Look at Ono-san. This is how to promote understanding. Look at Arudou-san. This is how to misrepresent and defame respectable businesses. Know the difference.

That is really a good point. Ono-san tries to understand the problem and helps, and it works. The Japanese who are reluctant to be open to foreigners are not racists to speak of, but they just need tips and advices. Debito does not try to understand but misrepresents and “calls for the sanction of public shame”, leaving resentments, making the Japanese feel more ” fear of the unknown”, putting the wedge between “we” and “them”.
I think most Japanese welcome Ono-san and Tyler (平) Lynch type
http://www.debito.org/?p=1941#comment-169246 but resent Debito’s followers type.

And don’t forget the third case, the ballet school. There never was any racism, that all came out on his own blog during the “battle”. He never apologized for falsely accusing the school of being “racist”, even after he said he would if he was proven wrong – which he was and he never deleted the blog entry like he said he would if he was proven wrong (see previous). Instead he adds them to his “rogues gallery” of “exclusionary” establishments months after it was shown they most definitively were nothing of the sort. Wow.

Lesson here kiddies: Look at Ono-san. This is how to promote understanding. Look at Arudou-san. This is how to misrepresent and defame respectable businesses. Know the difference.

This restaurant in question is located within the market and is catered to these professionals who all they want is a nice meal after a long day at the market. Hence, these establishments open early in the morning and closes early in the afternoon.

I commented on his blog and asked him to give Ponta the due credit for taking care of the Tsukiji sign, and I urged him to post how it was taken care of – Diplomatically, peacefully, and with no accusations of malicious racism as a forethought. Debito chose to delete my comment instead of approving it.

Is that so?

maybe to shed some light, average TOEFL scores for 2007 in Latin America and Europe are around (and mostly above) 80 points of a total of 120, while Japan has some of the lowest results for Asian countries with 65 (only Cambodia is below with 63).
Wile these results might not be completely applicable to “tourists”, the fact that examinees are assumed to have some level of English language education says a lot about general Japanese English skills.
And also, just a personal theory, I think most foreign tourist in Japan are so scared about the language barriers, that they at least try to be able to communicate in basic English before coming.

I think another helpful thing is for the foreign tourists to educate themselves about where they are travelling as well.

Reading that paragraph in the guide book about Japanese baths might just give you the edge in taking one!

I was reading an article in a newspaper the other day that gave me an idea: the govt could assemble simple “phrase packets” of common phrases in various languages, with pics as needed, and distribute them to hotels around the country.

So many advertisements (and so many stereotypical Japanese tour groups) are so focused on protecting the J tourist with a layer of translators, Japanese language hotels, set menus at restaurants, and insulation from actual interaction with the locale.

Anyway, speaking English isn’t the only issue. Tourists from Asia and South America (and many countries in Europe) are as bad or worse at English as your average Japanese person.

It may help if all inns and hotels in Japan had multilingual information for all guests placed in the rooms to give them advice on how to deal with tatami, shoji, Japanese baths, etc. I’m sure most foreign guests would prefer to handle themselves properly, but sometimes they just don’t know what is correct or have been misinformed.