There's only a week or so left on this trip and boy, has it ever been a ride. I'm personally torn between wanting to continue my studies and life here and wanting desperately to come home to Canada and experience the things I've been missing there. There is a lot I've learned about being a foreigner here in Japan, both as a permanent and temporary citizen of the area, but I'll touch down on that more later. Continuing on with the personal aspect of things, though it does tie directly into my topic since I'm a tourist here as well, I've realized that conflict is at the heart of Japanese life: there's a need to maintain the old and usher in new change simultaneously and these two aspects are often directly in opposition to each other. The government wants to bring more foreigners into the country and usher in change and growth, but also fears the dillution and loss of culture and the unique way of life of the japanese. The people themselves fear this as well and despite many people being friendly towards me for speaking their language and abiding their customs there were also those who would shun and avoid me or even attempt to argue and fight with me for reasons I yet cannot comprehend beyond blatant xenophobia. It feels as though the country means to keep all foreigners outside, looking within, rather than people within wanting without.
In my actual research I have found a few important pieces of information: perception and adaptation, specifically regarding both Japanese and Foreigners towards each other. Foreigners are, and I now have crime statistics which support this, a liability at best and a danger at worst in Japan right now. Perceptions are that the country is not as safe as it was before the large influx of foreigners, particularly tourists. Foreigners on the other hand, seem to view the people of the country as unfriendly. Even I have been guilty of this, but I digress. The best example I can think of is people complaining about being charged for trespass when they broke into private property to take photos, like at Shimonada Station where the railyard has a set of submerged tracks like in the movie Spirited Away. I know I’ve said this before, but any problem so great that a nearly retired manager has to plead to the public to stop tourists from interrupting the work he has to do for human safety’s sake is too great indeed for us to simply ignore.
The thing I’m finding most is that foreigners tend to use their own inexperience as an excuse to misbehave. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just wanted a picture of your outfit.” or “I’m sorry, I wandered into this high security area because I got lost looking for the convenience store.” are not valid excuses back home and they aren’t here either. People need to, for the love of god, learn how to behave themselves in foreign countries or we need to assert consequences toward them. Easier said than done, I know, but this problem is only worsening with the passing days, months and years. I hope that these things improve and deescalate, but with recent news and reports on the behavior of the US president during his visit to Japan (He required the rules of Sumo Wrestling to be changed to suit him, and refused to honor ancient customs while in the company of the emperor because he likely felt they were emasculating to him.) I’m beginning to doubt that they will. I fear it’s dark times ahead, but we won’t know until we get there.
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