Although the average Japanese person on the street might think there are a lot of foreigners living and working in Japan, in reality the number is tiny, just 1.63% of the overall population here. This number, which includes Japan-born Koreans and Chinese who choose not to take Japanese citizenship for cultural reasons, compares to 8% foreign-born residents in the U.K., 9% for Germany, 11% for the U.S. and 13% for the Netherlands. Although the number of foreign barbarians in Japan may be low, the Japanese never seem to get used to us, and it's fun to observe the confusion that arises when the two worlds intersect. First of all, all Westerners are assumed to be American, which is the country the Japanese are most familiar with; similarly, Japanese expect that all gaijin can speak English. Last month I met a guy from Italy who didn't speak my language, so we stood there chatting in Japanese about various topics, a sight that provided great amusement to the Japanese people walking past us. Although I do still occasionally receive compliments from older Japanese on my use of chopsticks, for the most part people have come to terms with the idea that foreigners will do things like know how to order sushi in Japanese or have vast knowledge about obscure topics. For some reason, I've met quite a few people who were surprised when they heard I've married a local girl and have Japanese kids going to normal schools, despite having been here for 18 years.
Gaijin always seem to confused the poor Japanese.
5 comments:
Don't forget, they also think we all were eating steak and hamburgers on a daily basis back home! It's our favorite food, right?
I've also been told that the majority of Westerners have blue eyes and blond hair. I learn something new about the folks back home every day through life in Japan!
Yes! I should have put the steak one in. So many of the examples I thought of seemed funny or were overly rude. Like the famous Spare Me My Life exercise video, sheesh.
I've read your blog for at least a year now but i've never commented..got a question now though because of this new post of yours..
In your own opinion, why exactly IS there such a large culture gap in japan as opposed to the rest of the world? Is it all just media confusion, or xenophobia or..perhaps just because they're so closed off from everyone else? Being from an open society (you know the one), it confuses me as to how such mass generalizations actually come about..
I guess it's mainly unfamiliarity. Before anime came along and educated a generation on the subtleties of Japanese culture, I'm sure 99% of Americans would have had a terrible time telling Chinese from Japanese from Korean. The gap is still great, although hopefully it'll get smaller as more people reach out and touch people from other parts of the world.
and what of non Caucasian foreigners in Japan like people of African decent, how are they perceived?
also can you enable name and url commenting on your blog?
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