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Why I left Japan after 10 years
231–240 of 287 posts
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#232What an ass. I lived and worked in Japan for several years and I had understood all of the hardness of everyday Japan even before deciding to settle there for a while. To think that it took him several years to get it... and 10 years to decide to do something about it... It's a moron. Nothing else.
People that sour about their host country I find sometimes have something relevant in their past missing from the story. Such as externalities that force them to move to or live in current host for longer than they wanted. Still, there is a long discussion in this article about issues with the Japanese legal system that is worth while.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Japan has a country wide stigma against people who wear tattoos due to Reasons I don't care about. Doesn't matter. Deal with different cultures. > This is exactly the mentality being discussed in this thread that is so abhorrent. You don't see Japanese people strolling into an American house and telling everyone they should take their shoes off before entering. Why should their society turn a blind eye to foreigner…
> If a Japanese person owns a house in the U.S. and asks me to take off my shoes, maybe I should ignore that since my culture in my country doesn't do that? No, I'm not an asshole and I respect their culture, even if they want to practice it in my country. But you won't respect their culture in their own country? Double standards indeed. Wearing your tattoo proudly in Japan is perfectly fine. Just be prepared to be a…
> But you won't respect their culture in their own country? Double standards indeed.
Double standards not indeed. I respect both cultures, unless of course they are bigoted or racist. The difference here is in America you can wear tattoos, a headscarf, or even not take your shoes off when you enter a home, or take them off, we are cool with both - which was my point.
> Wearing your tattoo proudly in Japan is perfectly fine. Just be prepared to be asked to leave an establishment that doesn't tolerate them. It's closer to "No shirt, No shoes, No service" policies in the West if anything.
Being gay is perfectly fine. Just be prepared to be asked to leave an establishment that doesn't tolerate you.
It's the exact same nonsense. What if the person used to be in a gang and changed their life around but can't afford to remove the tattoos? What if the tattoos symbolize something important in their life? What if they were taken as a sex slave and branded, but refused to be ashamed and cover up their tattoo?
No matter how you try and spin it, it's bs. Japan (and anybody else for that matter) needs to respect people and other cultures like we do in the West.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how many asians in America get asked,"so, where are you from?" whenever they meet someone? Caucasians in America get asked this all the time too.
Maybe, but if you answer 'America', the next question isn't 'but where are you /really/ from?' as though the birthplace of your parents or their parents is a defining factor. And I say this a white British guy, but I've regularly witnessed the slightly different way that it is intonated at those that aren't white.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#235Heh, meanwhile in the West if we do the equivalent were just racists and bigots. Move a bunch of refugees into a small town and see women covered up in a burqa and get upset about it? You're a racist now. Wear tattoos in Asia and get kicked out of a gym? "Oh that's just Asian country X, you have to respect their culture". I can't roll my eyes enough. The people in that Asian country should just accept her for who she…
People here all the time complain about being discriminated against for tattoos. Many get their first tattoo after moving here. Many of those people then end up leaving after saying they came to resent this "racist" country.
I'm generally socially liberal, but I fully support the notion that immigrants should try their best to integrate into society. I think massive, open immigration can be detrimental since it makes isolating yourself from the culture and growing to resent it far too easy.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI I think the 绝 is only Simplified Chinese, 絕 in Traditional. I think 絶 is the Japanese equivalent.
Right, I only copied the text from my parent comment, without checking that it actually matches the original. My point about the grammar stands, though. I think they simply wrote Chinese text using Japanese kanji. Simplified Chinese would be "(谢绝)(中国人)" = "(politely refuse)(Chinese person)" = "(verb)(object)", which is correct Chinese grammar. However, 謝絶 seems to be a noun/suru verb in Japanese ( http://jisho.org/se…
I am not doubting you.
I was saying something simpler: One Chinese-only character is enough to show it is not Japanese.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#237I can understand, bicyclists are fucking annoying, and most of the time they are putting themselves and others in danger. For me, the road is no place for a bicyclist. And, as you can see, there's no possible debate in the west: you have to have bicyclists, otherwise you're a backwards asshole. And I have to live with that, because that's society: you have to deal with people who don't think the way you do. (You just…
Assuming you live in the US (I don't know this for a fact), you've illustrated my point well.
Please don't kill anyone.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#238I heard the "if you don't like it, leave line" from people all the time in America. Even with the pettiest of political disagreements, people say it. So then I went to Japan and haven't received or heard of anyone receiving similar vitriol aside from the OP. A foreign coworker (same race and nationality as me) endlessly complains about racism, discrimination, and being stared at here. I've experienced none of it. I'm…
Of course, the problem with "if you don't like it, leave" is that the people in the most dire straits are the least able to get a visa / work permit. Someone who lost their job, has no health insurance, and has a chronic health condition will find it pretty hard to leave if they wish to live in a reasonably developed nation (even in other places, it's not like visas are given out like candy.)
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#239the OP was wondering if after a year they would be able to write an objectionable article about their experience... definitely another year might help. Regardless I'm still happy they shared their experiences.
The comments on HN are mostly disturbed by the self-righteous tone of the article. This phrase is probably around the centre of that tone [highlight mine]:
> a poor excuse for attitudes that would be met with derision in more [enlightened 21st-century countries]
Also the author finds problems in Japan that they seem to ignore in many other places:
> It was somewhere I lived for 10 years, it was never my home, could never have been my home. Regardless of how good my Japanese language skills became or how much I had tried to become like them, I would never have been fully accepted, never been allowed in the club.
Basically it sounds almost like the author is saying that they just like to live where they are part of the native majority. Because, I think you will experience this everywhere. I've seen and experienced exactly the same in the following countries (In order of level disgustingness at which the 'not-part-of-our-society' is shovelled out): Israel, US, Germany.
But still there is a lot in the article worth reading if one can get through the tone. Specifically the legal architecture.
Re: Why I left Japan after 10 years
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If a Japanese person owns a house in the U.S. and asks me to take off my shoes, maybe I should ignore that since my culture in my country doesn't do that? No, I'm not an asshole and I respect their culture, even if they want to practice it in my country. But you won't respect their culture in their own country? Double standards indeed. Wearing your tattoo proudly in Japan is perfectly fine. Just be prepared to be a…
> But you won't respect their culture in their own country? Double standards indeed. Double standards not indeed. I respect both cultures, unless of course they are bigoted or racist. The difference here is in America you can wear tattoos, a headscarf, or even not take your shoes off when you enter a home, or take them off, we are cool with both - which was my point. > Wearing your tattoo proudly in Japan is perfectl…
> Tattoos are literally the same thing as being gay.
Yep. Ok. Mhm.