Well, you know what they say: Third time’s the charm.
From one of the comments there.
Interesting. So it sounds like the article was revised. This is a good reason for wanting go get information from reliable sources and not places with axes to grind.
Hey, howsabout you take your condescension and stick it so far up your backside it leaks out your ears.
The Bronze age as an era of time for everyone else, anyway. The worst part is that you may be literally correct: the proto-Japanese and Koreans may have been a band of nomadic conquerors who crushed older societies, as well as bringing with them bronze technology. But these groups were quite aggressive and made war on each other, apparently from a very early date.
But my point is that during the Bronze Age the ancestors of the modern Japanese probably didn’t live in Japan, but rather in Korea.
To say that the Japanese have been fighting the Koreans since the Bronze age is as anachronistic as saying the English have been fighting the French since the Bronze Age.
Anecdotal evidence is still anecdotal regardless of how many years you’ve spent gathering it. Living here 20 years makes him an unquestionable “expert” on Japan? Then I suppose every single person who’s lived in America for at least 20 years is an expert on the personalities, ideologies, beliefs, and prejudices of every single citizen living in that country, as well?
To wit, saying the Japanese aren’t racist is equally as dumb as saying they are racist. Attempting to create a blanket statement that accurately describes an entire nation of individuals is naive at best and criminally ignorant at worst. It is foolish to say “Japanese are all racist because a man on the platform called blacks stupid” and it is just as foolish to say “There’s no way a Japanese man would call blacks stupid to a tourist’s face because Japanese never talk to strangers.” I shouldn’t have to explain why that is, I thought the ignorance of stereotyping is taught in most middle schools.
Regarding the story of the law enforcement’s corruption, did it actually happen as written? I honestly don’t know. There does seem to be a lot of anecdotal evidence on the ineffectualness of the Tokyo police when it comes to dealing with organized crime. I do know, however, that it’s hypocritical and shortsighted to judge an entire country or its police force as irredeemably corrupt based on specific incidents in specific locations involving specific people in specific branches of law enforcement. That’s like saying we should just nuke America as it’s clear every police officer is corrupt after police in Arkansas shot the Jericho fire chief in the courtroom. Or if you’d like a better reason, I could regale you with countless stories about the atrocities committed by the former mayor of my hometown of Detroit and his police-employed cronies, a lot of which I’m unfortunately more privy to than most major news organizations.
For what it’s worth (anecdotally, of course!), I have only known the terms ‘jap’ and ‘nip’ to be offensive to Japanese-Americans. I have heard Japan-born Japanese use the term ‘jap’ to refer to themselves, while not commonly, slightly more frequently than I would have supposed, with no apparent awareness of its offensiveness when practicing english (i.e. “Oh! Hello! You are American? I am jap!”) One person I met briefly identified himself as culturally Japanese but had an American parent and called himself “japrican”. As for the term ‘nip’, I’ve never heard it at all here, even in the rowdier gaijin-filled quarters. The only time I ever remember seeing it used was on a Japanese live music club website advertising bands. Something along the lines of <pages of japanese text> english: “COME SEE HOT NIP BAND PLAY DOORS OPEN 11”.
Oh, interestingly, I’ve also known at least two or three Japanese to refer to their own skin color in english as ‘yellow’, again without any apparent awareness of its supposed offensiveness.
Just in case anyone is interested, the alleged victim - the main point of this OP - has come back with some further information at debito dot org.
He’s now naming names and there seems to be pretty strong corroborating evidence that the story is true, so far at least.
I’m inclined to believe the essence of what he reported is true (nitpicks about small details aside).
She didn’t say he was an “expert”, she said he was an “expat”, short for “expatriate”.
I also used to live in Japan, and share TokyoPlayer’s doubts about friedo’s friend’s anecdote. I can believe that a Japanese man held the beliefs described, but it would be very unusual for such a man to approach a strange foreigner in public and start sharing these beliefs. If the man were very drunk then I guess anything is possible, but it seems unlikely to me and is certainly not a typical example of the way Japanese interact with Westerners.
Right. But early Iron Age would qualify. Japan was making armed incursions back into Korea from the 5th century A.D… Of course it has been argued that cavalry may have been introduced into Japan by mainland Korean invaders/settlers as early as the the 3rd or 4th century who went on to found the Yamato state ( the other school of thought is that the Japanese picked it up during their 5th century expeditions to the mainland - they certainly seemed to have acquired the cultural habit by the late 5th ). So the 5th century “Japanese” and “Koreans” were probably rather less distinct from each other back then compared to now.
Just out of interest Lamia, in all your time in Japan you never had any Japanese stranger come up while you were alone and just out of the blue yell at you to get out of Japan?
From orbit. Its the only way to be sure.
(just kidding. I don’t think we need to nuke japan)
I’ve lived in Japan for 6 years and never had anything even close to that happen to me.
That has indeed been argued, but it’s a dead theory, fringe at best. I don’t know of any reputable historians who give it credence and don’t think any articles even seriously discussing the theory have shown up in academic journals in decades.
Well, I guess everyone has a different experience. My experience, and that of others I know, has been very different from yours.
I guess I must attract trouble? But really I’ve never been doing anything to provoke that kind of outburst, just sitting on the train by myself, reading a book, is the usual scenario.
When I worked with the Japanese , I found out about an “untouchable class”. They were the people who made shoes or any other leather products from hides. They were poorly treated and marriage with one was frowned upon. Their housing was separate from the rest of the Japanese. The people I worked for seemed embarrassed when I found out about them. It was supposed to be a secret.
I think we have those here too, but they’re much easier to identify.
Do you live in downtown Osaka? I live on the outskirts (Toyonaka-shi) so am rarely on the latest trains with the drunks because I have to get back earlier. That may be a factor.
I have suffered racism, but nothing beyond the annoyance level (having sales clerks avoid me, etc.)
Yeah, it’s a dirty secret that most Japanese are embarrassed about.
You might find this article on a recent inadvertent brush Google had with the issue interesting.
No, never. None of my gaijin coworkers ever mentioned such a thing happening to them, either.
The closest thing I ever experienced to a Japanese stranger spouting off about their hatred of Americans was a couple of people telling me how much they disliked then-president Bush. (That’s Bush the Younger, not his father.) But even then people were pretty polite about it, and always opened with something like “What do you think of President Bush?” Only after I said “I don’t like him” would they start in about what an idiot he was.