I used a bus in Japan to go to Mount Fuji. Seats were assigned like on a plane and I was sitting next to some Japanese guy. I did my best to respect their customs and remained silent and kept to myself for the two hour ride. The inside of the bus was as silent as a church for the entire drive even though it was full.

On the way back at the end of the day, the bus had dropped a few passengers somewhere and stopped at a station for a toilet break. When we boarded again the driver went to see the passenger beside me and moved him to another seat on the bus to sit in a seat that had been freed up next to another Japanese person. It looks like the passenger went to see the driver to request the seat change during the break.

I've spent the rest of the ride wondering what I had done wrong. It's really a fucked up feeling and it must be horrible to be experiencing this sort of passive aggressive racism on a daily basis in your own home.

Japan is one of the most xenophobic countries on the planet. This is just one example.

Still racist

Google Lens tells me that the description is accurate. Even though i love japanese culture, they are racist as fuck, so i am not ever surprised.

Guess who's reading this, lol

Anyway, this is blatantly ~~racism~~ xenophobia and don't give me the "yes but what if they don't have anyone who speaks english or chinese?" That's fair but in that case you put something that says "sorry we don't have any english speaking staff" or tell me directly but anyway, it shouldn't be that hard to order tbh, yeah i can't talk but we are in 2026 with such translation tools, i can scan, look at what it says and then point at the various menu entries with my finger, to pay i can just look at the numbers lmao

Edit: corrected racism in to xenophobia

Japan, where racism doesn't usually get the same criticism it does elsewhere for whatever reason..

On Okinawa, the red light area routinely used to refuse "chocolate men" for being "too strong"

I have worked with a Japanese company for almost 2 years and never ever again. The racism, incompetence and ass covering is astounding. The way they treat women is also appalling but no one talks about this.

I'll never understand why western people love Japan, but vilify China. My experience in working in China is a total opposite of Japan.

Important to note that English is the global lingua franca.

So tourists from Mexico, Nicaragua, Sweden, Adygea, Italy, Rojava, Tajikistan, Djibouti, and Mozambique etc also use English language while visiting most foreign places.

This is NOT an "American tourists litter too much" thing.

My wife is southeast Asian. Going to Japan, I felt a lot of like... weird energy at times where they just kind of looked at me. I never felt unsafe, just judged. I told my wife this, who said she felt the complete opposite. People were normal to her. She blended in.

She was born and raised in the States, and we traveled to a bunch of States (fuck Missouri) where she really felt unsafe like if she didn't leave town, they would make us. And Ive shared before how we got a "Go back to your own country" from other people, and even one showing off his gun.

Do I feel like Japanese racism is uncalled for? Absolutely. Again, I never felt unsafe. So it's really interesting to see this perspective in the comments like this is the worst disgusting attitude in the world because someone snubbed them vs feeling like you're not wanted/you should leave for your own safety.

The amount if racism in Asian countries is very worrying

Never heard of a restaurant posting a sign on the door saying they're full.

and yet japan is still viewed as an utopia by reddit weebs, despite japan being really racist

A couple of thoughts:

Yes, I've heard before, even from people living in Japan, that they are quite xenophobic.

Now, why is this not condemned from the west ? (I know Chinese people and they do remember WW2)

As everything several reasons:

Japan has a great propaganda machine to make their culture look cool AF: anime/manga, the mythology around temples, samurais, ninjas...

The good parts of their culture, specially in contrast to the west: the extreme politeness, how clean and organized they are, civility/safety, super good and maintained public services such transport...

The "pretend WW2 didn't happen". They were absolute monsters on WW2, way beyond the nazis, but the combination of doing a 180 towards the west and the atomic bombs made it so the west was comfortable with looking the other way while Japan conveniently forgets his war crimes (for anyone unaware search for Nanjing, be warned is a hard read, but is important not to forget)

The "pacifist xenophobia". When you go to japan their way of practicing xenophobia is quite passive, like, let's be clear, you are loud and disgusting for them, but they will never tell you that, and you are probably never going to be in danger. At least as a tourist this is 100% like this, they might even just feel introverted rather than xenophobic. From what I've heard from people living there, it gets more clear when you live, but didn't get any "I'm in danger" feeling from them, so I guess that low key discrimination is like that.

Now, not saying any of that makes it good, but I can understand why there is a different level of pushback than to the USA for example, where if you are brown and meet an angry cop or redneck (or both), you might end up dead.

I know for the fucking internet there is no such thing as grey, is either black or white, but I think the world is more nuanced than that.

BTW, for their work culture alone I would never live there, and while I like an anime or two, I'm not an otaku by any means. I did enjoy my vacation on Japan several years ago, but not more than the one on China or other Asian countries.

If you dont have any staff who speak those languages I kinda get not wanting to provide service to people who only speak them, though it would probably be better to just say "no foreign language service available"

Meanwhile in the west:

Racism: 🤬

Racism against Asians: 😆😝🤡

Isn't it xenophobia more than racism?

Not race but "I am tired of tourists"-ism

Probably not worth visiting them anyways...