[Nyororin]

Why is it that Kawaiineko always posts with this condenscending air of "I already know everything and have researched everything, but am just going to ask anyway." If you think you know everything then why ask? Seriously, the attitude really annoys me.

I`ll answer this just to get a lot of the silliness and misperceptions out of it.

Just keep mace/pepper spray on you because I heard us female get raped easier in Japan. I heard usually the cops won't do anything about it.

Actually, no. Rape is very rare. Date rape is the most common type of rape in Japan, and even it is rare. Obviously *females* get raped more easily than males - it`s that way in EVERY country.
You can feel safe walking around dark alleys alone at night. The cops generally won`t touch date rape cases, as there is always a lot of hearsay involved - "She agreed to it?!?" "No, he forced me!" blah blah blah. And no real way to tell which side is telling the truth.

I heard groping is very common and it isn't illegal?

No, it`s very illegal. If you`re accused, you`re pretty much tried and convicted that very day, lose your job, and basically have your life ruined. Women falsely accusing men to get money out of them is actually a pretty big problem. That certainly wouldn`t be the case if it were legal.

From what I HEARD they view females as an inferior gender when compared to males (in other words it's a male dominated society; women are important to them sure, but they have their place). I'm merely asking is this just a stereotype or not?

I covered this quite in depth in another thread - Here is what I said there (Or at least in the most recent incarnation of the same explanation.)
A lot of the "women treated unfairly" stuff is really a myth based on misinterpretation. I`ve covered it a lot in other topics, but basically from a "western" viewpoint, it seems that no one can believe a woman would ever possibly CHOOSE to leave her job and stay at home once she is married/has children. In their eyes, it looks to be "oppression"... Even though the women choose to do so of their own free will. So this big "women are inferior in Japan!" talk spreads. Most women choose to stay home with the kids. Some don`t. Most women are content to take a lower salary because of the lack of strings attached to it - if the company is paying you a lot there is a lot more pressure to continue working... They`ve invested a lot in you. But if it`s lower to begin with (I`m talking like 85% of the average male salary, not like incredibly low), there is very little pressure to keep working once you decide to quit for family reasons. Employers expect it, so everyone parts on good terms. There are companies out there that pay women full salaries - sometimes in the same company there will be two standards - and those are the type of women who generally continue to work. The only reason the lower salary is more common is because the women themselves PREFER it as it takes the pressure off of them in the future.


I`ve never met a man who has actually thought women were inferior. Even the older generations - they are wane to put responsibility on young women who join companies - mainly for the reasons I have quoted myself about. This doesn`t mean they think they are inferior. It means that they know from experience what generally happens. Superior/inferior has virtually nothing to do with it.

My husband is Japanese, quite traditional, from a traditional family, raised in a small village pretty much isolated from city influence.
He doesn`t think I`m inferior, and is in fact quite jealous of the choices available to me. He is expected to work, but I can choose to either stay home, work, continue my education, etc.
Even in the village where he was raised, it`s generally the women who are actually in charge.

However Japanese need to understand that some foreigners are highly capable to do the same jobs that Japanese can do. To just judge gajin and assume they're not capable of doing a job (they don't have the skill or knowledge because they're not Japanese) well that's really not fair and it's not even ethical morally.

What is saying that they don`t? Most of the time foreigners DON`T speak the language well enough to do anything but cause problems in a regular company. The problem isn`t with the race/nationality of the person, it has to do with the simple question of whether they can communicate well enough to understand their job and to work as part of a team - communicating with their superiors and co-workers. I know some non-Japanese who work in Japanese companies quite normally with no problems at all. They speak Japanese fluently. I myself have worked a number of *normal* jobs here in Japan - but am also fluent.
If you can`t speak to your co-workers, you`re going to have trouble. If you can`t read paperwork, or write it, you`re not going to be hired. As most foreigners cannot do this, it is pretty safe for the company to take your race as an outward sign that they need to be careful.

Not racially prejudiced? They have a fear of foreigners which tends to make them bias.

I have yet to meet anyone that acted at all afraid of me here in Japan. However, I did encounter some people who were afraid of my husband based on his race when we visited the US, as well as plenty of people who were afraid of my black friend`s father - in the US.

They view males as the superior gender. Who do you think primarily dominates Japanese society when you look at the genders? Female or male? If you're going to say that they have no prejudice at all in their culture then you're probably wrong.

I guess 10 years of living here means ABSOLUTELY nothing. You haven`t even *been* to Japan, and yet you purport to know EVERYTHING about life here. Guess I should listen to you to find out what it`s *really* like here.

Really - you ask questions, and then get angry at anyone that gives you an answer that is at all different from the one you want/expect based on your out of date research.

Because from what I've heard, throughout history Chinese have frequently invaded Japan and tried to make at as part of their country if you will.

Actually, China has never invaded Japan.

Chinese hate the Japanese because they used many Chinese refugees as comfort women (sex slaves). They promised food to them if they returned the to their place of shelter, although it had been burned down to the ground by Japanese. They basically just gave an empty promise as bait to lure them. They raped Chinese and Koreans until they could get no more pleasure from them sexually then killed them. They essentially treated them like slaves in every meaning of the word; and they did it mostly to Chinese and Korean women they saw them as beautiful and sexually attractive. Most Japanese won't even acknowledge that they did such horrendous things to Chinese and Korean, so I can understand why Japanese have left a bad
taste in the mouths of Koreans and Chinese, why they don't trust them, and why they're a wee bit bitter.

It seems that you want more to insult Japan than to actually learn anything about it. There is so much wrong in the above quote that I don`t even know where to begin. I suggest you actually do some real research on history. You know, the stuff with actual documentation, which isn`t the ranting of some online site. You do realize that they were at war fighting in China and Korea, right? Do you really think that attractiveness had anything to do with ANYTHING?
You do realize that 1) "comfort women" were already employed as prostitutes by people in their own countries. and 2) They were paid and not killed. (Some were even able to save up tons of money) - really, even Korea (which hates Japan) agrees with those points. Japan in general is NOT in denial over most of this, if any.

I`ll bet you also believe that all Japanese schools uses that one textbook that there was an uproar about. (They don`t.)

Do you actually want to live in Japan? Because it really seems like you dislike pretty much everything about Japan - whether it is based in fact or not.