Why do Japanese People Hate Foreigners？

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

today I want to talk about why do some

Japanese people, or why do a lot of

Japanese people, seem to hate foreigners

and Westerners in particular. Now, as

someone who lived in Japan for several

multiple years, I don't actually have any

experiences of receiving racism because as

you can see, I look pretty Asian since I'm

half Asian. I look pretty Asian and I

don't look that different to your average

Japanese person. But I have had several

Black friends and white friends from

America and from Europe, and unfortunately

they can't really say the same because

they did come to me complaining a few

times about how they received racism when

they were in Japan. Now, I'm not saying

that if you're black or white in Japan,

you're going to receive a lot of racism.

You're probably going to receive some

racism if you're there for long periods of

time. It's just going to happen. You're

going to have to accept the fact that

there will be racist stuff happening to

you. But in general, I don't believe that

most Japanese people are racist. It's just

some of them can be pretty racist. Now,

why does it seem like a lot of old

Japanese people are racist? Racist? Does

it come from hatred, or does it come from

something else? I don't really believe

that Japanese people hate foreigners. I

think they're more scared of foreigners.

So there's a stereotype where foreigners,

especially Westerners from America, can be

very loud and annoying and obnoxious and

usually very large in size, either very

tall or very fat. And I've actually had

YouTuber streamer friends from America who

fit both of these criteria, and they were

extremely loud. And I even heard stories

about how they were warned several times

in restaurants to keep the noise down

because they spoke so loudly. I don't know

what it is with Americans, but they have

very, very loud voices. When you're in

Japan, you can't speak loudly. You can't

shout and be loud. You've got to speak

quietly and calmly like this. Otherwise,

you're going to scare Japanese people,

and then they're going to be scared of

foreigners. And this is the main problem,

that Japanese people are scared of

foreigners. I swear, every time one of my

foreigner friends in Japan came to me

complaining about some kind of racist

experience they just had, it always came

down to the fact that Japanese people were

just scared of them. So a few examples

would be, I had this Black American friend

in Japan, and he would constantly complain

about how he was being treated badly just

because he's Black. And one of the main

things he would complain about is when he

sat on the train, no one would sit next to

him. He'd always end up sitting there and

there'd be empty spaces to his left and

right, even though there were a lot of

people on the train. Japanese people just

didn't want to come and sit next to him,

and he thought it was because he was

Black. And sure, maybe that was part of

the reason, but I think the other reason

resistance were because he was a very

large, intimidating, imposing-looking guy.

And your average Japanese person would

just have all of these assumptions about

him purely based on the fact that he's a

big black guy. Number one, they would

think he doesn't speak Japanese at all.

And number two, they might be scared that

he might start speaking in English at

them, and then they wouldn't understand

what he's saying, and then they'd feel

really uncomfortable. And to be honest, I

didn't really understand why he got so

upset about it. I wouldn't really be that

upset if people didn't come and sit next

to me on the train. I wish they wouldn't

because then I would have more space to

myself when I sit on public transport.

But it seems like he was really offended

that no one wanted to sit next to him.

Another really common complaint I hear

from foreigners in Japan, usually white

guys, is that when they go into some kind

of bar, like a very small bar on a very

quiet side street, or a very small

restaurant that's usually run and managed

by a very old Japanese guy— I've heard so

many stories of white guys going into a

bar and then just told to get out or to

leave, or they're told that the shop isn't

open when it clearly is. I recently saw a

livestream where these 2 guys Chris and

Connor were doing a bike trip, and they

talked about how they tried to get into a

Japanese restaurant and the owner there

just looked at them and told them to get

out in Japanese. And I thought to myself,

yep, this doesn't really surprise me.

I've heard this so many times, and it's

just kind of sad and depressing.

Uh, that was thunder. I just find it so

sad and depressing that we're in 2022 and

Japan is still refusing entry to

foreigners to into their restaurants or

bars just because they aren't Japanese and

just because they assume that

these foreigners don't speak Japanese.

And that's what I believe to be the main

reason why they're not letting these

people into the bars or restaurants.

They're scared. They're scared that they

won't be able to communicate with them

because it's usually old Japanese people

who run these tiny bars or tiny

restaurants and they don't speak any

English at all. They're just kind of

worried that they won't be able to

communicate with these foreigners, and

they're also worried that these foreigners

are going to be really loud and really

scary and they're really big and

intimidating, so they'd rather just not

bother at all and just tell them to go

away or pretend that their shop is closed

when actually it's not. And I really just

don't know how they can get away with

doing this in Japan. How is it okay for

restaurants and bars and shops to just

tell foreigners to leave just because

they're not Japanese? Can you imagine that

happening in England or any other kind of

Western country? Imagine in England you go

to a restaurant or a pub and they tell you

to leave just because you're not white.

That would never happen. I actually think

that's even illegal. If you try to do

that, the police might come knocking at

your door and you might get into legal

trouble for being racist. But in Japan,

it just happens and it's kind of accepted.

And I think this is wrong. It really needs

to change. There's something fundamentally

rotten down to the core when it comes to

Japan's blatant xenophobia in its society.

I think what's probably happened in most

of these restaurants where the old person

who runs it or owns it decides not to

serve foreigners is that they might have

had a bad experience experience with a few

rotten eggs that came from Western

countries or America. Maybe they had some

very loud and obnoxious, rowdy American

customers that got really drunk and then

had a fight inside of the store. And then

because of that one bad experience, he

decided to never again allow foreigners

into his bar or restaurant. And that's

just kind of sad. So I think the main

problem comes down to an inability to

communicate with foreigners. You might

think that Japanese people can speak

English because they spend years and years

studying English in school. But this is

just to pass exams. They really cannot

speak English at all. They can barely

string together a very basic sentence.

Maybe they can say hello and thank you and

how are you. But apart from that, they

can't really convey anything more complex

than basic greetings. So if you're black

or white and you're in Japan, you've had

some kind of experience where you were

told to get out of a bar or restaurant,

or people don't want to sit next to you on

the train, it's probably not because they

hate you. It's probably because they're

scared of you, just because you look very

different to how Japanese people look.

There's also good types of racism

depending on how you see it. If you're

white and good-looking in Japan, you might

have an experience where you're just

walking down the street and a bunch of

school kids will want to take pictures

with you and take selfies, or they just

want to say hello to you. And I think most

people won't really be offended by that.

Actually, most people might feel flattered

because it feels like you're a celebrity

just walking down the street and then a

bunch of strangers come up to you asking

to take a picture together. I've even had

a friend from Canada who said he was just

walking around and some people asked him

to sign his autograph for them and take a

photo with them just because he's white

and he was fairly decent looking, I guess.

So I hope this video doesn't put anyone

off going to Japan when it finally

reopens, but I'm just warning you that if

you're not Asian and you go to Japan, you

are going to look very, very different to

everyone else. You're going to look

extremely different depending how dark

your skin is, and some Japanese people are

just going to be very scared of you,

especially elderly Japanese people.

They're going to find you very

intimidating and very scary, especially

depending on how you dress and how your

attitude is and the kind of aura you give

off. I'd say try not to take it

personally, try not to get too offended.

It's just a problem that they have. It's

not something you've done wrong. It's

just, you know, how Japan is sometimes.