“The characteristics of foreigner criminals visiting Japan.” (”来日外国人犯罪の特徴”)
A handbook “sponsored by the Shizuoka-Ken Head Police Station, the Shizuoka-Ken Association for the Prevention of Crime”
Link to Zone81 blog where this masterpiece is printed in its entirety (though without Japanese you won’t get much out of it — the pictures are fun to look at though).
I’ve been looking around a lot for some form of confirmation on this one, but my Japanese sort of fails me. What I did find was almost as bad though. Practically every prefecture in Japan has a [prefecturename].go.jp (government dot japan) page which lists “visiting foreigner criminals/crime in Japan”, divided into racial heritage with cute little diagrams and such.
Before I came to Japan, I knew it would be one of the few places on earth that I could go to and be “mistreated” for being a white male. Not a lot of places where you can get that these days. I knew, and I came here anyway, because I am fascinated by the Japanese language, the people who speak it, their culture, and how they came to be as isolated and “we vs them” as they appear from the outside (and from the inside as well, to a great extent). If I had wanted good treatment and smiley faces and chirpy birds, Japan would not have been on my list of places to go.
Some days pass and all I am greeted with is friendliness, openness, a willingness to accept each other as brothers across the world, and such floweriness. Today, as I came home from my test-ride to my potentially new school (was timing it to see when I had to get up in the morning) an old lady walked across the street as I was buying a coke from a … uh … jidouhanbaiki (the fuck is that in English?). I looked at her and she looked at me for a sec, and then she nodded and smiled and I nodded and smiled back. I realized that the Japanese are big on greetings. Even if you don’t know a person, you might nod to them if you end up inadvertently trampling into their bubble — such as looking at them while they happen to be looking at you. I tend to turn my head away and do my thing in those cases, but I think a Japanese might have nodded or something to acknowledge the other’s presence.
Then other days I am baffled by the blatant racism and ignorance that permeates this place. Such as the above “handbook”. I think part of the problem is that 20% of Japan’s population are all above 65 years of age. Old people tend to forget about equality and understanding cultural differences and such things. Sadly.
Tuesday, 30. September 2008
well people over 65 got BOMBED with the biggest fucking bomb used ever…might have something to do with it. At least for some, but on the otherside it might not.
Tuesday, 30. September 2008
Well, sure, they could be angry about that. But then the back of that coin means China, Korea, etc. will never forgive Japan for the atrocities they made either during that same period.
(Look up comfort women, for one example.)
Sunday, 5. October 2008
Sure, you’ll definitely be discrminate as a foreigner in Japan, but I have to say that for me it’s in most cases positive discrimination. Like when I go to the bakery to get some decent german bread, instead of that snowwhite, sweet substitute for bread that they sell at the supermarkets. Anyway, I’ll usually buy 2 pieces (half loafs or so) of bread and every time she’ll give me 2-3 additional pieces of bread as a bonus. This has been going on every time I buy my bread for more than a year now. That’s what you get for being a mysterious gaijin boy who speak politely to old women, so why don’t you try that the next time? ;-).
Well of course, I’m sure a tourist city as Kyoto is different from Hokkaido though.
Kinda sucks when they don’t let you in at the snack bar’s cause you’re a foreigner though eh?
Saturday, 25. October 2008
I’ve not been exposed to a lot of racism myself, aside from the “he can’t speak Japanese because he’s not Japanese” which is harmless but tiresome. What I’m talking about here is something that you don’t exactly run into on the street, but more of a trend, a tendency that you see in conversations with Japanese people. Everyone around me (Japanese) is convinced that Chinese are more prone to commit crimes than Japanese, for example, and I think there are factors there which are not taken into consideration explicitly due to prejudgemental opinion.
I do think Hokkaido is quite different from Kyoto because of the tourist density, yeah, but I’ve never been denied entry into a snack bar so not sure what you mean there — I have heard of people not being allowed into “Japanese host clubs” but I can more or less see where that could go wrong in so many ways when the regular tourist Joe joins the party. Speaking of speaking politely to old women, I used to talk to this old lady who’d come sit on the bench outside my (previous) school. One day, she came by and gave me some anko-filled buns (they were good!). Being polite and such is not the problem here, though. This goes beyond being polite — it’s the step before you are even able to be polite, most of the times. If given the opportunity to convey your personality, in more or less every single case, I am met with nothing but kindness and helpfulness.