(Untitled)

[railcaider]

First, you need to head over to Krispy's journal and check this out. I guess it's not surprising that he picked up on this since we've had a lot of similar experiences, but he posted this during a time when it had been on my mind for a few days

Comments

[exswoo]

I'd agree on most of these points but a few thoughts

[railcaider]

Hmm, good points

[exswoo]

That's what I meant when I say that only non-Asians count as being "foreign".

By that I mean that they don't have the leeway that most Foreigners get in Japan because of the similar skin complexity...which means that they're fully expected to play by Japanese rules and are often scruntized much more heavily than others.

[exswoo]

...right. Like I said. They're LESS exempt.

[exswoo]

Oh wait...I misread you there.

I do think that non-asians are more exempt than non-asians though. There is a certain set of beliefs that many people have about non-asians and for the most part they are correct to one degree or another.

When it comes to other Asians though, they only have themselves as a marker of a standard...so an Asian who acts as a guy from the UK or the USA would face a lot more scutiny...at least, that was my experience while I was there.

[railcaider]

I agree with you here, the Asians kind of get pushed in from two sides. While they have to deal with differences in culture and value systems like everyone else, they also face a lot of pressure to conform Japanese society. I haven't talked to as many non-Japanese Asians living in Japan as Krispy, but I certainly don't want to suggest that life is all rosy for them either.

[railcaider]

I guess I came off as more of a "crying whitey" than I wanted to. I mean, I don't think you can even begin to compare the worst things that a white man could go through in Japan to what a black man would in our fine country. I haven't had as many conversations with non-Japanese Asians as you, but the little bit that I did dispelled any illusions that I had about Asians having it great here