[hennaz]

I do not think Japanese are racist, I just think they are xenophobic. That's different from being racist, because racism is the belief that some races are superior/inferior to others. The Japanese are just not used to or qualified to help foreigners, because they are not so many foreigners in Japan at the moment, and because they are worried that foreigners would speak to them in something not in Japanese, and they won't know how to help them. Also note that very few Japanese can speak English (or any other language besides Japanese).
I personally don't like the word "gaijin" because it literally translates as "outsider", calling a foreign person an ousider to me sounds quite harsh. When I went to Japan last year I used the word "gaijin" to describe myself sometimes, but I still find (and have found) that word politically incorrect. If a Japanese called me a "gaijin", I would be quite offended.