[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by steven

That's great! thanks for all that. I love reading your posts because you seem to have a good (as in very reasonable) outlook on your life in Japan. Comparing it to my experience, I don't get that sense of fantasy as I do with some other things I've read online.

Thank you. I`m here for the long haul - and am a pretty boring person in real life. That`s probably why. We live a pretty dull and normal life. But I think that the normalcy kind of cuts out the fantasy.

I know what you mean about the talking dog thing. I do get a lot less of the "wow you're good at Japanese/you can speak Japanese" these days... but I still definately get it. I could attribute that to both the fact that I still need more work as well as to the fact that I live in the inaka and so I stick out like a slice of white bread sitting in the middle of some rice fields.

I don`t know. I don`t really think that location changes the situation all that much. I get the same reactions up in Fukui as I do in Nagoya. Being out in the countryside doesn`t seem to make that much difference. Actually, I`m almost wanting to say that when it comes to older people - in the countryside you`re less likely to get a surprise reaction. They seem to think it`s perfectly natural for everyone to speak Japanese and don`t give a second thought to it.

I'm a fairly laid back person (more so in real life than on the internet) when it comes to talking to people, but I do get tired of people being so concerned about my religion.

People talk to you a lot about it? I usually only get questions or "sensitivity" around holidays. Or is this about outside Japan?

I don`t want to get into religious discussion - it`s a no-no on here - but besides the handful of people who go around door to door... I don`t think it`s such a bad thing. People who do strictly follow religions are probably very happy to be receiving more acceptance and understanding of it in Japan. The other side to this though is the assumption that everyone who is not Japanese is strictly following some religion.

Originally Posted by GoNative

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.

It is my view that changes need to start on the legal level - changing laws to make the legal treatment of long term residents the same as the legal treatment of Japanese is a start. Otherwise, it strikes me as being similar to just wiping up the water from a leaking pipe without bothering to try and stop the leak itself. No matter how hard you work to mop up that water, the pipe is just going to keep leaking more out to replace what you wiped up.
It is very hard to expect the bottom to change without changing anything further up. This is why protests against signs in red light districts, against things like being asked about sushi, etc etc just cheapens the whole deal and makes it that much harder to get people to listen to you long enough to bring their attention to the legal issues... Most of which the average person is not aware of.

Another bit is that people need to realize that getting benefits, special treatment, etc is just as bad as being excluded from getting normal services, and being treated as less. Either way and you`re STILL being treated differently, and you`re STILL "different". Even if it`s in a way that is positive from your view. It does nothing to reduce issues, and makes things worse much of the time.

A good example I like to give is this;
Let us say a landlord has the opinion that foreign renters are troublemakers, that they cause more of a headache than they`re worth, get upset about stuff easily (trash rules, community cleaning, etc), and the like. He decides to not rent to foreigners.
Do you A; Talk to him about the issue in depth and do your best to educate him about reality, and give him an outlet for if this really happens (ie. Provide a support group to deal with issues...) and try to change his mind...
Or B; Tell him that if he doesn`t stop the policy you`re going to sue him out of business and make his life suck. (Talking to him first about the issue is optional)

Which will give him a better opinion of foreigners? Which do you think will change his mind?
Even if B gets the result you want (he rents to you/foreigners), do you really think his opinion is going to change? I don`t. I think it will only be worse. And the opinion he may have kept to himself is far more likely to be spread "Avoid dealing with foreigners at all! They`re nothing but trouble!!" Especially if there is legal action taken in the end.

This type of "Making a statement" activism simply doesn`t work well in Japan. It doesn`t get the type of reaction you would expect in the west. You don`t get people rising up and thinking about the issue - instead you get shock and everyone sides with the landlord and tosses the issue into the "lawsuit crazy foreigner!" bin.