That said, I don’t get on train cars that have other obvious foreigners on them because I don’t want THEM to stare at ME.

It’s weird how one can spot another foreigner so easily in a crowd of thousands. I liken it to how dogs can spot another dog from far away but ignore all other people around.

Heck, if you ever met me in the street, you’d agree.

On the train, walking down the street, sitting in a bar—why is it that foreigners (okay, White People) go so far out of their way to avoid each other in Japan?
Adamu from Mutantfrog takes an alternative approach to try and explain this phenomenon….

I’m baffled by the urgency of white men wanting to own the world. It seems to me a petty, ridiculous struggle—yet, we love competition.

I like your comment, but I have to disagree with you. Disclaimer: I can only speak about my own situation and the situations of foreigners I know here, and I am biased towards the foreign business community in downtown Tokyo, so YMMV.

There are interesting and uninteresting foreign people on the train, to be sure, but I really don’t think that every one of us is trying hard to fit into Japanese culture or keep from succumbing to culture shock.

If you talk with foreign business people or professionals here in Tokyo, I think you’ll find that most of us are concerned with our jobs, hobbies, families, friends, professional organizations, etc. Fitting into Japanese society is low on the priority list, mostly because we are pretty independent and don’t see Japan as the be-all-and-end-all of our careers/lives.

I’m sure my views on entering Japanese society would be different if I was, for example, a JET in Kumamoto or Hokkaido like some of my friends. But even they seem to recognize the futility of trying to assimilate into this culture, or at least don’t see it as an important life objective.

My point is just that Western foreigners don’t usually come to Japan out of economic desperation and with a dire need to find community, especially not on the train. We’re chill. We come because we are privileged enough to be able to travel internationally, we are interested in learning about Japan to some degree, we think we can make a difference in our careers while we’re here, and ultimately we will go somewhere else when we get bored or dissatisfied with all the BS. Unless you are Alex Kerr or Bill Totten, your insatiable quest to convince Japanese people of your value to society shouldn’t be the glue that binds you together with others.

Let me know if you have other thoughts, and I wish I could understand your comic!

I tended to avoid Japanese while I’m on backpacking trip to South East Asia and Western Europe too.When I was in Thailand in 1989,lots of J-backpackers tended to flock around China town(the notorious Hotel Paradise Palace楽宮.So I went straight to Khao san Road where there were more westerners.But still,there’s always some Japanese backpackers cruising street at night,looking for talking companions at night and if you are reading Chikyu-no-arukikata,they’ll find you and come over to chat.And after few moment you are with them,there’s always that hierarchy thing that related with Japanese language known as Keigo敬語 emerges.And you’ll end up hearing total strangers giving you a free life lessons jsut because the dude is two years old older than me.