[GoNative]

cranks I assume you don't actually live in Japan or you certainly don't seem to know the history of debitos battle against the onsens in Otaru. The real issue for him was that even though he is a Japanese citizen and not a foreigner he was still denied entry purely on the basis of his skin colour. This was the premise for his court case, which he did ultimately win because even in a court system biased towards everything Japanese there was no denying that the actions of these onsens were racially based.

There seems to be a bit of an attitude on this forum that once foreigners fully understand Japanese culture and people then we couldn't possibly still consider them racist or xenophobic, that such thoughts can only be held by those who have not yet fully embraced and understood the culture. I say this is rubbish. It can certainly allow you to understand the reasons why this is still a very xenophobic country but doesn't excuse it. This is one of the most racially homogeneous nations left on the planet. There are entrenched reasons why this remains the case.