Japan IS a racist society. Blackface comic portrayls can still be found and there are bars that turn away westerners (no foreigners permitted).
Then again, there are other nations that discriminate too (Quebec and France among them).
Never hear the world condemning their "French language first/only" policy. We were denied service (told to leave, in English) at a restaurant in Quebec. "You can't come in here".
The popular myth is that only white Americans discriminate.
I was stationed there for two years and I saw the blackface pictures on products. I thought it was funny. As a black woman, it certainly didn't affect my way of life over there. The Japanese are some of the kindest, most polite people I've ever met. I don't care what they may or may not say behind their back about me (and why spend your life being that paranoid?). Let them have their all-Japanese bars, there are hundreds of other bars where I can find a drink. My cousin taught English there for three years. She loves the place and the people. There's nothing wrong with people congregating with their own kind. Japan's business inner circle is also closed to foreigners. That's just life.
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.