Message from Shawn Iguchi

I have been checking out tourists and foreigners living in Japan. And I ran into a person who says “Japan is a racist country!” I looked into his ground for saying that. Then I first time realized what he was talking about.

He said there were bars and shops in Japan that put out a sign board in front of shop that says “No foreigners please! Only Japanese customers!” I didn’t realize this until he pointed it out.

Well, this is not a racial thing. It’s a Japanese thing. I grew up in Japan so I naturally developed common sense of Japan but often times I don’t even notice if it is strange in the eyes of foreigners because it’s common sense in Japan.

There are restaurants and bars, especially bars in Japan that are not open to public. They are eliminating not only foreigners but also native Japanese customers too.

There are two types of restaurants and bars in Japan. If you ever travel or live in Japan, you should know this because this is a common sense in Japan as all native Japanese people know.

Whenever you go visit restaurants and bars in Japan, you have to check to see if it is open to public or not. Often times those restaurants eliminating customers don’t accept first-time visitor called “Ichi-gen-san”. So what it takes to be accepted by the restaurants is that you need to have someone who already has an access to the restaurants. You know? A regular customer you have to look for. Then you get a recommendation from the person, and being introduced to the owner of the restaurant or the bars. That’s how the system works in Japan. Those are private restaurants and bars. Usually those bars request to register the membership. Without a membership card, you can’t go in there.

Also in local area, there are small bars privately run by the owners. These are the type of bars you shouldn’t go. I myself as a native Japanese, don’t go there because I know the rules. These bars have rules and the ruler is the owner. So you have to pay respect to the owner and also to the senior customers. These are unspecified rules as a native Japanese people have as a common sense. You always have to pay respect to the owner and harmony in the atmosphere. And that is a common sense Japanese people have as a virtue. Therefore, even if I were a native Japanese but didn’t have this common sense, the owner would simply boot me out. So the issue here is a common sense (cultural difference) not racism. If you are Chinese, American, African, or Japanese, as far as you have Japanese common sense and manners, you will be accepted by those bars.

So you know why they put out a signboard that says “No foreigner please!” because foreigners, especially tourists, don’t know the rules and common sense. Often times tourists talk as loud as a thunder and break the harmony in its atmosphere that makes the senior customers feel unease. And eventually those regular customers stop coming back again. (It's okay to speak as loud as thunder in China and South Korea. Only Japan has a different culture)

Anyway, majority of restaurants and bars in Japan are not like that. If you just want to simply enjoy your time with your friends, then you should just select those open-to-public restaurants and bars. It is not a matter only for foreigners, but also for native Japanese people. We native Japanese people have to select the type of restaurants and bars to see whether it is for open-to-public or unopen to public. If I chose a wrong type of restaurants and bars, I would be rejected. See? It’s not a racial thing at all but a CULTURAL DIFFERENCE. Don’t conclude “This is racism”.

  

I had lived in Los Angeles California nearly 10 years, and had never concluded to think “Racism” whenever I was rejected or denied by the local people. In most of cases, I would say more than 99.999999% or 100%, I was simply misunderstanding the situation because I was looking at the matter from my Japanese common sense. When I started to live in the US, I tried to get rid of all common senses I developed in Japan. That’s why I had never ever experienced racism when I was living in the US.

Don't draw a conclusion "That is a racist" just because you are being rejected or denied. You'd be rejected and denied even in your own country if you just didn't follow the rules and common sense too.

And you have to do the same thing if you are living or traveling in Japan. Get rid of your common sense and learn the cultural differences. And that’s the way you can enjoy living and sightseeing in a foreign country.