Racism, Part 1

They say that when you're angry about something and you write a missive or email, you should wait about 20 minutes and then throw it away (or delete it, in this digital age). Does that hold true for blog entries, as well? Perhaps, but I'm going to write about this while it's fresh. This may get a little ranty, but I'll do my best to stay on course. I've decided to divide my thoughts into two parts. In Part 1, I'll focus on Japan in an international context. In Part 2 I want to talk more about the U.S., and Japan in comparison to my home country.

So today Brian and I were on our evening dinner break (we teach night classes on Mondays). We had a bit of extra time, so we went for a walk and decided to stop by Family Mart (a Japanese convenience store chain) on the way back to school. We both bought some tea, but as I had some bills to pay, Brian exited the store first. Once my business was concluded, I started to walk out, and noticed that Brian was talking to a couple of well-dressed, middle-aged gentlemen outside the store. Oh, that Brian - always making new friends. So I thought.

As I went outside and began to introduce myself to Brian's new friends, one of them greeted me with a "Konnichiwa" and a badge. I glanced at Brian and noticed that he was cooperatively but obviously unhappily engaged in conversation with the officer's partner. "May I see your...gaikokujin touroku shoumeishoumeisho, please?" he asked good-naturedly. Somewhat stunned, I nodded and with a "Hai," pulled out my Alien Registration Card. "あぁ、日本語大丈夫ですか?" (Ah, is Japanese okay?) he asked. I considered for a moment. I remembered having read about other foreigners' experiences with Japanese police, and a common piece of advice seems to have been to never admit to speaking Japanese. If you do, you may find that you may misunderstand something, but having said you speak Japanese you have waived your chance at the "stupid gainjin" card. Yeah, but we haven't done anything wrong, I thought. I don't want to make this harder than it has to be. "はい、大丈夫です," I answered. Yes, Japanese is fine.

As the detective examined my I.D. and took notes, he asked me stuff like where I live and where I work. As the shock wore off and began to be replaced by annoyance and indignation, I also began to direct my answers towards the other office who was talking to Brian. "Where do you work? Itami?" my guy asked in Japanese. "I looked at him and said yes, also in Japanese, then looked at his partner and added "But I work at two schools. Brian and I work together at the school near here."
"Ahhh, you two are friends?" one of them asked. We both nodded.

After a few minutes of this, I received my I.D. back and could tell this interview was wrapping up. "Is everything all right?" I asked. "Did something happen?" I wanted to add, "Do we look like criminals to you?" But I held my tongue. After all, this was almost over and we had to get back to work.

"Ah, no. We are police detectives and this area is in our jurisdiction. We are checking the touroku-shoumeisho of foreigners." Then they both smiled and thanked us. We nodded and walked away without saying anything.

Now I don't know if these two guys were just feeling like giving some foreigners a hard time, but I doubt it. They weren't rude. They seemed like they were trying to be nice. They were probably just following orders and maybe had some kind of quota to fill (hence the notes they took). But what an assignment for detectives. Don't they have some crime they could be investigating, rather than stopping well-dressed white guys to make sure they're not illegal aliens? I guess not.

I've been talking (or Facebook messaging) with a friend recently about immigration and role of foreigners in Japan. Basically, if you're a foreigner in Japan, you must always carry either your passport with visa or your Alien Registration Card, which is basically the equivalent of U.S. Green Card, except not for citizens. If you are stopped and fail to produce one of these forms of identification, you may be arrested. But I've never been stopped, I told him. Ironic - that was just last week I said that.

Now I bet a lot of Japanese people would defend this. I can hear it now - "But the officers didn't know that you were here legally. They were just checking. Sometimes there are illegal foreigners in Japan. Japan is an island." And besides, many foreigners commit crimes. They may not say this, but many Japanese probably think it. This is because the Japanese media and politicians often portray foreigners as dangerous or more likely to commit crime. Which is statistically not the case at all, at least not uniformly.

From Wa-Pedia:


If we concentrate on real crimes, we find a completely different ranking though. Iranians, Russians or Philippinos have been arrested for a much higher number of offences [visa-overstaying, speeding, ect] than crimes [theft, rape, murder, etc], for instance. We also see that Brazilians and Japanese were arrested for proportionally more crimes than offences. Here is the real crime rate :

Chinese (0.428%)

Brazilians (0.351%)

Japanese (0.291%)

Russians (0.271%)

Philippinos (0.101%)

Thais (0,051%)

Koreans (0.024%)

Britons (0.021%)

Americans (0.016%)

This portrayal of foreigners as more criminal than Japanese surely feeds the system by which Japan is seemingly destined to spiral, crash, and economically burn in a number of decades. Who wants criminals for neighbors? Hence the lack of serious opposition to draconian Japanese immigration policies.

And then there is something else about the Japanese mentality that I find very ironic. As Will Ferguson observed in his recounting of his adventures hitchhiking across Japan, Japanese people are either very arrogant or very self-conscious. They care very much about promoting their country and accomplishments, and what other countries think of them. Just the other day in class, one of the teachers I work with was giving our students a lecture on the shinkansen and how some other countries (like Vietnam) are building their own. He concluded with an encouragement that if any of the students go abroad they should tell everyone about the  glorious shinkansen, a wonderful Japanese achievement.

Well let me tell you what - as a JET, it's my job to be a cultural ambassador. I'm supposed to spread my country's culture, and when I eventually return home I am to recount my experiences in Japan. So yes, I will tell people about the amazing restaurants with conveyor-belts of sushi, and the beautiful Japanese hills, and hidden shrines and temples, and about the kindness I experienced in various parts of the country. But I will also tell how I was stopped and asked to explain myself because I was Caucasian. Does it matter that I could have potentially been a naturalized Japanese citizen? Nope.

Sure, this is their country. They can make discriminatory laws and policies if they like. But in doing so, they do not foster international relations and cross-cultural understanding. They make a line, a division between them and us. And it isn't mutual understanding they are promoting, but this division.

時間がかかり過ぎそうだから、全体に訳しないけど、一般的にわめいたんです。でも何点か書くよ。

今日僕とブライアンは警察に近づいて声をかけれたんです。なぜか？ただ白人だからでしょう。外国人登録証明書を見せられて、色んな質問聞かれた。どこに住んでいますか？どこで働いていますか？仕事はなんですか？

警察は失礼か意地悪ではなかった・・・が、まだ不当な処置って気持ちでした。怒って「私たちは犯罪みたいですか？」と聞きたかったんですけどそんなは始まらないな。

日本では、一般的に外国人の方が日本人より罪を犯すってイメージ信じられてると思う。でもそんな証拠がないんですよ。

ALTとして、文化の大使だ。日本には、アメリカの文化を分け合って、アメリカに戻ると、日本にいた間の経験を分け合う。もちろん、いいこと・・・回転寿司、とても美しい丘やお寺とか、色んな人の優しさ・・・でもそして、この経験を分け合うよ。

多分普通な日本人として、これはたいしたことないんですね。ですから、変わらない。