Japanese stereotypes

[CoolOtaku]

I figured we should start out this sub-forum with a bang, so why don't we all share a stereotype of Japanese people/culture that we love/hate/don't understand/whatever!

I remember I was in Japanese class one morning while in Japan and one of my teachers asked my class why foreigners all think that the Japanese are always on time. It's a stereotype for sure, but not a single person in the room could refute it. The teacher herself tried to demonstrate that it's not true, but ultimately only reinforced the stereotype by giving some meager example of her being as late as fifteen minutes sometimes (*gasp!*).

Now what have we all learned today? Not all Japanese people are always on time. In comparison to Americans though? Perfectly punctual.

The only stereotype that I see is that the Japanese aren't really fans of Americans or Asians from other countries like Korea or China being in their country. Granted, most of these are perpetuated by people who have never been to Japan or have only been once or twice.

So, are the Japanese really that xenophobic or is it just a myth? I've wondered about it.

[CoolOtaku]

It really varies tremendously depending on where you are. To start, I actually did meet a Japanese guy who identifies as a xenophobe. Nice guy. He was just kind of tense and uncomfortable around me, but that's all. When you're in the larger cities like Kyoto and Tokyo, no one takes too much notice. Tokyo is Japan's largest city and is a bustling business area, so foreigners are nothing too out of the ordinary. Kyoto is among the top tourist locations in Japan (the whole city is a tourist spot - it's amazing), so they don't find it too strange when foreigners visit either.

When I was there, I was in Nagoya. It's a large city, but nothing like Tokyo (not many places are). It has the very urban-feeling downtown area, but as you get further out, it becomes more residential with more farmland. Pretty standard situation there. When I would ride the subway, I was hardly ever noticed (at least not blatantly so). When I would switch to the bus, that's when things got iffy. Things were usually just fine, but the only negative experiences I can think of right now occurred on the bus when I was getting further and further away from downtown. I had a young guy, maybe about middle or high school age, get on the bus and just give me this random death glare. He was wearing a mask (not sure what the specific term is, but it's the one they use when they're sick or trying to prevent becoming sick) which only made it creepier cause I could only see his eyes. I was right next to the guy and every time I looked in his general direction, he was glaring at me.

A similar thing happened but with a much older guy on the bus. I was standing in the middle and he was toward the front. It was a pretty empty bus. Like the younger guy, he gave me the death glare for the longest time for no reason.

I was there for a full nine months or so. In all that time, those are really the only experiences that really stick out as being negative. On the whole, I wouldn't go as far as saying they're xenophobic. They're definitely comfortable with their current situation (mostly just Japanese in the country), but that's not surprising.

There's some friction between the Japanese and what are referred to as "zainichi kankokujin," or Koreans residing in Japan. These are Koreans who were brought to Japan during Japan's annexation of Korea and some of them have stayed and raised families. At this point, though, there are third- and possibly even fourth-generation zainichi kankokujin living in Japan who have never even been to Korea and don't know the language. Yet they are still treated as foreigners because they come from a Korean family.

There are complications with the Chinese, too, but I don't want to bore everyone anymore than I probably already have Suffice it to say that Asians are placed under particular scrutiny, and on the whole the Japanese are not what can be called xenophobic.

That quickly exploded into much more than I intended to write >_> Take from it what you will. Should you or anyone else want more explanation, just say the word.

[Sushi_b]

Originally Posted by CoolOtaku

A similar thing happened but with a much older guy on the bus. I was standing in the middle and he was toward the front. It was a pretty empty bus. Like the younger guy, he gave me the death glare for the longest time for no reason.

Yeah, welcome to Asia. This happens but it's usually from older folks who seem to think you have intentions of conquest or destruction of their homeland. Sometimes it's not big deal, but there are days where it gets under your skin.

There's some friction between the Japanese and what are referred to as "zainichi kankokujin," or Koreans residing in Japan. These are Koreans who were brought to Japan during Japan's annexation of Korea and some of them have stayed and raised families. At this point, though, there are third- and possibly even fourth-generation zainichi kankokujin living in Japan who have never even been to Korea and don't know the language. Yet they are still treated as foreigners because they come from a Korean family.

The tensions between the two nations are still quite heavy. Current politics have the issue of Dokdo island and the economies in direct competition. The history continues to plague the Korean side a lot as well. They have a large amount of resentment from the time of occupation and to this day children are taught about how evil Japan was/is. Japan has never fully acknowledged the actions that they took from the 1880s up until WWII and this has been a sore point for a lot of nations in Asia.

There are complications with the Chinese, too, but I don't want to bore everyone anymore than I probably already have Suffice it to say that Asians are placed under particular scrutiny, and on the whole the Japanese are not what can be called xenophobic.

I think China has a pretty bad reputation around the world. With one reason stemming from the poor behaviour of the tourists that visit other places. They act basically exactly the way that they would in China and don't take notice that their actions aren't as accepted in the place they are touring. Throw in a little bit of arrogance that has seemed to come out in the past 10 years and there is a lot that people dislike.

[CoolOtaku]

Originally Posted by Sushi_b

Japan has never fully acknowledged the actions that they took from the 1880s up until WWII and this has been a sore point for a lot of nations in Asia.

Well, if I recall correctly, there have been one or two instances in which the Japanese prime minister has made a public apology for Japan's actions during the war. It's just that it was later rescinded >_>

It's really hard to not feel like Japan does some very silly things sometimes.

[WOTON]

Never been to Japan. But I've been to other places in Asia. I get the stares, but it never felt threatening to me. More like curiosity and sometimes shyness. I've only been to Korea and the Philippines. I remember once in Korea there was a couple and the girl wanted to say something to me, but her boyfriend stopped her. I think she was just curious, probably wanted to practice English.

[Sushi_b]

I'd be likely to follow just as you said WOTON. I'm guessing that the girl was interested to try and practice her English but was far too shy about talking to you. It's pretty common for most people to be curious but too concerned that they will fail at communicating with you.

The Philippines shouldn't have been anything like that though. English is an official language and is taught in all levels of school. Most people there are a little overly friendly and makes you feel a little suspicious of their intentions at times.


Having been back to Japan again, I can say that the women are extremely small. Very boney and look as though they aren't eating enough food. Men had very slim faces and were pretty short as a whole too. Once again no one tried to speak English to me, aside from a guy trying to bum money, despite everyone telling me how helpful and friendly Japanese people are. Not unkind, but not friendly.

[CoolOtaku]

Yeah, I wouldn't say that Japanese people as a whole are friendly beyond the norm found in the US, for example, but their service industry at least is far superior to ours in that regard. My standards for all service have yet to come down since I came back from Japan.

[Sushi_b]

You are very right about their service industry CoolO. It's down right awkward at times though. Moments where you are so used to politely handing money to a cashier and they simply point to a small tray suggesting that you should place the money there is weird to me. I personally find that more disrespectful then actually giving it over to them by hand.

It's probably one of the most unique things about the entire country. I haven't experience quite the same level of service in almost every store as I have in Japan.

Indonesia was interesting in that people who did a poor job of service in some stores were given a tag to wear while at work showing everyone that they need to do a better job in the future. Good workers would wear "Best service" or something like that and poor workers would have "Needs to try harder" on their shirts. I particularly saw this in KFC, but I seem to recall reading that it's common in other shops/restaurants too. Almost like a public humiliation in a way.

[Nickoten]

Originally Posted by CoolOtaku

I figured we should start out this sub-forum with a bang, so why don't we all share a stereotype of Japanese people/culture that we love/hate/don't understand/whatever!

I remember I was in Japanese class one morning while in Japan and one of my teachers asked my class why foreigners all think that the Japanese are always on time. It's a stereotype for sure, but not a single person in the room could refute it. The teacher herself tried to demonstrate that it's not true, but ultimately only reinforced the stereotype by giving some meager example of her being as late as fifteen minutes sometimes (*gasp!*).

Now what have we all learned today? Not all Japanese people are always on time. In comparison to Americans though? Perfectly punctual.

I actually never thought this because a Japanese lecturer of mine (Who's a great teacher!) was goddamn notorious for being late. I'd for whatever reason end up being 5 minutes late for lecture and end up walking to class with her. That's not the only example, but I don't want to paint the opposite picture, either, haha. Suffice to say that I've seen enough evidence against this that I never even knew this was a stereotype.

Well, if I recall correctly, there have been one or two instances in which the Japanese prime minister has made a public apology for Japan's actions during the war. It's just that it was later rescinded >_>

It's really hard to not feel like Japan does some very silly things sometimes.

While I am not by any means defending Japan's actions during World War II, not only have multiple Japanese Prime Ministers publicly apologized for those crimes, but Japan has attempted to pay reparations to China and Korea among other nations. What ended up happening was that Japan paid these reparations directly to the governments of the countries it invaded, and in many cases that money never made it to the countless victims who actually needed it.

China in particular, waived its rights to compensation.

Again, not trying to paint Japan as the good guy in this scenario - hard to do that when you still have Prime Ministers visiting the Yasukuni Shrine with nothing to say about some of the people enshrined there (Hideki Tojo, for example). There was an entire lecture about Japanese war crimes in my history class and as such I learned a lot of things about the issue that I never knew were true. Again, they haven't done all they should have done, but from the way people describe it you'd think that every time World War II comes up Japanese government officials have a good belly laugh.

Oh yeah, and if you guys want to see a bit more of a casual, friendlier side to Japan, come to Kansai! People here will still of course stare at you and talk in hushed voices about that gajin's big nose, but in general Kansai's known for being much "looser," so to speak. Try talking to some friendly-looking (Hard to tell what that looks like, I know) people at the supermarket, you'd be surprised by how sociable and friendly some people can be. There's a reason why a lot of comedy and music acts come from here - people aren't as uptight on the West side.

Of course, every neighborhood is obviously going to be different, so don't think you can chat up anyone on the street who lives in Kansai. Plus even if people are a little friendlier here, it's still pretty formal compared to America! It's just a bit unfair to judge Japan only by big cities in Kanto. That's only a part of the country, and only a part of the culture, is all I'm saying.

[WOTON]

I've heard some stories from other Asians working and living in Japan, that their Japanese employers could be very harsh to them. If their Japanese was not good enough or for some reason the didn't follow proper instructions it was a big problem and verbal scoldings or insults were not uncommon. Japanese think their too high..or better than others..I heard some of them have this type of attitude.. but than again other places have this too.

[CoolOtaku]

Nickoten, you're in Kansai? O_O Since when? Doing what? I'm shocked. That's awesome

[Nickoten]

Finishing up a Japanese degree as a one-year exchange student. Don't worry, it's off to Law school for me after that, haha.