[Nyororin]

I`ve lived here 11 years now (finally passed that 10 mark, woohoo!!) and honestly have yet to experience any real racism. Curiosity, ignorance, stereotypes, assumptions, etc - yes - but never any intended negativity and always with the ability to educate and inform. And pretty much universal appreciation of giving them better and more accurate information.

Of course, there are tons of people out there who look for racism and discrimination in Japan... inevitably ending up with more than enough minor things that could be interpreted as racism that they start to see it everywhere.
This is something I find particularly true of people who have a poor grasp of the language. A poor grasp of the language usually indicates a poor grasp of the culture - and a poor grasp of the culture is a slippery slope of misinterpretation.

This is important because there is a difference between what people would consider racism in Japan and outside it. Things that are viewed as completely normal and harmless aren`t necessarily so outside of Japan.

The racism in regard to other Asians seems to be a pretty mutual thing. They tend to harbor very negative opinions of Japanese, so Japanese tend to expect to be thought of negatively and respond negatively in backlash. And... It goes the other way. Other Asians often expect to be treated negatively so it comes full circle.
I hate to say it, but in my own personal experience I have seen a LOT of racism baiting coming from South Koreans in particular. As in, they`ll do something that would get a negative response even if they were Japanese... And then jump to "Racism! Discrimination! I knew it!" and call for backup from the various support groups for South Koreans in Japan... And end up getting something in return for it in the end - like money, free housing, etc etc. People tend to be on guard because of it. Somewhere around here I even have a pamphlet that a group was passing out to Asians at immigration (they mistook my husband for something other than Japanese) that is titled "How to dupe the Japanese government for many free things!" or something very close to that. In multiple languages it has "baiting" tricks listed, and who to call if you got them to "take the bait" so that you could get support for free housing, free utilities, etc etc.

It`s a deplorable practice and really hurts everyone... Especially the normal Asians in Japan who just want to live normal lives.