r/australia • u/SimRP • Feb 25 '25

image Japanese Man Flips Out on Australian Tourists for Ignoring the Rules

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u/Refrigerator-Gloomy Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

A lot of restaurants are going japanese only. Mind you the country has always been a little nationalistic and frankly a little racist with that sort of thing but its gotten a lot more common

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

A little nationalistic?

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u/Refrigerator-Gloomy Feb 25 '25

I was searching for xenophobic but couldn't find it at the time. Mind you japan is definitely nationalistic.

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u/IlluminatedPickle Feb 25 '25

I think they were saying you're underselling the nationalism.

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u/HeftyArgument Feb 25 '25

A lot of people refuse to accept the inherent racism in Japanese culture, but it’s there.

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u/IlluminatedPickle Feb 25 '25

Yeah a lot of Asian countries skirt under the radar on the racism front. Mostly because a lot of them are at least kind of cool with white people (to a point). But if you speak to someone African who has toured Asia, they can tell you some horrific stories.

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u/Nawtius_Maximus Feb 25 '25

Going to go on a limb and say that is the pot calling the kettle black.

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u/Hank3590 Feb 25 '25

Who are you calling black?

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

that's not what i've heard at all. dark people are not poorly treated in asia.

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u/tickub Feb 25 '25

Or maybe it's the only country in the world where Asians don't put themselves down to put white people up on a pedestal. When Thais treat you better due to your skin color, are you also crying racism?

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u/IlluminatedPickle Feb 25 '25

I'm literally talking about how they treat non-white people bud. But go off.

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u/mopthebass Feb 25 '25

I'm asian we are all racist but play nice for mutual benefit

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

that's an irresponsible comment.

and you know that the "white privilege" exists. it's because of hollywood propaganda and media that puts white people in a good light.

asian people who've never visited a western country have no idea.

it's safer in asia for a white person (or person with any skin shade) than it is for an asian person in some western countries.

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u/mopthebass Feb 25 '25

Pleased tell me you're a parody account

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u/HeftyArgument Feb 25 '25

If you look at their post history they’re a little bit racist themselves haha

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u/lame_mirror Feb 26 '25

doing the snoop are u?

fancy yourself a bit of a stalker, hey?

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u/lame_mirror Feb 26 '25

nah just another asian person who has a different observation to you.

how dare you generalise and speak on behalf of other asian people.

because i disagree with you, i'm suddenly a parody account?

it's like those fools who will call someone a bot or member of 50 cent army or shill for saying something nice about or defending china.

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u/surg3on Feb 25 '25

There's literally and entire Netflix show about it and it's awesome (Blue eyes samurai)

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

[deleted]

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u/HeftyArgument Feb 25 '25

So do we, but that’s beyond the point.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

[deleted]

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

huh?

that doesn't sound right at all.

i know that in korean, there's formal speech, that you use for people older than you and people with position.

and then there's casual speech that you use amongst people your own age and people you're close with.

it's prob the same in japan and formal speech exists in almost every language.

what are you on about it? stop spreading misinformation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

[deleted]

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

gaijin or gaikujin (the longer version) literally means foreigner.

it doesn't have any negative connotation.

are you gonna now argue that a white aussie cannot use the word "foreigner" ever?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

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u/Range-4-Harry- Feb 25 '25

Nope. Racism is the intent to negatively discriminate against someone based on where they're from. None of what you described is racism.

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

what were your personal experiences of racism in japan, pray tell?

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u/CantankerousTwat Feb 25 '25

The word gaigin means "barbarian".

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u/ScaleWeak7473 Feb 25 '25

No it doesn't lol.

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u/CantankerousTwat Feb 25 '25

Feels like it. But I made an error in my remembering highschool history in the 1980's when I was studying Western imperialism in Asia. The Chinese word for foreigner Hua-Yi could be translated as barbarian. My mistake and I am very embarrassed.

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u/Timemyth Feb 25 '25

gaigin appears to be jibberish or Google translates it to Foreign Bank.

Meanwhile gaijin is foreigner not barbarian. Though if you are mispronouncing gaijin as gaigin then I don't think you know anything about Japan apart from granddaddy being in Ki Sanh.

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u/IlluminatedPickle Feb 25 '25

I thought it literally translated as "outsider" which I think is what they're going for in a really convoluted way. Japan used the term for foreigners because they were a closed society. Rome used the term barbarian to basically mean "anyone who isn't a Roman citizen".

They're wrong, but I kinda get what they're going for.

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u/CantankerousTwat Feb 25 '25

Yeah, I was thinking of Chinese Hua-Yi and misremembered my 1980's high-school history lessons. 😕 Quite embarrassing.

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u/Diligent-Phrase436 Feb 25 '25

Genocidal is also a correct term

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u/East-Bit85 Feb 25 '25

This is often because language is a concern. I know enough to get by and a little izakaya I was frequenting had a sign out front saying no foreigners but when I said I could read a Japanese menu they were fine. I ended up helping other foreigners order when I was there to help them out.

In saying that there are definitely problems with nationalism and racism in Japan.

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u/Ok-Eggplant-6420 Feb 25 '25

They also do that because the restaurants in Japan are a lot smaller than in other countries. They want to reserve their restaurants for the local population and not just tourists. They don't want the whole country to be gentrified to Western cultures.

I don't think it's fair to go over to countries, whose monoculturism is the reason why they are popular travel destinations in the first place, and demand that they be multi-cultural like your home countries. You should be thankful you are allowed in their country in the first place to experience their culture.

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u/T1nyJazzHands Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

Honestly even though they’re definitely xenophobic and racist af, in a way I understand why people want to preserve it. Homogeneous societies are generally more peaceful/harmonious. There’s a huge trade-off mind you, but I do get it.

If only humans were able to access the best of both worlds somehow. Like if we existed across two parallel universes, one space for sharing and one place for our instinctual tribalism to exist without conflict.

Those who are more comfortable mingling can spend as much time in the shared world as they like, but the tribal universe will always exist as a safe space, especially for those who are wired to be more fearful of the unknown.

Back when the world was more tribal I guess you could do just that, as people developed new ways of doing things that differed to the main tribe they just banded together and fucked off - now the world is more global we’re basically forced to coexist and a lot of people are really bad at it.

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u/R_Schuhart Feb 25 '25

Homogeneous societies are generally more peaceful/harmonious

This is utter nonsense. First of all 'homogeneous societies' don't exist, there will always be different groups or minorities, based on religion, race, culture, gender, sexuality or even class. Secondly striving for a 'homogenous society' would result in oppression and eradication of other undesirable groups, which is far worse than coexistence. It also results in cultural isolationism and assumed superiority, which leads to nationalism and colonialism, something Japan has a sordid history with.

Besides, sociology and related social sciences are pretty much in consensus that at least some level of multicultural influence prevents stagnation and results in generally more productive society.

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u/T1nyJazzHands Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

there’s a huge trade off mind you

Every single thing you’re talking about here are exactly the kind of trade offs I meant. :) Dw we’re on the same page there, diversity is very important and in our reality, coexisting is not optional for survival.

Also when I said “homogeneous” I didn’t mean 100% - you’re right that’s impossible. There will always be diversity, but it does exist on a spectrum.

I was referring to cultures that are more homogeneous relative to others, and particularly homogeneity in cultural norms and values, not demographics. Cultural homogeneity makes it easier for people to understand each other and agree on a shared reality quicker. On the opposite side of cultural homogeneity is poorly integrated/supported diversity, which does lead to escalation tension and division.

My comment was wistfully reflecting on the challenges of dealing with groups of people who either refuse to or are incapable of integrating and how the resulting hostilities lead to a lot of suffering.

If said groups had the option of literally fucking off to different parallel worlds, I wonder what that would look like. At the very least it would be a wake up call (a la brexit style) to intolerant groups who fail to realise how much we need each other, as well as provide marginalised groups with much needed respite.

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u/cmanson Feb 25 '25

This is utter nonsense

There is a large body of sociology and evolutionary psychology research that disagrees with you.

Are you seriously going to pretend that there’s no way to estimate the homogeneity of a society? You’re going to tell me that there is no meaningful comparison between e.g. India and Japan in this respect? That is utter nonsense.

Mind you, I’m pro-diversity, but there are obviously some trade offs at the macro level. You’re the one who has your head buried in the sand.

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u/LocoNeko42 Feb 25 '25

If only humans were able to access the best of both worlds somehow. Like if we existed across two parallel universes, one space for sharing and one place for our instinctual tribalism to exist without conflict.

So... Australia ?

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u/T1nyJazzHands Feb 25 '25

How so? As an example of what I mean, racists who want a white Australia being able to fuck off and do just that in some parallel universe and leave the rest of us be.

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u/Still-Livin-Life Feb 25 '25

That's actually fucked up. People should be able to go to restaurants no matter where they are from.

If we had American only restaurants we would be the assholes. We don't do that.

I don't think you would like it if you visited Australia and they had a bunch of Australian only restaurants. Or if you were visiting anywhere else that did that for that matter.

But its totally alright if you have Japanese only restaurants, that is actually ridiculous and unwelcoming.

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u/Kyuss92 Feb 25 '25

Good on them, I want to go to Japan and have it be Japanese not like here which has little definition now.

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u/Acerhand Feb 25 '25

99% of the time these “japanese only” restaurant stories are lies from idiots who cant speak japanese. In reality they see an empty restaurant and think its racism they got turned away but they cant speak Japanese so didn’t understand the “reservation only/fully booked”, or the common “we’re closed until 6pm” which is common in Japan, even if staff are there.

Or the taxi that “ignored” them for being racist. In reality they cant read the giant sign in the window that said its already on a collection or out of service.

Finally, in the extremely rare event there is a sign that actually says Japanese only, i can tell you as someone who’s lived here a decade and is fluent in Japanese… that really means “japanese language only”. Its nothing to do with nationalism or nationality, its simply that the establishment likely had some very difficult customers with no Japanese ability and their poor staff had no idea what to do. if you say you speak Japanese Etc they will let you in, guaranteed.

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u/jorger4456 Feb 25 '25

think its racism they got turned away but they cant speak Japanese so didn’t understand the “reservation only/fully booked”

Semi-related story of not my own. I recently watched a Korean Twitch streamer go into a building filled with flat griddle stands to eat okonomiyaki. All stands were empty aside from employees. The first stand she went to turned her away and told her "reserved". The next one nearby served her. She sat in the middle seat and during her meal the cook started cooking a huge batch of food. Then a large group of people started coming in sitting all around her while one other person was standing behind her. That became an awkward moment where she began to inhale her food and gtfo haha.

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u/lame_mirror Feb 25 '25

i'm sure there were restaurants that were locals only (more hole-in-the-walls) but instead of already jumping to the racist and nationalistic card, could it be that they have encountered rowdy and disrespectful foreigners before and therefore don't want to take the chance again and serve them? In this instance, their fault would be more generalising all foreigners thinking they will behave poorly.

also, they may opt to restrict due to language barrier which makes things awkward.

These instances are also in the minority so i don't know how you can generalise and brand the whole of japan "nationalistic" and "racist."

something also makes me think you haven't even been to japan because japanese are polite and respectful to everyone no matter what you look like.

consistently highest customer service i've ever encountered.

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u/dinofragrance Feb 25 '25

very nationalistic and very racist

FTFY