Cool Japan 🌸

Comments

• Ostrakon@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The people defending this as ‘not racism’… way to miss the point. If this was some BBQ joint in Texas with a sign that says closed in Spanish but open in English you wouldn’t be posting these comments

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  • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It would still not be racism

    Xenophobia at worst, only hatred of tourists at best

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    • bold_omi@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Xenophobia is inherently racist.

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    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah let’s start calling it racism when Barcelona locals spray tourists with water guns and see how quickly these same people scream “THAT’S DIFFERENT!”

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  • Taldan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    It literally isn’t racism though. You can disagree with it and think it should be banned, but there is no interpretation that it can realistically be called racism

    I lived in Japan for a while. I’ve seen a couple places with a sign like this. In my experience every place like this is perfectly willing to have foreigners that speak Japanese. They simply don’t want to deal with the hassle of a language barrier

    I should also note these places were always in touristy areas. If they don’t have a sign like that, they’ll end up with majority English speaking customers, because Japanese customers prefer places without rowdy tourists that can’t speak the local language. I did too. Going out for an after work beer, you want an entirely different atmosphere from tourists getting hammered

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  • baronvonj@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The odds of a Texas BBQ joint not having any Spanish speaking employees is exceedingly small.

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    • treesapx@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      And yet they are cheering for ICE to arrest them all. No matter the status or paperwork. If they’re arrested then they are guilty. That’s how it works down here.

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    • Mac@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      lol what? Have you ever been to Texas?

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  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If an American moves to Europe and doesn’t attempt to learn the local language, then by a few months to a year in with zero effort people will say they’re in the wrong for not making an effort to integrate and expecting everyone to speak English for them.

    Clearly “Americans expecting foreigners to speak English” is different from “Other countries expecting Americans to speak the local language” from a moral point of view. So why is Japan then lumped in with America as the “Local people must accept and accommodate foreigners who can’t communicate in the local language” bucket, when anywhere else it’s “If you’re traveling there and you didn’t even try learning the language, then you’re ignorant and entitled.”?

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  • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I mean, it’s also racism. Those people are just stupid.

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• Zephyr@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Japan, where racism doesn’t usually get the same criticism it does elsewhere for whatever reason…

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  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Japan cast cat girl, it was super effective. All knowledge of atrocities was erased from western nations.

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  • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨59⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    They’re hateful, but they’re cute.

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• DaddleDew@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I used a bus in Japan to go to Mount Fuji. Seats were assigned like in a plane and I was sitting next to some Japanese guy. I did my best to respect their customs and remained silent and kept to myself for the two hour ride. The inside of the bus was as silent as a church for the entire drive even though it was full.

  On the way back at the end of the day, the bus had dropped a few passengers somewhere and stopped at a station for a toilet break. When we boarded again the driver went to see the passenger beside me and moved him to another seat on the bus to sit in a seat that had been freed up next to another Japanese person.

  I’ve spent the rest of the ride wondering what I had done wrong. It’s really a fucked up feeling and it must be horrible to be experiencing this sort of passive aggressive racism in a daily basis in your own home.

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  • ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It probably wasn’t anything wrong you had done wrong. From what I’ve been hearing from some family who do business in asia. As they explain it, Japan has had an economic whiplash from the 80s and a lot of those cultural and economic policies that gave them initial success were not sustainable long term. And since Japan is a VERY proud culture, they’ve found it easier to blame outsiders than their own miscalculations.

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  • Jimbo@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The inside of the bus was as silent as a church for the entire drive even though it was full.

    Is that not the case where you’re from? Genuinely almost never heard anyone having a conversation on an intercity bus

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    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      In my country, almost any group travelling together is going to speak on a long-haul bus or train, many of them most of the time. And lots of people make phone calls. There have to be designated quiet coaches (or open rail cars since coaches are falling out of fashion).

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• possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The amount if racism in Asian countries is very worrying

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• 13igTyme@piefed.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Japan is one of the most xenophobic countries on the planet. This is just one example.

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  • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Despite having population crisis and financial loses, they are still committed to xenophobia. They are master of that.

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  • thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Sure would be a shame if they also had an abysmally low birth rate which will result in their societal collapse.

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  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Literally every country on the planet is xenophobic, people only make a big deal out of it when it’s a western or western-aligned country.

    The entire idea of inclusivity, tolerance, and multiculturalism is primarily a western idea sprung from western humanist values and honestly only even taken seriously in secular democracies which tend to be aligned with the west.

    And then people act like the west and west-aligned countries are so depraved for not perfectly living up to those values, when hardly any other nation even tries or has any desire to.

    It’s honestly kind of amusing once you stop giving a shit.

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    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨31⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      I told people in North Iraq I am from Turkey, and despite my government fucking genociding their population and oppressing them for years, these people were welcoming. Travel more, I guess?

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  • pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Probably on my list of reasons why I don’t want to visit Japan

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    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Ive been to Japan a few years ago and they always felt very friendly and welcoming. They’re somewhat shy and awkward, but can’t say I had any negative experience.

      If you want to feel bad, go to Italy, especially Rome. Many Italians are super racist, hate tourists and are not afraid to hide it.

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    • Eldritch@piefed.world ⁨42⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      You’re going to face it anywhere you go. Don’t let it hold you back. There’s always a slight feeling of unease around those that are different from yourself. But not everyone turns it into a justification to hate. I saw this video 5 years ago about a guy going to Japan trying to track down the location of a meme image from the early internet. They ended up heading off to a smaller town that wasn’t very touristy. Something that could go very badly. As some of the small towns like anywhere else can be very insular. But instead when they got there. Ended up spending the night chatting up an eager bar owner about Kurosawa and star wars.

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• Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Guess who’s reading this, lol
  Image

  Anyway, this is blatantly racism and don’t give me the “yes but what if they don’t have anyone who speaks english or chinese?” That’s fair but in that case you put something that says “sorry we don’t have any english speaking staff” or tell me directly but anyway, it shouldn’t be that hard to order tbh, yeah i can’t talk but we are in 2026 with such translation tools, i can scan, look at what it says and then point at the various menu entries with my finger, to pay i can just look at the numbers lmao

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  • axx@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Can people really no longer differentiate between xenophobia and racism?

    Not being pedantic, but misnaming thins only adds to the woes of the world, to (mis)quote Camus.

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    • Ashiette@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      But japanese people are not only xenophobic, they are also racist. There was a show that, if I remember correctly, made fun of a black person for making sushi. Like it was the funniest thing ever for them. Racism has been normalised in the japanese society, but there’s also blatant xenophobia.

      However, if I were to chose between being victim of racism in the US or in Japan I would always chose Japan because there would be fewer threats to my life.

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  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “Lmao” your ability to use software to translate for you doesn’t change the intent behind this sign. Japan is racist AF despite their polite society, and there are a growing number of restaurants and other establishments with signage that outright says some version of “no foreigners/no white people.” You will probably get a frosty reception in this establishment if you decide to enter it because you decide you were too clever to be deterred.

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    • Canconda@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The Cardinal Rule

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    • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Well, what is the alternative? Not eat? It may not be a problem in bigger cities but smaller ones it probably is (but i have never been to japan so idk)

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  • Beehaw_Girl@beehaw.org ⁨50⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    I know a handful of white Americans who at a glance you’d never guess they’re highly educated polyglots and would meet the requirements for entering this restaurant. The way the sign is worded, I think you’re right, only fluent Japanese people allowed here because we only speak Japanese here.

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  • Uruanna@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I mean, if the Japanese text says “if you can read this, you’re welcome”, it does suggest that English or Chinese people who speak and read Japanese are welcome. It’s a real weird thing to pull, like they think they’re being cute.

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  • cevn@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Your phone will be allowed in, but you have to stay outside.

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• VitoRobles@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  My wife is southeast Asian. Going to Japan, I felt a lot of like… weird energy at times where they just kind of looked at me. I never felt unsafe, just judged. I told my wife this, who said she felt the complete opposite. She was born and raised in the States, and we traveled to a bunch of States (fuck Missouri) where she really felt unsafe like if she didn’t leave town, they would make us. And Ive shared before how we got a “Go back to your own country” from other people, and even one showing off his gun.

  Do I feel like Japanese racism is uncalled for? Absolutely. Again, I never felt unsafe. So it’s really interesting to see this perspective in the comments like this is the worst disgusting attitude in the world because someone snubbed them.

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  • JillyB@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    I lived in Japan for 2 years. I had several expat friends with stories of going to the hospital, being told they were full, their Japanese wife showing up, and suddenly they have space. Other stories of legal disputes between a Japanese person and a foreign immigrant will always go to the Japanese person. Japanese culture is very non-confrontational, but don’t think their brand of racism is safer. If we’re comparing racism and deciding one is less bad than the other, we’ve already partially accepted that it has a place in society.

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  • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world ⁨47⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    As someone in a similar situation, there are differences in the racism are stark.

    They treat you differently but far more often than not, it is just curiosity or looking for entertainment from a zoo animal. They are not hostile or aggressive.

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• shioprince@nord.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  and yet japan is still viewed as an utopia by reddit weebs, despite japan being really racist

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• Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Google Lens tells me that the description is accurate. Even though i love japanese culture, they are racist as fuck, so i am not ever surprised.

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• SalamiDommie@lemmus.org ⁨38⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  I like my prejudice right out in the open. Just like this

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• 20cello@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Still racist

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  • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It wasn’t saying it wasn’t tho

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  • Nawor3565@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I mean, genuinely, how? It’s not saying you need to be Japanese to enter, just that you need to be able to read Japanese. IMO, learning the local language of a country you plan to visit is a basic courtesy that too many people don’t bother with.

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    • Dookieman12@piefed.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      “I’m tired of all these immigrants coming over here and not even being able to speak the language. This is [country] and we speak [language] here!”

      That’s what you sound like.

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    • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Jim Crow literacy tests have entered the chat

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    • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      … How many countries have you ever visited to say that

      Like, being able to speak the very basics I agree. Numbers, hello and goodbye, thank you, etc.

      But “If you can read this, you may come in” is pretty advanced. Like, probably requiring weeks of daily study level advanced to be able to understand.

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    • M137@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Ah, yes, everyone whould spend months to learn the language of every country they visit even though they might be there for only a few days.

      How are you this dumb? I highly doubt you’ve ever been outside the country you were born in, and if you have you certainly didn’t follow your own thought here.

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• ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish”

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• PattyMcB@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  On Okinawa, the red light area routinely used to refuse “chocolate men” for being “too strong”

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• nil@piefed.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Probably not worth visiting them anyways…

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  • yermaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah thanks for filtering yourself out of places I would like to give my business to.

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• TrickDacy@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Never heard of a restaurant posting a sign on the door saying they’re full.

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  • Carrolade@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah that’s more of a hotel thing. I’m guessing this is that influencer trick of intentionally lying about a detail so people will make comments to correct you, giving you free engagement.

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    • TachyonTele_Esq@piefed.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I agree. And I’m replying to this comment to skew the numbers.

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  • wpb@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I don’t see signs like this where I live either. But when I went to Japan I did see this a couple times. Not a racist sign like this one, but signs saying “we’re full” in Japanese, at restaurants. Different cultures do things differently, I guess.

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• vathecka@lemmy.radio ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If you dont have any staff who speak those languages I kinda get not wanting to provide service to people who only speak them, though it would probably be better to just say “no foreign language service available”

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  • GiantChickDicks@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Is it inconvenient? Yes. Is it really that difficult, especially today with smart phones, to provide basic service at a restaurant? Absolutely not.

    I spent my early life in the service industry, and I’ve served people who spoke zero English more times than I can count. Even before translation apps and services were so common, it truly wasn’t difficult enough that I’d feel comfortable as a human denying them service. We all worked together to get through it, and they enjoyed their experience from what I could tell.

    I’ve also been on the other end and visited restaurants where our server didn’t speak English. We had a great time every time. It truly isn’t the big deal you’re making it, so it feels like you’re looking for reasons to excuse what we can plainly see is racism.

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  • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They are master of polite racism. They do it because they are xenophobic af.

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• Takeshidude@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  I’ve heard that people in Kyoto are very uppity and generally anti-tourist

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• Jagget@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  xcancel.com/Arin_Yumi/status/1851110720575779325

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  • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    the replies didnt surprise me…

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• prenatal_confusion@feddit.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Not race but “I am tired of tourists”-ism

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  • Dookieman12@piefed.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “I’m not racist. I just can’t stand all these fucking foreigners.”

    That’s what you sound like.

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    • prenatal_confusion@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Have you ever lived anywhere with a lot of tourism? Its not the specific people one dislikes but the atmosphere it creates. That may just be me.

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  • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    • said John in the beach town that survives because of tourism

    That’s maybe not japan case but usually that’s the case for most places

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    • prenatal_confusion@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Consider the alternatives. Capitalism is lazy. So if there is a living to be made from tourists of course people are using that as a resource. But there might be a lot of different ways to create a working economy there and its bring hindered by the incumbent called tourism.

      Like we (the global north) is fucking up the clothing market for the global south by dumping (donating) our old clothing and completely destroying the chance for a working economy in that sector.

      Bring on the downvotes.

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• darthsundhaft@piefed.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Not sure how accurate it is to call it racism but definitely discrimination…. like literally.

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  • Janx@piefed.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Discrimination due to…? You’re almost there!

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    • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Language barriers

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    • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Racism is the belief that one or more “races” is superior to the others, or the opposite; that one or more “races” is inferior.

      Racial discrimination can be for many different reasons. I’m not saying racism isnt the reason in this case, but without more context we can’t know for sure.

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• remon@ani.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Doesn’t say anything about race, just that you need to be able to read Japanese. Isn’t that more like linguism or something?

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• 87Six@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  As a fully white motherfucker, that’s hillarious, I love it

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• OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’ll be real - Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sapporo, etc are all flooded with tourists and immigrants. Now this isn’t me being racist, I’m not even Japanese- but there’s a huge difference between these cities that LARP as traditional Japan to tourists and cities in the countryside that genuinely don’t have to. It’s a real shame how the culture has changed in Japan, and it’s sad that most foreigners don’t realize that. So I don’t blame residents for recognizing that.

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• SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  People have google translate and shit. This won’t stop them

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