Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

japantimes.co.jp

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#11

Post by barry-cotter »

akincisor wrote: post #5
barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." - Carl Sagan

If you feel like going on a one man crusade to change the world is what you want to do with your life go for it. If you want admiration for it make sure you win.

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#12

Post by tjpnz »

I've lived here for 5 years and it's something that doesn't really bother me a lot. At the very least I'm not getting racial epithets shouted at me which I saw happen to a lot of foreigners (riding public transport) growing up in New Zealand.

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#13

Post by josephg »

asp_hornet wrote: post #4
barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

> I’m never going to be Chineses, same as he’s never going to be Japanese. If that bugs him why not go home? No one’s making him stay in Japan. I’m so happy to read this comment. I lived in Japan for 4 years and had the same feeling. People are always upset they’re not seen as Japanese despite the fact they are indeed not Japanese. I could see an argument if you were a child of a western parent, born and raised in Ja…

I hear you, but I also notice how different the expectations and standards are around race in the west. If we transplant some of the things said above into America, I notice I have a very different reaction.

Eg, “[Because he’s not white] he’s never going to be American. If that bugs him, why not go home? Nobody is making him stay in America.”

“[Immigrants] are just foreigners living in America with a chip on their shoulder because they weren’t born American”

(Edit to be really clear I’m not condoning or condemning. Just noticing.)

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#14

Post by sendos »

barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

I agree that if the attitudes of people in Japan bother him so much, not clear why he’s staying

Having said that, the phenomenon he describes is pure racism. Not easy to shrug off

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#15

Post by ddiq »

theroo wrote: post #6
barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

I think when you experience prejudice regarding your race, it’s unfair to characterize that as “stewing”. Maybe you don’t find this article or his initial piece insightful; that’s fair enough. But I also think it’s fair of him to shine a light on unfair treatment in the place he lives, without people suggesting - without irony - that he “go home”.

It's not "unfair treatment," it's perfectly normal for people to feel more comfortable around their own. They don't know if this guy knows train etiquette, if he has body odor - only around 10% of East Asians do, or maybe it's just that he's wider than the average Japanese person, as it appears so from his picture.

He's a guest in their country, and it's impudent for him to think he has the right to be sat next to at the same rate as Japanese people. If he doesn't like it, he should leave.

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#16

Post by RHSeeger »

barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

Out of curiosity, would you be ok with someone telling a non-us citizen black man in the US "If you don't like people acting racist toward you, go back where you came from"? That is fairly widely considered inappropriate in the US (though not universally).

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#17

Post by et-al »

asp_hornet wrote: post #4
barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

> I’m never going to be Chineses, same as he’s never going to be Japanese. If that bugs him why not go home? No one’s making him stay in Japan. I’m so happy to read this comment. I lived in Japan for 4 years and had the same feeling. People are always upset they’re not seen as Japanese despite the fact they are indeed not Japanese. I could see an argument if you were a child of a western parent, born and raised in Ja…

If you happen to be in a visually homogenous society (i.e. rural America, or Japan), you're gonna be treated differently because you stand out.

This common occurrence for American-born children of non-white immigrants in American.

"Where are you from?" "Kansas City" "No, where are you really from?"

This being said, America's had more immigrants come in than Japan, so by collective experience, America should be more open-minded about outsiders than Japan. Which is what we see in big cities like New York.

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#18

Post by theroo »

ddiq wrote: post #15
theroo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when you experience prejudice regarding your race, it’s unfair to characterize that as “stewing”. Maybe you don’t find this article or his initial piece insightful; that’s fair enough. But I also think it’s fair of him to shine a light on unfair treatment in the place he lives, without people suggesting - without irony - that he “go home”.

It's not "unfair treatment," it's perfectly normal for people to feel more comfortable around their own. They don't know if this guy knows train etiquette, if he has body odor - only around 10% of East Asians do, or maybe it's just that he's wider than the average Japanese person, as it appears so from his picture. He's a guest in their country, and it's impudent for him to think he has the right to be sat next to at…

He’s black. Did you read that part?

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#19

Post by A2017U1 »

jxramos wrote: post #10

This guy should cash in on the empty seat by having a staged Japanese friend break the ice and sit very conspicuously during his approach and settling in to claim that empty seat. Maybe even with verbal announcements along the way, walking through a crowd from an adjacent car to meander next to the expected to be empty seat. If they could stage cameras about to capture reactions from the crowd that could be slightly…

> verbal announcements

At this point the foreigner is more Japanese than the local friend.

Re: The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train

#20

Post by kochikame »

barry-cotter wrote: post #3

My god, it must be so unpleasant to be the kind of person who thinks about that for the hours necessary to write an essay like the one he wrote ten years ago, and to continue stewing on it for ten years. I’ve lived in China for more than seven years and I definitely have an empty seat beside me on the metro more often than Chinese people and children and tourists say 老外(foreigner) regularly enough. So what? Life is g…

Baye McNeil is famous for finding racism where there usually isn't any.
Post reply on HN