Japan to start encouraging foreign workers to stay longer?

Just out of interest, did you actually check into the legal situation, or did you assume that the landlord would not be doing this if there was a law, and so there must be no law? Based on what ponta said, I suspect that although there may be laws against it, of varying clarity, a lot of the time landlords will take advantage of the fact that foreigners don’t know the law, don’t know their rights, and so won’t make a huge fuss.

stereo, instead of addressing the question of there being a problem with Japanese landlords not renting to foreigners, or even even ‘foreign looking’ citizens, why do you drag the laws of the USA into the discussion? You seem to have a classic “if the USA does it, it’s ok for Japan to do it too!” mindset.

Not too many Chinese people per se (though the largest city is I believe about 20% Chinese now, certainly in many areas: it’s been several years since I was there, but there are a lot of Chinese signs) but the heavy reliance on Chinese money (most of these people are language students; most of the rest businessmen buying houses) and the political pressure of their numbers, coupled with the recent FTA deal (the first for China) and the huge potential (and actual) market in China means that the NZ Govt is more inclined than otherwise to toe the CCP line.

I’d like to think my Japanese is pretty good (got through a tricky conversation about taxes today at the city hall), but man, do I get this all the time.

Just the other day I asked for directions at the koban (very politely, I might add), and the middle-aged officer on duty launched into one of the most horrendous English explanations I’ve ever heard. I apologized, said I didn’t understand, and had him do it again in Japanese. I felt bad making him look stupid in front of his two kohai, but he eventually started into what seemed to be pissed off Japanese. (Unfortunately, my “そう、そう” solution doesn’t work in situations like this)

I think people who are interested in you personally or who genuinely want to help you will use Japanese, while those who are out to practice a foreign language will stick with English. To be honest, I admire both groups of people, but I definitely feel more comfortable when I find someone who only wants to use Japanese.

That incident with the police officer was in Ginza.

I live in Chiba, and people there are really friendly and rarely speak English (which is fine with me). In general, my experiences in Chiba have been really wonderful. I work in Tokyo though, so I’m exposed to quite a variety of language encounters during the day – sometimes good, sometimes bad. Shop clerks usually fear the English encounters so they stick with Japanese, my coworkers need to get work done so they use Japanese, and random people on the street are a mixed bag.

Like I said previously- just the other day I went to my local city hall, and I don’t even think anyone tried to speak English to me. I got all my paperwork done in about 10 min. and was out of there before the crowds started to fill the waiting room. If I went to the Shinjuku city hall though, I’m not sure it would be quite the same experience.