丸い穴に四角いくい (Square Peg In A Round Hole)

[perfectchaosrei]

Is being Black in Japan all that different from being any other non Japanese minority group in Japan?

It's something I've been thinking about recently after one of my homies and a recent discoverer of this blog noted the Black in Japan title and said something like, "...like being Black in Japan is different than being anything else in Japan" (not an exact quote, but close enough).

I originally titled this blog Black in Japan for two reasons: 1) I'm Black 2) I was going to Japan. My intentions with the blog were to cover the struggles foreigners go through when trying to look for a job and getting to know a very unfamiliar country and culture and to talk about my experience in Japan as a Black man. Before coming here, I had heard that Japan was a country full of racists. All the Sambo imagery I came across while researching the topic (Mr. Popo, anyone?) didn't exactly do much to convince me otherwise.

That racism I thought I'd encounter in Japan so far hasn't really manifested itself, and if it has its been so subtle that I didn't even recognize it as racism. Still, I do believe being Black in Japan is different than being White in Japan, or gay in Japan, or a woman in Japan, or a fat person in Japan, or a Latino in Japan, or Jew in Japan, just like being any of those things in any other country would be. Only it's for different reasons than what I thought it would be for.

Let's see...

• Remember that time me and MaryAnn were chillin at Kira Kira Beach and the junior high school kids came up to us and started rubbing my hair?
• I heard that one of the kids at Kim's school tried to bite her because he thought she might be made of chocolate
• At karaoke people always expect me to do the rap parts...unless the other Black guy (Loren) is around
• My first time going to Chinen Junior High School, kids swore up and down I was Ne-yo
• I don't know how many younger people have shouted out kakoii (coooool!!!) just because I'm Black

That's just a small slice of my own experience here. I've read about Black on mainland that have had it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay different. Like women holding on to their purses for dear life whenever near a Black person, or people bolting across the street. Sounds a lot like the US actually...

While all of non Japanese folk here definitely do share certain things (I'm sure we've all heard "________ jozou desu ne?!", for example), your time in Japan will definitely be different depending on where you are from and what you look like.