When the castles of good images of Japan falls down in the mind…..

Some of my preconceived notions were getting jolts when encountered with an incident of discrimination though not directed at me. I saw it happened at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station while waiting for train towards Higashi Ojima. Though I tried to convince myself that the acts of racism were not due to the skin color of the victim, I could hardly succeed in convincing myself. There were no other reasons to believe it was not due to skin color. If I could guess correctly, probably it was due to the hate towards a particular race.

And Japan is known for it as many of the personal bloggers declare with their own experiences. I defended many of the negative opinions expressed about Japanese people through this blog.

In acts of discrimination there are always three parties involved. The one who shows the hate feelings, the victim of discrimination towards whom the acts of the racists are expressed publicly and the third one are the witnesses. I was at the third position of witness and was watching the discriminator’s actions as he walked through the plat-form from where the victim was standing in the queue.

At first I thought of not writing about this incident as it may project Japan and its majority good and kind people in a detrimental manner. The discriminator here may be an exception from the vast majority of friendly Japanese people. Though an odd event, I could observe contrary to what I have been telling to my friends that I have never seen any kind of discrimination in Japan. This one of course was pure racist comments he spat on the plat-form with his antagonistic foul mouth.

Let me come out openly with what happened. I was coming down to the plat-form in the escalator at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station. The time was around 6:40 in the evening. The pink car is no more reserved for women. I used to board into the first compartment/car since it will reach first at the Komatsugawa exit by the time the train reaches Higashi Ojima.

There was standing a person who might be from one of the many countries of African continent. The physical characteristics of people including the skin color gives sufficient clue to guess the region and race of them. The person in black was gentle in his position, dress and looks. The moment he entered in a queue, I could see the Japanese young man who was already standing in the front looked at the guy in black and uttered some words in Japanese. The J-man walked away with an angry face and he showed as if he spit on the plat-form. This was to show his unlikeness to the person in black.

We, the witnesses could not see any reason for the J-man’s anger except the one that the B-man stood in his back of queue. They had to travel together once they enter inside the train. The J-man might have dislike towards the B-man’s race. There were no other reason I could guess in mind.

The witnesses of the J-man’s venomous words were just witnessing and did not show any surprise at his action. That is the great thing with Japanese people I have observed. Japanese people have an expressionless face towards many of the events in public.

What was the reaction of the B-man? He was engaged in eating chewing gum as if nothing new has happened. Some of the people walking were looking at his reaction, but he was not looking at anybody. He was gentle in his stand and the J-man was the ugly one showed up his foul mouth at the public place. Who is the winner here!

This one event looks different and dirty among other pages of life in Japan so far. Though not a victim of Japanese racism and discrimination towards foreigners, it hurts my feelings. At many incidents, some witnesses bear deep wounds than the victims. Still I bear the wounds and remember the moment I get down to the plat-form. That plat-form was the place where the castles of flatter on Japan built from the images of beautiful and kind people fell down in my mind. Still I like to believe this is an odd incident.

Attitude towards foreigners in Japan – Racism in Japan

This blog was running a poll on this subject. The question was;

‘Do you think Japanese people are fairly good to Foreigners?’

78% of the visitors to this blog responded that Japanese people are fairly good to foreign people.
21% of the visitors said ‘To some extent’ Japanese people are good
Only 1% of the visitors told, Japanese people are not good to foreign people.

What I conclude from the poll and along with my 10 months living experience in Japan is Japanese people are really good to foreigners.

Almost 95% of the visitors to this blog are foreigners. Foreigners themselves say that they do not face any kind of discrimination in public in Japan compared to many other countries. Many times the fear of Japanese people to talk in English is misinterpreted as aversion towards foreigners.

My own experience says I have not faced any discrimination till now. I used to commute the heavily crowded Toei trains and Tozai line trains in the morning and evenings. Literally the people are sand-witched. Had any of the Japanese man or woman or children show any kind of dislike towards a foreigner at their face or action, I could have sensed it.

Reading through some Forums for foreigners, I had gone through many statements that they have faced discrimination in Japan. Some of the foreign people said, Japanese people are racists. In one discussion, when I commented that it may be due to the English speaking fear of Japanese people and told my own experience during the past months, I got the answer that ‘Jayaprakash is the lucky Indian’, who have not faced any discrimination till now in Japan.

I really don’t know on what basis some foreigners who lived in Japan say that Japanese people discriminated them. I have written in this blog on June that I used to attend a physiotherapy course for the disc prolapse and sciatic pain. 5 days a week I continued the course for 3 months and now continuing 2 days a week.

The clinic I have been going is having only Japanese staff and nurses. They do not speak English and I am not fluent in Japanese. I am the only foreigner patient visiting the clinic as far as I know. As part of the treatment, the doctor and the medical staff have to touch the body. I have not seen any kind of negative attitude towards me from any of them. In fact they treat me as if I am a Japanese and exchange all kinds of wishing words in Japanese while I enter the clinic and leaving the clinic after treatment.

Coming out of the clinic, I used to enter the nearby convenient store (kombini in Japanese!) to buy snacks and juice. Instead of discrimination, I have seen the little sales girls are interested to receive money from a foreigner!. That was really surprising to me when I thought of the bad experiences narrated in the websites and forums on discrimination of foreigners in Japan.

Frankly and very truly I can say, I have not faced any kind of discrimination or racism in Japan.

To mention one more warm relationship I have with my hair dresser Takagawa san, who runs his Hair dressing saloon near Toyocho. Every month I visit his saloon. He knows my choice in the Indian hair style. Only once for the first time in March 2008 I explained in my broken Japanese to him about my hair style. He do not ask me every month about the way my hair should look like. He knows. He talk in Japanese while dressing my hair. I could catch 20% of his words and the remaining portions I correlate and guess. The communication is all about understanding between two people, not really all about language!

Some day, it will be time for Takagawa-san and his wife to take snacks and traditional Japanese food. All the time they have invited me to join with them. One day, Mrs. Takagawasan gave me a set of traditional Japanese food. At first I hesitated to receive it from them. To be frank, it was due to my fear of getting discriminated from Japanese people as read in the forums and website. But they insisted to take their food and I obeyed.

Having been passed through many incidents of life in Japan and mingled with Japanese people, if I am true to my heart, I can not say that ‘I face discrimination in Japan'. I am really sorry that I could not join that group of foreigners who likes to announce to the rest of the world that Japanese people discriminate foreigners.

For those who say Japanese people discriminate foreigners, I do not have any advise or do not know what you mean by discrimination. But think before announcing: Is it only to catch attention of public, because discrimination is an issue in your own country? So, you want to declare to the rest of the world that Japanese people are also not free from that devlish nature in the mind like your own country men?

Further reading on this subject from experienced people are recommended. click here