[Tsuwabuki]

I do not think Japan is a bastion of racism, xenophobia, or second class conditions, but since we're on the subject... Warning, rant ahead:

I've said this before, but I am as far from a cultural or moral relativist as you can find. I'm actually a liberal, but I am still philosophically an "exclusivist." There is a laundry list of right and wrong, and every group of people, defined however they are defined as a group, has only part of the laundry list of right, but in no way does that make all views, no matter how sincerely held, equal.

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I don`t find gaijin offensive. Do you find the word "foreigner" offensive? It`s just the word "foreigner" in Japanese abbreviated a bit like every other longish compound word in Japanese tends to be. If you`re not Japanese, surprise surprise, you`re a foreigner.

Japanese as in nationally or Japanese as in ethnically? That is the crux of the issue.

As a matter of fact, I do find it offensive, and did long before I moved outside of the US, and while I will use the word in conversations here, I do so only because I feel I would not be understood otherwise. People who do not have citizenship in a country fall into three categories: Tourists, Legal Residents, and Illegal Residents. I refer to them by these names as much as I can, and find the word "foreigner" to be an outdated term that no longer represents the complexity of communication around the world. There are no more foreigners. Just national citizens. I usually refer to people in Japan who are not ethnically Japanese as just that, non-ethnic Japanese. Debito is a perfect example. He's Japanese, in the national sense. He's not ethnically Japanese, but he is a Japanese citizen.

Let's use "my country" (of course if I were to stay here 20 years, that could be debated): What do you call someone who moves to the United States to start a new life legally? You call that person a legal resident. What do you call a person the second after they swear an oath of allegiance to the US Constitution and gain citizenship? You call that person an American. Doesn't matter if that person has been an American for a second, or can trace their roots back to George Washington, or even back to Native Americans who lived in North America thousands of years ago. An American is an American is an American. I believe being equal in citizenship is an inherent part of being a citizen. God knows America has enough history of denying this inherency to Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and even certain types of "white" Americans, Jews, Slavic peoples, etc... That doesn't mean the definition of citizen has changed; it means that humans have systematically abused the definition. In the US and elsewhere.

Before someone says, "Well, that's just the law in the US vs Japan vs This Country Over Here," you must pay attention to the word inherent. No government may abridge this part of the definition of citizen. Inherency cannot be removed by fiat. Any government that does so is simply wrong.

On the subject of inherent: "form was treated as something intrinsic, as the very essence of the thing"- John Dewey

So I find the term gaijin offensive, although gaikokujin less so. Whatever the Japanese term for Legal Resident, that's what I should be called. If I was a Japanese citizen, however, I would be quite offended by the use of gaijin. Whatever else Debito may have said or done, this I agree with him on: He's Japanese. Ethnicity does not matter under the law. Only nationality does, and even then only to a certain extent. Inherent civil rights should not be denied to any person. Again, the US has had only a marginally better track record with this than anyone else, but inherency is supranationalist and rather held by humankind as a whole by virtue of being human.

In general, the great majority of the "no foreigners allowed" signs are at red light district places. Hostess clubs, soap lands, etc etc.

True.

I have never personally encountered any apartment discrimination, nor met someone in real life who was turned down. It`s a HUGE rumor sort of thing that you can`t rent an apartment in Japan.

Also true.

If you`re just in Japan for the short term and aren`t going to be in the country long enough to fulfill a lease - you`ll be turned down. If you do not have the job history to have "credit" - you will be turned down. By the way - to rent most apartments a normal Japanese citizen has to have been working for so long and have a huge advance payment. Places that don`t require this (the places that are generally popular with the foreigners in Japan) are pretty picky. They`ll turn you down for stupid crap like spotting pet hair on your clothes, etc, because you might violate the lease.

True again.

And there are literally TONS of cases of short term English teachers in Japan running off without paying their rent or utilities - and leaving their trash, furniture, etc in the apartment for the landlord to dispose of. These aren`t rumors. You can EASILY find advice on foreigners in Japan sites to just not bother paying the last month or two because no one will come after you once you leave Japan - from people who brag about leaving huge bills behind to screw the landlord because they thought the building or trash rules were stupid.

And by this time most people on this forum should know how much I despise people like that. This isn't a race or nationality problem. This is a stupid immature kids who don't take their position seriously. Thus making it much harder on the rest of us to get to the point where our civil rights are taken seriously. I do my best to dissuade people who are not clearly responsible adults from coming to Japan for work. The non-ethnic Japanese community in Japan has much too much to lose for these sorry children to be mucking around unsupervised.