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Japan is one of the most xenophobic countries on the planet. This is just one example.
Despite having population crisis and financial loses, they are still committed to xenophobia. They are master of that.
Probably on my list of reasons why I don’t want to visit Japan
Ive been to Japan a few years ago and they always felt very friendly and welcoming. They’re somewhat shy and awkward, but can’t say I had any negative experience.
If you want to feel bad, go to Italy, especially Rome. Many Italians are super racist, hate tourists and are not afraid to hide it.
You’re going to face it anywhere you go. Don’t let it hold you back. There’s always a slight feeling of unease around those that are different from yourself. But not everyone turns it into a justification to hate. I saw this video 5 years ago about a guy going to Japan trying to track down the location of a meme image from the early internet. They ended up heading off to a smaller town that wasn’t very touristy. Something that could go very badly. As some of the small towns like anywhere else can be very insular. But instead when they got there. Ended up spending the night chatting up an eager bar owner about Kurosawa and star wars.
Literally every country on the planet is xenophobic, people only make a big deal out of it when it’s a western or western-aligned country.
The entire idea of inclusivity, tolerance, and multiculturalism is primarily a western idea sprung from western humanist values and honestly only even taken seriously in secular democracies which tend to be aligned with the west.
And then people act like the west and west-aligned countries are so depraved for not perfectly living up to those values, when hardly any other nation even tries or has any desire to.
It’s honestly kind of amusing once you stop giving a shit.
This is such an ignorant take. Multiculturalism is actually the norm in most of the world throughout history, and the rare instances of isolationism are more often a result of geography than culture. The current xenophobic and nationalist state of the world is an aberration resulting from rampant and ongoing colonialism in the past few centuries. Many nations that exist today encompass regions that were far more multicultural and politically complex prior to their colonization by Europeans.
As for the West, our current secular humanist values are the result of the enlightenment period in which European colonizers appropriated and synthesized the ideas of colonized peoples around the world. The reason we don’t live up to them is because we stubbornly refuse to reckon with our colonialist past and present, such that we just go on living with the contradiction to the detriment of the world and ourselves.
It’s honestly kind of amusing once you stop giving a shit.
Not caring doesn’t make you cool, it just makes you another cynical asshole among many. IMO the world could do with less cynical assholes.
It’s hard not to be cynical in this world.
And you think everyone before western colonization was enlightened and multicultural? Sure their political regions were more complex, but in-groups and out-groups have existed in every region since at least the dawn of civilization, and those in-groups were typically defined by a range of factors including but not limited to culture, language, ancestry (and by extension, ethnicity), and religion.
You must have been sleeping through World History class if you think everything was kumbaya all around the world until the Europeans showed up…
edit to add:
I’m sure we all want the world to be such that everyone can just get along and coexist with each other, but that’s simply not the world we live in. And seeking simple solutions to complex problems is never helpful. Pretending everything would be perfect if it weren’t for those pesky Europeans is reductive. You can scream “blame white people” till you’re blue in the face, but ultimately you’re just playing into the same racialized dichotomy that you feign to be criticizing.
After all, it was always just a sliver of white people even within European societies which were the dominate classes there, who oppressed everyone they could, including the rest of the white people they shared a nationality with. The vast majority have always been disenfranchised, just like everyone else. And everyone else had their aristocracies too. Let’s not pretend that’s an exclusively European thing.
I said that multiculturalism was the norm, not that everyone was holding hands and singing kumbaya. I also am not saying that colonialism is new or unique to Europeans, it just so happens that European nations are the most recent colonial powers and we happen to be living in the historical period immediately following their rise to hegemony. Obviously conflict and colonialism existed prior to European colonization, but it has never before had the global reach and dominance that European nations achieved. The fact remains that prior to colonization by Europeans, many regions around the world were more diverse and politically complex (i.e. multiple cultural, religious, and organizational paradigms existed parallel to and in conversation with one another). Though there was conflict, it was more local and restrained with different groups finding ways to coexist even if the relationship was tenuous. It’s impossible to deny the profound impact of Europe’s global conquest on the political environment in which we all currently live.
Google Lens tells me that the description is accurate. Even though i love japanese culture, they are racist as fuck, so i am not ever surprised.
Guess who’s reading this, lol
Anyway, this is blatantly
racismxenophobia and don’t give me the “yes but what if they don’t have anyone who speaks english or chinese?” That’s fair but in that case you put something that says “sorry we don’t have any english speaking staff” or tell me directly but anyway, it shouldn’t be that hard to order tbh, yeah i can’t talk but we are in 2026 with such translation tools, i can scan, look at what it says and then point at the various menu entries with my finger, to pay i can just look at the numbers lmaoEdit: corrected racism in to xenophobia
Can people really no longer differentiate between xenophobia and racism?
Not being pedantic, but misnaming thins only adds to the woes of the world, to (mis)quote Camus.
It’s both. I knew a guy who was half black, half Japanese but he was born and raised in Japan. Despite being native born and culturally Japanese, he still faced a lot of discrimination because he was black. Among the expats, we were all discriminated against due to being foreigners, but the black people got it the worst. Even among the Japanese people, there is colorism with lighter skin considered more desirable.
I know a handful of white Americans who at a glance you’d never guess they’re highly educated polyglots and would meet the requirements for entering this restaurant. The way the sign is worded, I think you’re right, only fluent Japanese people allowed here because we only speak Japanese here.
I have worked with a Japanese company for almost 2 years and never ever again. The racism, incompetence and ass covering is astounding. The way they treat women is also appalling but no one talks about this.
I’ll never understand why western people love Japan, but vilify China. My experience in working in China is a total opposite of Japan.
One word: “propaganda.”
1.6 billions worth of propaganda
I see my self like both China and Japan ngl.
The amount if racism in Asian countries is very worrying
If you dont have any staff who speak those languages I kinda get not wanting to provide service to people who only speak them, though it would probably be better to just say “no foreign language service available”
They are master of polite racism. They do it because they are xenophobic af.
Is it inconvenient? Yes. Is it really that difficult, especially today with smart phones, to provide basic service at a restaurant? Absolutely not.
I spent my early life in the service industry, and I’ve served people who spoke zero English more times than I can count. Even before translation apps and services were so common, it truly wasn’t difficult enough that I’d feel comfortable as a human denying them service. We all worked together to get through it, and they enjoyed their experience from what I could tell.
I’ve also been on the other end and visited restaurants where our server didn’t speak English. We had a great time every time. It truly isn’t the big deal you’re making it, so it feels like you’re looking for reasons to excuse what we can plainly see is racism.
and yet japan is still viewed as an utopia by reddit weebs, despite japan being really racist
I love their trains, the food is good, it’s a beautiful country.
But also, holy shit, Japan has just never reckoned with its imperial past in the slightest.
If you ever see those tourism promotion photos of mt. Fuji with a pagoda in the foreground, that pagoda was built in the 50s, around the end of the US occupation, to commemorate soldiers who fought in essentially every war that imperial Japan got itself into. It’s very clear political statement.
And I learned this, upon climbing that damn mountain, and reading the plaque in front of the pagoda, only to learn that it was a monument to imperialism the whole time
I went there recently. The organization and efficiency are truly astounding. I felt like the best parts of Japan and the best parts of the US fused together could make a utopia. But it’s never gonna happen because those best parts are direct results of the cultural mindset that leads to each one’s dark ends as well. They’re both sides of their respective coins, unfortunately…
I felt like the best parts of Japan and the best parts of the US fused together could make a utopia
Big Hero 6 moment
Not despite.
My wife is southeast Asian. Going to Japan, I felt a lot of like… weird energy at times where they just kind of looked at me. I never felt unsafe, just judged. I told my wife this, who said she felt the complete opposite. People were normal to her. She blended in.
She was born and raised in the States, and we traveled to a bunch of States (fuck Missouri) where she really felt unsafe like if she didn’t leave town, they would make us. And Ive shared before how we got a “Go back to your own country” from other people, and even one showing off his gun.
Do I feel like Japanese racism is uncalled for? Absolutely. Again, I never felt unsafe. So it’s really interesting to see this perspective in the comments like this is the worst disgusting attitude in the world because someone snubbed them vs feeling like you’re not wanted/you should leave for your own safety.
I lived in Japan for 2 years. I had several expat friends with stories of going to the hospital, being told they were full, their Japanese wife showing up, and suddenly they have space. Other stories of legal disputes between a Japanese person and a foreign immigrant will always go to the Japanese person. Japanese culture is very non-confrontational, but don’t think their brand of racism is safer. If we’re comparing racism and deciding one is less bad than the other, we’ve already partially accepted that it has a place in society.
“No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish”
why no dogs…?
Because normally dogs shouldn’t be in restaurants.
Not race but “I am tired of tourists”-ism
“I’m not racist. I just can’t stand all these fucking foreigners.”
That’s what you sound like.
Have you ever lived anywhere with a lot of tourism? Its not the specific people one dislikes but the atmosphere it creates. That may just be me.
Edit: a prominent example being Venice.
I have, and I can see what you’re saying. But intelligent people who understand how the bills get paid figure out a balance.
Yes, society requires compromises, I agree. The problem here is for me that the tourism side seems to only take (space, capacity, mentally) and leave money with no regard (why would they? They paid for the vacation) to a local community. There are exceptions of course.
As long as you can moderate the influx and the way tourists are able to impact local life then I can see some kind of balance. And yes, as always we need to pay the bills somehow. And that means (sadly in our reality) sucking it up and sacrificing some kind of confort. In general, not just regarding tourism.
- said John in the beach town that survives because of tourism
That’s maybe not japan case but usually that’s the case for most places
Consider the alternatives. Capitalism is lazy. So if there is a living to be made from tourists of course people are using that as a resource. But there might be a lot of different ways to create a working economy there and its bring hindered by the incumbent called tourism.
Like we (the global north) is fucking up the clothing market for the global south by dumping (donating) our old clothing and completely destroying the chance for a working economy in that sector.
Bring on the downvotes.
If the same people that complain about tourists would suggest anything and actually act…
Like, yeah we have alternatives (kind of…many little town have nothing else than tourism) but no one seems to do anything tbh
Its not a binary State. You don’t switch it on and there is a ready made economy. It has to develop. Needs and supplies and developing of capabilities and the expansion of all three above. It takes time. And energy. And most likely a few losses and hardship. None of these steps are bring taken If there is an alternative. Although annoying and probably not sustainable and definitely not self governed.
Its not a binary State. You don’t switch it on and there is a ready made economy
No shit! Where i said that?
I know perfectly this because i lived in some of these turist town and heck, the region i come from survives on tourism probably, and i an telling you, most people that complain will likely do nothing to improve the situation (eg: opening some bussiness that isn’t made around tourism), maybe they will even make the situation worse by arrassing some tourists
So you haven’t grasped the broader point I was trying to make. The established tourism industry literally kills alternatives. Because of the inherent risk involved in trying new things people will almost always gravitate towards thr established.
And I’m certain that every inhabited region on this planet is able to develop a somewhat complex economy on their own and even interconnected with neighboring regions when left alone. Is it going to be silicon valley? No, but that really isn’t what we are talking about here.
Edit: also please don’t make this a personal debate and keep emotions out of it. I didn’t insult you by stating the things in my last response but at worst understood you wrong and at best was just right. This doesn’t nerd to be about winning but could be a conversation and exchange of ideas to gain something from. Even though it has started in a down vote wave in good old reddit style.
Isn’t it xenophobia more than racism?
Japan has a very homogeneous population, so xenophobia and racism are quasi indistinguishable.
Expecting internet people to know this word is too much
Probably not worth visiting them anyways…
Doesn’t say anything about race, just that you need to be able to read Japanese. Isn’t that more like linguism or something?
ableism?
I don’t think not speaking Japanese counts as a disability.
It does in Japan.
deleted by creator
And the literacy tests of the Jim Crowe era were just making sure people could read well enough to vote. It was educationalist, not racist. The purpose of this sign is to exclude non-native Japanese people.
Not sure how accurate it is to call it racism but definitely discrimination… like literally.
Discrimination due to…? You’re almost there!
Edit: this was a mistake
I thought blahaj was supposed to be better than this.
:(
Nope. The language is used as a shibboleth because of racism.
I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t have the energy or care to deeply discuss the nuances of this specific topic. Everybody knows Japan is super messed up and super racist. I’m deleting my above comment because just thinking about discussing Japan’s racism and other really messed up societal issues gives me a headache. And then all of the people here, English as second language or not, who don’t understand nuance, sarcasm, or are looking for a target to be mad at, this specific subject-bundle just isn’t worth it to me - bro that just ain’t me right now, sorry. I’m out. Have fun. 🤝
Not the same person, but ability to speak the language. A lot of the places don’t care what your background is so long as you speak the language. This should not be confused with me agreeing with this policy, which I do not.
I’m curious why speaking the language is so important as to take these kinds of measures.
People have google translate and shit. This won’t stop them
That’s what I was thinking. If I saw a sign like this, with some mysterious text with no translation, I would definitely want to know what it says.
