An Incident in Japan....

I just returned (again) from Japan this weekend. For those of you keeping score, that's twice within the last month. Man, I'm tired!

Overall, I had a very good training session over the week, and made some pretty good contacts from Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Czech Republic. But myself & a few coworkers experienced a case of Japanese racism, which I am still pissed about...

One evening, my boss (who is Canadian) and another co-worker (an Indian) were walking with me to the local 7-11, so that I could buy my yogurt & orange juice for the next morning. Along the way we passed some clubs (?) which had signs along the street. We had seen numerous guys coming & leaving these places all week, so we were curious as to what they were. My boss asked me to translate one of the signs, so I tried. There was alot of kanji I didn't know, but I did read something about "1 person = 5000 yen", so I assume it was a "gentlemen's club".

While reading the sign, I guy came up to us and said "the clubs are for Japanese only! No gai-jin allowed!" Hey, thanks for the unsolicited information, but we had made no motion or attempt to enter the club. We were only reading the sign.

While thinking which judo move I should lay him out with, I realized there was a cop nearby. So I politely told him he could go F@ck himself, and we proceeded to do our 7-11 shopping. For the rest of the week I felt the urge to take my hairy American-ass upstairs to the club, but it would have been career suicide to get arrested on a business trip, so I avoided that street completely.

I don't know if blatant racism is legal in Japan, but I guess so since the cop let it happen. I had heard from other "gai-jin" that this stuff happened in Japan, but this is the first time I have experienced it. From an American perspective I know that racism does exist in the States, but it is ILLEGAL to bar someone from entering a building based upon their race here. You may get thrown out if you make an ass of yourself, but you are allowed the opportunity. Japan is trying to get a permanent seat on the UN security council, and so heavily involved in the UN & human rights, you would think that they wouldn't allow this type of discimination to go on.

Oh, by the way, this is the kicker: I had seen a few Chinese & Korean guys in these clubs. So maybe it's just white guys & Indians they don't want inside......

Tell me what you think. I love Japan & its people, but this has left a really sour taste......

Shawn