[GoNative]

What interests me are what I'd consider bigger entreched issues than just things like being stared at or surprise I can utter more than a few words of Japanese or if a landlord is uncomfortable with me renting an apartment (I own my own house anyway). Those things really don't overly concern me beyond that they are representative of a general ignorance and distrust of foreigners.
What does concern me are things like when Renho became the first Dietmember of mixed ethnic background her ethnicity was brought into question by some politicians and groups within the country. It is this sort of racism at the highest levels of government that concern me as such things then filter down through society and result in some of the more minor things like I referred to above. There are very right wing parties here with considerable political clout that are quite openly racist or at least Japanese supremacists. They are completely opposed to any form of immigration or any diluting of the purity of the Japanese monoculture. And they have reasonable amounts of support out there.
Whether or not things like this affect you I guess depends on whether or not you intend on staying in Japan or moving on at a later stage or whether or not you're the sort of person who just doesn't worry about such things as long as they have little effect on your daily life. And certainly you can live here for a lifetime without ever being overly affected by such things. Certainly helps if you're married to a Japanese national though.
It does affect me a little though to know my daughter who was born and is being raised here will always be treated as a gaijin because she does not look Japanese. It is that sort of entrenched racism that I would like to see this country move on from.