A real eye opener (-_-)
*start rant*
As if getting a working Visa didn't end up stressing me out enough, I took some time to re-visit an old site I first came upon a few years ago:
http://www.debito.org/
but most importantly, this section of his site:
http://www.debito.org/activistspage.html
I've spent the last three days spending hours reading the articles on that page and articles in the links as well. It's mainly about past (and current) issues and events that have happened in Japan involving discrimination against non-Japanese. I knew this stuff happened there (it happens everywhere), but not to this degree.
What I did not know is that despite signing the United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1995, Japan still has no laws making racism illegal there (stating that that 'its legal system provides adequate protection against and redress for racial discrimination, therefore a specific law against it is unnecessary'), has no plans to create any, and still barely does anything to public businesses practicing racism by refusing entry to anyone who looks foreign (the man that runs the site is a naturalized Japanese citizen who still get refused entry based off race since he's technically a 'Japanese citizen'), not really even against those that have the "Japanese Only" signs still up without constant push from the foreigner who is complaining about it.
Since there is still no laws about this despite every other country in the United Nations having racism laws in place, there's not much those you complain to can do besides ask the place to take the sign down, stop excluding people, and hope they comply.
I didn't know just how many places in Japan (apparently around 12 cities in Japan including major cities) have multiple places with signs up to bar entry from gaijins.
I'm now reading this:
http://www.debito.org/japantimes010405.html
Seems even rich business people are subject to this crap. I'm not sure I want to move there at all anymore. I don't want to deal with that. I'm scared to even attempt to live there right now.
And I'm African American, so I wonder if it would be even worse for me (my friend says she now worries for me over there as well). A common occurrence with blacks over there I keep hearing about is how no one wants to sit anywhere near us on the subway trains despite it being crowded.
And then there's the whole Gaijin Card issue (-_-).....
*end rant*
As if getting a working Visa didn't end up stressing me out enough, I took some time to re-visit an old site I first came upon a few years ago:
http://www.debito.org/
but most importantly, this section of his site:
http://www.debito.org/activistspage.html
I've spent the last three days spending hours reading the articles on that page and articles in the links as well. It's mainly about past (and current) issues and events that have happened in Japan involving discrimination against non-Japanese. I knew this stuff happened there (it happens everywhere), but not to this degree.
What I did not know is that despite signing the United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1995, Japan still has no laws making racism illegal there (stating that that 'its legal system provides adequate protection against and redress for racial discrimination, therefore a specific law against it is unnecessary'), has no plans to create any, and still barely does anything to public businesses practicing racism by refusing entry to anyone who looks foreign (the man that runs the site is a naturalized Japanese citizen who still get refused entry based off race since he's technically a 'Japanese citizen'), not really even against those that have the "Japanese Only" signs still up without constant push from the foreigner who is complaining about it.
Since there is still no laws about this despite every other country in the United Nations having racism laws in place, there's not much those you complain to can do besides ask the place to take the sign down, stop excluding people, and hope they comply.
I didn't know just how many places in Japan (apparently around 12 cities in Japan including major cities) have multiple places with signs up to bar entry from gaijins.
I'm now reading this:
http://www.debito.org/japantimes010405.html
Seems even rich business people are subject to this crap. I'm not sure I want to move there at all anymore. I don't want to deal with that. I'm scared to even attempt to live there right now.
And I'm African American, so I wonder if it would be even worse for me (my friend says she now worries for me over there as well). A common occurrence with blacks over there I keep hearing about is how no one wants to sit anywhere near us on the subway trains despite it being crowded.
And then there's the whole Gaijin Card issue (-_-).....
*end rant*