I've been living in Japan longer than this guy and I can say that these sorts of things happen, but I find it totally ridiculous to get upset about them. If you are angered about the way your are treated, you really should return to your home country.
I say this because the level of self-absorption in this mentality is astounding. People are naturally going tend to feel a range of emotions around a foreigner that they wouldn't feel around someone who looks like them. Rather than being upset or lambasting the Japanese culture for "racism" it is much more productive, I feel, to treat people kindly and let them discover that there really is nothing to fear.
While he did do that with the little girl in the article, he also went ahead and wrote an entire newspaper article that effectively condemns Japan.
The overt cultural aggressiveness that I see dominating the airwaves thanks to websites like twitter more often than not leaves me feeling sick to my stomach: I have no respect for people who feel they have to right to forcefully make someone else do or act a particular way regardless of how "correct" they feel their way is. It is a seat on a train for gods sake.
I say this because the level of self-absorption in this mentality is astounding. People are naturally going tend to feel a range of emotions around a foreigner that they wouldn't feel around someone who looks like them. Rather than being upset or lambasting the Japanese culture for "racism" it is much more productive, I feel, to treat people kindly and let them discover that there really is nothing to fear.
While he did do that with the little girl in the article, he also went ahead and wrote an entire newspaper article that effectively condemns Japan.
The overt cultural aggressiveness that I see dominating the airwaves thanks to websites like twitter more often than not leaves me feeling sick to my stomach: I have no respect for people who feel they have to right to forcefully make someone else do or act a particular way regardless of how "correct" they feel their way is. It is a seat on a train for gods sake.