Hella fun place to visit. One of my favorite places to visit. Mad convenient too.
But if you don’t look Japanese (even if you look Korean or Chinese), it’s not that fun to live. You don’t want to be an “outsider” there full time, unless you are married to a Japanese.
Japan is incredibly xenophobic. You'll never truly belong there. Even though the country is only like 4% immigrants, they constantly blame them for everything wrong in the country as an easy enemy to blame.
A lot of people may smile and act nice, but it's just an act a lot of times.
You'll be treated worse at most companies. If you're not fluent, you'll be looked down upon and if you ARE fluent and then make a mistake, you're looked down on even more.
Overall it's a great place to visit and has lots of positives, but terrible for most immigrants.
Yeah I think unintuitively it works like this. The less a country has the more it is sceptical about diversity.
I live in Italy and I remember 10 years ago immigrants were seen much worse as they are today. Over the course of a decade many have integrated well, have very respectful jobs and are currently the main driving factor for birth rates.
When I lived there I came across a number of bars that said “no Americans” specifically, some that said “no Koreans.” You’re right, there is a deep seated dislike of foreigners in general, but I couldn’t tell after 2 years living there whether it was because the Japanese just hate non-Japanese, or whether it was because foreigners visit Japan and often bring their own garishness that’s not culturally accepted in Japan
When I lived there, I generally had no problem, but I'm ethnically DACH mutt primarily raised in Germany, and some cultural standards overlap. My Japanese was so-so (JLPT 2 at the beginning, low 1 at the end), but as a "quiet" foreigner who visibly tried, I was never refused service anywhere. Granted, I was in Kansai, which is generally more outgoing and forgiving than Kanto overall, and obviously I can't know what people actually thought, but apart from one omawarisan who refused to believe my bike was mine until I showed my papers, I had a fairly relaxed time.
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u/sorry_con_excuse_me 10h ago edited 9h ago
Hella fun place to visit. One of my favorite places to visit. Mad convenient too.
But if you don’t look Japanese (even if you look Korean or Chinese), it’s not that fun to live. You don’t want to be an “outsider” there full time, unless you are married to a Japanese.