What's it like to be black in Japan?
- Thread starter thernbroom
- Start date
Mr.Big Meat McGee
All Star
I want to go to Japan b4 I die.
Any Coli brehs been out there
"Japan really loves black people."
That's one quote that sums up a viral video of black people talking frankly about their life in a country that is stereotypically depicted as being frosty to outsiders. The 80-minute documentary Black in Japan, along with a shorter version, have collectively been clicked on about 200,000 times on YouTube.
The video features eight black people, mostly African-Americans, who work at a variety of jobs in Japan, and have been in the country for varied lengths of time.
"I feel like Japanese people, they expect more of us, they're rooting for us," says one interviewee, a woman named Brittany. "Where I feel like in the (United) States, they have lower expectations." David, a musician, cites job opportunities: "Being a minority in Japan, I'm special. I get to do more things that I probably would have wanted to do in America, but the saturation of the particular minority (African-Americans) makes me invisible."
Several of the people featured in the film cited personal safety as a key consideration. Crime rates in Japan are very low compared to industrialised Western countries, and several said they felt insulated from racist violence and targeting by police.
"I feel more comfortable, I feel safer. I feel like nobody's going to shoot me because of my skin colour," says Ayana.
But impressions of Japan were not universally positive. Several of the interviewees said there was widespread ignorance about black culture, that Japanese people like to randomly touch their hair and skin, and that racist remarks were common, particularly by children.
"Catcalling gets really specific when you're black," said one interviewee. "I get called Beyonce, or Whitney Houston, who I look nothing like."
The documentary was made by Rachel, an American woman, and Jun, a Japanese man, a married couple who make videos about everyday life in Japan for their YouTube channel.
"It would be careless of me to say racism/xenophobia in Japan does not exist," one of the interviewees, Andre Cunningham, told BBC Trending via email. "You do get impolite stares, that is for sure, but most things that have happened to me were minor."
Cunningham, an English teacher from Jamaica, said he has heard Japanese people bad-mouth other nationalities but that he hasn't witnessed any specific incidents, and compared attitudes to other instances of international tensions.
"I think it is ingrained in the culture as even some of my students say they don't like Korea and China," he says. "It's really sad that people are being discriminated in 2015 because of nationality. This issue is rife throughout the world though."
Only about 1.5 percent of Japan's population is foreign born, and like in many Western countries, issues of immigration and race are controversial. Earlier this year, Ariana Miyamoto became the first mixed race woman to win the title of Miss Japan. And BBC Trending recently reported on a row over a cartoon drawing of a migrant girl which some deemed racist.
I finally watched it, this is great.
thatdude954
All Star
sometimes man....sometimes
Its a fvcked up thing when someone doesn't know their history.
Its hard not to feel lost.
Mr.Big Meat McGee
All Star
Just save up like $2000.
I'll need more than $2000 with stores I'll be hitting up.
Tommy Knocks
retired
Yea Japan has the same obsession with black folks that China has with white folks. It's weird. I think when you live in a homogeneous society and see the same hair, same skin, same eye color, day in and day out, you start to look for exotic.
This weeaboo shyt needs to stop. Anime is for kids by the way
SirShaktus
All Star
Unfortunately, I didn't get to sight see because I was busy running basketball camps, working out and playing games.Yeah Osaka and Tokyo are where you'll most likely encounter foreigners. When I was there the girl I was with took me to Namba and told me that's where Americans are.
I'm sure you came here:
I did, however, get to visit an ancient Buddhist temple in... Nara, I believe.
I'll post some pics in a bit.
I went with a group of dudes for a basketball tour.I've been thinking about going out there on my own to see what it's like
@SirShaktus did you go with people?
fakkit really in here bytching because people want to see the world
I was only able to get along with like, 3 of the guys on the team. We were the only ones that behaved like consummate professionals. The rest acted like the stereotypical "American Tourists... "
Jesus CHRIST, those mufukkas, were embarrassing...
Every time black folks wanna travel outside their home countries countries, random ass cats come in a threads talmbout
"Why you tryna leave? The rest of the world hates you!
""So what if that foreign girl took the time to get to know you and enjoys your presence outside of sex? She only likes you because black man.
"While there is a kernel of truth in those statements, it's not as bad as these mufukkas say.
Travel the World, brehs.
Sample the food, brehs.
fukk pretty foreign women that are freaky as fukk, brehs.
(wrap it up, though. Don't be stupid.
)Expand your comfort zone, brehs.
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My boy told me he went to China a while ago and he said some family came up to him and started hugging him and touching him saying "You're back.. You're back!!" and then started to show him pictures of people. He said something about they(Apparently a Man and some other women/children) were talking about how they're some small community of indigenous black Chinese or something like that(He said they were darker skinned than the average Chinese.) shyt was really weird when he told me and my boys that. I hadn't seen dude in a while and he's a very serious, successful dude who's been around the world a lot.
When I was in Japan I didn't really pay attention to people looking at me as I felt like people were mainly minding their business but there were a few times where some people definitely looked at me a lot. While I was in Osaka, I was walking through this mall
and this little girl who's walking with her Mom or Dad I think just kept turning around looking at me. Lol it was funny that even the girl I was with said something about it. The girl literally turned around at least 15 times while walking to look at me just on someSomewhere around here.
shyt. shyt was adorable 
Man looking at these pictures fill me with nostalgia man. I can't wait to go back man it was nice over there.
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That shyt don't happen in Japan. They don't have that resentful entitlement mentality. But, yea, the video is pretty informative on the dangers of picking up women in other countries that black men should know about before traveling.
b_priest9mm
A work in progress...
delete
b_priest9mm
A work in progress...
Just save up like $2000.
This answers my question.
About how long does this money usually last?