Starguard, your friend’s experiences were probably more related to his being in the military than his being American. There are some Japanese (not many, from what I’ve observed in Tokyo, though it may be different elsewhere) who want America to take its bases out of Japan, either because they’re opposed to US military actions (the pacifist side) or because they view the US military presence in Japan as a sign of Tokyo’s subservience to Washington and a humiliating reminder of their defeat in WWII (the nationalist side). In Okinawa, any resentment there is may be greater just because of the sheer number of military personnel there, not to mention the feeling that they’ve been shafted by Tokyo and made to shoulder an overwhelmingly huge portion of the burden.
Personally, I’ve encountered racism here on many occasions, but it’s always been about my being foreign, rather than specifically because I was American. If anything, Americans (and westerners in general) are held in higher regard than foreigners from other regions. What negative feelings there are about America are more about the American government than American people, or stem from some specific work-related or neighbor-related bad experience (and encounter with Charisma Man, for example). As for me, I’ve made this place my home, and I love it here.
I’ll echo those who say your friend’s problem was probably that he was military, not that he was an American.
I’m not that far from an American base, and American servicemen have a not-entirely-undeserved bad reputation. While I’m sure many servicemen behave admirably, or at least decently, there are an unfortunate number who leave their base only to get drunk and chase women. There have also been multiple (and highly publicized) incidents of theft, assault, and rape committed by American servicemen. Personally, the ones I’ve run into have seemed more ignorant and obnoxious than actually dangerous, but “ignorant and obnoxious” isn’t anything to be proud of either.
I’m particularly sorry to say this because I come from a military family (we even lived in Japan for a while when I was a child), but I don’t have a very favorable view of the American military personel here so I’m not at all surprised that some Japanese would feel the same way. What’s surprised me is that their view of Americans and the American military isn’t worse. I have yet to encounter any anti-American sentiment at all, although I have run into anti-Bush and general anti-foreigner. But overall I’d say the Japanese think pretty well of Americans. I know several who’ve been very surprised to hear that some Americans think the Japanese hate them and their country!
Oh, it is worth pointing out that sometimes Japanese people innocently behave in ways that Americans misinterpret as unfriendly or hostile. For instance, I’ve heard many, many Americans remark upon the fact that the Japanese would rather stand than sit next to them on the train. This could only be because they hate Americans, right?
Well, no. I’ve often seen people standing on the train when there were plenty of empty seats alongside other Japanese. Part of it must just be a desire to respect other people’s privacy and not bother them. And when it comes to Americans, many Japanese are afraid that if they get too close to us we’re going to suddenly start speaking English at them, they won’t be able to understand us, and the whole thing will just be terribly embarassing. They’d rather avoid the situation altogether. Of course some people will seek out foreigners in hopes of being able to practice their English, but those who are less confident or less fluent would usually prefer not to risk a potentially humiliating incident.
I’m certainly no expert, but the Okinawans I’ve spoken to and the one Japanese person all pretty much agree with what DesertDog said; I just thought it was similar to the misconceptions about the people in the southern states in the US.
What I’ve been trying to argue all along is that a statement of type: “mainlanders see Okinawans as bumpkins” is of no useful value.
First, despite whatever relative homogenity there might be in Japan, there is no such group as “mainlanders”. Do you mean Osaka businessmen? Hida loggers? Hokkaido farmers? Shinjuku ganguros? Even if you restrict your statement to a smaller group, say, Tokyo salarymen you’re bound to find a variety of opinions.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t stereotypes and frequent memes. You need to be careful when you talk about them, though. Among the people I usually hang out with, Okinawans generally enjoy a very good reputation. Should I be allowed to make a generalisation based on my friends’ opinions? Hell, no, and neither should you.
Yes, it was. The “Japanese only” problem seems to be mostly a Hokkaido thing, though. I travel a lot and I’ve only seen two, both on the same day, and they were posted on seedy hotels in Kabuki-cho, the seediest part of Tokyo.
I’ve encountered a number of clubs (and real estate agencies) that had ‘Japanese only’ policies, but the only place I ever saw that had a sign saying it outright was a capsule hotel in Kabukicho, and even then it just said “Japanese speakers only” so I got to stay.
There was a 1998 case, however, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture (about halfway between Tokyo and Osaka), where a jewelery shop posted a “no foreigners” sign, which they specifically cited when refusing service to foreign shoppers. They were sued, and the judge found in the plaintiff’s favor on the grounds that, even though there were no laws in Japan specifically barring racial discrimination, Japan had signed a UN treaty prohibiting discrimination.
That’s the same place I ran into. There was another hotel almost accross the street that had a sign that said outright “no foreigners”. Neither place seemed particularly nice anyway so I ended up going elsewhere.
My experiences in Japan, and Okinawa, are from '65 and '66. I was in the Navy.
In Japan, younger people seemed to get a kick out of us, and often asked (in English) to have their pictures taken with us. Older people, 35+ or so, seemed to be much less enthusiastic. We were treated politely, but with some disdain. The kids would also act more “mature” when adults came around.
In Okinawa. it was my impression that many Okinawans didn’t much appreciate Americans or Japanese. I didn’t get out among the people a lot, but the feeling I got was that they highly resented Japans domination of Okinawa. We weren’t allowed to talk to protestors, but I did it anyway. I never felt really threatened and the people were pretty straight forward in their gripes, which were mostly against Japan. They wanted independence, is all. And more miney from the US, for our military bases, IIRC. I felt more relaxed in Okinawa, even though they were not so polite as in Japan. Among a bunch of kindred souls (liberals) I guess.
There you go, Starguard. You asked for it.
Peace,
mangeorge
