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thrower123

What racism is there to fight in Japan? Are you sure you aren't just pulling stock arguments out here?

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It's not exactly a secret.

Japan is super racist. They outright will often refuse services to foreigners/non-ethnic Japanese.

Here's a quick few results:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan#Ethnic_...

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2123539/no-c...

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Japan-Update/No-forei...

Not only that, but it’s all more or less entirely legal. There’s very little in the way of civil rights protections like there are in the US, and what does exist is subject to the large, conservative leaning power of the judiciary.

EDITED

Getting downvoted for asking an honest question and trying to understand something..

I wish I could delete my account because I have an impulse control disorder and sometimes I accidentally antagonize the hivemind and then feel bad all day, but I can't, because Hacker News doesn't give me the power to do that, so I keep logging in for some reason. Neat!

Could someone please ban me? Delete my comments? Please?

> Why does Japan stand out? Because they are industrialized?

Sure. They should be compared to countries with similar levels of wealth per capita, since that wealth, in theory, should enable them to rise above what you describe in Nigeria.

But that said, what you quoted the Fulani man saying is frequently expressed in Europe or the Anglosphere today, but with the target being a non-Christian religion.

Right, but why would Japanese children be refusing to go to school because of racism toward non-Japanese?

In the two cases I know, because they are black Japanese (one parent Japanese, one African) and that it just breaks the mind of both students and teachers that you can be Japanese without being 100% ethnic Japanese.

But again, that has to be such a tiny minority that OP's list sounds made up.

I'm OP.

It is a minority. And Japan is very racist towards them. Turns out there are 3 kids in that situation in my family.

We already witnessed three classes having racist bullying and both teachers and school direction refusing to do anything.

I do believe that this mentality of blaming the victims that do not "fit in the mold" is indicative of a very negative culture.

I just don't think Japan is going to change any time soon. They've been very nationalistic for the last 400 years, if not longer, I only have a little knowledge of their more recent past. In this scenario, blaming the victim is being realistic. If you're not Japanese, don't expect to be accepted the way native Japanese are. Even among the pure Japanese they have castes, so foreigners are even lower on the list.

If I came out and said "Blackearl: Your country sucks and you should move out of it", I don't think you'd think it was very helpful advice.

I think coming out to the internet, sharing some personal anecdotes about racism and personal issues, and maybe publishing problems you've experienced personally can help. Not only for teaching others about the issues you yourself face, but also for helping keep ones emotions in check and meditating upon your own issues.

Obviously, this discussion thread exists to criticize Japan and bring forth issues. But in order to be more helpful to everyone involved, its more beneficial to be more specific about what can, and can't, be done to fix certain issues.

With regards to your specific point: giving up because of cultural norms is defeatist and doesn't seem helpful in any case. Now I'm not Japanese, nor have I ever been to that country. But it sounds like Japan is a functioning democracy, so publishing opinions and raising issues is definitely the way to move forward in that kind of political system. The people must be aware of a problem (and agree that it is a problem) before you can ever hope for the politics to change.

Well Japan used to execute any foreigner washing up on its shores, and to consider US its mortal enemy, so there is some proof it can change. Actually Japan society can move incredibly fast, but it does so in hiccups, when its delay is becoming an unbearable embarrassment.

Or if you're "Japanese" but with Korean heritage... I've heard stories of people who had Korean ancestry and they had a deep terror of anyone ever finding out.

They're referred to as Zainichi.

After WW2, there was over 1 million Koreans living in Japan. Some went back, some decided to wait due to the war starting.

Then the country they were going back to no longer existed, so they stayed. Many don't even have citizenship.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/02/news/japanborn-koreans-li...

Many became yakuza because it's one of the few groups they could join. Hisayuki Machii (Jeong Geon-Yeong) was a legendary Korean yakuza leader

Yup I've heard the same, Yakuza leadership (also rank and file) has a lot of Zainichi.

I also remember hearing about how Pachinko parlours are usually owned by Yakuza/Zainichi and they funnel profits into North Korea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin

Or Zainichi Koreans, who are born and raised in Japan (there are a LOT).

oh, I just thought of a good example of Hacker news favorite investor: Masayoshi Son.

Notice his last name is Korean? But he was born and raised in Japan.

And here's what he has to say: https://asia.nikkei.com/NAR/Articles/SoftBank-s-Son-stands-u...

Even in his early childhood, he was attacked verbally and physically by Japanese classmates. In kindergarten, he was jeered at for being Korean. Once, another child cut his head open with a stone.

Sure, they are ferociously xenophobic, but if everybody is Japanese, and they are racist against non-Japanese, then it's not exactly a significant problem for Japanese students.

I'm somewhat reminded of the little podunk Maine town I grew up in; people were racist as all hell, but there was nobody to be racist to, because the entire county was white-trash WASPs and French-Canadians, and those two groups were so mixed together that nobody could sling a slur without hitting themselves with it.

For a random example of racism in Japan's shools that simply don't accept that other ethnicities exist, here's a story about students required to dye their hair black in order to match everyone else - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/japanese-stude... - in this particular situation the student had naturally brown hair, which most likely means a non-Japanese parent, and was bullied by the authorities because of that.

But it is not racism, it would be if they had to change hair color because of their race, but they would all the same require japanese person to dye their hair.

If it is not based on race it is not racism, this case it is based on hair color so its "hair color"-ism I guess.

The mixed Japanese-African girl I know was forced to straighten her hair because her natural hair is "extravagant".

My mother-in-law, who was fully Japanese but had naturally, slightly curly hair, was accused by her school of getting a perm, in violation of school rules, until her parents provided photographs proving it had always been curly.

Anecdotally, I visited a friend in Hokkaido for a couple weeks and during my time there (as a white non-Japanese speaking person) I was kicked out of two restaurants upon entry for not being Japanese. Racism exists everywhere.

Yes, racism exists. That was not GP‘s point though. The point was that enough kids in Japan are victims of racism that it gets listed as one of the top reasons why so many pupils don‘t want to go to school anymore. I also highly doubt that there are so many non-Japanese kids in local japanese schools that this is a major problem.

Well there certainly won't be so many non-ethnic / non-Japanese kids in local Japanese schools with that attitude.

Not an expert in Japan's culture, but from what I read about it, there's some racism towards Japanese with Korean ancestors, and apparently this forces some people to hide their heritage.

There was also an article -- even posted on HN, I think! -- that some family names linked to historically lowbrow jobs (the "untouchable", such as undertakers and butchers) still carry some sort of stigma. Not their current occupations of course, but the stigma historically attached to those families.

Burakumin. The Japanese government has been trying to end discrimination against them since the early Meiji era and yet it still persists to this day nearly 150 years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin

That's the interesting thing. As a white man, I thought "Oh, they are actually kind to foreigners!" and then I helped raise a black kid in Japan.

I remember a guy who helped us install in the village when we moved to the countryside. He had lived in the US for a while and told us "That's nice to have foreigners! I love foreigners! Especially white ones!"

Yeah, as a white guy, you dont get to experience much racism, doesnt mean it is not there.

Well, there's the one when you're not ethnically Japanese, for a start... not sure how common that is, but dealing with racism is certainly a thing when that happens.

Clearly not a problem for the ethnic Japanese refusing to go to school, it seems like it's just been jammed into this ignorant argument from a template.

Goes deeper than just that.

There is being born in the wrong 'caste': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin

Or the many Koreans who are in 'limbo' (zainichi) after WW2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans_in_Japan

"The Ainu have historically suffered from economic and social discrimination throughout Japan that continues to this day. The Japanese Government as well as people since contact with the Ainu, have in large part regarded them as a dirty, backwards and a primitive people."

Reminds you of anything or anyone?

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