I guess I don’t find it odd that the biggest complaint English teachers have about Japan is the “education system” and the ultimate solution is always “learn more English”. Let’s press the stop button on that classroom CD shall we?

But what i find most odd about the Glens of this world and the recent “micro-aggression” trend is that they are sending mixed messages all the time.

The crux of the message is this: “Learn English. Appreciate my culture. But don’t speak English to me and don’t ask me where I’m from. Don’t ask me any personal questions at all. They bore me. But know me deeply.”

We all know the Japanese have very little tolerance for BS of this kind. They will shoot you down in flames and drag your name laughingly through the mud as well they should!

1. Start with a preconceived notion that another Culture is inferior.
2. Use cliched stereotypes and misinformation to pigeonhole said Culture.
3. Rationalize malicious attack on Culture using specious evidence that’s all in the author’s head.
4. And of course the solution is that they need more white people to teach them the way and educate them in proper culture.

Textbook example of The White Man’s Burden.
Rudyard Kipling would be proud.
But hey, maybe I’m being too harsh… I mean, up until the 70s the solution most Australians would jump isn’t that Japan needs more white people to educate them. A few decades ago, you would’ve been suggesting we kidnap Japanese to eradicate their culture entirely and breed the yellow out of them.
So I guess, there is some progress and hope for the perpetually racist nation of Australia afterall.

RE: cultural generalisations, well let’s be honest here, have you ever been to a foreign country with a Japanese person and seen how they’re talked to? Some the “soft racism” can be a bit “harder” than it is here in Japan!
My guess is in some cases it’s bad blood from WW2, but who knows for sure. Jpse on the other hand are generally more “over it” than westerners in my experience.

As for the restaurant/cafe situation; even though my wife just spoke fluent English to the waiter, he will still default to me to ask me a follow up question, as he can see she’s “not frum raan ‘ere”.

However, ultimately, Glen’s analysis is a product of Glen’s rather over-active imagination. I think we all know that this “Japanese don’t sit next to foreigners on the train” nonsense is exactly that, nonsense. The fact that this trope lives on is testament to both culture shock and the cloud of myths that is perpetuated online by the English-speaking community. Anyhow, it’s been making the rounds long enough, don’t you think? Simply doesn’t happen.

Unfortunately there is nothing in this rather bland analysis that we haven’t heard a thousand time before. More JETs? Really? It’s up to a mob of churlish 20-somethings to the country from itself?

I wonder if people write these screeds after visiting Saudi Arabia or Burma, or are those places considered third world enough not to merit the angst?

What is it about a successful asian country that produces such a hiccup of desperate polemic from your average mind-blown anglo-saxon. We’ve all seen it happen/been through it etc.

C’mon, you visit a country where you don’t speak the language fluently and you have some communication issues? Isn’t it just that simple? Where does this unseemly desire to plead your treatise on “the Japanese” to other English-speaking foreigners in a English publication really come from?

Some say culture shock, others say it’s just the result of the demographic and still others say that’s it’s an insidious form of racism itself, the superiority complex writ large.

Given the news about the shocking attitudes toward immigration in the news in Australia at the moment, perhaps one should focus on the home front as well!

If you were saying hello to everyone, Japanese and foreigners alike, it would still be mighty strange but at least it would be fair!

Ignoring Japanese people all day and vigorously nodding at every foreigner you see just seems racist to me, although in a backhanded fashion.

Now Pauly, does it really matter what you do in your country?
I’m not from there and both of us are over here so what possible bearing could it have on our (non-existent) relationship.

Please everybody nod and smile as you please but draw the line at the enforcement of nodderation on others!

Not only do your comments come across as arrogant and hateful, they also call into question the “moderation” system of the Metropolis comments section.

“Living here is the closest many people get to feeling like a celebrity. It just has the unfortunate side effect of making some foreigners rather inhospitable to others—particularly online”

I was joking about being single and alone at 30, how about you guys?
Perhaps neither of you will have to worry about people coming up to you.

Also, if you think that all Japanese people talk about is food and EXILE, you need to wake up and make some real friends. However, judging by your attitude, I can understand why you probably don’t have (m)any.

when relationships with strangers take precedence over relationships with friends and neighbours then isolation is to blame.

that uber-dorky guy debito arudou has a piece in the Japan Times about how he can’t go outside anymore because a taxi driver or bartender might ask him where he is from and so he has become an angry hermit, banging away at his oft-abused keyboard.

I often wonder why foreigner’s relationships with Japanese people and with each other become so tortured in Japan.

I have encountered foreigners like this, there is one guy who lives across the street who wants to be everybody’s friend and gets in a huff when I studiously ignore him. Unfortunately he has a rather dorky sense of fashion and I wouldn’t be seen dead talking to him.

How should I handle the situation?

Not a big deal if you don’t want to chat, maybe just a raised eyebrow or nod:
*You work for AEON, GABA etc and are surrounded by foreigners all day.
*You live in central Tokyo, Ropponghi maybe, there a thousands of foreigners around you at all times.

@johnnyrabbit I’d never freak out at someone, that’d make it awkward for ME, I just want the other person to realise they’re being rude and they aren’t the only foreigner living in my town. I’m educating politeness, not stalking them!

Has anyone ever noticed that even short-term visitors do the same thing? I’m talking backpacks, huge suitcases in tow, no Jpse ability at all, looking lost.
I saw a young couple looking frantically around them like they were about to miss a train and I said “are you guys OK, need any help?” and they gave me a look like I’d asked them to empty their wallets into my bag!

When a resident foreigner avoids making eye contact, could it be that the person came to Japan for interacting with Japanese and is not interested in the same old exchange of information conversations in a fleeting moment on the train, on the street, in a convenience store? Or just on a tight time schedule? OK, I accept. Social etiquette is the question remains unanswered.

Charltzy, you would definitely get your existence acknowledged of me with a smile and a knod, but punishing looks if ignored?

Thanks Meredith for the Reddit’s japan and japanlife forums info, I’ll check it out, hopefully not as much propagating the culture of criticism as gaijinpot…

Trying to “punish” strangers on the street for not saying hello to you is not normal acceptable behaviour. It’s creepy.

I’ve had one foreigner freak out on a train in Tokyo because I didn’t say hello and go over to talk to him. He completely lost it.

None of you have the right to dictate to strangers how they should react to you.

As for greeting other foreigners, I am the “gentle nod and smile” type. All I’m looking for in return is a gentle nod and smile back, but it’s rare to get it – in fact, it’s rare to get eye contact, so perhaps the people I encounter have just trained themselves into Japanese ways of interaction with strangers on the street. I don’t usually get scowls, more often I just get ignored. And if someone’s having a bad day, that’s fine, I get that way too, and I ignore overtures at friendliness. But sometimes I get the feeling that the person doesn’t want to interact with me because – gasp! – I’m another foreigner.

But we do have something in common besides being in the same place at the same time: we are both strangers in a strange land. And length of stay does not make one any less of a gaijin…perhaps it just makes you better able to handle being in the minority. Or, in some cases, less able to handle it!

I like to “punish” people who ignore me on the street, if I see someone is avoiding me or giving with a wide birth, I go out my way to get eye contact, maybe even say “Hi!” to make them notice.

Worst case scenario, they pass by without saying anything but feel awkward about it (I win, douchebag)
Best case scenario, they “hey” back and maybe strike up a conversation (We both win!)

Personally I just don’t get it, do people not want to make new friends? What do they do at work, sit chatting up the Jpse staff and ignore all the foreigners? (Actually I think I know the answer to that)

I absolutely adored this article – Henry put into words something I’ve felt ever since I got here – 6 stars out of 5!