... just wondering for the first time... how is the gay rights movement in Japan?

when you said that the japanese people are 'freaked out' by this kind of sales promotion, it just made me wonder how tolerant a majority of people are towards minorities?

being quite a homogeneous population, what would life be like in a Japan for a someone with black skin?

@this_is_madness: wut?

@this_is_madness: From my short experience of working in Japan, they accept black people as readily as white people and other (non Japanese) Asians.

That said: I have spoken with a Cambodian who mentioned that Australians were more friendly to his people than the Chinese or Japanese. That could quite possibly also be true of non-Australians attitude towards Kooris, non-Canadians attitudes towards the Innuit, non-Eastern Europeans attitudes towards Gypsies, non-Americans attitudes towards African Americans, etc, etc. Racism is a strange thing.

While the Japanse are always extremely polite, I've heard they can be snide and sarcastic on a level that most "Westerners" wouldn't register.

As for sexuality? From the Japanese TV and movies I've watched, and the stories I've heard, I'd say they're a lot less repressed than many Western cultures (including my own). Particularly when it comes to taboos about the human body.

How that translates to acceptance of gay "rights", I don't know. I've never heard it discussed among my Japanese friends.

@Doshu: Hmm, back on topic...

I like the idea of bundles. Unfortunately, tend to miss out on them as I'm normally an impulse buyer and stupidly buy stuff close to "release".

It's not so much Blacks as Koreans who pose a "problem" to some (I insist on "some") Japanese.
Things are changing, though. It might seems anecdotal, but the current popularity of Korean stars in Japan (the so-called "hallyu wave") could be seen as an indicator that mentalities are evolving.


I don't know what the everyday reality is like today, but a few years back, for a Korean man to marry the daughter of a prominent Japanese family was next to impossible.

I remember a movie called Go, where Kubozuka Yosuke plays a Korean-Japanese (born in Japan, Korean parents) who goes out with a Japanese girl. Just as they're about to have sex for the first time, he reveals his origins to her, and she reacts with genuine shock, almost disgust.
This being movieland, things work out in the end. :D

There is another powerful movie on the subject, called Chi to hone (Blood And Bones), with Kitano Takeshi. Very recommended.

When you think about it, it's not unlike how, in certain parts of the US, it might have been okay for a White male to marry a Black female, but not-so-okay for a Black male to marry a White female.


Anyone interested in discrimation in Japan should also research "burakumin", as well as the Ainu minority.


Almost all of the Japanese people I met were extremely tolerant and open-minded (most of them were students).
However, I did know this girl who worked as a store clerk in Tokyo: one day, a pair of designer sunglasses went missing from the boutique, and she was 100% convinced that, among all the customers she'd had that day, it was inevitably the one group of Koreans who had stolen them.

That being said, I strongly doubt that the Japanese are any more racist than Americans or the French (living in France sometimes makes me want to puke, honestly...). One thing's for sure: they're certainly less violent about it.

(Wow, and this was about PS3 bundles in a combini... Kotaku is a crazy place to be.)

I can offer that the Koreans still have a lot of baggage over Japan's occupation of Korea in the early 20th century.

Occupations are never pretty so I won't go into the details.

I'm sure that the close nature and violent history of the two nations contributes to any prejudices you might encounter.

@Doshu: "I don't know what the everyday reality is like today, but a few years back, for a Korean man to marry the daughter of a prominent Japanese family was next to impossible."

My wife didn't like that soap too much. It didn't hit her in the heart like "Secret", "Ruler of Your World" or "Full House" did.

@this_is_madness: "... just wondering for the first time... how is the gay rights movement in Japan?"

From what I know of it, relatively strong. Gays are stereotyped quite a bit, of course, and there is a common misconception that gay=crossdresser. From a legal standpoint, there is no equivalent to gay marriage, so of course there are legal issues with adoption, inheritance, etc. But on a regular-person level, things are much better than, say, America. Much less homophobia (Japanese don't use "gay" as a general-purpose insult, etc.). Remember that there is no religious controversy on the issue: unlike America, you don't have folks like the Phelps saying homosexuality is an abomination in God's eyes. No fears of the "homosexual agenda", etc.

So, basically, from a legal/governmental standpoint, it's much much worse, but from an everyday life standpoint, much much better.

Yeh, from what I've seen it's very much a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of thing. People very rarely "come out" as such, and there isn't really a gay scene but it doesn't have the same kind of stigma as being gay in the west.
As far as being black goes, you won't experience much outright racism (although you can probably expect some) it'll mostly be positive discrimination in the same way as white people. No-one will call you offensive derogatory terms (at least to your face) but you will get a lot of "Oh my god your nose is so tall!" and "you speak English so well for a non-native! What language do they speak in your home country?" even though you're African American. It's not meant to be offensive, it's just curiosity/not knowing what's ok to say and what's not.