Yes, Japan has been pretty xenophobic for most of its history. People will be polite to foreigners for the most part, but they generally don’t like outsiders. She probably won’t experience any outright hostility though.
I was just there, as a tourist I never felt hated. They are Xenophobic in the sense of exclusion. No Japanese person started a conversation with me that wasn’t strictly necessary.
She’ll be fine. One of my best friends has lived there years and married a Japanese girl. But, there is definite xenophobia. Most places are fine, probably the worst that could happen is being politely asked to not be in this store lol.
But if she’s planning to work, my friend says he has a hard time advancing because he isn’t fluent. So not being Japanese (white guy) plus not being fluent gives him so many options. I’m sure there could be wiggle room with field of work though. Or not being in a Japanese owned workforce
There’s apparently an issue in Japan where native Japanese who move to rural areas are being bullied and mistreated by other native Japanese ppl in the local community because they’re considered outsiders. Some even leave because it gets so bad.
No reason to be worried. The worst she will encounter is maybe a restaurant or something that says no tourists. They will tell you that in the most polite and matter of fact manner. Overwhelmingly, people are extremely kind and helpful to tourists. You pretty much just need to look confused for 5 seconds before some old man will come and explain to you how trains work or whatever.
In my experience visiting Japan, it’s usually ignorance. I got a fair few stares and pointing fingers in rural parts of Japan, but nothing worse than that. I travelled with black friends and they were treated no differently to me. TBF I don’t speak Japanese so they might well have been saying racist things behind my back but I think that’s the case anywhere I don’t look like the surrounding population. I rarely encountered any stares in Tokyo, there’s lots of foreigners living there, but obviously it’s mostly Japanese people in Tokyo.
I think the experience is different if you live in Japan long term, Abroad in Japan and Let’s ask Shogo YouTube channels are good places to look at for living there long term. I do know bullying of foreign students, or even Japanese kids who’ve lived outside Japan, is a problem in Japan.
(I’m white btw, I use Mel Madarda from Arcane Netflix show as my profile picture because I like her character)
Yes, even tho I wouldn’t say it’s xenophobic in the sense that you’re gonna be attacked on the street because you’re a foreigner but more in terms of hostility, it’s normal to exclude foreigners from establishments and in general the attitude is a lot different idk how to explain it especially towards foreign women even if they’ve lived there for years, speak the language fluently etc
White ppl are also generally favoured, I had a friend teaching in Japan and whenever the families came in for activities, plays etc all the non-white teachers weren’t allowed to be present cause the school said the families wouldn’t like seeing them.
while visiting will probably be a great experience moving is another story and both xenophobia and misogyny are still rampant and extremely normalised in Japanese society as they have been for the better part of their history..
So, I get the sense that Japan isn’t really xenophobic, in the sense that they don’t want foreigners, but a non-ethnically-Japanese person will always be a non-Japanese person. In order to be Japanese… you must be Japanese.
They seem to be perfectly okay with non-Japanese people being in Japan, but they will always be gaijin and never be Japanese people.
This came to a head a few years back when an African-American-Japanese girl won Miss Japan and a lot of people in Japan flipped their shit, because she wasn’t Japanese. The general sentiment was, yes, she’s very pretty, and very nice, but not Japanese so shouldn’t be Miss Japan.
Yes but it’s different from those in America. They would be very polite to you, but they won’t consider you as their own even after you get Japanese citizenship. So, for visiting, no problem, just go ahead. For settling down? Reconsider.
There are lots of restaurants and places in Japan where you will be denied entry if you ain’t clearly Asian.
It’s always done politely. The guy at the door will say they’re closed, even if the stated hours are clearly visible, even if there are customers in plain view, even if you’re perfectly fluent in Japanese.
They see a white dude, they’ll tell you very very kindly to fuck off.
From what I understand, yes. But it’s also a two-way street. Japan is very big on politeness, custom, and ritual, and it’s very easy to be rude without even knowing it. For example referring to someone by their first name, no honorific, is just not done. Meanwhile here in the US my boss sends me e-mails that start with (first name), make a demand, and don’t even sign off. As a British-born person I’ve realized cultures are very different when it comes to what is considered polite behavior.
My white cousin taught there and in China. She said Japanese people treated her like a homeless person. They were polite but you could tell that they would rather not be interacting with her most of the time.
You have to remember, Japan was very isolated for a long time and all its ethnic minorities were forcibly assimilated. They don’t have a very cosmopolitan history.
Any trade or connections they had with the outside world only benefited the elite and merchant class
I lived there for a number of years. They definitely don’t like outsiders in certain places. Some places they allow it if you speak fluent or if you’re with a local. That’s how I ended up in a yakuza affiliated bar. They are nice people and gave me free drinks. Had an arm wrestling competition and talked about muscle cars with a few of the younger guys. But I also had plenty of encounters where they saw me walk in and immediately said “Ah gaijin no no no” and held up an X with their fingers, haha. It can be frustrating if you’ve spent the whole day diving and just want some food. You won’t be attacked or anything, just asked to leave.
Longer Answer: Your sister is likely not going to be hate crimed. It’s a really safe country to be in. However some establishments may not be welcoming to foreigners. Caveat, it goes a long way if you understand and speak the language. Even in establishments that say “no foreigners allowed”. They mostly don’t want clueless tourists who can’t speak a lick of Japanese in these establishments. And there’s just a general weariness against foreigners.
It also probably depends on location as well. I find Osaka to be great because most people there are down to earth and just want to have a drink and talk to you. Kyoto in contrast is even hard for Japanese people to acclimate to because there’s too many social etiquette and passive aggressiveness.
Oh yeah. When I lived there, I found quite a few businesses that don’t allow foreigners. My black friend had quite a lot more of those experiences than me, though. Nice people, though; were never rude about it.
Been here 7 years now. I enjoy most aspects of life here however I do feel the xenophobia a lot, being treated as a pet sometimes lol, people fill flat out ignore you unless they absolutely must talk to you. I speak Japanese but of course that doesn’t stop the locals trying to “practice English” with me.
Had a guy yell at me “NO NO, 10 AM START” when I tired to walk into a supermarket.
Japanese colleagues will often ask me questions like “can you eat Japanese rice?” Like duh I am a human too.
It’s even worse for black people, I got a couple black friends and coworkers who get weirder questions about their skin and hair.
Japanese people are very proud of their own culture and heritage but don’t really seem to care about the outside world / foreigners
The people in these comments all know less than you do yourself if you’ve googled this for a minute. It is “common knowledge” that Japanese people are xenophobic. But that doesn’t paint an accurate picture. Watch some videos of non-Japanese people actually being in Japan. Doing that changed at least my mind, it seems it’s not so much that Japanese people don’t like non-Japanese people it’s more that they don’t like not speaking Japanese, because it’s cumbersome. That’s why people describe them as “polite but xenophobic” it’s the only way they can reason it. They are polite because they are kind, but they also want to avoid people that can’t speak the same language as them, and they are bad at every language except japanese. There are of course exceptions, every country has actual racists.
Here’s a video of two Americans that try to speak Japanese with the Japanese people on a road trip to give a more accurate idea than anything these commenters with no actual idea what they’re talking about would ever be able to give you https://youtu.be/SHIkv0XH20A?si=H41gLtlVQn_1yEka
But seriously yeah the Japanese can be a bit xenophobic. Their population is 98% percent Japanese so racial and national identities are conflated with each other. I had a white family member who was an English teacher there for almost five years and they never felt excepted there. They got so good at reading and writing Japanese that the only level they had left was legal type of language courses that most native Japanese people would struggle with. But the only compliment my relative got was that their Japanese sounded great for a foreigner. People were treating them differently over the phone than they were in person because they could see they weren’t Japanese in person. My relative assured me it wasn’t hateful racism, but more naive and ignorant racism like you see in children. My relative finally left the country after they found out that local tax laws made the English textbook for Japanese children they were working on for almost a year in their spare time completely unprofitably for a foreign citizen like them.
It seems like one of those places on earth where diversity is not particularly important. Nobody is pushing Japan to take refugees or to enrich their society with different cultures. People want Japan to be japanese.
People in the US and Canada have this odd view of how accepting a nation normally is to migrants. The US and Canada, historically speaking, are melting pots to an extent. Japans attitude is not uncommon for many asian nations. Hell many European nations are similar in their own ways. You adapt to their culture it isn’t a melting pot there.
I lived there for a bit when I was in my 20s. Younger people were definitely more open to befriending foreigners. A lot were quite into western culture, food and styles. Some older folks too, I don’t want to act like all middle aged Japanese people are gonna shun you because I met a lot of very nice, welcoming folks who really took me in and remain friends.
But you are definitely an outsider. I stayed about a year and a half and enjoyed it, but did notice I was never really “in”. Some of my colleagues who stayed longer term and became fully fluent and married etc had more gripes. But still liked it enough to stay on, for what that’s worth.
I was there recently – for the most part people are friendly and nice. Twice we tried to go into bars and got ran out the door pretty much because we weren’t Japanese. Whilst it was annoying and I’m not excusing it, it was such a small portion of our overall trip which was otherwise amazing.
I’ve read that Japan welcomes tourists with open arms but they very much expect you to leave afterwards!
I was just there last year, traveling to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoyo for fun. In our group of of four were Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Mexican, and a very never been out of the country white guy. We had a blast everywhere we went, and we are in our mid-40’s. People were super friendly, chatted with us in limited English and sometimes just Google translated entire conversations. Literally people have started conversations with me because I’m having problems ordering and they would help. It’s great, you will enjoy it. Have the good mindset of that you are going to a foreign country and they may not know you, but they might be curious about you.
Besides the short answer being yes, I think a longer answer would be that Japan is hierarchical based on ethnic purity and cultural adherence. The more Japanese your heritage and looks, the more you are accepted. The more Japanese your behaviors and mannerisms, the more you are accepted. At the top of such a hierarchy are full-blooded, Japan-born natives who speak Japanese and follow Japanese behavioral customs. At the bottom are foreign-born visitors who speak a foreign language and act boorishly in public. Everyone’s got a place on the hierarchy, as you can see from the other comments in this post (rural vs urban, zainichi vs non, mixed race vs not, tourist vs native).
I think the hierarchy framework would help with understanding how to survive in Japan. Speak Japanese. Behave the way they behave. Follow the unspoken rules to the extent you can. “Know your place”, as degrading as that sounds.
The xenophobia framework lets you know there’s a cap to the acceptance your sister can receive. But there’s certainly a right and wrong way to behave there.
Depends on where your sister is from, but for the most part, yes.
However…you’d never notice it. They’ll almost always be super polite to your face. They’ll just talk poorly about you once you leave.
I loved my time there, people were incredibly friendly and giving to me…but I also speak the language and definitely picked up on some side-convos that were very judging of basically my entire existence.
But it never really bothered me because again…those same people will also give you a cooler full of food and beer because you’re camping and they are done camping(actually happened to me in Okinawa).
Hell yea they are. They just aren’t usa with how open they are about it. I was there for a couple months just visiting around 2012-2016. Japan is definitely superior in how respectful they are in general. However, with a certain percentage of japanese, they try to tie themselves WW2 more than they should
My friend is half Japanese and half black. He grew up in Japan and he hates it there so he moved to the US. He was always considered an outsider and they always looked down on him because he is not fully “Japanese”
Speaking as someone who actually lives here and has Japanese family members:
Depends on who you talk to, and to what extent you classify general ignorance as xenophobia.
If you’re spending time with people young enough to grow up in the age of the internet, then they aren’t necessarily more or less “xenophobic” than anyone else. If you’re not a dick, then you’ve got nothing to fear.
There are plenty of older / elderly people who will find foreigners “interesting” or as a “curiosity”, and will marvel at your ability to do the most “basic” *Japanese* thing (like using chopsticks) and/or ask you questions like, is it really true that (Insert random cultural stereotype here)? Now, is that Xenophobia? Depending on the person, it can dip into that territory.
And then of course, there is the small subset of very vocal nationalistic people: but if you’re not going to some political rally or demonstration, (and it’s not election season) honestly, you rarely ever encounter them
All in all, there is PLENTTTTYYY of casual assumptions and stereotyping made about foreigners. A lot of it however, tends to come from a place of ignorance or naivety rather than malice. And even where there is some malice, very few people will be directly confrontational / hostile about it.
Very much so. Usually not overtly, but is it readily apparent in some situations, for example, some restaurants, pubs and onsens are marked Japanese-only, and outsiders will be politely or not-so-politely told to leave.
Yes very much so. They don’t really allow immigration despite their population collapse. They won’t sign the international kidnapping treaties. If a half-Japanese kid is kidnapped during a custody battle by the Japanese parent and taken to Japan, the government will not hep you get the child back. Polite to your face (if you’re white or South Korean), but super racist especially to people with darker skin.
My white ass visited recently and I did not encounter a single instance of anyone treating me differently. Not saying xenophobia doesn’t exist but it did not impact my trip in the slightest. And I’m planning to go back when I can afford it again.
Yes, but at its worst it tends to be passive aggressive politeness rather than outright hostility. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a white female, but it seems males and non-white minorities get the worst of it.
Husband got stopped by the police one time asking to check his wallet and passport and stuff. I don’t know if they were just giving him a hard time cause he was a foreigner or maybe he got a description of someone they were looking for, but they were super polite the whole time.
They’ll just bitch about her behind her back. She won’t even know if she doesn’t speak the language. Seriously though, it’s an amazing country and extremely safe. There are a lot of racists, but they’re not overt. Most people are good.
You have to remember that Japan isn’t a hive mind, everyone has different beliefs. You aren’t going to get physically attacked or berated (at least that isn’t common) for being a foreigner. They still are polite. It is more of a societal thing, where you still never be fully accepted in the society if you aren’t Japanese. Some jobs may discriminate against you.
I visited Japan and honestly everyone was so nice and polite! That said, living there may be a different story.
It’s funny when y’all wanna talk about racism in America. You wanna see real racism go to Asian countries to them no matter how good you try to adapt you’ll never be them.
There was a video I seen of a Black guy who moved to Japan, he spoke pretty fluent Japanese and was interviewed on the street and asked how it was being Black in Japan. He said at first it was difficult as many kept their distance at first, some would come up to him and touch him to see if his skin would ‘rub off’ (aka most likely first time a Japanese person seen someone who was Black).
However, he mentioned once he had met his neighbors and shown through action that he was assimilating into their culture, and spoke their language, they had no issues with him. And I think that is the correct way to go about things. If you move to another country, you respect their customs and language, otherwise don’t go there.
This post and all the comments have a very western perspective that isn’t really understanding or acknowledging the Japanese fundamental cultural and mindset difference to the western one by trying to box them in to western concepts
I’ve been to Japan multiple times and never experienced any prejudice – The Tokyo area has so many foreigners visiting/living there that it’s seen as somewhat normal. It’s gotten to the point where “gaijin” is viewed as a somewhat offensive term, and the more polite “gaikokujin” is used by most Japanese people now. One thing that is true is that you’ll always be a foreigner, and that they’ll always see you as different; But I’ve still had Japanese strangers strike up conversations and help me with things if needed. As long as you respect the culture and aren’t fooling around, you are respected by most people.
I’ve also seen people in this thread suggest that tourists are viewed better than foreigners living there, but that’s not what I’ve found. People living there often adapt to the culture better and actually speak Japanese, so they get more respect than “bumbling” tourists do.
BTW, if you’re American you’re often viewed as cool. If you’re Korean or Chinese, things get a bit more complicated… A lot of young people don’t care due to the Korean pop culture wave, but many of the older generation still have some prejudice there.
Probably. The term suffers from semantic overload though. I don’t think they generally engage in any more xenophobia towards travelers than anywhere else. If you want to live and work there it’s a different story, you can’t even be a citizen if you’re born there and one parent is full blooded Japanese.
Comments
Yes, Japan has been pretty xenophobic for most of its history. People will be polite to foreigners for the most part, but they generally don’t like outsiders. She probably won’t experience any outright hostility though.
I was just there, as a tourist I never felt hated. They are Xenophobic in the sense of exclusion. No Japanese person started a conversation with me that wasn’t strictly necessary.
I think it’s generally considered one of the most xenophobic places to go and try to settle in
My friend said his dad wasn’t allowed to go to this bar because he wasn’t Japanese
it is, and its fully supported and tolerated under the guise of “culture.”
Japan can be socially exclusive. Foreigners may face subtle biases, yet respectful visitors usually experience kindness, safety, and politeness.
Polite, but not accepting of outsiders.
She’ll be fine. One of my best friends has lived there years and married a Japanese girl. But, there is definite xenophobia. Most places are fine, probably the worst that could happen is being politely asked to not be in this store lol.
But if she’s planning to work, my friend says he has a hard time advancing because he isn’t fluent. So not being Japanese (white guy) plus not being fluent gives him so many options. I’m sure there could be wiggle room with field of work though. Or not being in a Japanese owned workforce
Polite but xenophobic. “Respectfully leave the premises”, not “feel my katana baka-gaijin”.
There’s apparently an issue in Japan where native Japanese who move to rural areas are being bullied and mistreated by other native Japanese ppl in the local community because they’re considered outsiders. Some even leave because it gets so bad.
Yes. Tourist tolerated with smiles. Migrants shunned.
Yes ,but she will not see it. She will love Japan and have a great time.
Name a place that isn’t
Let’s that their alliance with Nazi Germany wasn’t random.
No reason to be worried. The worst she will encounter is maybe a restaurant or something that says no tourists. They will tell you that in the most polite and matter of fact manner. Overwhelmingly, people are extremely kind and helpful to tourists. You pretty much just need to look confused for 5 seconds before some old man will come and explain to you how trains work or whatever.
Japan was one of the few countries in the world where I was refused entry to restaurants and bars because of my origin.
I am white male and european I behaved politely and reservedly at the given moments.
Yes, but there’s nothing to worry about. Everyone is polite, even if they don’t really accept you.
In my experience visiting Japan, it’s usually ignorance. I got a fair few stares and pointing fingers in rural parts of Japan, but nothing worse than that. I travelled with black friends and they were treated no differently to me. TBF I don’t speak Japanese so they might well have been saying racist things behind my back but I think that’s the case anywhere I don’t look like the surrounding population. I rarely encountered any stares in Tokyo, there’s lots of foreigners living there, but obviously it’s mostly Japanese people in Tokyo.
I think the experience is different if you live in Japan long term, Abroad in Japan and Let’s ask Shogo YouTube channels are good places to look at for living there long term. I do know bullying of foreign students, or even Japanese kids who’ve lived outside Japan, is a problem in Japan.
(I’m white btw, I use Mel Madarda from Arcane Netflix show as my profile picture because I like her character)
Yes.
That said it’s also usually quite safe. There is a saying that Japan is the most polite racist country.
Yes. Full blooded Japanese Brazilians who grow up speaking Japanese aren’t automatically considered Japanese.
If you’re visibly non-Asian, the locals will bend the rules for you somewhat. But they expect more from Asian looking foreigners.
Yes, even tho I wouldn’t say it’s xenophobic in the sense that you’re gonna be attacked on the street because you’re a foreigner but more in terms of hostility, it’s normal to exclude foreigners from establishments and in general the attitude is a lot different idk how to explain it especially towards foreign women even if they’ve lived there for years, speak the language fluently etc
White ppl are also generally favoured, I had a friend teaching in Japan and whenever the families came in for activities, plays etc all the non-white teachers weren’t allowed to be present cause the school said the families wouldn’t like seeing them.
while visiting will probably be a great experience moving is another story and both xenophobia and misogyny are still rampant and extremely normalised in Japanese society as they have been for the better part of their history..
So, I get the sense that Japan isn’t really xenophobic, in the sense that they don’t want foreigners, but a non-ethnically-Japanese person will always be a non-Japanese person. In order to be Japanese… you must be Japanese.
They seem to be perfectly okay with non-Japanese people being in Japan, but they will always be gaijin and never be Japanese people.
This came to a head a few years back when an African-American-Japanese girl won Miss Japan and a lot of people in Japan flipped their shit, because she wasn’t Japanese. The general sentiment was, yes, she’s very pretty, and very nice, but not Japanese so shouldn’t be Miss Japan.
They’re more xenophilic than xenophobic.
But the truth remains- if you’re not “Asian passing” you will stand out and never be “one of them”. But that’s not always a bad thing on its own.
Yes but it’s different from those in America. They would be very polite to you, but they won’t consider you as their own even after you get Japanese citizenship. So, for visiting, no problem, just go ahead. For settling down? Reconsider.
Yes
There are businesses where non japanese people are not welcome even in 2025
There are lots of restaurants and places in Japan where you will be denied entry if you ain’t clearly Asian.
It’s always done politely. The guy at the door will say they’re closed, even if the stated hours are clearly visible, even if there are customers in plain view, even if you’re perfectly fluent in Japanese.
They see a white dude, they’ll tell you very very kindly to fuck off.
From what I understand, yes. But it’s also a two-way street. Japan is very big on politeness, custom, and ritual, and it’s very easy to be rude without even knowing it. For example referring to someone by their first name, no honorific, is just not done. Meanwhile here in the US my boss sends me e-mails that start with (first name), make a demand, and don’t even sign off. As a British-born person I’ve realized cultures are very different when it comes to what is considered polite behavior.
My white cousin taught there and in China. She said Japanese people treated her like a homeless person. They were polite but you could tell that they would rather not be interacting with her most of the time.
You have to remember, Japan was very isolated for a long time and all its ethnic minorities were forcibly assimilated. They don’t have a very cosmopolitan history.
Any trade or connections they had with the outside world only benefited the elite and merchant class
I lived there for a number of years. They definitely don’t like outsiders in certain places. Some places they allow it if you speak fluent or if you’re with a local. That’s how I ended up in a yakuza affiliated bar. They are nice people and gave me free drinks. Had an arm wrestling competition and talked about muscle cars with a few of the younger guys. But I also had plenty of encounters where they saw me walk in and immediately said “Ah gaijin no no no” and held up an X with their fingers, haha. It can be frustrating if you’ve spent the whole day diving and just want some food. You won’t be attacked or anything, just asked to leave.
If you’re white you are fine. They love Americans. That was how I was treated in Tokyo.
You either born Japanese or you are not Japanese.
Born and raised in Japan as a hafu.
Short Answer: Yes
Longer Answer: Your sister is likely not going to be hate crimed. It’s a really safe country to be in. However some establishments may not be welcoming to foreigners. Caveat, it goes a long way if you understand and speak the language. Even in establishments that say “no foreigners allowed”. They mostly don’t want clueless tourists who can’t speak a lick of Japanese in these establishments. And there’s just a general weariness against foreigners.
It also probably depends on location as well. I find Osaka to be great because most people there are down to earth and just want to have a drink and talk to you. Kyoto in contrast is even hard for Japanese people to acclimate to because there’s too many social etiquette and passive aggressiveness.
Oh yeah. When I lived there, I found quite a few businesses that don’t allow foreigners. My black friend had quite a lot more of those experiences than me, though. Nice people, though; were never rude about it.
Yes, it is.
is water wet ahhhh question
Been here 7 years now. I enjoy most aspects of life here however I do feel the xenophobia a lot, being treated as a pet sometimes lol, people fill flat out ignore you unless they absolutely must talk to you. I speak Japanese but of course that doesn’t stop the locals trying to “practice English” with me.
Had a guy yell at me “NO NO, 10 AM START” when I tired to walk into a supermarket.
Japanese colleagues will often ask me questions like “can you eat Japanese rice?” Like duh I am a human too.
It’s even worse for black people, I got a couple black friends and coworkers who get weirder questions about their skin and hair.
Japanese people are very proud of their own culture and heritage but don’t really seem to care about the outside world / foreigners
The people in these comments all know less than you do yourself if you’ve googled this for a minute. It is “common knowledge” that Japanese people are xenophobic. But that doesn’t paint an accurate picture. Watch some videos of non-Japanese people actually being in Japan. Doing that changed at least my mind, it seems it’s not so much that Japanese people don’t like non-Japanese people it’s more that they don’t like not speaking Japanese, because it’s cumbersome. That’s why people describe them as “polite but xenophobic” it’s the only way they can reason it. They are polite because they are kind, but they also want to avoid people that can’t speak the same language as them, and they are bad at every language except japanese. There are of course exceptions, every country has actual racists.
Here’s a video of two Americans that try to speak Japanese with the Japanese people on a road trip to give a more accurate idea than anything these commenters with no actual idea what they’re talking about would ever be able to give you
https://youtu.be/SHIkv0XH20A?si=H41gLtlVQn_1yEka
Let me ask Korea, lol.
But seriously yeah the Japanese can be a bit xenophobic. Their population is 98% percent Japanese so racial and national identities are conflated with each other. I had a white family member who was an English teacher there for almost five years and they never felt excepted there. They got so good at reading and writing Japanese that the only level they had left was legal type of language courses that most native Japanese people would struggle with. But the only compliment my relative got was that their Japanese sounded great for a foreigner. People were treating them differently over the phone than they were in person because they could see they weren’t Japanese in person. My relative assured me it wasn’t hateful racism, but more naive and ignorant racism like you see in children. My relative finally left the country after they found out that local tax laws made the English textbook for Japanese children they were working on for almost a year in their spare time completely unprofitably for a foreign citizen like them.
Japan is very polite and safe for visitors.
Xenophobia mostly comes up if you’re living there long-term / if you’re actively being a menace.
But if you’re just a visitor and are respectful, Japan is ironically far safer than most “diverse” countries.
They’re not antagonistic to foreigners, more like ignorant distance.
It seems like one of those places on earth where diversity is not particularly important. Nobody is pushing Japan to take refugees or to enrich their society with different cultures. People want Japan to be japanese.
>In 2024, Japan accepted 190 refugees
People in the US and Canada have this odd view of how accepting a nation normally is to migrants. The US and Canada, historically speaking, are melting pots to an extent. Japans attitude is not uncommon for many asian nations. Hell many European nations are similar in their own ways. You adapt to their culture it isn’t a melting pot there.
✕ Japan is xenophobic
〇 Japan is others-phobic
I am a Japanese person born in Japan, but Japanese people only get along with their friends. It doesn’t matter if you are a foreigner or not.
Yes but also no
I lived there for a bit when I was in my 20s. Younger people were definitely more open to befriending foreigners. A lot were quite into western culture, food and styles. Some older folks too, I don’t want to act like all middle aged Japanese people are gonna shun you because I met a lot of very nice, welcoming folks who really took me in and remain friends.
But you are definitely an outsider. I stayed about a year and a half and enjoyed it, but did notice I was never really “in”. Some of my colleagues who stayed longer term and became fully fluent and married etc had more gripes. But still liked it enough to stay on, for what that’s worth.
Your sister should be more concerned about getting grabbed in the train.
Very accepting of visitors, as long as you remember that you are ONLY a visitor.
You’ll have to explain xenophobic for us normies and people who generally don’t give a shi+.
I was there recently – for the most part people are friendly and nice. Twice we tried to go into bars and got ran out the door pretty much because we weren’t Japanese. Whilst it was annoying and I’m not excusing it, it was such a small portion of our overall trip which was otherwise amazing.
I’ve read that Japan welcomes tourists with open arms but they very much expect you to leave afterwards!
Ah, everyone is confused. Japanese people also use the meaning of “Japanese only” incorrectly.
Most of the time they write “Japanese only” to mean “I can only speak Japanese, sorry.”
Japanese people are so bad at English that they can’t tell the difference. Of course, that includes me too.
I was just there last year, traveling to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoyo for fun. In our group of of four were Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Mexican, and a very never been out of the country white guy. We had a blast everywhere we went, and we are in our mid-40’s. People were super friendly, chatted with us in limited English and sometimes just Google translated entire conversations. Literally people have started conversations with me because I’m having problems ordering and they would help. It’s great, you will enjoy it. Have the good mindset of that you are going to a foreign country and they may not know you, but they might be curious about you.
XENOS!? BY THE EMPEROR PURGE THEM
They’re racist to other Asians
Besides the short answer being yes, I think a longer answer would be that Japan is hierarchical based on ethnic purity and cultural adherence. The more Japanese your heritage and looks, the more you are accepted. The more Japanese your behaviors and mannerisms, the more you are accepted. At the top of such a hierarchy are full-blooded, Japan-born natives who speak Japanese and follow Japanese behavioral customs. At the bottom are foreign-born visitors who speak a foreign language and act boorishly in public. Everyone’s got a place on the hierarchy, as you can see from the other comments in this post (rural vs urban, zainichi vs non, mixed race vs not, tourist vs native).
I think the hierarchy framework would help with understanding how to survive in Japan. Speak Japanese. Behave the way they behave. Follow the unspoken rules to the extent you can. “Know your place”, as degrading as that sounds.
The xenophobia framework lets you know there’s a cap to the acceptance your sister can receive. But there’s certainly a right and wrong way to behave there.
Misspelled xenoblade chronicles 2
Depends on where your sister is from, but for the most part, yes.
However…you’d never notice it. They’ll almost always be super polite to your face. They’ll just talk poorly about you once you leave.
I loved my time there, people were incredibly friendly and giving to me…but I also speak the language and definitely picked up on some side-convos that were very judging of basically my entire existence.
But it never really bothered me because again…those same people will also give you a cooler full of food and beer because you’re camping and they are done camping(actually happened to me in Okinawa).
yes thanks to streamers who cause public incidents it has become alot worse
Hell yea they are. They just aren’t usa with how open they are about it. I was there for a couple months just visiting around 2012-2016. Japan is definitely superior in how respectful they are in general. However, with a certain percentage of japanese, they try to tie themselves WW2 more than they should
Very much so, I find Asians more xenophobic than other races
My friend is half Japanese and half black. He grew up in Japan and he hates it there so he moved to the US. He was always considered an outsider and they always looked down on him because he is not fully “Japanese”
Speaking as someone who actually lives here and has Japanese family members:
Depends on who you talk to, and to what extent you classify general ignorance as xenophobia.
If you’re spending time with people young enough to grow up in the age of the internet, then they aren’t necessarily more or less “xenophobic” than anyone else. If you’re not a dick, then you’ve got nothing to fear.
There are plenty of older / elderly people who will find foreigners “interesting” or as a “curiosity”, and will marvel at your ability to do the most “basic” *Japanese* thing (like using chopsticks) and/or ask you questions like, is it really true that (Insert random cultural stereotype here)? Now, is that Xenophobia? Depending on the person, it can dip into that territory.
And then of course, there is the small subset of very vocal nationalistic people: but if you’re not going to some political rally or demonstration, (and it’s not election season) honestly, you rarely ever encounter them
All in all, there is PLENTTTTYYY of casual assumptions and stereotyping made about foreigners. A lot of it however, tends to come from a place of ignorance or naivety rather than malice. And even where there is some malice, very few people will be directly confrontational / hostile about it.
This thread is funny
Ask the same question about a Muslim country
Very much so. Usually not overtly, but is it readily apparent in some situations, for example, some restaurants, pubs and onsens are marked Japanese-only, and outsiders will be politely or not-so-politely told to leave.
Yes very much so. They don’t really allow immigration despite their population collapse. They won’t sign the international kidnapping treaties. If a half-Japanese kid is kidnapped during a custody battle by the Japanese parent and taken to Japan, the government will not hep you get the child back. Polite to your face (if you’re white or South Korean), but super racist especially to people with darker skin.
Ask someone from Korea or China on how the Japanese have treated them. The answer will be pretty clear.
My white ass visited recently and I did not encounter a single instance of anyone treating me differently. Not saying xenophobia doesn’t exist but it did not impact my trip in the slightest. And I’m planning to go back when I can afford it again.
Yes, but at its worst it tends to be passive aggressive politeness rather than outright hostility. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a white female, but it seems males and non-white minorities get the worst of it.
Husband got stopped by the police one time asking to check his wallet and passport and stuff. I don’t know if they were just giving him a hard time cause he was a foreigner or maybe he got a description of someone they were looking for, but they were super polite the whole time.
“You will always be treated politely, but you will never be treated like Japanese”
They’ll just bitch about her behind her back. She won’t even know if she doesn’t speak the language. Seriously though, it’s an amazing country and extremely safe. There are a lot of racists, but they’re not overt. Most people are good.
You have to remember that Japan isn’t a hive mind, everyone has different beliefs. You aren’t going to get physically attacked or berated (at least that isn’t common) for being a foreigner. They still are polite. It is more of a societal thing, where you still never be fully accepted in the society if you aren’t Japanese. Some jobs may discriminate against you.
I visited Japan and honestly everyone was so nice and polite! That said, living there may be a different story.
What country are you from, and is it not xenophobic against migrants?
Immigration is a huge political issue in Europe, and the US just instituted a massive deportation program.
Are those countries xenophobic?
It’s funny when y’all wanna talk about racism in America. You wanna see real racism go to Asian countries to them no matter how good you try to adapt you’ll never be them.
There was a video I seen of a Black guy who moved to Japan, he spoke pretty fluent Japanese and was interviewed on the street and asked how it was being Black in Japan. He said at first it was difficult as many kept their distance at first, some would come up to him and touch him to see if his skin would ‘rub off’ (aka most likely first time a Japanese person seen someone who was Black).
However, he mentioned once he had met his neighbors and shown through action that he was assimilating into their culture, and spoke their language, they had no issues with him. And I think that is the correct way to go about things. If you move to another country, you respect their customs and language, otherwise don’t go there.
This post and all the comments have a very western perspective that isn’t really understanding or acknowledging the Japanese fundamental cultural and mindset difference to the western one by trying to box them in to western concepts
I’ve been to Japan multiple times and never experienced any prejudice – The Tokyo area has so many foreigners visiting/living there that it’s seen as somewhat normal. It’s gotten to the point where “gaijin” is viewed as a somewhat offensive term, and the more polite “gaikokujin” is used by most Japanese people now. One thing that is true is that you’ll always be a foreigner, and that they’ll always see you as different; But I’ve still had Japanese strangers strike up conversations and help me with things if needed. As long as you respect the culture and aren’t fooling around, you are respected by most people.
I’ve also seen people in this thread suggest that tourists are viewed better than foreigners living there, but that’s not what I’ve found. People living there often adapt to the culture better and actually speak Japanese, so they get more respect than “bumbling” tourists do.
BTW, if you’re American you’re often viewed as cool. If you’re Korean or Chinese, things get a bit more complicated… A lot of young people don’t care due to the Korean pop culture wave, but many of the older generation still have some prejudice there.
Probably. The term suffers from semantic overload though. I don’t think they generally engage in any more xenophobia towards travelers than anywhere else. If you want to live and work there it’s a different story, you can’t even be a citizen if you’re born there and one parent is full blooded Japanese.