David Aldwinkle, a naturalized Japanese citizen, was denied entry into a bath house in Hokkaido. They recently won the lawsuit against the bath house, but not the one against the city.
Additional stories:
NPR – Eric Weiner essay on racism in Japan
Foreigners Finding Their Voice
older Mainichi coverage
JPRI Coverage of Ana Bortz discrimination case
ISSHO Kikaku multicultural non-profit
Japan Digest: Court Orders Hokkaido Bathhouse To Pay Yen 3 Million For Barring Gaijin
Sapporo District Court ordered a public bathhouse in Otaru to pay Yen 3 million in damages to a U.S.-born Japanese citizen and two of his friends, who were barred from entering the facility because of their race, reports said. University lecturer David Aldwinckle went to the Hot Spring Yunohana, a popular bathhouse with 13 bathing pools, four saunas and a karaoke room, with his Japanese wife, his children and two other men, an American and a German in September of 1999. The manager refused to let the foreigners in. When he returned to the same establishment 13 months later, after becoming a Japanese citizen and taking the Japanese name Arudou Debito, he found a “Japanese Only” sign on the door. Even though he said he was no longer a gaijin, the manager again refused him entry. Judge Mitsuru Sakai said that “was irrational discrimination and was unacceptable.” But Sakai also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that Otaru city was guilty of breaking the U.N. Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The city, he said, is not legally bound to do anything. Arudou and his lawyer, who demanded Yen 6 million ($50,000) for the trio, said they are happy with the verdict, but disappointed that the judge didn’t also find the city guilty. Yunohana’s operator said the bathhouse decided to bar gaijin after Russian sailors began frequenting its chain. The Russians often came in all looped up, made a lot of noise, and jumped in the baths without rinsing the soap off themselves first. That drove away a lot of Japanese patrons and even forced one location to close, Asahi said. These days Yunohana takes in gaijin on condition they understand Japanese and follow the proper protocol.
I found your comments interesting; doubly so, since I am of European origin and my wife is Japanese (from Tokyo). Tell me, how have your mixed-race children been received in the Japanese school system? Do they have many friends, or have they been shunned? We have two children and are considering moving to Japan, but worry how our children would be received.
it doesn’t cease to amaze me the different kinds of racisms in the world. It happens all over the place and people are so bound by these xenophobic actions…whether it be by them or anyone else. It tears societies apart while strengthening the media elements and elite government. I am african american so i know this first hand, but it’s gonna happen and theres no other way than to accept it and hope that time eventually takes it and evolves it into something better. To think about that situation, you must understand that the people are trying to reach an idealism of what they immediately relate to. It’s a negative way of dioing it, but this is how they do it. Anyway all i have to say is stop whining. We’ve all been disadvantaged some way or another…and discriminated against. Don”t think i’m just some Colin Powell type trying to explain this but the moat you can say about this, frankly, is ‘fuck it’.
There is racism all over the world. I am African-caribbean and have lived in Ireland. If you are black and want to experience what is hell on earth then live in Ireland.It was my most random experience of prejudice and racial hatred. There are other races like the Chinese and Indians who don`t like blacks, and the country where I am from, there are frequent murders of black males who have intimate relations with Indian women.I use the word “Indian” to refer to the descendants of Indian indentured workers from the Indian sub-continent.The chinese population also oppose inter-racial sex, and have killed too. There is racism in every culture.
I am currently living in Nagoya as an exchange student at a university. Im 28, Australian and white…. I have never experienced racism before and I have been so shocked with what I have faced in Japan. People refuse to allow me enter thier restaurants crossing their arms and saying “Gaijin Dame”…. People move away from me on trains, buses wont stop for me, people talk about me on trains thinking I dont understand Japanese, a teacher at the university I attend pointed out that white students are not as diligent as Asian students, I have been told that foreigners smell, I am constantly stared at and made fun of….. I could go on and on….
I have been horrified. I came to Japan 10 years ago and stayed in a country town for a year and had no such problems… All I can say is that I have travelled to more than 20 different countries and I have never seen such blatant discrimination…. My friend here is of African American decent and she has it ten times worse than I do… As a consequence she is returning to America 5 months into a 12 month scholarship… Admitedly this is just from my own experience…..
I think Den Beste put it best when he said: The philosophic justification for the “root causes” argument that we’ve heard so much about is the point: individual racists are not necessarily evil, even though racism is. Individual racists can be loving and compassionate chauvinistic contempt.
It reached its most pathological in Fisk’s notorious attempt to explain away his being beaten by a crowd in Pakistan as ultimately being the result of western imperialism.
This attitude is racism of the characters. There are no villains in the movie, because it’s not about that. By soft-pedaling the racism and yet never ducking it, the movie makes a more profound statement about it than some other films which pound it into the ground and paint all the characters as caricatures.
But it goes deeper than that: if we are responsible, then they will live good lives. They are less than we are. This is deeply loving and compassionate chauvinistic contempt.
Mark V. Shaney
“Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!”
Look, not everyone is a racist in this country. To be fair every year one million Japanese people go to a different country for business or pleasure from Japan. However, many are racist, materialistic and “Pack runners” or “Fadists”. The problem is the culture. The self esteem is extremely low in this country and studies show that approximately 75% of the population is a victim to some form of domestic obuse, whether it be emotional, verbal, psychological or physical. Domestic violence in any form besides murder is not a crime in this country, thus you get a large population of insecure individuals that try to find fault in others rather quickly to avoid people judging them. Most Japanese don’t necessarily look down on people of a different race, in fact to be able to speak English and talk to foreigners is something of prestige. The problem is that in their culture it is considered good relations when you can call your very best friend a fatso or really stupid and put down your loved ones or neglect your family. It is normal to have your life long dreams and your self esteem crushed by your loved ones, so if you are a foreigner tormented by someone that is Japanese, chances are that person torments another JAPANESE victim more than you. I get so annoyed when I hear people say that Japanese are NEVER brutally honest because it is against their culture. If ever there was a culture whose manners had no tact it would be the worst people of Japan. I will ask you a question. Is there any other country in the world where you can just be walking down the street minding your own business and someone says something stupid like “You have large tits!” “You have a small face!” or “You are a foreigner!” Even if your tits are of normal size to the common westerner(full B-cup) you are percieved as having freakish monster sized breasts. The self esteem problem begets a major problem with “Image” in Japan. Do you know that if you wear sunglasses in Japan people will be terrified of you, again not everyone, but the percentige is remarkable. I live in Japan and my husband is Japanese. I come from Los Angeles and I have friends ranging from all the races in the world. Japanese culture is a culture of hardship, the harder your life becomes, try to see how well you can seem to make the best of it. It doesn’t make sense does it. Of course it doesn’t to other cultures. The “racist” people who pick on foreigners are people who have already been rejected by their own friends and family so much that to have any sense of worth or power, they try to make you and other JAPANESE people feel small, whether it be staring you down, saying a very rude comment, or trying to give you their recommendation, commentary, or opinion, implying that whatever you are doing, whether it be something as stupid as just buying milk, somehow you are doing it the “Wrong” way. It is the way that they feel a sense of control. Young Japanese people get the same treatment and have the same complaints about Japanese culture. If you decide to live in Japan or are thinking of marrying someone from Japan and living here, remember that it will never change it will always be like this and even if you talk to your Japanese friends about your hardship most will alienate you and say that “You worry too much” “You can’t do anything about it, so who cares!” and “Let’s just have fun!!!” I don’t reccommend living here if you are a girl that is not Japanese planning on marrying a Japanese man. You are in for a shock, even if it doesn’t hit you for a while. If you do plan on living here make sure you keep good contact with your friends and family from home, tell them everything about your life, also go back to your native country at least once or every other year and stay for at least a month. The wall between Japanese and “non-Japanese” although grows thinner, will never cease to exist, no matter how hard you try. At least in Japan you are not killed for being different in comparison to Ignorants of America.
First off, I am glad I came to this site to see that there are other people out there who are noticing the same things I am about the Japanese society at hand.
I currently work in Ichikawa, Chiba under a 3mo internship via my Univ in Seattle, WA. I am half “white”/half Filipino…but somehow, and I don’t know how…I look Middle Eastern. From this alone, being in Japan, you know how well that may not bold.
My experience goes two ways.
On one hand, my coworkers and immediate friends are like family. I guess being that the company I work for has international undertones, foreigners aren’t all that uncommon. Regardless of that, being in this environment is great.
But on the other hand…it’s when I travel out on my own, alone, without my coworkers, that I feel like a second-class citizen. Even though I spent the last 8 years studying Japanese, and can speak it pretty well, I feel completely unwelcome. Similar to what one person wrote earlier…I was riding a bus to the station, and there was an empty seat right next to me. All the other seats were filled. It was after work, and people were obviously tired. NO ONE wanted to sit next to me. They preferred to stand rather than sit down next to me. This happened twice. Kind of makes me feel like I need to get out of the country after a while.
From what I have heard and seen…if you are a completely WHITE male here…you will go very far. To be frank, and very candid, people will love you, want to talk to you, Japanese girls will give it up to you, people will want to treat you without knowing you.
Look at the advertisements circulating on TV, billboards, etc. A lot of them have white people. Why? The funny thing is that that the target audience of the ads are Japanese, but what makes them feel the need to use white people to attract to gain sales and turn heads?
Japanese people in the big cities, thanks to the media, schools, pop culture, etc., really love white people. White people = America, freedom, coolness, richness, fast cars, all night drinks, great sex, full hair, large breasts, and everything else Japanese kids want in their life but can’t seem to have.
What is with the Japanese youth trying to be like the big, bad rappers they see on TV? What is with them dressing like they are from a Jay-Z rap video when they have no idea what it’s like to be from a REAL ghetto?
What is with the Japanese girls (and guys too), tanning their skin super brown?
Why can’t I find any Japanese person that still has their natural hair color?
Why do people shun away from me? Do I look like a guy carrying a bomb…especially when wearing a suit?
I don’t know if this is a place to rant, but after reading everyone else’s expereince, I couldn’t help but chime in and say that this place is really for white males. Maybe not in the countryside, or in Okinawa, but from my view and expereince, if you are white, you are an idol, if you are Japanese, you are normal…anything else outside of that, you are a suspicious foreigner.
lee, i am white, and male. american too.
means didly squat.
some japanese idolize white, some black (the extreme tanning is part of that) some idolize false romantic notions of a japan that never was (the idealize the samurai era, not realizing that they would most likely have been an illiterate farmer with no rights)
some look to england, or france or germany.
some just dont like foreigners (quite a few actually)
but most are naively racist without knowing how or why.
some give me the explanation that the perpetually empty train/bus seat next to the foreigner is a consideration. making them feel like a guest. (hospitality)
well we all know that is probably B.S. 99 percent of the time.
it sucks to be a perpetual guest.
point is, many japs feel just as uncomfortable outside of their group (office, school, etc…)
as you do.
of course one group they are in is japanese, so if all else is aside, you and i are outside the group.
but believe me being white is not better by much.
i only find that i dont get percieved as a common criminal.
but all other stigmas are still applied to me as much as any other foreigner.
basically it is an interesting place,
but japan does suck in major ways.
Hey everyone! I just wonder how people would react to me if I ever lived in Japan or even visited there. I’m half Japanese and American. I felt that I looked Asian all my life until I moved over to Korea. I have big eyes, to me that’s the only difference compared to the rest of them. Something of a shock happened to me a few weeks ago when I was with a German friend. I told him I was 1/2 Japanese. He said it was a surprise. He said I could fit as a German with dark hair and eyes. Or even as an American which he thought I was when we first met because of my speaking English so well. I mean I am, but all of my life I felt like I was Asian when I went to school in the U.S. I was born there, lived there most of my life, but always felt like an outkast. I think that’s because I was practically the only Asian in the school, the rest were total caucasians. I feel I fit better here, but still am an outkast and realized I can’t really fit anywhere. I mean everywhere I go, I am perceived differently. I would like to go to Japan, but am worried to how people will react. Any comments would be much appreciated.
Renee,
I met a half japanese girl, who had travelled to Japan, and from her experience she was treated much like any other foreigner in Japan.. She told me she had a laugh but was never truely excepted in Japan. Lol lucky im half english half sri lankan cause we both had something to laugh at – Sri lankans and indians treat halfies like forigners too… But don’t let that discourage you, she had some fantastic experiences in Japan. Like everyone said there’s fools in every country on mother earth.
im half japanese half american.i lived in okinawa but since i lived on the base where half the people are american i dont ever remember being treated different but im sure mainly because the people there are use to seeing different races. in more remote parts of japan for example where my grandmother lives-yokohama, its a small community from which ive been told 99% of them have only seen foreigners on t.v so i get alot of stares. the last time i went, i was about 12 but being 17 now im alittle uncomfortabe revisting places in japan that arent close to military bases.
When I am back in Australia the average person seems quite disbelieving when I tell them of my encounters with Japanese racism. I don’t know why this is. One of the more outrageous episodes was when I stayed at a VERY expensive hotel in Chiba I went to the cocktail bar and was literally ignored by waiters and staff for a good fifteen minutes. I gave up and went downstairs to get my wife we both came back and were served IMMEDIATELY! Its like this in many places.
Apart from experiences like this Japan is the ONLY place I go where you get constantly stared at if you are caucasian. They do it discreetely and most tourists would not realise.I however do and find it disconcerting and rude.
I spent 5 months in Chiba with my company’s HQ supposedly as a “trainee”. I did not experience blatant racism in Japan probably because I’m Asian. But the other Japanese in the company din’t seem to know what to make of a female Engineer who doesn’t seem willing to spend long hours at work as they do.
One thing I didn’t like was that while the Japanese seemingly displayed their discomfort while the “trainees” conversed among ourselves in languages other than Japanese in their presence, they had no qualms about speaking in Japanese among themselves in front of non-Japanese when they come over to my company outside Japan. I thought that was like not practicing what you preach.
In self-reflexion to the comments concerning Asians and “racism” within a country
These comments are simply fascinating. As an African-American male, I lived most of my life with this “double-consciousness” attitude towards race and racism in America. So far it has gotten me no where. It seem to further polarize myself in relation to how I see myself, what societies think of me, and a NEGATIVE synonomus reaction that occurs in my thoughts and conscious behavior as a result of this social chemistry.
I am beginning to understand the magnitude of this impediment through the vivid expression of many of these posts that I have read.
My goal is to re-educate myself and really measure people by their deeds and conscious behavior; the same measure I hope when people see me will warrent the same respect in spite of any differences. Its a humbling process in converting consciousness. Societies shapes the way we think…but I think the true measure of a man/women is when he/she goes within and battles the demons,false images, and negative moral fabric that continually demotes self character.
Really…its like learning a new language.
Humble thyself…and use good sense by using all our senses. (the basic 5 to start)
I am a young man, and I’m still learning. I still have impediments, but I am working to devaluing them every day with the many talents I am learning that I have. (And we all have them…we just let F.E.A.R -false experiences appearing real from letting them come into fruition within ourselves and our relations with others)
Its like pray…it takes a daily effort to affirm balance…which is…”our daily bread.”
No reason to wear skin/masks and give exterior content any validity. The good stuff always comes from Within minus FEAR.
“Better an Honest Ememy than a False Freind.”
I am an American and have just married a Japanese woman from Tokyo. I have visited Japan about a dozen times. I am 1/2 blk 1/2 wht and though most people aren’t sure what race I am never considered white. On my last trip I noticed that Japanese seemed slightly rude to me and my Japanese wife when we are together and we seemed to be told no quite often / sorry we are closing/, and have received bad seating when there were much better tables available at restaurants. I pointed this out and my wife is oblivious and doesnt notice. We have had instances when cabs didn’t stop or the driver simply doesnt get out to help loading the bags (hey this sounds like NY). It is very dissapointing and although I have experienced racism in the U.S., Japanese people really don’t consider it racism or even believe it is wrong. At least that is what I have seen. This dissappointed me and I am trying not to dwell on it. We plan to eventually move to Japan. I have great respect for the way Japanese take care of their country and work so hard. Japan has an aging population and with few young people to care for the seniors Japan will have no choice but to allow more immigration into the country to make up the missing young work force. Hopefully this will help Japan become more tolerant open minded.
E