Recently, the rising unnecessary racism against foreigners on forums and Twitter seems to have reached Osaka too. Before, I only read about it online. I saw that, because of online hate, some people in Kawaguchi were secretly taking photos of Kurds on the street and even inside their homes. But in Japan, for some reason, hidden xenophobia is increasing.
Today, I went to see a house in Higashiosaka with my wife and little daughter. After checking the house, I noticed that the neighbors were secretly watching us. When we left, they tried to secretly take photos of us. If I was alone (or 4+ men), maybe I would think they mistook me for a thief. But going there with my 9-month-old baby and being recorded just because I am a foreigner made me sad. I wanted to call the police, but my wife said it was unnecessary to make the situation bigger.
What can we do when we face racism or a similar situation in Japan? What is the best way to respond to racists? What happens if we call the police?
by nitengotenichi
9 comments
The other day I have been insulted (“fuck, shit, fuck!!”) by an old dude in the castle park while walking with my wife (Japanese). First time in 11 years lol.
I didn’t react. I would personally not complain to anyone about racism. Massive tourism and immigration are new things in Japan, and since I have decided to move here (yeah, no one forced me, I decided “I want to go and live in Japan”), I am no one to tell locals how to feel about it. I see myself as a guest here.
The only thing I can do is speak the language, integrate, respect the country and its culture, and ignore when someone hates me.
The vast majority of people here have always been lovely with me.
This racism, is it in the room right now?
I haven’t run into this yet but this sounds horrible. To make matters worse Japan keeps placating trump and the American fascist government. Unfortunately, these issues might continue to increase.
Japan has a Twitter problem.
Japan has an over tourism problem.
Japan has a difficult economy problem.
Japan has what many people consider an ineffectual government problem.
People are lonely, getting poorer and losing hope.
Foreigners look different and are easy targets especially since tv said things like foreigners are taking your rice, your onsen water (yes… Unbelievable), your insurance and jobs. All ridiculous but this is what many people hear and nothing opposes it so that’s what they believe.
Japan has treated me well for 25 years and I hope it continues to do so but I have been noticing some worrying things lately. I’m seeing lots more Japanese flags out and about as well.
America will totally politically and economically crap the bed very soon. the world will look past it, as it should. English is already a struggling industry. People still like Disney and things but compared to 25 years ago when everyone watched full house and Ally my love and er… I don’t know anyone who even cares about American pop culture and fashion right now.. I don’t and neither does anyone around me. America specifically and the west in general are not as influential here now as in the past.
It will be harder for English teachers to find jobs and Japan will go back to being more isolated than it had been… A perfect recipe for nationalism.
It’s worrying for sure as I have made Japan my home.
The nuisance tick tockers and YouTubes that come here just make everything worse for all of us.
This sounds so made up š why do I just read stuff like this on Reddit?Ā
Is it possible they are doing that to any potential new neighbor?
Iam sorry that you felt that way.
Maybe you interpret it worse than the idea behind it was.
Sleep a night over it and look forward to tomorrow again.
The Kurds issue is unfortunately very real. They essentially took over a city in Saitama (Kawaguchi) by coming in from Turkey in mass numbers, claiming that the Turkish government ‘oppresses’ them (definitely an overstatement, and certainly not enough for a refugee claim, hell the Turkish government is oppressing the Turkish people themselves at this moment, and yet they’re not fleeing but rather protesting) – but of course Japan did not know this, so the Kurds came in from Turkey (Japan has a visa-free policy for Turkey), once they landed in Japan they claimed asylum as refugees as if they were fleeing a warzone, and Japan believed them as they didn’t know a thing about the situation in Turkey.
Things have changed now. With Ishii Takaaki’s popularity skyrocketing, the Japanese people have become largely aware of this massive ‘fraud’ the Kurds have made in falsely applying for refugee status. So understandably they are public enemy #1 in the eyes of the Japanese who feel that they’ve essentially ‘lost’ a city to the Kurds. Trash everywhere, not adhering to social etiquette, noise-making, and most importantly the crime rate skyrocketing in Kawaguchi demonstrates this very viscerally. Due to this, and the massive overtourism, the Japanese have started being more apprehensive towards not only Kurds but all foreigners. And we must respect that. We are guests in their homeland, nothing more.
I did notice that despite the whole āitās rude to take pictures of peopleā mentality, it seems to only extend to Japanese. New food hall opened in Umeda and in the reviews some Japanese person has straight up taken a picture of a foreigner and put it in their google review because the foreigner brought a bottle of water into the new food hall and this isnāt allowed. Like sure complain about it but donāt attach an uncensored picture of someone to your google review.
The best way to respond ?
Maybe not give Japanese people reasons to hate/be scared of foreigners and actively stop other foreigners to give Japanese people reasons to hate/be scared of foreigners.
We all need to live together and respect each others, and for this, understanding each others (as populations as well) is important.