Bro...Edit I think I'm getting way ahead of myself I'm hoping English is like a second language over there but I'm probably wrong
Yes, that is true. Very low unemployment rates are often symptomatic of underemployment.
Well hopefully more Asian countries will be pro immigration I would love be a permanent resident in South Korea
A lot of south east asian countries are every bit as open to immigration as western countries are.Well hopefully more Asian countries will be pro immigration I would love be a permanent resident in South Korea
Racists shitheads are in every country... its just in the US, we elected one as our leader
I don't get how its your business if someone wants to go live in other country regardless of the reason?This. I'd hope people wouldn't abandon ship for other countries with racists and help everyone here(U.S.) combat the shit.
I don't get how its your business if someone wants to go live in other country regardless of the reason?
So, you want to leave one country that has people protesting against immigration for another country that has people protesting over immigration?
Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but doesn't Japan have a bunch of business's that have "no whites allowed" signs up? Correct me if I'm wrong pls.
This always seems to come up, but living in Osaka/Fukuoka for 12 years now I have never been denied service anywhere.
The real issue is housing as a lot of renters will discriminate against foreigners who don't have permanent residency.
It's still pretty easy to find a place to live as a foreigner, but I know people who have been denied housing for that reason.
Taiwan is soooooo much better than Japan.Haha, I've been yelled at by guys on those float-trucks outside Shinjuku station. At first I thought it was funny because it looked like the dude with the megaphone was talking about me. And then I realized he was. And once a Salaryman tried to pee on my at Tokyo station. Anyway, it's good to remember that there are people so racist and nationalistic, that they would rather let their country divebomb into a population-based decline that it may never recover from if change doesn't occur. We've got different population and employment issues - but our agriculture collapses overnight without immigrant (legal and illegal) labor.
Based on the retail sticker shock of Japanese Blu-ray pricing, they probably can't afford to lose a couple of Weeaboos visiting Akihabara.
Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but doesn't Japan have a bunch of business's that have "no whites allowed" signs up? Correct me if I'm wrong pls.
Yeah the experience of minorities in many Western countries is probably a lot worse on the whole, but the government isn't even trying to crack down on it. And it even affects Japanese citizens. I read of one mixed-race family where one child was allowed in the onsen because they looked Japanese enough while their sibling was denied.Yes - some of it is harmless - the business is crazy complex and they can't efficiently handle tourist business or curiosity - some of it is reactionary defensiveness based on real fears - like the pretty unfortunately frequent rapes, assaults and murders that come with a (any) big military base in Okinawa. Some of it is insulting but structured - Onsen bath/spas being the biggest offender in my experience.
I sometimes think about my indignation, which has happened basically three or four times in 40-plus years of being alive, and think about how that feels, every day, every time you read the news, or get pulled over for minor traffic infractions, or go anywhere near Twitter and I just put it away, because what has happened to me in Japan (and China but less so) is just baby-racism.
And some of it is hypernationalist racism (literally) yelled from vans and trucks.
This is one of those public policy questions where the answer is clear, but the process to get there is murky and fraught with risks.
A non-exhaustive list of stuff the government will need to do to ensure policy success:
1) obtain buy-in from relevant industry stakeholders as well as the general public
2) education reform that allows for the language barrier to be crossed - both in terms of educating Japanese people in languages like Korean and English, as well as resources for migrant workers to learn and adopt Japanese
3) Immigration law reform to facilitate longer term migration and permenant settlement
4) Cultural change to broaden the national narrative of what it means to be Japanese
Each thing is already a massive challenge, and to do it all in the timeframes they need sound really terrifying. Not to mention factoring in other issues like wage stagnation. Working in public policy in Japan at the moment sounds like it'd be a wild ride
A lot of south east asian countries are every bit as open to immigration as western countries are.
In other news, about 40% of the Singapore population are foreigners.
(P.S. Am Singaporean)
I live in TN and know minorities and people in the LGBTQ+ community that have not been denied service(includes wedding cakes). It's anecdotal.
Yes, it's anecdotal just like your first comment that it happens at a "bunch of businesses" as if it was a widespread problem.
It really isn't and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably being a professional expat drama queen like that one loser whose name I have purged from my memory.
Japan is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world.
99% of shops/businesses are open to business from foreigners.
Being denied housing is a much more prevalent issue.
Spot on. Every country that goes through waves of migration has this problem but Japan is particularly ill-equipped for it because they've built a society that, while hospitable to visitors to a fault, is also fairly impenetrable to outsiders who want to belong. There's going to be a need for loosening certain definitions of Japanese-ness that are too petty to matter (small cultural norms that the Japanese yet take umbrage if violated).
As I said in that very post. I could be wrong and wanted someone to show me otherwise if I heard wrong, which a poster has.
There have been studies in the last few years, and if I remember right it was something like 0.05% of the surveyed people had ran into a situation
where they were denied service or discriminated against.
So, yeah it exists but it shouldn't really be a worry for someone considering to move here.
Yea I thought it was worse than that. Guess I shouldn't believe everything I read. Thanks for the info.
Not too related to the topic at hand but anybody know why the younger people over there are almost never politically active?
my guess is corporate culture maybe?
But there is probably a large politically active group we just don't hear about it in the west.
aybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but doesn't Japan have a bunch of business's that have "no whites allowed" signs up? Correct me if I'm wrong pls.
You're a riot www笑I'm sure they exist, but I've yet to see one. I've had restaurants tell me in broken English that they have no English menu, to which I ask in Japanese if they have a menu in French instead. They let me in after that
Outside of the hypernationalist bullshit spouted by the racists in the vans, most racism/xenophobia present here is just petty passive aggressive stuff to be honest.
It rarely happens to me, but the most common complaint I hear from other expats is people not sitting next to them on the trains.
I kinda wish that happened to me more often because those seats are already tiny and cramped!
Yes, it's anecdotal just like your first comment that it happens at a "bunch of businesses" as if it was a widespread problem.
It really isn't and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably being a professional expat drama queen like that one loser whose name I have purged from my memory.
Japan is one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world.
99% of shops/businesses are open to business from foreigners.
Being denied housing is a much more prevalent issue.
I missed the part about you living there. Thought you were just sharing stories passed on. Sorry.
Have you personally experience anything? I know you haven't been denied service(thought you were a visitor). Anything like someone not letting you sit beside them on the bus etc.? I've never been to Japan, but most of the things I've read paints the place as very racist which is why I'm not so educated I suppose.
Yeah I've found Japan to be largely friendly and accommodating to tourists. Though in my quest to go off the beaten path I've been denied largely due to not speaking Japanese etc.
But This isn't that unusual, last Paris Games Show I was at, called a restaurant that is definitely a local spot but not unknown to tourists and was denied a reservation "we are full, monster." My hotel called in French and secured one easily. The restaurant wasn't full.
I have heard from expats that it's a tough system to navigate if you live there.
I think had I visited When I was younger I would've been all about trying to live there for a few years at least
I'm legit am going to apply thanks for the link
Edit I think I'm getting way ahead of myself I'm hoping English is like a second language over there but I'm probably wrong
Not me personally, outside of dealing with the racists shouting BS from their vans on occasion.
The worst treatment I had was actually in Okinawa many years ago. We weren't denied service but were basically shoved in a corner
and given an English menu that had almost as many rules written on it as anything else. Stuff like "Don't be an asshole. Don't shout." etc.
They were definitely giving us the cold shoulder.
Eventually we started talking with the waiter in Japanese, explained we were actually teachers in Osaka, and he warmed up to us immediately.
So, that was just a case of them stereotyping us to be US military, and considering the bullshit our servicemen have pulled over the years it is hard to really blame them in that respect.
I do have mixed-race children now, and my biggest worry is less discrimination and more in regards to fetishization as they get older.
It's already very common to hear comments that border on that and my eldest is only 4.
You are getting ahead of yourself. No one knows English in Japan.
OH SHIT, I remember that. That was a great night once they realized we weren't military, though.
Why can't they just start having more kids :(The counter-protesters give me hope that Japan's conservative culture isn't going to last much longer. So despite the circumstances, this news makes me happy in ways that I didn't anticipate.
I imagine that they would if there were better options for having children there. Artificial insemination by strangers is NOT a thing that's encouraged in the slightest and neither is children outside of marriage. The cultural expectation of only children through marriage borders on being more of a demand and orphaned children are basically inherited like property to other family members, with little to no non-familial adoption. So Japanese women have heavy societal pressures put on them for how to achieve motherhood and decided that they'd rather just opt out than take what they consider to be their only other option of marrying someone to have kids, likely a man that they have no genuine affection for. I can't blame them in the slightest for that.
Not me personally, outside of dealing with the racists shouting BS from their vans on occasion.
Yeah, a lot of the barriers that do pop up stem from the language barrier. My first visit here I already had basic conversational Japanese
so I've never really been put in that spot.
I wonder if most of them had planned to attend or one guy just told the Chinese tour buses outside Ginza Six that bigots were talking shit and handed a bunch of signs out.Very impressed that the turnout for the counter protest dwarfed what I had assumed would be Abe's natural base.
And it's always the same group of older, out of work salarymen who dress up like F-list gestapo and pretend to be important. I wanna know who keeps giving them permits to disrupt foot traffic for this crap cause it got on my nerves a few times.I wonder if most of them had planned to attend or one guy just told the Chinese tour buses outside Ginza Six that bigots were talking shit and handed a bunch of signs out.
These protests are always embarrassing as hell though. Seeing people march about shit like useless island disputes with Korea is always smh worthy.
Well hopefully more Asian countries will be pro immigration I would love be a permanent resident in South Korea
I visited for about a month, had some basic Japanese down and didn't experience any racism or anything i'd consider unusual. Hearing that there may be policy changes coming down the line i'm tentatively interested; I work in cyber security and i'd imagine finding a job wouldn't be too difficult; however the language barrier is a rough patch to work through and finding a place to live sounds challenging. Also not very fond of long shifts. I know both of these things are slowly changing.