I'm sorry for picking this out from an otherwise great article (though I disagree on a few other minor points), but I can't let this slide:
> That said: is racism a bigger problem in Japan than e.g. in the United States? Oh, yes. Unquestionably.
I disagree. I disagree so very much I don't know if I can even put it into words.
Being the "wrong" race in the US can be a matter of life and death. It's not even fair to compare racism on that level to the kind that exists in Japan. Do I really need to talk about how pervasive racism is in the US? And how extreme it is? Pick your poison: income, education, prison sentences, violence, etc. This should be common knowledge by now. Please, please don't downplay it. It's huge.
It's interesting nonetheless. You really can see a difference between whites and non-whites when they talk about racism in Japan. There's a reason why there's such a difference of opinion. Growing up having the race advantage all your life and never giving it much thought, only to move to country where it no longer applies is a huge shock to many people.
Really. Ask non-whites what they think about racism in Japan. I think you'll find that most people will tell a very different story. It's usually something along the lines of, "The amount of ignorance is astounding sometimes, but I haven't really felt hatred/hostility directed towards me because of my race, which is refreshing." The ignorance is certainly bad, though also isn't all that surprising if you've had no meaningful conversations with someone of a particular race all your life.
Yes, if you're talking about anti-discriminatory laws, there's a world of difference. They're almost non-existent in Japan. Anti-discriminatory laws didn't come about in the US overnight. A lot of people suffered and fought a long war before we even saw a positive change. Again, not exactly fair to compare the two countries here. It doesn't make it right, but let's put it in perspective please. The US has a very, very dark history regarding race, and it's not even close to being over.
There's also one other important difference in my opinion. In the US, you're dealing with extremes on both sides. People who absolutely abhor you for being a certain race or having a certain sexual orientation, and others who will loudly defend your rights and speak out when they see injustice. In Japan, you don't have much of either. Which is worse I guess depends on your perspective... but it shouldn't be too surprising why a lot of people think the former is worse. Hostility is a very difficult thing to deal with.
A kid's parents can be instructed to not attend public school in Ogaki, by a school principal, in front of a room full of witnesses, not one willing to contradict him, on the basis of his race.
I have very little desire to litigate American attitudes on race. As a positive statement: there is no city in the United States where a public school principal can literally say "I do not allow $GROUP in my school." at a PTA meeting and expect to be employed 48 hours later.
Having lived in Japan myself I can attest to similar incidents. Another point to make is that some people mistake Japanese politeness to mean they are also being "nice" or favourable; Japanese people on the whole are invariably polite, even when they are being rude or exclusionary.
And one last point to make is that in Japan racism has a somewhat fluid hierarchy; certain races are viewed more favourably than others (occasionally markedly so), the amount of racism is also affected by the social status of the foreigner.
The rationale was "His presence would be disruptive to the educational environment." (That's a very generous translation of「皆に迷惑かけるだろ。」) Forgive me if I have to be oblique about the rest of the story, but it does not include "When apprised that this happened, people in a position of authority immediately said 'That is outrageous! Enroll the kid!'" A school which would take him was eventually located.)
This is so wrong I don't know where to start. Have you lived as a non-white minority in both Japan and the US? I have, and so have many friends and family. We can unanimously attest that we're far better treated in the US than Japan.
But let's put aside personal anecdotes for a second.
In the US, how many minorities serve as executives of large companies? The number of black, Indian, etc executives in a company like Google probably outnumber what you'd see in all Japanese companies combined.
How many minorities serve in the US government? How many serve in the Japanese government?
How many minorities do you see working in the US media? What about Japan?
It's funny you mention that, because the low percentage of ethnic minorities in Japan is a direct consequence of their famously restrictive immigration policy... which even further proves the point.
And of course, no benchmark is perfect. So why not provide a better one and compare the US and Japan using your own benchmark? I'd love to hear your results.
Japan has a very large population and appears to value cultural conformity very highly, it doesn't necessarily imply racism to keep immigration low.
There is no single good metric for racism because it is complicated but the average person is probably more concerned about whether they are likely to become a victim of crime because of their race than whether they could theoretically become CEO of a megacorp.
>the average person is probably more concerned about whether they are likely to become a victim of crime because of their race than whether they could theoretically become CEO of a megacorp.
Has the average person been polled on whether they would prefer restrictions on employment or freedom from racial violence? I'll take my beating, please.
If you read the article, you would find that discrimination in employment and housing isn't limited to who gets to be a CEO, that was just synecdoche. I'm energetically disagreeing that the primary worry (or even the secondary worry) of people getting discriminated against for their race is the threat of physical violence.
The article is written from a white person's perspective and doesn't delve deeply into whether discrimination is equal against all foreigners or whether it is worse for some ethnic groups over others, my comments were a direct response to asdfologist's comment.
It seems wrong to conclude that violence would not be a possible concern though, there are many minority groups across the globe for whom it is a very serious concern, though I don't know the situation in Japan.
There's a fairly large literature in labor economics on discrimination in the labor market. Reductive summary of consensus'ish opinion going back to 1996 [1]:
1) Very large gaps between average wages of whites and blacks
2) Controlling for ability* erases almost all the disparity
3) White and black infants have same distribution of ability
4) Large disparity in ability develops between white and blacks by age 18
Disparities between whites and blacks seem to be more a product of poverty rather than bigoted employers. There is obviously more to racism than employment and wages, but this is a significant. To be clear, this is not to hand wave away a serious social problem, but rather to focus attention on the actual causes of it. If it were simply racism, there are easier solutions. Just appeal to the greed of rapacious capitalists: perfectly qualified workers from visible minorities would be underpriced wrt the majority. If instead differences in wages instead reflect differences in skills (from crappy schools, dysfunctional family environments, etc), then the problem is a little more insoluble.
* Ability is obviously a fuzzy concept. "ability" here means a score on a version of the Defense Dept's ability test from the 80's (the National Longitudinal Study of Youth). Results hold up pretty well with different measures though.
I (a white male) was once going to clubs in Tokyo with an Indian friend when he was denied entry into a fairly low-class establishment. Flabbergasted, I ranted and raved in shock at the overt racism of a type I'd never before witnessed.
He calmed me down, saying that Japan had actually been far milder in its racism towards him than most nations, and that he felt more comfortable there than in the U.S., Australia, and certainly India.
What ethnicities/races are you talking about here in particular?
I suppose African-Americans will probably experience less animosity in Japan than in the US. But I think the ones subject to severe racism in Japan are rather other Asians, such as Chinese or Koreans.
Japan is a very ethnically homogenous country with almost zero immigration, and it is my understanding that that is due to the fact that foreigners are not very well accepted. Since people of different races hence represent almost negligible parts of the Japanese populace, you might consider it less of a problem than in the US, where racisms exists between citizens of the same state.
Disclaimer: I've never been to Japan, please correct me if I have the wrong impression.
> That said: is racism a bigger problem in Japan than e.g. in the United States? Oh, yes. Unquestionably.
I disagree. I disagree so very much I don't know if I can even put it into words.
Being the "wrong" race in the US can be a matter of life and death. It's not even fair to compare racism on that level to the kind that exists in Japan. Do I really need to talk about how pervasive racism is in the US? And how extreme it is? Pick your poison: income, education, prison sentences, violence, etc. This should be common knowledge by now. Please, please don't downplay it. It's huge.
It's interesting nonetheless. You really can see a difference between whites and non-whites when they talk about racism in Japan. There's a reason why there's such a difference of opinion. Growing up having the race advantage all your life and never giving it much thought, only to move to country where it no longer applies is a huge shock to many people.
Really. Ask non-whites what they think about racism in Japan. I think you'll find that most people will tell a very different story. It's usually something along the lines of, "The amount of ignorance is astounding sometimes, but I haven't really felt hatred/hostility directed towards me because of my race, which is refreshing." The ignorance is certainly bad, though also isn't all that surprising if you've had no meaningful conversations with someone of a particular race all your life.
Yes, if you're talking about anti-discriminatory laws, there's a world of difference. They're almost non-existent in Japan. Anti-discriminatory laws didn't come about in the US overnight. A lot of people suffered and fought a long war before we even saw a positive change. Again, not exactly fair to compare the two countries here. It doesn't make it right, but let's put it in perspective please. The US has a very, very dark history regarding race, and it's not even close to being over.
There's also one other important difference in my opinion. In the US, you're dealing with extremes on both sides. People who absolutely abhor you for being a certain race or having a certain sexual orientation, and others who will loudly defend your rights and speak out when they see injustice. In Japan, you don't have much of either. Which is worse I guess depends on your perspective... but it shouldn't be too surprising why a lot of people think the former is worse. Hostility is a very difficult thing to deal with.