A lodging facility in Kyoto has drawn a protest from the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo for asking an Israeli man to sign a pledge that he had never been involved in war crimes.
A lodging facility in Kyoto has drawn a protest from the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo for asking an Israeli man to sign a pledge that he had never been involved in war crimes.
This right here is what I love about Japan.
When I was there a few years ago to snowboard, they had a “fuck you” policy to non-Japanese speakers in some towns because the Aussies basically run around rough shod and turn everything into a loud party.
Imagine being in a sleepy resort town while 7 dudes are walking down your cobbled street screaming about Ruggers, then one falls into the cold stream because they’re drunk, so a rescue team is sent out… On a weekly basis.
There’s simply a no more bullshit cap.
As an Australian, what the fuck is a ruggers?
Not only that, but it happened in Kyoto which is verryyy traditional. Plus it’s a small city that’s getting overrun with tourists. It was the only place where I felt bad for visiting. I mean it’s packed at especially the temples, you’re slow walking in this sea of people.
So, to be clear, you get how that’s more than a little bit fucked up, right?
To demonstrate, imagine a deep southern U.S town instituting an English-only policy and aggressively turning away for example Spanish or Arabic-speakers.
This is not something to be celebrated. Ban the thing you actually want to prevent instead of pushing through unmitigated xenophobia.
I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do but a big difference here is that up until VERY recently, the US did not have an official language, so for them to say “English only” would be a bit more offensive than for Japan (whose official language is Japanese) to say “japanese only”.
Additionally, the US is on colonized land, so English wouldn’t be the native language of the land. Japan on the other hand has existed for close to 40,000 years and was not colonized in the same way (Not saying that the Japanese historically haven’t been colonizers, but the island of Japan is generally not). I genuinely wouldn’t even be mad about it if someone in Manitoba made a rule that was like “Ojibwe only”.
But also to your point, yeah the US did recently pick an official language AND launch an “English only” campaign for a whole profession and it is extremely fucked up.
Yeah that’s called Tuesday in the rural south.
Yes, I do. But I am a foreigner there. When we don’t observe their traditions and disrupt their society, I feel like it’s okay for them to set boundaries.
I get why it’s not right, but I also accept it. It’s not my country, not my rules, not my traditions. So, I am willing to live by their rules.
You realize not every country wants foreigners right? It’s their right to dictate that. There was this whole thing about how America and England literally threatened Japan with artillery until they opened their borders.
That’s an extremely complicated philosophical argument that goes beyond two simple sentences, I hope you realise
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Why are you using racist terms here?
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It is both. But since your C—ass can’t be bothered to spell it the supposedly “non-racist” way, you’re getting called out.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coonass
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/coon/homepage.htm
BAHAHAHhahahaha! Oh man. Sure, yeah well-if the intertubes says it huh.
Lemme clarify then: That is bull shit.
And “coon” is a racist term, so don’t use it. What is wrong with you.
What was the policy? Or was it just that they literally said “fuck you?”
Not literally those words. From what I’ve seen online, various establishments, if not entire towns, have thrown up “Japanese only” or “Japanese language only” to discourage foreigners. They generally only do this after there’s been a trend of tourists making asses of themselves, but since the first places to do it kind of went viral, it’s not too surprising if the habit has sprung up elsewhere.
Sure, it’s only a handful of disrespectful tourists when all the rest are fine, but if you allow any non-Japanese (person or language, pick your preference) eventually you’ll get those tourists.
Like it or not, it’s a simple way to say no to that.
I have no idea why the west is so ok with Japan’s ranked competitive racism…
Yeah, that’s racism.
Not only that, it’s not a hard and fast rule. The operative word is “discourage.” If you’re polite, ask nicely, have at least a rudimentary level of skill in the language, the staff will most assuredly seat you.
I was trying to get into this one sushi place in Nagano for weeks when I was there, finally threw up my hands and just walked over. Very modest, very simple, and probably the best I had while I was in the country.
Reminds me of the Nazi bar analogy.
Never heard of it, can you elaborate?
I suspect they’re referencing a story told on Twitter back in the day:
https://www.boredpanda.com/bar-bartender-nazi-punk-iamragesparkle/
TL;DR: If you let the “nice” ones in, eventually their less nice associates will come along and before you know it, your bar is a Nazi bar. Or, in this case, your restaurant/town is now a haven for obnoxious tourists.
It’s not quite the same because you can’t equate a “nice” Nazi with a respectful tourist, but similar logic applies otherwise.
Ohhh, I gotcha. Makes sense. I agree, it’s a bit of a stretch but regardless I see the logic in the reference. And yeah, I think I’ve heard of that thought experiment before.
What you love about Japan is it’s cultural intolerance?
If you go into someone else’s house, you need to be respectful of their space.
Many Chinese and Indian tourists regularly trample the alpine flower fields at Mt. Rainier National Park for selfies or just as a shortcut when they get tired of walking on the hiking paths.
When confronted, instead of being apologetic, they get defensive and diminish the impact of their actions by demeaning American culture and spaces.
“It’s just some flowers. They’ll grow back!”
Yeah, maybe. But that will take eighty years and it may not even happen due to climate change.
These kind of behaviors are what sours locals against tourism, especially when it is consistent across a cultural tourist groups.
We all need to do better when visiting each other’s spaces, and that starts by owning our cultural shortfalls and poor behavior, with the goal of personally improving our own.
Ironically, I’ve never heard any complaints about Japanese tourists, as they often arrived well-educated about local customs and behave respectfully.
There’s a difference between being respectful of the space and racial exclusion. What they are backing is racism.
Japan is a nation that has intense issues with racism that they have never confronted and it is fucking weird how often people are willing to forgive their overt racism.
We got plenty of our own problems, best to leave it to Japan to figure out their own.
Japanese people have a right to ask questions about issues they are concerned about.
Asking whether or not you have actively participated in crimes against humanity is a reasonable question to ask, and if you do not want to answer it, then you can just go elsewhere.
That is different from their “Japanese people only” spaces.
Japan is an overtly racist nation and the history of their racism is just as evil as any European colonial power. We did not leave Germany to solve its problem with racism and we should not trust Japan to do the same. They have made little effort to do soup to this point
From what I’ve heard, there are “Japanese Nationals” only spaces. But there are also many (if hazard to guess a majority of these locations) places that, due to their lack of English skills, put signs that mean to them “Japanese language only”, that is to say, they the proprietors of said location can only speak and write in Japanese, and therefore if you try to speak to them in your language, will not likely be able to service you properly. Some of these places will try their best to service you and let you in as well. Granted there are also places that will deny service if you don’t speak any Japanese, and that is ridiculous, but I’d like to think those places are few and far between as well.
What country you even from, that you do not have your own racism problems to deal with?
Start at home.
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Ooh ooh I have a good one! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome
They’re not rude, just very upset.
Intolerance of genocide…?
Military service is compulsory for Israeli citizens. The IDF has been committing war crimes daily for literal decades. It was a legitimate question to ask.