Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they're not Asian

[ShibaInu]

Got this piece of online news from Japan Times...Don't mean to sow seeds of hate against Japan (for i love the country myself)...just to present a more-balanced view and encourage a more open discussion...and i think hearing political issues such as this was requested sometime ago by one JF member...

'Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's refusal to apologize anew for Japan's sex-slave policy during World War II has a different meaning in Japan than it does abroad. The issue has come around again because the U.S. Congress is considering a resolution to demand that Japan clearly accept responsibility for the policy. Abe has said the government will stand by a 1993 apology issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, but has stressed that there is no evidence that the Japanese military "used coercion" to force women into frontline brothels.

Overseas, Abe's remarks made headlines and has provoked anger from those who say that the Japanese government has yet to own up to the sex-slave policy and is backtracking into denial. In Japan, Abe's remarks have been buried in articles about Diet business or stuck at the end of TV news reports. The media see them as part of a strategy for Abe to appear more assertive in response to weakening public support for his administration.

...

That's because media companies are squeamish about anything having to do with Asian females. The popular TV Tokyo variety series, "The Wife is a Foreigner," enthusiastically celebrates the assimilation of non-Japanese women into Japanese life -- just as long as they aren't Korean, Chinese, Filipino or Thai. Those four nationalities together represent the vast majority of expatriate wives in Japan, but for some reason they never appear on the program. Are they not "foreign" enough?

For the more complete version, check out this link, Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they're not Asian | The Japan Times Online

[jasonbvr]

To be honest, often Japanese do not even realize that foreign Asians regardless of being male or female are treated as though they were Japanese. A few examples stand out in my mind. I know a female Canadian-Chinese teacher who was riding on the bus with another teacher and myself, both Caucasian males. We were chatting about this and that while the Japanese girls near us kept looking at our Chinese friend saying, "Wow, how does she speak English so well?" Another example is from a male Brazillian who has very Asian facial features. He walks into a Brazillian pizza parlor and the Brazillian girl behind the counter starts asking in Japanese what he would like and he answers her in Portuguese. Laughing, she says she thought he was Japanese. Then you always have all the other Asian English teachers who comment how when alone, they never feel like people are really paying attention to them. But when surrounded by other teachers who are obviously not Japanese, they feel the same attention that we feel on a regular basis of being stared at and having every move we make studied.

All I am trying to say is that Japanese are not necessarily opposed to foreign Asian women, they are simply not as aware of them and just don't pay much attention to them one way or the other.

[bleedingboy]

Originally Posted by jasonbvr

All I am trying to say is that Japanese are not necessarily opposed to foreign Asian women, they are simply not as aware of them and just don't pay much attention to them one way or the other.

wow... ok chief, this is not to diss you, once again. what i've read far back from the start of this column, is all true. unfortunately, you're abit young and don't know much about these things. this is non-racist, but well... you know what race you come from, i don't want to point that out, and in fact if we could just remove that differentiating factor [color and race], i'd do that. for christ's sake, if i have to shed blood for it i would. but in these times, it's a lost cause. anyway... have you ever seen other places aside from where you are right now? coz honestly, you only talk about that part, but like you said you're aware, but still unaware of many things. most of japanese people and chinese people hate each other, for factors that are both offensive and through a history of blood that flourished the ground instead of sweat, and shells and capsized flagpoles, torned and wrapped on fecal matters as they cover bodies after bodies just to hid the horrors of wars, you can't put an input to that, by denying a fact that things.... aren't that similar with the west, and the neighbors. this is not to lecture you, but more of to wake you up. that went on to other parts of asia, and somehow, it's unforgiveable. try looking to a tired old woman, who sits in her native gown, sitting... waiting for the justice she hadn't tasted, and time is nearing to an end... where art thou, justice... a great slumber await. try looking further to the background. what i tell you now is the goodlife you have, has deeper stains. it can be forgiven, but i can't be forgotten.

and worse... almost every other book, and every other scholar said.

"history repeats itself."

i'll gladly show you around... the world you can never see.. or maybe wouldn't want to see.

[annelie82]

Originally Posted by jasonbvr

Japanese are not necessarily opposed to foreign Asian women, they are simply not as aware of them and just don't pay much attention to them one way or the other.

Just like in Sweden, for instance, where you're less likely to be tagged as "foreign" if you're originally from Denmark or Germany than if you're from, say, Spain or India.

Perhaps the reason that Korean, Thai, Filipino and Chinese women are not represented on the above-mentioned variety show is simply that there isn't enough assimilation for them to go through (given their already Asian backgrounds) and thus makes for less interesting viewing? Though the article seems to suggest that their lack of representation has something to do with the aforementioned sex-slave policy...?

~annelie

[Ibe]

Nothing will be accomplished if you let public opinion get in your way

[bleedingboy]

Originally Posted by Ibe

Nothing will be accomplished if you let public opinion get in your way

nothing had been accomplished with this matter even if there are or no public opinion got in the way. the u.n. intervened, groups were made. but rather, unless things turns into something new... nothing will happen.

[aldine]

Can somebody take this appalling pic off please...