Chinese os more than a " bit biased " . I've been here 20 years , and have seen a world of change take place amongst the general populace with regards to foreigners . Racism exists everywhere . There are even streets in my own country I would dare not walk down in the daytime ...

[dsc]

“Wow, when I went to work on the trains everyday for almost 10 years nobody paid more or less attention to me than the other several dozen (or hundred) sardines packed into the train.”

I envy you. It must be a lot easier to live in Japan if you’re totally oblivious to what’s going on around you — as you obviously were.

“But maybe it was just my youthful charm and good looks.”

Perhaps. Or maybe your talent for remaining oblivious.

“Probably the same number”

Probably not. Besides, a person has to be really sharp to pick up on what goes on here in just a short visit, particularly if they don’t speak and read Japanese.

“Without getting into the "How many Kanji do you know?" peeing contest, I do read and speak Japanese quite well”

Apparently that didn’t interfere with your ability to shut out reality.

“It's a conspiracy!”

No, they get bragging rights for having a tame n*gger around. Most people are somewhat favorably disposed to people who reinforce their own illusions about themselves.

[sushiman]

" I recall him telling me once that the Japanese don't like American Blacks."

There are/were discos / clubs in Tokyo that don't/didn't allow white guys in - only Japanese women & black guys ! THAT is racist !

[dsc]

"Time to come up for air."

Yes, I'm going to return home very soon. Just trying to get my ducks in a row.

Sent several e-mails to employment agencies, "I'm moving to XXX and will be seeking employment. May I send you a resume?"

Not a single one of them even replied.

[sushiman]

" The Japanese are more racist than the average Nazi. "

Huh ?