[MMM]

I apologize for the double-post and I have been thinking about this today. From what is being said here, the essentially homogeneous country of Japan is being incredibly progressive in its thinking about interracial marriage. This would be MUCH more progressive than many opinions in the multi-racial United States where feelings of not dating outside of one's race are very common. This is especially true outside of the coasts, where you see more "red states" (conservative thinking states).

The numbers of interracial marriages is on the rise in the US, but according to the last census polls (2000) only 5% of marriages in the US were between couples of different races.

From what I can find, the numbers are almost exactly the same in Japan... about 5%. And 80% of those are Japanese men marrying foreign women (mostly from other parts of Asia).

When I lived in Japan I heard about many women who were told specifically by their parents to avoid dating foreigners. I also knew some women who wouldn't dream of dating a non-Japanese. It's not because of racism, it just never came up as they didn't have interaction with non-Japanese. It would be like if aliens landed and there were human-alien relationships all of a sudden. I know that comparison sounds weird, but just as it is easy to go to places foreigners hang out, it is also just as easy to have a lifestyle where you never interact with foreigners.

RealJames, something about your gf's grandparents sits funny with me. Saying it's "cool" she is dating a foreigner and wanting to constantly take pictures with you seems like back-handed progressivism to me.

If I were dating an African-American woman and my grandparents talked about how "cool" that was and had her pose for pictures with them, I would be VERY embarrassed and uncomfortable.

I had quite a few friends when I lived in Japan, and am still friends with a handful of them. The reason we became fairly good friends is because they didn't care that I was a foreigner. They liked me for me, not for my race or country of origin.

I, as I am sure you have, met plenty of people that wanted to be friends with me for no other reason than I am American. As I weeded out the riff-raff I was dragged to plenty of bars and introduced to plenty of people I had nothing in common with and little to talk about with. I was the "trophy friend" and it was not that fun or interesting.