I have a question for the black ladies in Japan. How do u deal with your hair? Can u find girls to do braids or weaves for you. And wat about the hair products, is it easy to find them. Or should i jus shave my hair off before i come. Please send any useful info to nishanamara@hotmail.com

I am surprised by what I read here!! I have been in Japan in 1999, living in Okinawa for 5 months, no racism and very good time!! I visted tokyo, Osaka and kyoto, meeting girls and boyz in the street and have acquaintace relation easily !!
Well, BUT, I did observe Japanese respect more some countries people than others. I am an african and some of my friends was american and canadian(indian type and white). When we introduced ouselves some will respect more the american than us, yuh see? For girls, man, I didnt feel anything as long as you can talk to them in japanese-english, you will get ur part !
NOW guys!! understand that in ASIA black people encounter racism in general, JUST because of their skin!! I am living NOW in TAIWAN

Everything you say is fine, but I maintain my original point: come to Japan with an open mind, appreciate it for what it is (the good and the bad), and if you don’t like it, you’re free to leave at any time. It is slowly changing for the better. I know plenty of people with dark skin (African, Indian, Indonesian, etc) who have chosen to make Japan their home for life and love it here. This is not a racist society, although there are some racists here like there are in every place in the world. This blog post refers to one jewelry store that did allow two black people in the store. That is indicative of unpleasant racism by an elderly country bumpkin. It is evidence of insufficient protections of civil rights in the legal system. It is not evidence of a simmering bigotted society full of widespread racism. And much of the racism that does exist here is based more on naivete than hate.

Aaron: the same points apply to you. I hope you come to Japan and have a great time. It is possible that in your time here you will experience prejudice by certain narrow minded inviduals. Take it in stride, and remember that the best way to kill stereotypes (on an individual level) is to show the bigot otherwise. Be polite and civilized and don’t get visibly angry or upset at their ignorance. Hopefully, you’ll find life here as rewarding and satisfying as I do, despite not infrequent instances of people treating me differnetly because I have the appearance of being “not Japanese.” It’s a daily struggle, but one that I embrace.

More of me on this topic here.

so, unfortunately, knowledge of hatred actually is empowerment. I would much rather know of people who are indeed true racists, rather than have their real characters masked.

unfortunately, the majority of foreigners who actually do have fun and good experiences in asian countries are white people, from anywhere. as long as they are white, asians seem all to ready to kiss their asses. and love it
while on the other hand, blacks may be treated as humans, but at a very subtle distance.

two-faced-ness is the daily charm of asia, and within that mask of horror, the racism can be hidden. unless an individual has a great talent of intutition, to guide their feelings, and to mentally expose the b.s. from the reality, they can be fooled by the fake politeness from the people, who grew up learning to wear disdain for dark skin.

get the point? asian’s hate themselves so much that they have to love white people, and if they hate blacks just enough, then they can come back around to loving themselves again.
seems everyone needs an alter-ego to live by.

i tried to love asian people, for so many can be so caring, yet they all know the heavy truth that their culture hates so much.

well, no black people have ever produced and dropped atomic bombs on japan. white america did that. yet japanese love white people and hate black people.
in fact white america has done so much harm to asia, yet blacks are hated instead.
funny huh?

Many gaijin “kanchigae” (misunderstand) Japanese people and their kindness. From my 20 years experience they are nice to everyone whether they hate you or not, I know many Japanese who are sooo nice to white tourists (the majority of tourists are white), but trust me they say some really bad things once those tourists are out of earshot. And if you’re a foreigner and you try to live there, that’s when the gloves really come out and they really treat you like “nokemono” (reject or outcast); I’ve heard countless accounts of being picked on by the cops(especially when you’re not carrying around your alien registration card), or just some random citizen that yells out “kitanai gaijin” (dirty foreigner). I guess that’s why the non-asian population is so low (like .4%). Japan will never REALLY change and frankly it probably doesn’t matter since China will become THE superpower in the region, and eventually the world. At that point Japan will probably become part of China, it seems inevitable. Consider the fact that China has the World’s most powerful military with 3.25 million soldiers and that they double funding for their military every year; also the number of eligible males for military service comes in slightly under the WHOLE US population.