Anti-foreign protests in Tokyo on Halloween night
The infamous Yamanote Halloween Train party was supposed to take place last night in Tokyo. This year’s party brought more than just cops, foreigners, and 2-channelers. Those who showed up at Shinjuku station at 9:00PM last night encountered a very angry and very loud group of nationalist activists carrying Japanese flags and signs with anti-foreign slogans.
The situation was described by one commenter on the 2-channel bulletin board:
Anti-Yamanote Halloween party demonstration, intimidates uninvolved foreigners: “Go to hell, get out of Japan!”
Ultimately, it was the Japanese people who caused the most trouble lol
Foreigners either weren’t around, or even if they were it wasn’t for Halloween, but the Japanese still all yelled and threatened them lolThere were some people holding signs in English saying “Go to hell, get out of Japan!” I’ll never forget the faces of the uninvolved white people who saw that lol
They were like (゜Д゜). After seeing that I couldn’t feel anything but pity for them…. lolIt stopped being a demonstration against the Yamanote Halloween party and just became an anti-foreigner demonstration. It made me feel sick.
There were a lot of people holding the Japanese flag, and if that kind of image gets out on Youtube then everyone is going to think that Japanese people are a bunch of racists who hate foreigners.
The protesters apparently came from right wing activist groups such as Shuken Kaifuku wo Mezasu Kai (The Society to Seek Restoration of Sovereignty).
According to one blog affiliated with Shuken Kaifuku wo Mezasu Kai, the cops were erroneously focusing on the protesters instead of the foreigners:
The Japanese police, far from controlling the whites, surrounded Shinjuku Station’s south ticket gate with a large number of police officers and, from the beginning, kept us under surveillance. Neglecting the whites who were disturbing the social order and our peaceful society with their partying, they instead supervised us, who had gathered with the purpose of drawing attention to the party.
In order to break through the ring of police officers, we attempted to violently penetrate the circle shouting ‘If you’re gonna arrest us, go for it!’ For, why should we have our right to come and go freely denied?
Judging from the live video feeds from last night, they were shouting pretty loud.
Here are a couple photos of the protest group:
This loony sign told the “motherfuck-foreigners” and “protestants” that they should “go to hell” because they were betraying their god:
This picture is a bit blurry, I think the sign said “WARNING! MOTHERFUCK-FOREIGNERS, THIS IS JAPAN. THIS IS NOT A WHITE COUNTRY”:
This is a close-up of a protest sign. You can view the full photo of the protesters on Peter Bellar’s Flickr page:
This sign says something about protestants and protecting the Yamanote from bad foreigners:
A tiny number of foreigners in costumes appeared, perhaps no more than 15 people. There may have been other small groups of foreigners who had their own mini-parties on the train, but the planned party from Shinjuku was by all accounts a failure.
A quick search of Twitter found that a couple users confirms this:
2-channelers with live webcam feeds followed around a few costumed foreigners. Here are some screen captures:
One fellow was wearing a cardboard box with Japanese writing on it. It might have been some sort of Halloween costume. The blurry video stream didn’t allow much opportunity to read the messages, but I can at least make out a line about the Japanese police being awesome:
Maybe this guy thought it would be funny to mock both the police and the 2-channelers by pointing out how the police don’t take much action to stop the foreigners?
I’m not sure what is going on in this screen capture, but it kind of looks like police are taking away a foreign participant in the party (anyone know what this was about?):
The Japanese guy who was streaming live video to ustream followed around this Pikachu foreigner. The Pikachu foreigner didn’t appear to be doing much of anything on the train. He eventually ran away from the cameraman:
At one point, the guy streaming live video to NicoNico Douga got on a train with a few foreigners who weren’t in costumes and were obviously not partying. He couldn’t or didn’t want to speak any English, so he wasn’t able to communicate with them. They laughed at him:
The cameraman later found his way back to Shinjuku and spent more time with the protesters. I stopped watching the live feeds around 9:45, as nothing interesting seemed to be happening.
Another view of last night: Somebody from Tantei File was also on hand to observe the foreigners. They didn’t see many people, only a few foreign guys in costumes holding hands with Japanese girls in costumes. They didn’t observe any rowdiness, possibly because there were so many police standing on the train platform. Inside the station, announcements were played over the loudspeakers warning people not to be a nuisance to others.
[The Japanese news article translations in this post were provided by myGengo's simple human translation system.]
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
Judging from a couple of those signs, they appeared to be very anti Protestants as well. Was this a Catholic protest…. ;P
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Religion and politics are like mixing napalm and dynamite. I’m surprised this didn’t get physically violent and end with injuries / deaths.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
What does happen if you mix napalm and dynamite, I wonder….
Anyway, religion and politics have been seriously mixed since both were first formed, so it’s a bit late to worry now……..
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Putting aside trivialities such as Afghanistan and Iraq, high levels of street crime in our home countries, and an enviable history of war, pain, and suffering, us Protestants are actually a pretty peaceful bunch.
And our right-wingers are faaar more impressive than their Japanese equivalents who seem to have crawled out of a hole somewhere between Shin-Sekai and Tobita.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
As a former resident of Abeno-ku, I totally get this seemingly obscure reference.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
No, it’s a protest of the sexually frustrated and impotent.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I think you could be right: “Should the plan to ignite anti-Halloween Train action from the Vatican fail, 2channelers are already working other plans to stop next year’s Halloween Train.”
found here: http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/10/28/the-yamanote-halloween-train-vs-japanese-netizen-rage/
it’s just another counter reformation psyop
which is quite ironic in reality, Halloween has pagan harvest festival roots, then the Catholics co-opted it as a day of reveverece for the dead that would be palatable for the pagans…they replaced the pagan heros with saints, made it all saints day, then all hallo(holy)s eve which then was shortened to Halloween. All was going well until October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther presented his 95 theses blasting the catholic church over it’s corrupt sales of indulgences. October 31 is “Reformation Day”. So the catholic church despising the fallout of Luther gave all hallows eve even more importance and when Irish catholics and germans began invading America in huge swarms after the austrian court had financed the ships and made ocean travel far cheaper in the 1840’s and 50’s they engineered disasters, conflict and famine in Europe to make sure those boats were full of lower class catholics. The catholic rituals of Halloween were brought by these newcomers and basically children would go out halloween and and ask for for treats, but there were also targets, usually protestants, where these kids would wear masks to conceal their identity and vandalize homes(trick)it was innocent mischief at first but quickly grew far worse. It was extortion, communities groups got together an decided the best course of action was to have everyone offer treats to stop all the vandalism.
So if you think the Catholic Church has given up it’s counter reformation ambitions…guess again.
these Japanese protesters are no more than pawns of the Roman inquisition, and the foreigners are just braindead idiots with no sense of their own history.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Thanks for this! This is more information about Halloween I’ve ever been able to squeeze out of any American.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I had a look at the Shuken Kaifuku wo Mezasu Kai website and found something really comical:
“凶悪なシナ人（外国人）は出て行け！！
毎月２２日を『シナ人（外国人）犯罪糾弾の日』に決定”
My (amateur because I’m not a translator) translation:
Heinous Chinese (foreigners) get out!!
The 22nd of each month has been designated “Chinese (foreign) crime denunciation day.”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Thank god atleast no foreigners seemed to exascerbate the situation. Sometimes it’s more effective to be the victim than the aggressor. I hope this gets some media attention.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
If it got some media attention, what would it do? I mean the Japanese are right – the foreigners were there to make noise and try to do this Halloween thing on the trains, and if they weren’t successful last night, they did gather, and obviously still think it’s all fun and games to be able to misbehave in a foreign country which they think is beneath them. That black woman laughing along with the rest of them should be ashamed of herself.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
There were not that many people. As the article said. There probably was not really going be a party or anything close to one. A small few were going to be there to party if at all. People probably just needed to be going places. If it gets showed I hope it helps stop the “it can’t be helped” attitude that prevents anything from being done in the first place.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
That “black woman”? She and the people they were with were not dressed up and playing no part in the “activities”. What right did that idiot have to go filming them like that? They are lucky I wasn’t on the train — I don’t like people staring at me when I am just minding my own business so I can’t imagine how pissed I would have been to be filmed while doing the same.
Is this what my half-Japanese daughter is going to have to put up with growing up in this racist society? I have been here 10 years now, and I am pretty much fed up.
右翼は日本人の恥だ。
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Should I assume you are white? We are sadly going to see a lot of half white and half asian mutts running around in the future, already a lot of them now.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Man, you racists in Japan are pathetic. Being racist on the internet. These peaceful demonstrations against foreigners. It’s all so passive-aggressive. At least in London, when we had our race riots, there was a bit of blood and violence. You guys, you’re such cowards, you just complain at the sidelines with your poorly spelt signs. If you’re going to be stupid, you should at least be stupid with conviction.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Be careful what you wish for. Are you calling for these racists to attack you physically instead of sitting on the sidelines with poorly spelt signs? If directly engaging (blood and violence) the foreigners is seen (in your definition of cowardice and bravery) as bravery then maybe you can go talk to them about them being total wimps. I am sure they will be happy to oblige.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Japan Observer,
In every country but Japan I maintain the position of a pacifist. Japan, immasculated as it is, is in desperate need of physical demonstration. I believe that if these racists were to raise their fists, the public would be able to effectively beat them down. Whereas as things stand they linger like a bad smell.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
she should be ashamed because she’s black ?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
So Japanese who go to Canada or the US who do the lantern festival, or Chinese who do their Chinese New Year Festival…. they are asking for problems?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I like this article. It is good though that many Japanese protested against Halloween and foreigners.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I like your lame attempt at a troll, sake-man. Try a bit harder next time because you aren’t giving people enough bait to snap at. 4/10
Rate this comment:
0 
0
McAlpine, I remember your nonsensical rantings on GaijinP0t many a year ago.
I’m surprised you’re still around. I had kind of expected that you would have self-sacrificed yourself on a plinth at Yasukuni by now.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I live in Hawaii but I go to Japan regularly on Business and Personal trips. I don’t have much to comment about the Japanese groups that are protesting the activities of the foreigners. It is not my country. I have no right to tell them how to deal with their politics. I do have much to say about the non-Japanese, call them foreigners, who are in Japan. Basically my attitude can be summed up with an analogy. Do what you want in your own home but behave when you are in someone else’s home.
As a non Japanese, I am embarrassed to get lumped in with the activities of those who are guests in Japan but are acting like fools.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“Do what you want in your own home but behave when you are in someone else’s home.”
Define “home.” Define “guest.”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
To me, ‘behave’ doesn’t mean sit quietly at home with a book. It means obey the laws. That I know of, Yamanote’s party wasn’t breaking any laws, and was a lawful holiday celebration. I’ve been to many taikai where people were far more rowdy than that.
In my home town in America they have had RIOTS on halloween for years, including fires, broken windows, overturned firetrucks, full riot police, and tear gas. They have gradually been eliminating that aspect of the party for years.
Yamanote is tame compared to that, even with these insane protestors.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
As far as the law is concerned, the following translated excerpt from a post on the 2ch bulletin boards may apply, if things start getting rowdy like it did in the past years.
Read the rest here if you want to:
comment at 2009-10-14 11:30:26 by me @ http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/10/14/yamanote-halloween-train-2009/
I am not a lawyer so I don’t know if these are legally sound and there’s no guarantee these are actually applicable, but it certainly does sound reasonable.
.
Also, I wouldn’t be using worse examples like the riots you talk of as reasoning to equate “not as bad” with “not bad at all”.
Obviously rioting is very bad, but just because horseplay on public transportation is tame in comparison doesn’t make it any less annoying, destructive, or dangerous. If it poses a risk or nuisance to other passengers, it should be responded to appropriately, rather than blowing it off as trivial in comparison to worse happenings.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Helical:
“rioting is very bad, but just because horseplay on public transportation is tame in comparison doesn’t make it any less annoying, destructive, or dangerous.”
Actually it does. It makes it less annoying, destructive, and dangerous precisely as it is “tame in comparison”….
I think what you meant is “rioting is very bad, but just because horseplay on public transportation is tame in comparison doesn’t make it not annoying, destructive, or dangerous.”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I think what I meant to say was that it does not diminish the “badness” or the reponse deserved of horseplay when considered by itself, even if juxtaposed with a hypothetical/anecdotal situation that’s much worse, like rioting or looting.
I don’t think the degree of how much it’d be diminished (partially or completely) is a big issue in this case.
To use an analogy, if someone is to be fined X-amount of yen for speeding 30 km/h over the speed limit, the price of that penalty should not be affected nor should it be thrown out just because someone else was speeding 60 km/h over the speed limit on the same road at a different time.
Though Rob A doesn’t specifically say so, I interpreted the mentioning of riots in his hometown and the Yamanote being tame, was representing his opinion that the Yamanote should be disregarded as a non-issue because there are much worse things happneing in the world, to which I disagreed with.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I think we are in agreement here then. To rephrase the sentence under debate in terms of your analogy, “doing 60 over the limit is very bad, but just because doing 30 over the limit is tame in comparison doesn’t make it not worthy of a fine.”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
So what taikai you joined in was held in public transportation without permission?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Rob A, Overthinker,
THAT is your home, where it is OK for riots to happen on a holiday celebration like Halloween. You don’t need to invest that into the Japanese culture by taking over a public train without any permission and getting in the way of normal operations. Taikais are usually organized after permissions obtained, and if there are rowdy behaviour going around, they are, actually, fairly well contained, and those kinds of rowdy people don’t go around running away from the Police or retaliating by mocking the police who are trying to keep the peace on the trains.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“THAT is your home, where it is OK for riots to happen on a holiday celebration like Halloween.”
So are you saying the definition of where my home is is “where it is OK for riots to happen on a holiday celebration like Halloween”?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Have you no decency, sir, at long last, Overthinker? Are you going for the World Record in Trolling, sir?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Don’t call any post you don’t understand “trolling.” My point is quite clear. Raza and Asa appear to be under the apprehension that non-Japanese are all short-term visitors and “home” is the country they were born and/or still hold citizenship in. My remarks are to show up the weakness of that assumption.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“the apprehension that non-Japanese are all short-term visitors and “home” is the country they were born and/or still hold citizenship in”
well that’s obvious and correct. If you weren’t BORN there, then you are a visitor.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
And yeah you are a Troll, and if you’re not, then why don’t you have a real email or link to your proper self like some of these other self-respecting people, Overthinker? Why you hiding?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Uh, no.
What about the whole thing with immigration? Those people choose to make a different country their new home?
Or is this some odd new-fangled jus soli fundamentalism, being the polar opposite of a more widespread opinion of people who decided who is one of their own or not by blood and/or race?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“well that’s obvious and correct. If you weren’t BORN there, then you are a visitor.”
My daughter was born here. She was raised here. She is Japanese in everyway. Holds a Japanese passport. But she looks gaijin.
And people like you are going to treat her with derision and contempt just because of her appearance. You had better pray that I don’t see it happen to her.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“well that’s obvious and correct. If you weren’t BORN there, then you are a visitor.”
You have simply not the slightest idea what you are talking about. Oh, and good debating point calling me out on not linking to my proper self from someone who doesn’t either. I guess by your own words then that makes you a troll.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Huh … I guess this is one way of solving a problem; be such a big pain yourself that the authorities have no choice but to clamp down everything in the area, taking down any latent party spirit with yourself!
I’m loathe to use the phrase “kamikaze”, but it’s bound to pop up so I might as well say it myself.
And I have to admit, if you disregard any consideration towards the consequences of how it would looks to the rest of the world, or how you look personally, this is a pretty clever solution to the problem.
Not the most elegant and pretty embarassing, but immediately effective.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Wow!!! This must be the greatest epic in this year!ahaha
Rate this comment:
0 
0
These Japanese protesters are the exact same group from your past entry “One man counter demonstration crushed.” The guy in the 3rd picture with the glasses is the leader of this extremist right wing cult. You can see him in the other clip too. Most of them speak Kansai-ben in a very vulgar manner. They are not your typical middle class Japanese folks.
http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/09/29/one-man-counter-demonstration-crushed/
Rate this comment:
0 
0
There is no decent Kansai-jin? no way!! dont watch yakuza movie too much! ahaha
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Nope, I’ve never met a decent Kansai-jin! Ahahahaha!
No, you can speculate certain things from the dialect they speak. Kansai has many sub-dialects, and even inside Osaka, you can tell to an extent which district they are from and what kind of upbringing they have. Only speculation, but language, manners, and gestures speak a lot. You can’t act it or hide it like an actor does.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
what is your speculation about their hometown and upbringing? I am curious about it. “Most of them speak Kansai-ben in a very vulgar manner.” is vague about the detail. dr. kansai-ben. ehehe
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Study some history of social activism in that area. I don’t want to pass false judgement by mere speculation, but those protesters are not amateurs. ehehehe
Rate this comment:
0 
0
beautifull reply!! wwwwwwwww
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Protestants seem to be getting a lot of bad rep lately.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
white & costume player = protestant
Rate this comment:
0 
0
And here we see further evidence that the inability to spell-check protest signs knows no national boundaries.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
No need to correct them if you can understand what is says. pointing out the obvious and ridiculing the person can suggest your a Gammar-nazi lol, unless its really unreadable then by all means
btw im not implying that your ridiculing them.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“No need to correct them if you can understand what is says. pointing [sic] out the obvious and ridiculing the person can suggest your [sic] a Gammar-nazi [sic, sic] lol, unless its [sic] really unreadable then by all means
btw [sic] im [sic] not implying that your [sic] ridiculing them.”
Let’s hope when you go for a surgical operation you aren’t afflicted with a “cleanliness Nazi”. After all, getting things right isn’t important these days, and even trying to marks you out as an elitist fascist. And speaking and writing correctly is racist to all those that aren’t native speakers, and classist to all those that didn’t get a good education, no doubt.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
yes, evil cleanliness nazi
Rate this comment:
0 
0
There’s crazy racist bigots everywhere. America sure doesn’t have any shortage of these short-sighted shallow idiots.
Getting violent and rushing cops like that though, they should’ve at least spent a night locked up for it. Most of the ‘gaijin’ weren’t causing problems from what I saw, and Yamanote on Halloween is just as popular with the Japanese as the foreigners.
This would be about the same as if a bunch of Americans broke up my univ’s asian student association halloween party for no reason… just, why?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Did you see the LA Lakers’ fans’ winning celebration last year? They smashed shops, burned buses and cars and thought that was the way it was celebrated. So when the Japanese police see THAT sort of footage of people “celebrating” by “foreigners” – what do you think they’re going to do? And that was for the fans’ own team winning! Can you imagine? What a way to celebrate, to go around smashing up and burning up public and private properly in the immediate vicinity of the Staples Center in L.A.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
In India, they burnt down a stadium when they won a cricket series.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Man, why are the Japanese so quick to point out violence in other countries and then conclude that foreigners are violent? Where does this come from? Is there honestly no history of violence in Japan? Well, maybe not since they were so effectively immasculated during WWII… But violence is as much a part of Japanese culture as any other. I simply detest the idea inherent in Japan that Japanese people are significantly different from foeigners… as if they’re so much better they cease to be mere mortals. Even when they praise a gaijin for using chopsticks, ah, hashi jouzu da ne, they are simply highlighting this divide: I, Japanese; you, foreign. A deep-rooted problem. But we are all human by the end of the day.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Man, why are…
Americans so stupid?
Australians such racists?
the French such pussies?
New Zealanders such sheep fuckers?
etc…
It’s only a problem when the Japanese do it, right? Westerners can just say “the Japanese are this and that” because they’re just so awesome and enlightened unlike those stupid racist, xenophobic Japanese people.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Weirdo, I’m not sure if it’s because you’re stupid, or because I’m stupid, but I’m not sure if you’re with me or against me. In any case, you’re living in a dream World.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I don’t think either of us are stupid, but you seem to have missed the point.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Weirdo, you are confused. Japan’s position on other countries really does often boil down to this or that country being dangerous, and it is published in newspapers as much as it is taught in schools. Of course, if you consider crime figures, they may actually have a case in point… In any case, I can’t see what that has to do with the appalling statements you’ve written about those lovely countries’ peoples above.
In the second analysis, what I was talking about is Japan’s perceived ‘difference’ from other countries and cultures. Japanese people (rightly, perhaps) assume that foreigners cannot speak their language, and (I think absurdly) extend this assumption to the use of chopsticks. Japanese culture is extremely and notorious difficult to breach, not in small part because of mind-sets like these.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
George, you are confused. I was talking about how you made sweeping generalizations about Japanese people, and in the same paragraph you criticize the way Japanese people make generalizations about other people. I was pointing out your hypocrisy, but you obviously missed that.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I see your point, but I think my hypocrisy is more fully realised simply in the first quote you made of me, “Man, why are the Japanese so quick to point out violence in other countries and then conclude that foreigners are violent?” As it makes a generalisation based on a generalisation.
On the other hand, I don’t see any apparent contradiction in anything I have said. The Japanese do have a pronounced wariness of other countries, and they do consider their culture beyond the ken of foreigners, chopsticks included.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Also, I don’t think my “sweeping generalisation” (what a lovely cliche) was in the same league as New Zealanders are sheep fuckers etc. As I was making a statement based upon published news articles and educational standards in Japan, rather than hear-say and general bad-mouthing. Worlds apart my friend. That is one reason I think you are confused. (the monika ‘Weirdo’ is another…)
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Xenophobia exists in any society, based on published news articles.
Japan is not particularly different in this respect.
In view of violent hate crime, it is much milder than other western countries.
Back to the topic. the Japanese reaction to the party on the train was not xenophobic in nature, people frown upon this kind of party, whether the participants are Japanese or non Japanese.
Despite the warning, another party was planed by foreign kids, which provoked the nationalists.
Will this tendency continue? We don’t know.
But note there are Halloween parties going on elsewhere, Japanese and non-Japanese enjoying together.
I don’t understand why some people want hold a party in such a way to raise the racial tension.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
yes, why would the japanese want to hold a halloween party? i wonder if the nationalists will go to Tokyo Disneyland to protest. they have the biggest halloween party in japan. come on ponta. you are not making any sense.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Xenophobia exists in any society, based on published news articles.
Japan is not particularly different in this respect.
Do you claim that based only on published news reports? Or have you spent significant time in other countries besides Japan?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Japan is much worse than other countries (though I suppose I am thinking especially of England here) for xenophobic news-reporting. I mean, which other country’s prime ministers would get away with statements blaming gaijin for the majority of Japan’s crimes? He not only didn’t have any basis for his assertion, he refused to retract the statement. Aso. And of course, the media didn’t castrate him the way he should have been.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
george,
“Man, why are the Japanese so quick to point out violence in other countries and then conclude that foreigners are violent?” (2009-11-06 14:09:09)
I wonder who you were talking to. Did you assume that LAL was Japanese? Few Japanese know the “LA Lakers’ fans’ winning celebration”. I don’t think he is Japanese.
“I simply detest the idea inherent in Japan that Japanese people are significantly different from foeigners… as if they’re so much better they cease to be mere mortals. Even when they praise a gaijin for using chopsticks, ah, hashi jouzu da ne, they are simply highlighting this divide: I, Japanese; you, foreign. A deep-rooted problem.” (2009-11-06 14:09:09)
and
“Japanese people (rightly, perhaps) assume that foreigners cannot speak their language, and (I think absurdly) extend this assumption to the use of chopsticks. Japanese culture is extremely and notorious difficult to breach, not in small part because of mind-sets like these.” (2009-11-10 16:02:03)
The reason the Japanese tend to assume that foreigners do not speak Japanese is that foreigners who speak Japanese were quite rare in this country until about 15 years ago, since majority of foreigners seen in this country were just tourists, and foreigners who lived in this country were rare. Likewise, there were few white foreigners who used chopsticks until 15 years or so ago. If you have a perfect command of Japanese, and if you handle chopsticks as perfectly as Asians, no Japanese would tell you that your command of Japanese and handling of chopsticks are good.
Japanese tend to praise foreigners who try to speak Japanese even when it is broken Japanese. However, after reading comments like yours on various English-language blogs and BBSs, I am inclined to think that, if someone’s Japanese is poor, the Japanese should disparage him for that, in order to avoid misunderstanding of foreigners like you.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
”which other country’s prime ministers would get away with statements blaming gaijin for the majority of Japan’s crimes? ”
Could you quote the PM’s statement?
“I am thinking especially of England here”
Which country has a racist party such as BNP?
And people “were, however, more shocked to hear that one in five Brits – quite a significant proportion – say they would “seriously consider” voting BNP. ”
(Britons need to start talking about race
Lola Adesioye
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 October 2009)”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?fl20031007zg.htm
read this article for Taro Aso’s take on foreign crime in Japan.
The BNP is not represented in The Houses of Parliament, and in the 2005 general election received 0.7% of the vote. They have gained in poplarity recently; however, this mostly stems from dissillusionment in the other parties, and is a reaction to the travesty that is the immigration system in England. (Whereas in Japan it is notoriously difficult to enter the country, in England all you have to do is turn up, apparently…)
To be honest, though, I really do worry about the BNP.
As for fascism, Japan beats most countries hands down if you just read your history books…
On the subject of history books in Japan, you may find this article illuminating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies
Rate this comment:
0 
0
sorry, Koizumi, not Aso…
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Aki, I agree on the language thing. Japanese is a difficult language to master, and it is genuinely surprising when you encounter a fluent foreigner. However, chopsticks are not in any way difficult to handle, and yet it seems to be almost aisatsu for Japanese people to praise my use of them. I hesitate to criticise, because when they say it their intentions are good; but over the years I have in my heart come to loath the compliment. Whether intended or not, I seriously believe it only emphasises the perceived distance between the Japan and the rest of the World. The chopsticks, too, are only the tip of the iceburg.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
@ George
I know what you are talking about re chopsticks. I have even had Japanese people be surprised to hear that I am familiar with sushi and that it is widely available in the US.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
george says
“read this article for Taro Aso’s take on foreign crime in Japan.”
“sorry, Koizumi, not Aso…”
It says
“Nozawa talked about how Koizumi has charged him with making Japan the “world’s safest country” again. Ono was the most specific — saying that foreign crime and youth crime were among her policy priorities.”
So? Does it make Japan much worse than other countries?
george says
“The BNP is not represented in The Houses of Parliament,”
Correct, but notice that
”
In addition to already holding several metropolitan borough council seats, the BNP won their first county council seats[16] and European Parliament seats on 4 June 2009, winning one council seat in both Lancashire and Leicestershire, and one European Parliament seat each in Yorkshire and the Humber and North West England.[17]From Wikipedia, ”
And let’s take a look at the recent articles I base my claim.
As for the extreme right wingers,
Far right launch campaign of violence and intimidation against opponents
Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade issues death threat against anti-fascism activist Weyman Bennett, while student attacked after BNP protest
Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 2 August 2009
Campaigner called me a ‘nigger’ claim
6:00pm Wednesday 15th April 2009
asianimage.co.uk
I can go on and on if you want
As for the hate crime,
2 November 2009
Driver racially abused by cyclist(BBC)
11 October 2009 15:12 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Family targeted in racial attack
A mother and her three children were targeted in what police believe is a racially-motivated attack in Stockbridge Village.(BBC)
I can go on and on if you want.
As for the everyday racism
BBC reporters highlight racism on Bristol estate
Peter Walker
The Guardian, Monday 19 October 2009
Hideously diverse Britain: when everyday abuse turns racial
Traffic warden Rommelle is used to being unpopular. But she is always shocked when the slurs turn racial
Hugh Muir
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009
I can go on and on if you want.
Is UK much better?
george says
“As for fascism, Japan beats most countries hands down if you just read your history books…”
In a fascist country I guess there is no controversy on history textbook.
And I wonder
if you actually read any Japanese history textbook and
if you know the nature of the controversy and
how this controversy lead you into believing that “Japan beats most countries hands down” “as for fascism”.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
george,
I can probably understand how much you are irritated, but I must say that the chopstick thing doesn’t show the Japanese’s perceived distance between Japan and the rest of the world. It simply shows the perceived distance between the nations that has been using chopsticks and other nations that had not used them. Japanese never praise Asians for their good handling of chopsticks since they know that chopsticks have been used in many Asian countries. However, many Japanese do not have the knowledge that chopsticks are used in many occasions in Western countries nowadays.
In my limited interactions with foreigners, I know that most Americans handle chopsticks nowadays. Many Brits, Germans and Frenches do either. But Italians, Spaniards, Austrians, a Dane and a Swiss whom I met before did not handle chopsticks (perhaps it is simply related to the number of Asian restaurants in their hometowns). It would take quite some time until the chopstick prejudice is eliminated from the Japanese. It is unfortunate that, as long as there are Westerners who do not handle chopsticks, ignorant Japanese can confirm that their prejudicial knowledge is correct.
leitmotiv,
I have had American people be surprised to hear that there are many McDonald’s in Japan, but I perceived it quite natural because they had never been to Japan.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I have had American people be surprised to hear that there are many McDonald’s in Japan, but I perceived it quite natural because they had never been to Japan.
Overseas travel is hardly a requirement to know that McDonalds is enormously global, or that sushi and chopsticks can be found outside of asia. My guess is the americans you mention were somehow uncurious, uninformed, or possibly morons. Such people exist in every country. In my case I was surprised as the Japanese people I referred to generally fit profile of university educated, residents of Japans most international city (Tokyo), reasonably fluent in foreign language etc.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Aki
I met some American people too who were surprised to hear there were many McDonald’s in Japan.
And I know some Japanese who are surprised to see foreigners use chopsticks.
As you said, perhaps because many Japanese do not have the knowledge that chopsticks are used in many occasions in Western countries nowadays and perhaps because sometimes foreigner use chopsticks much better than the Japanese.
There might be other reasons to be surprised.
For instance, a friend of mine told me that he was surprised to see a illiterate foreigner who looked goofy boasting of knowing shushi bar and talking as if he were an expert on Japan without actually knowing much. He said he had no choice but to compliment in English.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Ponta, you are right in thinking there is race crime in England, and it is reported in the news, something you have obviously picked up on. Also the fraction of racists that live in Britain are also represented by the BNP, as they have a right to be represented. However, they do not represent mainstream thought or politics, and are overwhelmingly derided in the press.
In any case, Ponta, you are moving away from the thread. What I said before was “Japan is much worse than other countries (though I suppose I am thinking especially of England here) for xenophobic news-reporting.”
I made no mention of the small BNP party, nor the racism that exists in England. Well done you for bringing these things to my attention, even if they are beside the point.
Now, Ponta, if we actually try and read the news article link I sent you, we might come across this passage:
“For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.
“This is despite incontrovertible evidence that foreign crime rates are actually lower than those of Japanese.
“Of course, Japan’s overt stoking of public fear of foreigners is not in itself news — it has been going on for years.
‘However, the problem this time around is that the fearmongering is not merely another fad. It may be about to gel into public policy.”
Which, Ponta, I think fairly supports what I said.
Now, what I said before “As for fascism, Japan beats most countries hands down if you just read your history books…” This is a reference to the early Showa period and to 国家主義, which ended only with the disaster that was World War II. So, you see, without wanting to spell it out for you, I was hinting at Japan’s fascist past.
The other statement I said “On the subject of history books in Japan, you may find this article illuminating: …” was an aside, I thought interesting in and of itself, not connected, as you were so right to point out, with Japan being fascist.
You might find it also interesting to note (and this is another aside, Ponta) Aso’s not so long ago praising Japan for having “one culture, one civilization, one language, and one ethnic group.” A statement so far wrong he was derided. Perhaps he was voicing his own fascist dreams? They aren’t so far away from the BNPs goals, after all.
And also, Ponta, in searching for news articles on race crime in Japan, I could not find that many. However, I did discover here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan#Government_policy
that while discrimination is against the law in Japan, racial slurs and the like are just fine. So all the instances of race crime you mention above are not considered crimes in Japan, yet they are in England. Thus, you hear about them in the news.
Do you follow me, Ponta?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
For instance, a friend of mine told me that he was surprised to see a illiterate foreigner who looked goofy boasting of knowing shushi bar and talking as if he were an expert on Japan without actually knowing much. He said he had no choice but to compliment in English.
Ponta….that is some decent sarcasm. Good show! Previously you had usually not understood such, now you are using it. Great improvement! Whoever is coaching your english, I hope you will thank them.
Is it possible that its your surprised friend has some easily-triggered insecurities or latent nativist sensibilities? Anyway, you note the foreigner compliments in English — sounds like a decent person to me.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
leitmotiv, most Japanese are indifferent to trends in American food culture, and it surprised you. Good, if you learned something about the rest of the world.
“My guess is the americans you mention were somehow uncurious, uninformed, or possibly morons. Such people exist in every country.”
The people that I mentioned were postdocs in a university in the Midwest. I have also met an interesting foreign postdoc there. She, who was Spanish studying archaeology, was possessed with the idea that Japan is a country on the Asian continent somewhere around southern part of China (probably somewhere around Macau). She was surprised when I told her that Japan is an island country that lies to the northeast of China. I learned from her that the world is larger than I thought.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
lovely says
“yes, why would the japanese want to hold a halloween party?”
why not?
” i wonder if the nationalists will go to Tokyo Disneyland to protest. they have the biggest halloween party in japan.”
I wonder if they will go too. I hope not. They looks crazy.
” come on ponta. you are not making any sense.”
Did I make myself clear?
george says
“In any case, Ponta, you are moving away from the thread.”
I tried to get back to the topic if you notice my comment at
2009-11-10 19:02:16
The topic is about Halloween party, george
“Which, Ponta, I think fairly supports what I said.”
No george, which does not support what you said,
You said, Japan is much worse than other countries (though I suppose I am thinking especially of England here) for xenophobic news-reporting.
You might want to argue that the crimes by foreigners in Japan are overrepresented. Though Japan times article is far from substantive about it, I’ll say that that might be true.
But it is well known that there are problems of over- representing crimes involving the minority in U.K. isn’t it?
And note also there is also Missing white woman syndrome in U.K. (Hawker may be the case in point, as David McNeill points out. See “Death of Lindsay Hawker” From Wikipedia,)
So what you should show is England is much better in this respect.
george says
“I was hinting at Japan’s fascist past. ”
That’s okay but what does that have to do with the topic?
Should I refer to brutal England empire and its cruel past when talking about English newsreport,crazy Englsih nationalists etc.?
“The other statement I said “On the subject of history books in Japan, you may find this article illuminating: …” was an aside, ”
Okay, it is an aside.
“And also, Ponta, in searching for news articles on race crime in Japan, I could not find that many. ”
I can find plenty of race crimes in England. that is an aside though.
“So all the instances of race crime you mention above are not considered crimes in Japan, yet they are in England. ”
Racial slur itself is not a crime in Japan, in the U.S. and probably in U.K. either..
All the crimes except racial slur I mentioned above are crimes in Japan.
Besides I never heard a Japanese person telling a black lady ” to run to her because ‘niggers should be used to running.’ ”
(from the article I quoted.)
And is smashing the windows at minority’s home not a crime in your counrty? Well it is a crime in Japan.
Anyway, if you want more instances of hate crimes in U.K. I’d be glad to present them. (Do you want me to put North Ireland aside?)
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Ponta, I am now satisfied that you are incable of argument, and don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I will not continue this debate.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
george
I quoted what you said, “Japan is much worse than other countries・・・・ for xenophobic news-reporting.”
And you quoted JT articles, citing ““This is despite incontrovertible evidence that foreign crime rates are actually lower than those of Japanese.”
I argued that the problem of over representing crimes by minority is well known in U.K. and I also pointed out the problem of white women missing syndrome in U.K.
Granted the alleged problem exists, I asked to substantiate your claim that “Japan is much worse than other countries ” in this respect.
Now you are quitting, saying ponta is incapable of argument.
Which are incapable of argument?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I’m sorry, Ponta, but I am finding this debate very tiresome. Perhaps we will have to agree to disagree?
The statement you made,
“Xenophobia exists in any society, based on published news articles.
Japan is not particularly different in this respect.”
I am not comfortable with.
I can’t vouch for any countries but my own, but I believe that England is different in this respect.
“I argued that the problem of over representing crimes by minority is well known in U.K. and I also pointed out the problem of white women missing syndrome in U.K.”
I agree with you on that last point, but not on the first. In the past, yes, England would have been guilty of misrepresentation of crime by race, and even now, I conceed, there are people who are still stuck in that mind-frame; but the news medias are so highly regulated, and politicians so scrutinised these days that any insinuation of racial discrimination leaves you open to large-scale derision.
The main reason I tire of this discussion is your insistence on bringing up non-relevant topics. You have brought to my attention many race crimes in England, but the topic is not race crime. You also saw fit to talk about the BNP (and hence fascism, so it was you who started that, not I), and what they have to do with xenophobic newsreporting, I cannot see. If anything, the media’s overwhelming ridicule of the BNP would serve to support my side of the argument, not yours.
Can we somehow wrap this up? Find some common ground, or at least make our separate conclusions?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Sure we can agree to disagee.
All I want you and anybody to ask is to be sensitive when you compare the countries and not to be misleading and hyperbolic on this kind of issue like nationalists in any country.
When somebody says one country is much worse in a specific aspect, without solid evidences, based on prejudice, that even smacks of racist. I am reacting to that part.
As a side, I don’t think I’m insistently bringing up non-relevant topics. Rather, as I said, I tried to get the topic back to the original one, Halloween party. My comment is in respond to your comment and it is off the topic to the extent you are off the topic.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
The main reason I tire of this discussion is your insistence on bringing up non-relevant topics.
Get used to it when debating with ponta. This has been noted previously by others.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I agree with you completely in this last point.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I am used to leitmotiv’s Ad hominem attack, and not arguing when he is cornered.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
(btw, I was responding to Ponta, not Leitmotif in that last post)
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“Yamanote on Halloween is just as popular with the Japanese as the foreigners.”
Really? I once got a real earful from a Japanese man that got on the Yamanote Halloween train by chance. He was not amused, and can you blame him?
I don’t have anything against people enjoying themselves, but it seems that half the point of this “party” is to be disrespectful towards the Japanese. The other half is, they do it because they can (or could).
I don’t support the loony natioanalists either–the people to sympathize with here are all the innocent bystanders–but some things don’t have anything to do with “culture” or “customs.” Showing basic respect to those around you is one of those things.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Finally a rational viewpoint. Thanks, Eric.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I am a white male and Ive been to Tokyo 3 times for vacation and ill never go back! last time i was there i got on the Yamanote line in the day time and a fat Japanese girl yelled at me in Japanese about how i was the devil and to go home. it was very weird and i was so happy when i came home! i think she might have been on crystal meth. Now when i travel to Asia i only travel to China and Thailand! The people there are so welcoming to Americans. Most Japanese people are very racist, it seems.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
WTF? So based on your comment alone, one fat girl on crystal meth somehow equates to the whole country being racist. I’ve seen some pretty lame comments, but this one takes the cake.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
But it’s true. Most Japanese aren’t the welcoming type, they try to be tolerant, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. Should one generalize, certainly not, but overall, the Japanese by in large are highly xenophobic as you can read by these topics and daily events and historically.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
No, it’s not true. You’re wrong on all accounts, including your view of history. I even dare you to come up with proof that overall Japanese are highly xenophobic, or even better, not the welcoming type.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Have you ever been to Japan, Kevin? Obviously not. I wouldn’t say that the Japanese as a whole are racist, but they are very….wary of foreigners. For various reasons: Some cannot speak English and do not want foreigners talking to them as a result, some simply haven’t seen many foreigners and are unsure how to react, some just don’t like foreigners.
I never faced any problems in Japan until I intended on moving there. My vacations in Japan were always fantastic and everyone was very friendly and helpful. But as soon as I started looking for a house, things turned sour. Landlords told me they didn’t want foreigners living in their apartments, would-be neighbours said the same about living near a foreigner, and many bosses flat-out told me they wouldn’t employ me because I was a foreigner! Fair enough if they kept these reasons to themselves, but to tell me to my face was certainly a shock!
I finally got a job and house in Japan, after months of searching and staying over at friends’ houses. It was quite a painful experience and one I never want to relive. So here’s hoping I can hold onto this house and job for as long as possible! Things have settled down a little but every now and then I’ll come across xenophobic behaviour. It’s quite hurtful.
An ineresting thing to note is that my Japanese friends once asked me why I didn’t want to move to South Korea instead. I’d never even thought about the country, so when I asked why they would say that, they responded “South Koreans are friendlier than us!”
I laughed at the time, but it certainly makes me wonder what South Korea is like by comparison!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
You can see it everyday, if you want to live in Lala land, that is fine with me, but the evidence is there. As I said, NOT all Japanese are racists, but Japan is a racist country by far-period!
BTW, you know nothing about me or what I know about history, so let’s not get in over our heads here. You can push your hippy-liberal babbling on someone else. You have your opinion and I have my experiences, all 30+ living in Japan.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Yes, as you said, NOT all Japanese are racists, they just are – period. Thank you for that wonderfully enlightening statement based on 30+ years of experience.
As I said, feel free to back up your statements with proof – i.e. ‘hippy liberal babbling’.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
And Tina, I’m definitely not saying discrimination problems don’t exist in Japan – far from it – but there is a huge difference between ‘almost everyone in Japan is racist’ and some people are wary of foreigners.
It’s terrible that you had so many bad experiences, but here are some quick points of advice:
1) For renting a room, stick with commercial/chain realtors and make sure you have a guarantor ready to sign for you. If you do these two things, I guarantee you will almost never have problems getting a place to live again. Also, if you have a permanent resident visa, try to secure yourself a loan and buy a house. I’ve yet to hear of anyone having problems buying.
2) Job hunting is a much more difficult issue. There will obviously be issues with discrimination, but there are also a huge number of opportunities if you know where to look. Work your network of connections and see if your friends know of any open positions.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Again, as I said, I don’t need to prove anything to you! Do you think that you’re the Gestappo or something. Once again, you go by your opinions and I will go by my experiences! Keep babbling.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I keep reading JP due in no small part to the many intelligent and experienced commentators here. Threads seldom devolve into asine name-calling, and Godwin’s Law is seldom invoked – refreshingly few comments likening people to Nazis.
But not none….
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Well, that’s a first – being called a nazi for asking someone to prove their argument with facts in response to horribly overreaching generalizations and prejudices. Can you even be a liberal hippie and a member of the Gestapo?
Obviously you don’t have to prove your point, Carlos, but I find it hard to believe that you can casually call everyone in the country a racist and yet still expect everyone to throw down the welcome mat for you. Do your friends here know you consider most of them racists?
Please find a dictionary, look up the word racist, and reflect on your so-called experiences.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Hey, there’s a first time for everything. Your smart-ass remarks are seriously boring me to death.
You are 100% correct on that point! I really don’t have to show you squat…and who said, “Casually?” If you don’t get it, it means, you don’t want to get it and that’s not my problem and you will not convince me otherwise. As far as my friends are concerned, they mostly agree with me. Read my post again. I said “most” generally speaking. Please, don’t put words in my mouth, this site is for Adults, is it not? If you can’t act your age, don’t be on this site. Don’t act like a Spoiled brat fresh out of Vermount!
And while you’re at it, get yourself a dictionary and look up the word “Sucking up”
You love Japan and want to wallow in its garbage, by all means, please do so. More power to you. But you have no clue as to who I am what I have experienced, so please why don’t you go to Segaworld arcade and bother some young Japanese High school girl.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Tina, sorry that you had such a terrible experience, but that can be a common thing in Japan, nothing out of the ordinary. As for South Korea, I lived there for 3 years and believe me, its much worse. Again, I have many Korean and Japanese friends that are so kind and caring and I have had some fun and memorable times, but the majority will not throw down the welcoming mat for you, remember: visiting is NOT the same as living in Japan or Korea.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Sorry you had an unfortunate run-in, and sorry to hear it has led you to believe that “most Japanese people” are just like that “fat Japanese girl”.
Though you are entirely entitled to your own opinions based on your personal experiences, please try not to make such generalizations about “most Japanese people [seeming to be] very racist”. It breeds the exact same mentality as the extremist Japanese who think “most/all foreigners are devils who must go home”, and thus leads people to treat others poorly (as you yourself were treated) for some ill-founded prejudice.
The girl may have had her own unfortunate run-in with a bad foreigner, but that doesn’t mean all foreigners are bad. Likewise, you had your run-in with her, but that doesn’t mean most/all Japanese are racist.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I respect your opinion and you are right. At least you approach the topic with rational logic and not trying to get emotional about it. That is the best way I think.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
pity you from my heart.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
MOST. . and you got one girl yelling at you. . .I have lived here for six years and have yet to meet any racist Japanese. . .I am sure there are a few out there, just like in any country. I meet more racists back in my hometown then I do in Japan
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I am sincerely glad that people like you won’t go back to Japan. Good riddance, and props to that fat Jap girl. It means one less shallow minded idiot from Japanese soil.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Talk about kissing up! How can you say the guy was shallow?? Maybe, just maybe through his experiences, he has legitimate reasons to feel the way he does. So because this man has an opinion, he’s not allowed to voice it? He and everyone has to follow the herd like blind sheep?! There are many reasons and facts to say otherwise. Japan is not a utopia and it is not a place that has a welcome mat for foreigners in general!
You are the one that is shallow minded, my friend. Unless you have walked in his shoes or anyone else’s that has had negative experiences in Japan, you cannot say anything, you spout all you want about your own experiences, but that’s about it! Wise up!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Heh, I am shallow minded? SO YOU with your godlike thirty years experience have a right to call the shots and say that it is perfectly justified for this idiot to dismiss Japan as racist over one fat jap girl getting pissed at this loser? Can he voice his displeasure that he had a bad experience? Most certainly yes. Can he use that one incident to judge an entire nation? Well, technically no, but hell people like you back him up which is perfectly fine too I guess. But in a nut shell, if you hate the country, gtfo, and jump ship like Kevin. I have my experiences, mostly positive, but I guess they ain’t no match for yours huh?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
You bore me. I do as I feel, say what I want. Obviously, as most people that don’t read carefully look past at the whole proper context of the point that I was referring to. You don’t know me or my experiences or what my background is, so my son, please just mosey on down and bother someone else that might be interested in you trying to stick up for a country where most people are highly xenophobic and racists.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Just wondering, could you explain your opinion/experiences more? You keep mentioning it and throwing it in other people’s faces that disagree/misread your posts, but I am very curious about your experiences now.
In general, every country has their racists and practices that can borderline racism anyway. You’re free to believe whatever you want, but I think taking in other people’s opinions and seeing other views makes you whole in the end.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Meth users aren’t fat…………
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Oh Jason, yeah you had better go to China and Thailand so you can catch diseases more often than not and take it all back with you and spread it among your flock.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Well this is possibly a troll but if not. Well that might just be bad timing. If a japanese person had a run in right out of the airport from a white supremecist do you not think he would have the same conclusion of our country.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
WANNA MEET THAT FAT GIRL
Good riddance; one less easily offended foreigner!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Excellent trolling Sir.
tips hat
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I’m a Protestant and I am simply crushed by what these people are saying about my religion. CRUSHED I tell you CRUSHED. sob sob sob.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Seen some vids of previous parties and it was embarrassing to watch.
I dont know why a few louts need to get out of control and interfere with people who are just going about their business…
There are too many idiots that come to Japan for a year or so and to them it is just about having a holiday and for some reason they don’t show the same respect they should in their own country.
As for the Japanese police showing restraint… Instead of mocking them you should be glad… Have you seen the endless numbers of videos on the web of cops from various countries overseas beating the crap out of ’suspects’ and arresting people over nothing.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
well today is 2009. 3 more years before 2012 the end of the world..
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Gosh I was just waiting for somebody to bring out there Pessimist stance.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
as you wish master.. hrrrr..
http://www.tipiloschi.net/nino/ninoland/MartyFeldmanIgor.jpg
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Even modern mayans believe that is rediculous. Then the calendar resets. That like believe the world is going to end at midnight every december 31. So many people thought the world was going to end and turned out wrong. Nostradamus thought it was going to be 1999. How did that go by the way?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Christians, that is, er Protestants included (LOL) all thought Jesus might make a second visit. Boy were THEY wrong, or what? LOL
Rate this comment:
0 
0
It is most disturbing and unpleasant.
Any bad behaviour by either side reflects badly on that side and also makes proper relations worse between ordinary people.
The thing about the kind of rolling party planned is that it can work fine as a take-over of one carriage of a train, allowing ordinary travellers to use the other carriages, but when it grows too large it can become a serious problem with public drunkenness and rowdiness.
Publishing plans in advance is bound to attract more of the wrong kind of participant and also the attention of the authorities.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Nationalism is a mental disease.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
And liberalism, as well.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
How about fascism?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
It’s a physical disorder of society.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
This would be the opposite of true.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
But it means it’s correct.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
seems the bad behavior was from the japanese this year. too bad they didn`t get called on it. i have never nor will i ever do the yamanote party – that is just so lame – but the xeonos really make japan look bad.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Every party a public one or a private one should have its regulation. If the foreigners Halloween party was too noisy/aggressive the police should have acted. When the Japanese protesters came and they were from the beginning protesting against something that was OK from the side of the law/public, meaning the Halloween party, the Police had IMHO every right to go out against the protesting Japanese.
On the other hand I live in Central Europe and Halloween is a import holiday here too. But If you want to celebrate it in any “normal way”, feel free, no one will say a thing. If you will make mess and disturb the “public peace” you will be busted.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
JR went through the effort of printing and distributing big signs in Japanese/English announcing that parties on the train are forbidden. A similar announcement was played in an almost endless loop over the loudspeakers at Shinjuku station.
If it was “OK” for the foreigners to have their train party, such warnings would be unnecessary.
Exactly right, the same in UK.
Hallowween isn’t a holiday here like the USA. If people want to go out and celebrate that’s fine as long as things don’t go too far.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Well, I live in Yokohama and I can tell you with confidence that the Japanese have taken a holiday that used to be celebrated exclusively by foreigners and RUINED it. We live in a neighborhood that has long been known for its foreign community, and have more or less lived peaceably amongst the local folks for 20 years.
Halloween used to be celebrated here by expat and the “haafu” children and trick-or-treating and candy was passed out by the members of the foreign community and a few cosmopolitan Japanese families who saw the tradition as something fun and wholesome that they wanted to adopt themselves.
In recent years, trick-or-treating in our neighborhood has degraded into something barely resembling what it used to be and is more about the Japanese mothers than the kids. Where it used to be easy-going and fun, it has now been transformed into a scenario where hundreds of kids (I would say that 95% or more don’t even live in the area as I recognize almost none of them) of a few houses and absolutely mob them with the full encouragement of their mothers.
Mothers stand around with their arms folding, blocking access to the streets and houses, squawking orders to their kids (one that sticks out in memory: “Keisuke, get something good. Get something for your two sisters too!”) most of whom are very badly behaved, push and shove and cut in line. The kids pick around the candy bowl to get what they want, throw things back and take another, then refuse to move out of the way once they’ve got their candy.
Trick-or-treating should take no longer than 5 seconds per kid per house. Long enough to say “trick or treat” (the Japanese kids have taken to saying “happy halloween instead”, further bastardizing the holiday) take the candy that they are HANDED (not to fish around the bowl) and to say thank you. The Japanese kids seem to require anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes apiece to accomplish the same task and often insist on having their picture taken with the host (who grimaces, but reluctantly concedes to their wishes knowing that they are holding up the other kids) and otherwise just clog the whole process up.
What used to be fun and something that we could enjoy and share a little bit of what we used to enjoy in our childhood is now a complete nightmare and not worth the effort anymore. Most of the foreign and haafu kids don’t even bother with trick or treating anymore, but instead go to private parties and forgo the outside melee that Halloween in Yokohama has become.
So when people say that the Japanese don’t celebrate Halloween, that’s not entirely accurate. True that the majority of the population don’t, but every year for the past 3-5 years I’ve watched Japanese mothers with their kids in tow congregate at the station and head up the hill to our neighborhood where they know the pickings are good. They’ve taken a holiday and completely ruined it for its original intent and made it into something completely for their own benefit and made it undesirable for the people that take it seriously. It is now something that vaguely resembles what it used to be and seems to be more for the benefit of Japanese to go around and clog up the foreign neighborhoods and gawk at our households.
Most people that I know have stopped giving out candy and have thoughts quite similar to mine on the matter and shake their heads in disgust. You can’t even drive down the streets on Halloween night anymore as it is packed with Japanese kids (and their moms) that are unfamiliar with the area and assume that traffic will stop for them.
That being said, I don’t agree with anyone causing a raucous on the trains. I see loud Japanese groups in my own neighborhood on Halloween and on the trains throughout the year, but not a peep from the protestors about bad behavior or the trashing of culture. Seems to me that Halloween is just fine to them so long as it largely benefits the Japanese and no one else.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I’m so sorry that the local Japanese totally ruined your Halloween which was EXCLUSIVELY meant for the foreign community, few cosmopolitan Japanese, and haafu kids. It sounds SOOOOO Fun.
And I’m weeping that the Japanese just had to go about trashing culture that’s been around for 20 years and don’t seem to care.
And the local Japanese housewives and kids are so ignorant, uncivilized, and just don’t get what Halloween is all about. Poo….
It must be, because we are so EVIL!
WE Japanese must repent!! Whip me, beat me! I know we don’t deserve it, but teach us your godly ways! Teach us real Halloween please!! I beg you!!
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Don’t bother, you will just turn it into something it was never intended to be anyway. I’ll keep you in mind next time I’m in Hawaii or California crashing the O-Bon celebrations there.
I didn’t say it was meant for anyone exclusively, but it should only be for people that LIVE IN THE AREA. That’s the whole point of it. A community takes care of their own, when people from outside the area come the end up trashing the place. You should see the streets the following day!
And I never said you were evil. Ignorant perhaps, but not evil.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I’ve never heard of an obon in California taking place without permission or on public transportation, but if you do I’m sure it’d be completely justified.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I never said anything about public transportation. What I was referring to was something that happens within my own neighborhood.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Does O-Bon in Hawaii and California have trick-or-treating?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Not to my knowledge, but it can be a noisy affair. It’s not something that is a traditional holiday of mine, so I wouldn’t try to force my self upon the observers.
That’s the whole point of my first post, whether you don’t get it or are choosing to ignore it I’m not sure.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
The trick-or-treating, costumes, and decorations attracted the local Japanese who are not from your immediate neighborhood, or community in Yokohama, right?
So you’re saying that local Japanese moms and kids are not welcome if they are not familiar with American Halloween culture because they will ruin the authenticity for those who are serious about it.
But you also said “I didn’t say it was meant for anyone exclusively, but it should only be for people that LIVE IN THE AREA.”
Then how do you define the limits to an area? Do you hand out ID to those who are part of the foreign community, cosmopolitan Japanese, and haaf kids, and check there residency registration?
You discriminate against local Japanese mom and kids who are new to this but want to join the fun, and at the same time describe the Japanese as some wackos who can’t even trick-or-treat the correct way.
Another quote from you,
“A community takes care of their own, when people from outside the area come the end up trashing the place.”
I think you should rethink this more in depth.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I think Gibby made a valid point. Regardless of what country you are in, it’s a shame to see a certain group mess up what is supposed to be a fun holiday.
A similar thing happened to my community and I live in America. Most of my town weren’t very big on Halloween and it died down over the years to the point where there were barely any trick or treaters and decorations to be seen. So my community decided to bring back the Halloween spirit by decorating our houses and getting the kids back into trick or treating. On the first year it was fantastic to see children dressed up again and parents having fun and taking photos of their kids and the decorted houses.
But the next year hundreds of people flocked to our little streets and basically made a mess of the place. Toilet papering houses, egging cars, smashing windows, grabbing entire bowls of candy instead of one or two, littering the streets, smashing pumpkins and throwing them around. It cost thousands to fix and the council originally wanted US to pay for it! We had no idea the holiday was going to turn into such a riot! Luckily, afte rmuch protesting and petitioning we didn’t have to pay.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“The trick-or-treating, costumes, and decorations attracted the local Japanese who are not from your immediate neighborhood, or community in Yokohama, right?”
Lord only knows what attracted them. What’s your point here anyway?
“So you’re saying that local Japanese moms and kids are not welcome if they are not familiar with American Halloween culture because they will ruin the authenticity for those who are serious about it.”
How would the local Japanese feel about hundreds of foreigners showing up to one of their festivals and commandeering it to their own liking? How would they feel about being pushed around and foreigners not wanting to wait in line and butting in and acting rudely? No need to reply on that one because I know the answer already.
“Then how do you define the limits to an area? Do you hand out ID to those who are part of the foreign community, cosmopolitan Japanese, and haaf kids, and check there residency registration?”
Our neighborhood isn’t very densely populated. Whether you know the people personally or not, most people have probably seen people from the area before and know them by site. You can also get an idea from the way they dress and act.
“You discriminate against local Japanese mom and kids who are new to this but want to join the fun, and at the same time describe the Japanese as some wackos who can’t even trick-or-treat the correct way.”
No, I don’t discriminate against them. They are NOT local otherwise they would know how to do it correctly without pissing off the people that host Halloween. If they want to institute Halloween celebrations in their own neighborhoods, then more power to them. If they want to do it in my neighborhood then they should do it the way that we’ve always done it and not the way they feel it should be done. You’re failing to accept that Halloween is a private and voluntary thing which the people handing out the candy should decide on whether they want to participate or not. From the actions of the grubbers that come from afar to glom onto our holiday, most the hosts (including Japanese folks in the neighborhood) don’t want to celebrate Halloween anymore because the Japanese kids and their mothers are taking all the fun out of it.
“Another quote from you,
“A community takes care of their own, when people from outside the area come the end up trashing the place.”
I think you should rethink this more in depth.”
If you’re trying to compare my statements to the actions on the Yamanote line, don’t bother. I’ve already said that I don’t support the revelers.
Can you tell me why we should hand out candy to people who aren’t from the neighborhood or why we should have them clogging and trashing our streets?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Why don’t you just do trick or treating similar to the way it’s done back in the US?
Every year that I handed out candy, it was a simple matter of dropping a couple pieces of candy into someone’s bag and then moving on to the next person. If the kids ask to take pictures with the host, just politely decline and say that there are lots of other people waiting.
It’s probably not going to be as fun and ‘local’ as it was before, but then again, back home I never knew who was coming over to my place as well. I would assume they are neighborhood kids, but who knows. Perhaps you could then hold some kind of locals only party to get more enjoyment from the day.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“Can you tell me why we should hand out candy to people who aren’t from the neighborhood or why we should have them clogging and trashing our streets?”
Do you not realize that 99% of Japanese only know Halloween from what the media reports, and do not go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood?
Ahahahaa!, I’m sorry, but you are like pandas in a zoo. Your neighborhood must be a really nice place but in a bubble. You should build a gate with guards and a wall surrounding your neighborhood, just like they do in Israel.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“It’s probably not going to be as fun and ‘local’ as it was before, but then again, back home I never knew who was coming over to my place as well. I would assume they are neighborhood kids, but who knows. Perhaps you could then hold some kind of locals only party to get more enjoyment from the day.”
No one is expecting it to be exactly like home. What we don’t want is 200-300 kids and their mothers descending on our houses at once. This is not an exaggeration…this is truly how it is.
“Do you not realize that 99% of Japanese only know Halloween from what the media reports, and do not go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood?”
I don’t care about the other 99%. Only the ones that invite themselves over to our neighborhood and make a mess of things. About your Israel comments, I won’t even grace that with a response. Did you forget to take your medication today or something?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“I don’t care about the other 99%”
This is the root of your problem.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“What we don’t want is 200-300 kids and their mothers descending on our houses at once.”
Oh, I can totally imagine. Your house is the free version of Disneyland at a time when Halloween is just starting to get popular here. I don’t think it’s too bad having that many kids visiting your house, but I suppose if things got really out of control, you could always just say you ran out of candy.
It might seem rude, but you’re not a candy dispenser. Just think back to what you would have done before, and I don’t think the event will spiral that far out of control. If you end up stepping on a few toes, that just goes with the territory – just remember, that you’re probably the first experience these kids have had with Halloween, so just keep their sights set low so they don’t expect more the following year. 
Rate this comment:
0 
0
And fg, you’re missing the point. Gibby isn’t saying that he/she wants to limit attendance, but there is a limit to what one person can do. Halloween has always only encompassed a local area. But when people are traveling out of their way to visit a neighborhood to experience Halloween, that’s when things are getting a bit out of hand.
Just as an example, when I was a kid, the most people you could expect on one night was maybe 50-100 kids. If Gibby is saying that 200-300 people are showing up, that’s a LOT of children. It’s extremely burdensome to have to supply that many children with candy, and can be only seen as a hassle if the parents/children are being rude. If everyone in the neighborhood stopped giving out candy because of over-attendance, that’s definitely not a positive result for the local children.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
In the end, we probably had about 700-800 kids visit our house and we were prepared for only about 200. A friend that lives up the road had bought roughly 1,000 pieces (hoping to keep some for his own kids) said he completely ran out by 8 pm. I think this is high by any standards and it keeps growing every year.
““I don’t care about the other 99%”
This is the root of your problem.”
Well my friend, the root of your problem is you take everything out of context and try to put words in peoples mouths.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“In the end, we probably had about 700-800 kids”
I’m just a passive observer, but like I said before, just do what you normally would have done for Halloween – buy 2 to 3 packs of “Big Family Size” candy packages (costco is your friend) and stop handing out candy when you run out.
It’s definitely hard to see kids not get some candy, but hopefully after a year or so, parents will stop coming. If you keep the supply coming, the demand will continue to rise year after year as Halloween becomes more popular.
As an alternative, if you don’t want to see the hurt faces of children who can’t get candy, just do what those strange houses always did – put the bowl of candy on the front porch and let the kids scavenge what they want until it’s gone.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Thanks for the comments Kevin. We did get our candy at Costco, but had to improvise when we ran out and then finally had to shut the lights off once we ran out of other things to give.
Another complaint that we and others have is that some decorations went missing and that mothers were letting their younger kids urinate in the storm sewers (no public bathrooms nearby) so our normally quiet neighborhood reaked of urine the next day.
When I say 200-300 kids mobbing a house at once it’s not an exaggeration. I should have taken some pics to show people what I’m talking about. Oh well, always next year.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Kevin and Gibby,
I know that you mean well and want to enjoy American Halloween in Japan and get the kids out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. I think that’s great, but realistically you won’t solve the problem of over attendance unless,
1) You isolate your neighborhood or,
2) Put out a strong message out that it is only for your neighbors or,
2) Japanese become indifferent towards Halloween, or
3) All Japanese learn how to trick-or-treat correctly the American way.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
If it’s your neighborhood, make sure to be vocal about everyone following rules that you feel best fit your neighborhood. I certainly wouldn’t want little kids urinating all over the place. Trick-or-treating isn’t the kind of event that should require port-a-potties, so when things are getting that bad, it’s probably a good idea to find alternatives until things die down. Are you guys advertising or something? How do parents know when you’re passing out candy?
Sounds like things were pretty crazy, though! You should definitely take pictures and document things on a blog.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
fg, I understand what you are saying, but from Gibby’s posts, you can tell that their neighborhood has done a lot to try to accommodate large numbers of participants. Really, the only way to keep attendance low is to pass out less candy, but if those parents are really going to all that trouble to make everyone happy, the least they can do is expect parents to keep things polite.
There’s no traditional American way to pass out candy. Halloween has always been just about developing community ties and allowing kids to have a fun time at least once in a year.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Kevin,
I know how Halloween is in America, in the suburbs and the city, because I spent most of my childhood there.
As you know Halloween is fairly new here, and spread mostly through TV media to hype up consumers, just like Christmas and Valentines day. Most Japanese don’t know it has anything to do with “developing community ties and allowing kids to have fun once a year.” And trick-or-treating is an exotic experience that kids and moms want to try out if they have a chance.
I’m absolutely with you that parents should keep things polite, follow rules and manners, and be reasonable. But i believe it is also the responsibility of the people who started this Halloween trick-or-treating event in the “public sphere” to manage it and come up with solutions for themselves, rather than putting the blame on the curious ones. Read Gibby’s first post, it sounds like a cry from victimhood.
They should have expected that this, if they introduce a foreign culture to any country that is curious of anything foreign and conscious of “new” things.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
fg,
You still haven’t answered my question:
“How would the local Japanese feel about hundreds of foreigners showing up to one of their festivals and commandeering it to their own liking? How would they feel about being pushed around and foreigners not wanting to wait in line and butting in and acting rudely?”
They are coming to our neighborhood and to our houses. Not by invitation, mind you. If they are curious they could certainly do a little research before investing the time to descend on our neighborhood. I think they get the idea that it is for neighborhood kids because every explanation I’ve heard on Japanese tv about American Halloween has been something to the effect of ご近所の子供達 に。。。
Call me thick if you will, but I think that pretty much sums it up and I fail to see where the confusion lies?
You are saying on one hand that parents should keep things polite (which they don’t – they’re not from here and may not come again, so I doubt they feel compelled to act civil) and then blaming us for their bad behavior. Curious or not, the behavior is unjustified. If you think that this is alright and I am playing victim here, then please give me your address and I will very gladly direct the 1-2,000 non-area kids to your house on Halloween.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Yeah, the original post is pretty negative in tone, but I’m not sure anyone could expect growth to this extent – especially if the event isn’t being advertised (I’m not sure).
This is kind of hard one to figure out because the heart of trick or treating involves only individuals doing something for the neighborhood children. Once something of this nature turns into an event, or enters the ‘public sphere’, there’s not much more to do other than turn it into a full-blown event, limit its extent, or stop it entirely. If someone was really looking forward to passing out candy on a limited scale, this is a pretty unfortunate result, but you’re right, it’s hard to blame the Japanese parents for being curious.
Either way, 1000 kids is way more than trick or treating…that’s a sugar-induced riot.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Gibby, how exactly are parents outside of your neighborhood learning of the event? Maybe you could switch trick or treating to the 30th or something to deflect the number of attendees?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Hi Kevin,
I have absolutely no idea as we certainly aren’t publicizing it. The one thing that my wife and I noticed is that overwhelming majority of the non-local kids coming are with young “yanki” type mothers, so I assume that it must be a grapevine sort of thing.
A few people did put up signs that said “one piece per child” and “please line up orderly” but all to no avail.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“How would the local Japanese feel about hundreds of foreigners showing up to one of their festivals and commandeering it to their own liking? How would they feel about being pushed around and foreigners not wanting to wait in line and butting in and acting rudely?”
Gibby, okay I wouldn’t like it if some people from another town, or another country showed up being commandeering at the local town festival and pushed me around.
But I don’t think this is the correct comparison you’re making either.
First, it depends on what kind of festival you’re talking about. Again I repeat that Halloween trick-or-treating is a new and special thing in Japan. It attracts attention and It has no other comparisons that I know of.
Most festivals in japan are well organized with a running committee and people in the community take up roles to clean-up, put up facilities, and take safety measures.
Secondly, the Japanese that go to your neighborhood are not foreigners, they’re in their own country, of course you can argue it’s your neighborhood.
Foreigners showing up and commandeering to their own liking?
Are these Japanese moms and kids really commandeering to the level you speak of? Or is this Halloween event in your neighborhood just unprepared?
“If you think that this is alright and I am playing victim here, then please give me your address and I will very gladly direct the 1-2,000 non-area kids to your house on Halloween”
This is not nice Gibby. I apologize for any offensive comments I previously wrote, but I changed my stance to see if I can help you.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Wow.
Gibby should be shot.
People are showing up to your house without invitation DURING HALLOWEEN? Whoa what a concept!
So as a foreign person who is helping to “import” a foreign thing such as a Halloween into Japan and “doing it right the old traditional American way in Japan” complain when some of the locals want to all of a sudden participate? Amazing.
Go home, dude. You’re embarrassing.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Feel free to stick your head underwater and take a nice deep breath Stirstir. Like I said earlier, I’ll happily direct them all to your house and see how you like it.
Tell ya what, why don’t you and your neighbors throw a block party and take in another 2,000 people who live nowhere near you?
Let’s get it straight here. LOCAL Japanese (meaning ones that live in the neighborhood) are more than welcome to join in the fun. They are especially welcome if they also hand out candy so that the burden doesn’t fall on a small number of houses. Ones that ride the train from far away to trick or treat in our neighborhood are not welcome. They should get together with THEIR neighbors and setup their own celebrations.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Gibby,
If you want to continue your neighborhood trick-or-treating your way, consider putting out a strong message like the one you just posted, but in Japanese where all the locals in this country can read it and take it to heart.
Don’t know if it will work, you might have to use TV, newspapers and flyers to get the message across and may take a long time.
I believe you have a right to criticize bad manners and behavior done in your neighborhood, but after all, this is Japan and you have no right to criticize the Japanese for being ignorant of a foreign cultural tradition that your neighborhood started. You are the ones that should take responsibility for the outcome of this event.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Gib
You really are an embarrassment to all of us expats, you know that? Seriously, dude, go back and read what you wrote without getting all ego-loaded and flustered, and tell me that you’re making sense, cos you’re seriously embarrassing..
You, as an American, are introducing our tradition to people who have no real idea how it’s done, and then you go around expecting them to know how it’s done without any explanation, and then you have the audacity and conceit go around complaining here that the Japanese are coming around in hoards taking all your candy that you yourself decided to offer, in our traditional way! And then you go around bashing them over the heads here on this site! What sort of sicko are you, dude?
Who said anything about Halloween candy-giving needing an invitation? Kids have been coming to my house, dropping by every year, simply expecting to be handed out candy just because that is the tradition! Mind you, I did make the mistake one year of letting the kids dig in themselves, so that by the end of the first 30 minutes all the candy I had were GONE. So, from then on, I only give out my own handful to each and every kid that comes by my house, and I make sure I have enough for the NIGHT. Everybody and anybody is welcome this night, because that’s how it’s supposed to be.
And there you go complaining about these poor kids with their mothers who come around doing our tradition in Japan. You’re amazing, dude. I even open up my house to let the kids use the bathroom man, knowing the kind of thing you describe could happen. Yet here you are, all you do is complain. You’re married? You gotta be kidding, dude. Yeah and you know what? It’s OK to switch off the lights/lanterns and lock the door once you decide you’ve had enough for the night. People understand, they’ll just go to the next house that’s still going.
Get some damned common sense and decency into your thick skull, dude, you’re really embarrassing. Really. And you live in a foreign country! Amazing, dude.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Stirrer,
“You really are an embarrassment to all of us expats, you know that? Seriously, dude, go back and read what you wrote without getting all ego-loaded and flustered, and tell me that you’re making sense, cos you’re seriously embarrassing..”
Egotistical…flustered you say? I do believe the pot is pointing out the blackness of the kettle here. Embarrassing? Can you write a single sentence without including the word “dude”? Did you just get off a surfboard or something?
“You, as an American, are introducing our tradition to people who have no real idea how it’s done, and then you go around expecting them to know how it’s done without any explanation, and then you have the audacity and conceit go around complaining here that the Japanese are coming around in hoards taking all your candy that you yourself decided to offer, in our traditional way! And then you go around bashing them over the heads here on this site! What sort of sicko are you, dude?”
I have introduced nothing as an individual here. This tradition has been in the neighborhood for a long, long time and was and is meant for the benefit of the neighborhood at large. Why are you making a parallel between personally responsibility on my part with uninvited people from nowhere near the area raiding our neighborhoods for Halloween? Is it my fault that the stores decide to commercialize the holiday (costumes, candy, etc) without any background information concerning its celebration?
So by your logic, should I purchase enough candy for the whole of the country? The whole of Tokyo? I have no problems with Japanese trick-or-treating in my neighborhood, but I don’t care to have 2,000 of them show up from afar and treat the place like a rock concert venue. If you want that sort of mob at your house, by all means be my guest!
“Who said anything about Halloween candy-giving needing an invitation? Kids have been coming to my house, dropping by every year, simply expecting to be handed out candy just because that is the tradition! Mind you, I did make the mistake one year of letting the kids dig in themselves, so that by the end of the first 30 minutes all the candy I had were GONE. So, from then on, I only give out my own handful to each and every kid that comes by my house, and I make sure I have enough for the NIGHT. Everybody and anybody is welcome this night, because that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
You’re making this out to be a much more open thing than it really is. Anyone with an iota of social grace knows that you don’t show up to private (Halloween is not public like you make it out to be) events without at least having some connection to the event itself. Try to crash a local festival in the countryside (one for a neighborhood, paid for by the neighborhood…not the type with vendors) here sometime when you are not a local and see what type of reception you get. I’m sure the “I was just curious” argument will take you a long way.
I will make sure to consult you next Halloween on how much to candy to buy for the NIGHT, since you seem to have all the answers.
“And there you go complaining about these poor kids with their mothers who come around doing our tradition in Japan. You’re amazing, dude. I even open up my house to let the kids use the bathroom man, knowing the kind of thing you describe could happen. Yet here you are, all you do is complain. You’re married? You gotta be kidding, dude. Yeah and you know what? It’s OK to switch off the lights/lanterns and lock the door once you decide you’ve had enough for the night. People understand, they’ll just go to the next house that’s still going.”
Merchants down in shopping street down the hill also hand out candy on Halloween, but also give out something chintzy like a single gummy bear re-wrapped in plastic and containing a coupon or little flyer for their business (which is their right) to the trick-or-treaters. As far as I can tell, this isn’t very well appreciated by the kids or their mothers, so they head up the hill for better pickings. How they found out about the private houses, I don’t know…they seem to just follow each other around.
If you want to open up your toilet to the outside world, that’s your prerogative. Why you bring the matter up though is beyond me. If the kids stay close to home or in public areas with access to toilets, then this sort of thing doesn’t happen which is my whole point here. Perhaps you’ll let them in to watch TV or play with your playstation, but don’t expect others to follow suit just because you are a self-professed gaijin saint.
You act like these “poor” mothers and kids had just stumbled out of the jungle and had never seen the likes of the wheel or fire. They are not simply “curious” as you say, but rather just after the best pickings they can find. If they are curious, they can set up their own celebrations to their own liking. Nobody stopped them from adopting Christmas in their own way, so what’s the hangup with Halloween?
Again, you’re not in this neighborhood so you have no clue of what goes on. Turning off the lights doesn’t work. You have to completely remove all the decorations or they will keep coming. Once a single one hits your doorstep you have 30-50 more within the minute and have to explain to all of them that you are done for the night. I have yet to have a Halloween in the past 3 years in which someone didn’t try to remove decorations from our house either.
What is your idea of common decency? Even our Japanese neighbors complain about not being able to drive through the neighborhood as it gets mobbed with non-local Japanese (the neighbors that don’t celebrate) and also get just as upset at what was once a fun thing in our neighborhood has degraded into. They are just as critical as I am about the non-local people showing up and increasing every year.
Is it alright with you that Japanese people complain about their own people? Am I supposed to just keep my mouth shut when someone steps over the line because I am in a foreign country? Are you implying that Japanese people are not capable of doing any wrong in their own country?
Now that we’re on the subject, what are your feelings on Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the US?
Talk about thick and embarrassing. Write a book now while you still know everything…you might forget it all in your old age.
What does my being married or single have to do with anything?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
To summarize information provided by others…
Holding a party in a public place and holding a demonstration are different issue. Freedom of assembly is secured by the Constitution of Japan Article 21, however, there are various ordinances to prevent nuisances and to regulate holding a demonstration. For a party held in a public place, it is basically a matter of individual participant’s act which might be a crime or violation against the nuisance prevention ordinance, or every participants could be a suspect of the crime of riot or violent disorder if they threaten others under recognition of, or with reliance on, their collective power.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Exactly.
If the foreigners really want to have a massive Halloween party on the Yamanote line, or any line of train for that matter anywhere in Japan or anywhere that Halloween is not normally celebrated, then those who want to throw this party should go through the correct channels to RENT OUT a train for themselves with PROPER PERMITS and have it be organized like any Parade or Demonstration are done, with security and police forces in tow, to make sure that things do not get out of hand.
What these idiots, who make a meal of this, do not realize is that they are being TERRORISTS (yes, that’s right, you can be a terrorist without bombs or guns or poisonous gas) by going on the PUBLIC trains without permission, getting in the way of normal operations and disturbing ordinary citizens and people by getting in their faces. THAT is what these awful foreigners need to understand, that it is NOT THEIR PLAYGROUND to go around throwing sand.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Aku, I agreed with up until halfway through your first paragraph.
Seriously. Security and police forces? Party on train = OMG TERRORISTS? Crazy much?
By the WAY, you DON’T need so many CAPITAL letters when you POST. It looks STUPID.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Hahaha thats’ funny
Rate this comment:
0 
0
“If the foreigners really want to have a massive Halloween party on the Yamanote line, or any line of train for that matter anywhere in Japan or anywhere that Halloween is not normally celebrated, then those who want to throw this party should go through the correct channels to RENT OUT a train for themselves with PROPER PERMITS and have it be organized like any Parade or Demonstration are done, with security and police forces in tow, to make sure that things do not get out of hand.”
We’re talking about “gaijins” here who can’t even fill out an application for a point card in their local supermarket. These morons don’t even know where to start. You’re giving them too much credit.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
real terrorists use sarin gas, dude.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Terrible. In some way, I’m glad things have not gone that bad here in Kobe.
Those fascist arses should stop to think a little bit and maybe then they would realize that, without foreigners, and without everything that foreigners have invented, this coutry would still be in the dark ages, and people would be half a step close to living in caves.
So, I would like us foreigners to get some respect. We are humans, like the Japanese.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
What “we”? You haven’t done anything to deserve such credit. Some men that were more clever than you invented things, not you. Respect is not hereditary. It sounds as stupid as “we japanese”.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
I refuse to respect someone who makes claims like “without everything that foreigners have invented, this coutry would still be in the dark ages, and people would be half a step close to living in caves.”
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By your logic, you should be bowing to China everyday for using their inventions daily (paper, etc.) I am just astonished at how some people can be so moronic. The question is what did you do? I am guessing Zip, Nada. If you made such a worthy contribution, you do deserve respect technically, but the fact that you’re demanding respect shows what an egoistical git you are.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
because a drunken japanese spewing a big fat okonimayaki on a train platform is something that has never occurred
it’s the bully culture, gang up against foreigners, meanwhile an obnoxious yakuza could slap the crap out of a woman and you wouldn’t hear a peep from these spineless creeps
Rate this comment:
0 
0
You’re comparing apples to oranges. A planned party to wreak havoc is not the same as a few drunkards that exist everywhere. Even if all of the participants of the party were Japanese there would be outrage, though there might not be the nationalists.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Weirdo for example when convoys of right wing sound trucks maraud through the streets blocking traffic and impeding emergency vehicles, making a bunch of (racist and hateful) noise, there is nary a whisper of opposition.
If these protesters really cared about preserving their “peaceful society” they should grow a pair and confront a serious and daily problem rather than ganging up on a Halloween thingy involving a few festive foreigners.
Noise and disruption is tolerated when it’s coming from Japanese. But it seems to be a major issue if the source is gaijin. That’s a pattern, that’s racism, that’s my point.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
” there is nary a whisper of opposition.”
THAT is completely untrue. Why don’t you dig a little further and go around asking the cities and neighbourhoods how they deal with it during and after such marauding. Just because you didn’t hear about it, read about it, or see it on video for weeks on end doesn’t mean that something wasn’t done.
“If these protesters really cared about preserving their “peaceful society” they should grow a pair and confront a serious and daily problem rather than ganging up on a Halloween thingy involving a few festive foreigners.”
Amazing. That is exactly the sort of “leave us alone to do what we want to do in your foreign country” mentality that will not get any respect from anybody, anywhere. I am appalled at this immature, pedantic commentary. Really? Is that how you want to “let go” of your responsibility to any society? We can all pretty guarantee that you won’t do anything in your own neighbourhood where you grew up if you went back there now to keep the peace there, but run in the opposite direction instead.
No, noise and disruption are not tolerated by ANYBODY. Not this kind! If you feel so slighted, perhaps you should go home to your own country and see how it is there for foreign people? Here in the U.S., we do it on a daily basis on the streets – you just never hear it blasted all over the media – what does that say about our media?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
@Leslie
Google 右翼 and うるさい together. See results.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Oh, add 街宣車 and 近所迷惑 for even better results.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
It’s not “okonimayaki” but “okonamoyaki” and “bully” should be replaced with “ijimi”.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Ahem. “Okonomiyaki” and “ijime”, please….
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Ahem. “Kujira” and “ikura”, please…
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Ahem ahem. “Ikura” or “Iruka”?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
You are a troll, Overthinker. You always end up trivializing everything by these little comic comments, you know that? You should stop it.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
This from the type of idiot who writes “Gibby should be shot”??
Rate this comment:
0 
0
This is like a simple math problem
1. A minority, acting loud and drunk, will annoy the majority.
I have white boy american guilt, so I try not to make a scene ever, and i try to respect Japanese stuff. But I wouldnt ever expect this from someone else in America, although i guess theres not too much to protect from anyone.
Anyway, drinking on the train is not very classy. and signs that say “motherfucker” arent too classy either. Whats the solution here? Drunk people are always passing out and barfing on stuff on JR, but its random and not all at once. I think the perceived injustice is that the foreigners are taking advantage of Japanese laws involving drinking in public and Japanese passivity. You could also defend them, because Im not really sure what theyre doing on the trains. Tokyo foreigners are a bit different than kyoto foreigners, maybe. I dont really know whats up.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Whats the solution here?
Simple. The Yamanote Halloween Party should end. Anyone wishing to party should organize it at a bar for the night, rather than disrupting a public service.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Most sensible comment on here. Japanese people shouldn’t have to *enforce* very basic rules about public transport onto insensitive foreigners, but nor should they stoop to this kind of reaction.
From what I gather about the majority of the Japanese population based on the jillions of surveys and polls I’ve read about ignorant gaijin, they would still be embarrassed by this right wing behaviour.
Sure, they’re just as annoyed by foreigners who view Tokyo as one big party to which all of their bratty white friends are invited but they wouldn’t make up these placards and cause this aggro. I know from experience that it sucks to have to be civil with the irritating masses, but you need to keep your self-respect.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
actualy this train-party thing is running for decades now. its already a tradition for non-japanese comunity..
the best solution were to organisate party-vagons for small money instead to run paranoide and let nazis and yakuza dogs at them(police and rail staff are failed long time ago).
Rate this comment:
0 
0
>>actualy this train-party thing is running for decades now. its already a tradition for non-japanese comunity..
No it isn’t, and no it isn’t.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Why would you have “white boy american guilt”? Were you somehow involved in the previous train party?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
This in no way is unique to Japan. You see the same right-wing extremists in America telling the hispanics to “go back where you came from” and “stop taking our jobs”. We can’t judge a whole country based on the opinions of some white trash ignorant hillbillies or their Japanese equivalents.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
The American right wing are more concerned about illegal immigrants, rather than immigrants per se, no?
Rate this comment:
0