re: #379 Barefoot Grin

That started with the Iranians in the 1990s. When the economy turned and these invited workers lost jobs they started selling counterfeit phone cards (provided by the yakuza). Every once in awhile a guy would get caught on a stolen bike, which is a laugh because bikes get stolen all the time by drunks needing to get home from the train station. And then there were a couple of guys busted selling pot and meth (a very popular drug in Japan). And that was it: the media went all out anti-foreigner (but everyone knew it didn’t mean white people the West). Writers at the Japan Times did great work showing how the percentage of foreigners committing crimes of the foreign community was minuscule compared to the number of Japanese committing the same kinds of crimes. It didn’t matter.

So, many of the Iranians were forced or pressured to leave. What was next? As you know, foreigners of Japanese descent, esp. from Brazil and Peru. Hey, they look like us, what could go wrong? Well, they were Brazilians and Peruvians, not Japanese.

I love a lot about Japan, but the xenophobia there can get kicked into overdrive very quickly, and it can get turned into policy quickly, too.

Good insight. The Iranians were able to arrive in Japan visa-free in the 1980s, and can anyone blame them? They were in a state of war against Iraq, so can’t blame them for fleeing to Japan under the bubble economy.

So those explains why Iranians have a low approval in Japan, which I couldn’t understand at first but now I do.

But I’ll be honest: the Nigerian touts in Shinjuku and Roppongi are scum for the most part. And they are the reason why average Nigerians who are there to study and contribute to Japan are seen in the same light unfortunately. I could have said the same thing about all Nigerians in Japan because I almost got into a fight with an aggressive Nigerian tout at Shinjuku one night I was there but decided to walk away as I wasn’t interested in getting jumped by his mates on the last night of my trip. But then I realize that there’s always good and bad in every group, so no need for me conflate Nigerians in Japan with the touts of Roppongi and Shinjuku.