Japanese Racism
Europeans were first refereed to as batakusai (literally "stinking of butter") because the Japanese, like the Chinese, didn't eat milk products and they regarded cheese and butter that Europeans ate as smelly.
Foreigners generally say they are treated well but some complain about people staring at them and children giggling when they walk by. One Japanese-speaking American writer told the New York Times, "Giggly school girls on the subway will and talk about me, thinking I don't speak Japanese, about how pink I am, how hairy."
There are also stories of Japanese getting out of public baths when a non-Japanese enters, standing up or moving away when a foreigner sits down next to them on the subway, and ignoring foreigners who ask them questions in English.”
One foreigner working in Japan wrote in the Daily Yomiuru, “In Japan, I have been banned from dinning establishment, denied service like taxis, snubbed and even physically accosted by strangers. I hear people whispering about me in every city I visit. The public seems to believe that all gaijin are ignorant of Japanese customs and language; that we are all rude and that we are all guilty of some crime we will inevitably commit.”
Globalization and job losses due cheap imports have fueled anti-foreigner feelings. Some places have "Japanese Only" signs. Outside a pachinko parlor in Sapporo there was a sign that read: “Japanese only. Caution: Entering in the foreigner will be held back.” A sign in Aomori Prefecture has a picture of a chubby Statue of Liberty urging citizens to “report suspicious foreigners.”
Jorge Bustamante, a United Nations labor rights expert, told Kyodo News, “racism and discrimination based on nationality are still too common in Japan, including in the work place, in schools, in health care establishments and housing...Japan should adopt specific legislation on the prevention and elimination of racial discrimination” as current laws are not effective in doing so.
Racist Comments by Japanese Politicians
Yasuhiro Nakasone, the conservative prime minister of Japan in the 1980s, angered minorities in Japan by referring to Japan as a “homogeneous nation” with “one ethnicity, one state and one language." He angered American and American minorities when said that the "intellectual level" of Americans was below that of Japanese because of "people like blacks, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans."
Tokyo mayor-governor Shintaro Ishihara used the word sangokujin, a derogatory term that means people from third countries, to refer to the immigrants. The term was used after World War II to tell Koreans and Chinese to leave Japan. He has also blamed Iranians in Japan for dealing drugs and Chinese immigrants for playing a major role in Japan's rising crime rate and warned of “genetic pollution” from China if too many Chinese immigrants were let in. These and other remarks won Ishihara the title of the Le Pen of Japan.
Ishihara also said, "Third-country nations and foreigners who have entered Japan illegally have perpetuated heinous crimes. In the event of a major earthquake, riots could break out, and there is a limit to the police's ability to cope with such a situation alone." He later apologized for this remark which was particularly insensitive in the light that as many as 7,000 Koreans were lynched after they were blamed for looting and setting fires and even causing the Great Tokyo Earthquake in 1923.
Japanese Discrimination Against Foreigners
Many foreigners have complained of being denied admission in minshukos and ryokans. A survey in 2008 found that 38 percent of inns didn’t have any foreign guests and 70 percent of the owners of these facilities said that they were unwilling to accept foreign guests.
In a survey with real estate companies 70 percent of respondents said apartment owners were reluctant to accept foreign tenants. About 46 percent said they were concerned about foreigners causing problems while 40 percent to 50 percent were concerned about foreigners obtaining suitable guarantors and if the foreigners could understand the rental rules in Japan.
In a 1996 survey of foreign residents, 36.5 percent of the respondents said they had been refused accommodation on the basis of their nationality. About 40 percent of the Korean and Chinese citizens said they had been refused accommodation while 35 percent of the Latin Americans and 29 percent of the North Americans and Europeans said they had.
There are no laws in Japan to prevent against discrimination against foreign tenants. But when Japan ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination it effectively indicated it would create such laws,
Japanese Racism Towards Blacks
"The Japanese," wrote Karen De Witt in the New York Times, "do have stereotypical images of black Americans, gleaned from American television and press accounts. Some of the assume that blacks are either entertainment or sports figures or slow, lazy, strong and destructive." Some housing contract in Japan have clauses that state "no blacks and no animals."
A black American film maker told the New York Times that the Japanese form of racism is generally non threatening. "The Japanese may be phobic and insular," he said, "but they are not going to bother you. There's no physical threat there. As a black male in America, you always have to consider, if I go there, how will I be received. Is it safe?"
Japanese television shows feature “Rast Man,” “Soul Man and “Afro Man” doing blackface skits and Tinga Beauty in a gorilla make-up and a golden earing. A commercial for facial wipes shown in the mid 2000s showed a group of rastafarians inexplicably hanging out with a chimpanzee.
Several prominent Japanese have made offensive remarks about blacks, including former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. One Japanese government official compared prostitutes in Tokyo to blacks who move into white neighborhoods and "ruin the atmosphere."
Young Japanese admire blacks and hip hop culture. Some perm their hair and get sun tans so they look black. Explaining why she had corn rows made from her mid-back length hair, one Japanese teenager told the New York Times, “Japanese copy black fashion out of adoration. I was into hip-hop dancing in high school. And I watch videos with rappers and R&B singers. They are proud of their culture, and they’ve got firm opinions. Many Japanese can’t say what they think. I want soft dreadx next, because my friend wore them and they looked cute.”
Japanese Racism and Crime
There is strong tendency to blame crime and social problems on foreigners. Even when Japanese are the perpetrators foreign influences are regarded as the root of the problem. One Japanese sociologist told the Los Angeles Times, “The crime rate among foreigners living in Japan is actually lower than among Japanese...But many Japanese still have a biased image.”
The media has frequent reports about crimes committed by foreigners. A televison survey in 2003, found that 40 percent of the Japanese population did not want foreigners to come to Japan because they are fearful there would be an increase in crime. More than half the crimes committed by foreigners are victimless crimes, mostly overstaying their visas. Most of the crimes that do involve victims are thefts.
Court Cases Involving Japanese Discrimination
In 1999, a Brazilian journalist was awarded damages after being refused service at a jewelry shop in Shizuoka Prefecture.
In 2000, public baths in the town of Otaru on Hokkaido displayed a a "Japanese Only" sign to keep Russian sailors from entering. The Russians had been accused of bringing in alcohol, making a lot of noise and not following Japanese bath etiquette. After the press drew attention to the issue, the bathhouses took down the signs and let foreigners in on the condition they followed the bathhouse rules. In November 2002, the bathhouse was forced to pay $30,000 in damages to the two foreigner refuged entry.
In January 2005, Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that public employers can refuse to give senior posts to ethnic minorities, even second-generation South Koreans living in Japan, on the basis that foreigners do not have the right to hold position of authority over ethnic Japanese. The case was brought by a second-generation South Korean who felt she was unfairly denied a promotion.
