The Japanese politics thread: Old men fucking each other ITT

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Japanese politics thread: Old men fucking each other ITT

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

The chopstick thing is probably more because they want to make small talk and don't really know how to do so because they're overthinking the cultural gap rather than any insidious racial agenda.

Also Japanese are constantly surprised that there are Japanese restaurants in the west, so it's a bit of ignorance borne of wacky education rather than hostility.

Now if you want actual aggression, how about the old Japanese man who shouted at me in the gym locker room today before scurrying off to actually tell on me because I was dripping water.

Old Japanese men...

# ¿ Jul 9, 2012 05:48

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:29

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Maybe. I haven't been here long enough nor understand the language well enough to notice. Arseholes like that are everywhere though. People may notice Japanese micro-aggression more because it's the first time that the inevitably white, well-off person has encountered anything like that in their life. I know it was for me the time some old man (again, seriously, what the gently caress is wrong with these guys) started shoving me in the chest and shouting at me on a packed train.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2012 15:37

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

I'm not sure that there's a market for the inevitable special edition miniguns that have rabbit ears sticking out the top of them or come with a free tail that you'll end up tripping over.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2012 01:59

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

ErIog posted:

It makes me kind of angry and sad for a short period of time. Unlike some other people in this thread, I don't have any real roots in Japan. There's nothing that explicitly ties me here right now. So when I see something like that it makes me feel like I should just give up, move back to the US, and get some job translating technical documents.

I try really hard every single day to do what's expected of me, speak Japanese as best I can, be as tolerant as possible, and improve my Japanese as much as I can. Seeing those kinds of portrayals of foreigners makes me feel like it's all useless because it will always be assumed that I'm just like all those stereotypes. It makes me feel like there's nothing I'll ever be able to do that will validate my existence in Japanese society beyond being the foreigner novelty sideshow.

I know that this isn't a problem unique to Japan, and I know I'm not the only person to have ever experienced racism. When I see those things though, feelings like that come up in a very direct way. It's one thing to understand those feelings exist, and it's another to actually feel them.

The thing that usually pulls me back from that ledge is that I do have a bunch of Japanese people around me that have gotten to know me well enough that I know they don't see me in that stereotypical way. On a micro level, with the friends and acquaintances I have, it is actually easy to forget in my daily life that Japan can be like that. Those kinds of attitudes that people are talking about being on full display in media is a constant reminder of what the average Japanese person probably thinks when they see me on the train or at the supermarket. It's disheartening.

It's not like I lose sleep over it or worry about it a ton, though. The feeling tends to pass pretty quickly. Overall, I really do enjoy my life in Japan.

So to answer your question, the thing that bothers me when those sorts of things pop up is that it makes me regret the work I've put toward being fluent in Japanese and living in Japan. It's like, after all I've accomplished, this is the kind of bullshit it comes down to.

drat dude, why do you put so much stock in being accepted by a country that is slowly strangling itself into non-existence through stubbornly not doing exactly that? It's never going to happen, just accept it and extract pleasure from being an outsider. There's no onus on Japan to accept you, and you would have known this a long time ago.

Why do you need your existence validated by some nameless random Japanese dude who most probably hates his own life and couldn't give a tinker's toot about you and doesn't spare you a second more thought than 'hey that man looks different to me and doesn't pay tax!!? It doesn't mean anything.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 03:46

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Yeah... maybe it's just Osaka but I see people holding hands, smooching on the train platforms, sitting on each other's laps and generally being normal humans everywhere I go. I really don't know what bizarre anime universe some of you guys get off from the Pokeplane into but geez.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2013 04:36

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Bloodnose posted:

Reading that article led me to the one on Nihonjinron which just makes me angry to read. Here's the best part:

I'm sure anyone who's ever heard of this, and especially you guys in Japan who actually deal with it, must already know it's this ridiculous, crazy, kinda Nazi-ish and fundamentally wrong. Still, it bugs me a lot. I went ahead and bolded all the words that come directly from Chinese (to be honest I'm actually not sure about 集団主義, it might've been reborrowed into Chinese from Japanese like 社会). Just for irony right in the text.

子女 is a sort of poetic 'sons and daughters' in Chinese, at least. I assume it means the same in Japanese.

Hahahahahahahahaha. Is this stuff actually taken seriously?

# ¿ Mar 12, 2013 05:37

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Bloodnose posted:

I imagine there must be some kind of liberal, internationalist political movement in Japan that wants the country to open up, allow more immigration and generally stop being so isolationist, xenophobic and mercantilist.

Right?

Pretty much every Japanese person who speaks English who I've spoken to is super depressed about Japan's xenophobia so perhaps?

# ¿ Mar 12, 2013 08:14

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Thought y'all might be interested in this BBC article written by a Japanese woman about the state of current history education in JPN:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21226068

# ¿ Mar 14, 2013 09:00

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Some of my students can't wait to try Basmati rice. I've been hyping it up loads.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2013 08:42

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

ErIog posted:

People benefit from this policy, and so therefore we should do away with it? Yeah, gently caress those old rural people that feed the country, right?

Well if all the olds actually died Japan might see some positive change! But no, they keep living and living and... living. All because of their wonderrice.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2013 08:42

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

There's an intergenerational battle going on and Eirog, you're on the wrong side!

# ¿ Mar 19, 2013 02:34

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Government-funded speed dating?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 06:26

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

Ganguro King posted:

This is already an actual thing on the local level in rural areas. One place in Tottori even brought in a literal busload of women from Osaka for one of their matchmaking events.

Ahahaha. My goodness. I would love to hear the conversation on that bus.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 06:59

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:29

I am OK: Mar 9, 2009; LAWL

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21880124

# ¿ Mar 22, 2013 10:01

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