!ride them Jesus

What's wrong with it?

He went to Japan for one meeting only. He went to one of those clubs where you have a lady companion sitting with you, and you can bail her out for a "date on your room".

Thanks! Good to know, but I guess that everything but the street walkers are alright. At least then you don't have to worry about what gender your lady of the night belongs to...

tsurara

You fail at fuzoku.

There -are- no street walkers.

Japan is not Thailand. It's a developed nation that's incredibly uptight about sex on the surface and quite discreet about even it's sex industry. Women don't NEED money to live. They want it for designer bags. And they generally don't need to actually do the deed to get that money.

Actual sale of sex is illegal (and surprisingly enforced)... While it does go on, there are no "clubs" daring enough to offer it to their clientele up front. Not to mention virtually none willing to offer it to a foreigner without a Japanese interpretor or specially hired "sex guide" present. I'm fairly certain that your friend grossly misunderstood the purpose of either a snack, a lingere pub, a soapland, a or a hook-up-bar (in which women from the street are solicited and told to enjoy themselves/drink for free and men who pay a hefty entrance fee can watch them on cameras/call them over in-house lines/and ask to meet for dates). In every single situation, short of yakuza-run prostitution rings (which mainly involve illegal southeast asian immigrants): the girl MAY choose to engage you as a lover AFTER her shift (either out of personal interest or promise of financial gain), but she is just as likely (and completely entitled) to take your money, then tell you to get lost.

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Scourge

No the Japane are not racist, how ever they are very xenophobic and have been for a very long time.
I just know that the only way to become citisen in Japan is if you are born there. How ever, if you were a born citisen and moved out of country for a while and tried to move back, they will not consider you a citisen of Japan any more even if you were born and raised there for most of your life.
They also tend to be very pridful, and quiet a few to a falt. And when it comes to looking back on past mistacks they have made, they tend to shove that to some dark corner and hide the fact that it had ever happened.

SweetCandy

i don't really know if japanese ppl are racist/But i do agree that some of the stuff they do can make pl that they are.. But really, we can't blame them for actin that way..we do they same just not really with japanese ppl..Americans have problems or get suspicions when around foreigners too (mex,and pakistan lookin ppl)

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!The GunGrave of Trigun

Well some are racist some are not just because one is you cant base that all are.

Arukih

why that hell they would be different from the rest of the world in that???

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kira85

My stepmom is japanese so i've been dealing with their customes and culture for around 18 years. I wouldn't say they are anymore racist than any other culture but as someone else stated they are very proud. They're proud to the point that i guess you could consider it ethnocentrism. I assume alot of this would have to do with their technological advances and what not. In any case its not a good idea to even consider a whole culture racist just do it on a case to case basis.

Shinku no kage

The Japanese are just as racist as anyone else in the world of any nationality, dont single them out on this making it look like that they are more of a racist than others. Otherwise this makes it look like that YOU are the racist here...which I hope you are not. (-_-)

As for what happened to your friend: Yes, it seems rather wrong to deny entrance to the club...ASSUMING that it was really based on his race. Still, they hold the right to deny entrance and/or service to ANY of their customers and the case being that this was a gentlemen's club...well than the business itself is fairly controversial so you have to consider the precautions they have to take.

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Hassun

The reason why many like to talk about "the Japanese" as one group wherein everyone thinks the same is because a lot of books and works deal with the Japanese in this way. It is of course very wrong.

So why are all those books written that way? It's because the Japanese just LOVE to speak about themselves that way. Their whole culture is based on it. The group, not the individual.
The interesting thing about this is that the rest of the world thought like that for a long time as well. The West changed its focus to the individual not so long ago.

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tsurara

Japan is an interesting case. It is an ethnically and culturally homogenous nation that prides itself on it's singular identity as "Japanese". Believe it or not, this creates a much more closed atmosphere and distrust/misunderstanding of "outsiders". I would argue that Japan is far more openly racist (at least by the standards of ethnically mixed societies) than most of us would first suspect or be willing to accept.

Blackface is acceptable, racial charicatures are common, gay stereotypes are played on prime-time for jokes, there are magazines and books devoted entirely to thinly-veiled hatred for foreigners living in Japan and other nations as a whole, foreigners are openly barred from certain establishments, foreign workers are often treated more poorly than their Japanese counterparts, urban legends about foreigners are common and consequently, so are misconceptions/rude questions/assumptions. etc. etc.

On the other hand: foreign men (Korean, black and caucasian) are often built up as idols over Japanese men by women put off by their hard schedules and stoic upbringings, foreign celebrities are worshipped with zeal, foreign brands and images are more desireable than Japanese ones (often fetching at least twice their actual worth simply by virtue of being foreign), ethnic foods are popular, overseas vacations are in high demand, 1 in 7 Japanese adults is currently taking an English conversation class at least once a month. I'm told I'm beautiful and have a "small face" an average of ten times a day and am often discussed by admiring young women in full earshot... positively. Small children and high school students regularly shout out "HELLO!" at me and are delighted to recieve answers.

That's also racism... but it's good racism (for us anyway).

Much of this is born from genuine naevite... most Japanese learn about the rest of the world from television, movies, fashion magazines, edited textbooks and comic books. It's hard to blame them for thinking Americans sue microwave companies for not putting "don't microwave your cat" labels on their appliances or that we all carry guns and shoot each other when we get pissed off.

More damaging (and depressing in the long-term) is a nationwide superiority complex that has been brewing for hundreds of years. "National Learning" never really stopped... it just became far more innocuous ("writings on being Japanese", neo-nationalism, "Dignity of the Nation", questionable textbook editing, etc). Unfortunately most Japanese people still remain wholly convinced that Japan is the center of the meaningful universe, the pinnacle of culture, the epitome of progress and that the Japanese are the most peaceful and gentile race on the planet. One of the most hilarious government sponsored "studies" involves Japanese and Western honeybees... with the conclusion being that Japanese honeybees are more peaceful, gentle and cooperative than their savage foreign counterparts; something that is then implied carries over directly to humans. Japan, as a nation, has absorbed nothing of guilt from World War II or the Sino-Japanese war... but have wholly embraced victimhood (which they emphasize on an almost daily basis). They remain unconcerned with their own role in world politics but are quick to condemn the actions of "warlike" nations and have candlelight vigils for other "victims" before forgetting about the matter altogether.

I've studied Japanese culture, literature, history and sociology under Westerners (at an American university), under Japanese (at a Tokyo university), and have lived here for four years now: I love this country deeply and I firmly believe they have no more or less problems than any other nation. But they do have UNIQUE problems. And one of them most CERTAINLY is tied to Japan's view of itself in the world... and it's view of everyone else who threatens to usurp their unique "oneness".

Then again, to put things in perspective: I think ethnocentrism is an even larger problem in the United States... most Americans have no awareness, interest or empathy in the outside world and harbor all sorts of ridiculous notions and stereotypes about everyone else under the sun. While far more accepting of differences WITHIN it's society: the USA is a total joke when it comes to "worldliness."

For every time I have been asked whether I own a gun in Japan, I have been asked if "my eyes are slanty yet?" or "do Japanese women have sideways vaginas?" in the US. What does that say about us?

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highteckdudu

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I tryed to see things from your point of view but i cant seem to get my head that far up my ass!
Visit www.highteckdudu.webs.com!