"racism" vs. racism

By Matthew Ward | Thursday, Feb 26, 2009

I have a lot of friends in Japan who are like me:  predominately white native English speakers from Western countries.  I've also had friends who are part of much larger ethnic minority groups in Japan:  ethnic Koreans, Chinese, Okinawan, Brazilian, Peruvian, etc. 

Both groups are prone to complain about racism here in Japan.  However, what really strikes me is the different issues they complain about. 

Examples from English speaking Westerners:  "People stare at me on the train."  "No-one sits next to me on the bus."  "People try to speak English from me and get free lessons."  "I was walking down the street and they were passing out free tissues, but they didn't give me any!"  "I tried to go to a "soaplands" massage parlor, but they said "no foreigners!" (I really wish I could say that I was making up the last two comments, but I have actually heard them!)

Examples from larger minority groups in Japan: 

1).  (from an ethnic Korean man who is a naturalized Japanese citizen with a Japanese name and was born and raised in Japan):  After my girlfriend and I announced we were getting married to her parents, her fatherasked where I was from.  After I had left, he said "He's from KOREATOWN!"  Then, he secretly hired a private detective to find out whether I was Korean or not, and when he found out that I was, her parents forbade us to get married and threatened to disown her if we did.  When we got married, they refused to speak to us until we had kids, then they relented.  I guess it's hard to hate your own grandkids!"

2).  (from a young Japanese woman whose mother happens to come from Taiwan:  the mother is now a Japanese citizen).  My mother asked for directions at the koban, and the policeman noticed that she had a foreign accent.  He demanded to see her passport or gaijin card, and when she told him that she had neither because she was a Japanese citizen, he detained her.  She told him that if he'd just come along to her home, she'd be able to show him her Japanese passport, but he refused.  Because my father and I were both at work, we didn't answer our cellphones, and so my mother was detained for most of the day until I finally was able to go home, get her passport, and go pick her up.  It's a human rights violation!" 

To be fair, Western people are often subjected to one kind of much more significant kind of racism:  housing discrimination.  It's happened to me.  However, it's the only concrete way that I have been discriminated against in Japan.  That is far more than members of most minority groups in Japan can say. 

I've also known a few people who have been stopped while riding bicycles, asked to show a gaijin card, and hassled if they didn't have it, but nothing like being detained indefinitely until a family member showed up with a passport.  I've heard accounts of more serious discrimination by non-white Westerners, although I've also heard non-white Westerners say things like "Well, people are racist here, but it's still better than Texas!"  (nothing against Texas here, but that is a comment I've actually heard)

I hate to say it, but I really think that most of the "racism" that white Western people complain in Japan about is just culture shock at suddenly being a minority for the first time in their lives.  In my experience, most Americans, Brits, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, Irish, etc. in Japan are fairly tolerant and progressive people, but they've never really experienced being a minority.  It's a big shock to come to a powerful, first world country where they are minorities, and the result is often a kind of paranoid oversensitivity.   

The ironic thing is, from my perspective, is that we are often treated rather well, for no apparent reason except for the fact that we our language, home countries and skin color are well-regarded in Japan.  I hate to repeat an obvious cliché, but it's a stereotype because it's so often true:  the young Western guy who comes to Japan and within weeks finds a pretty girlfriend and is making more money than he ever made back home.  We're not exactly talking about apartheid here!   

What's even more interesting is how people who formerly were pretty willing to acknowledge the fact that there is still plenty of racism back in their home societies suddenly start idealizing the racial situation back home.  Now, granted, most of us come from far more racially diverse countries than Japan, and our countries may well do a far better job of dealing with that diversity than we are generally given credit for. A Japanese Obama (say, a Japanese of Korean ancestry becoming prime minister) seems quite a distant prospect at this point. 

But, still, the kinds of racism that Japanese minorities have to deal with happen quite often back home.  I know this from experience, having a lot of Hispanic friends and relatives through marriage.  Especially the story about the Taiwanese-Japanese woman getting detained for having a foreign accent:  that kind of stuff has happened to quite a few people I know back in the US.  For example, I had a Mexican-American friend who spent a night in jail in a small Oregon town--he didn't even have a Spanish accent, but he "looked Mexican" and didn't have any ID on him, so he was detained and wasn't let go until the next day when the local judge noticed that he was obviously a native speaker of English and thus not likely to be an illegal immigrant. 

Suffice to say, Japan has a lot of issues to deal with, but it's not it's not all roses back home, either! 

Matthew Ward's Profile

Late 30's, have lived in Asia for a lot of my life.

Interests: Music, politics, linguistics, learning languages, culture, food, traveling.

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