October 9, 2008

Japan: No Room at Inn for Foreigners

Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs says over 70 percent of Japanese inns and hotels that didn't have foreign guests last year don't want any in the future either.

The ministry says that a survey of such businesses showed they feel unable to support foreign languages and that their facilities are not suited to foreigners.

The survey released Thursday shows that over 60 percent of Japan's inns and hotels had foreign guests last year, but the majority of the rest don't want any.

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    And they want to host the 2016 Olympics? It doesn´t take that long after you land in Japan to realize that Japanese people - not all of them, but surely most - do not like foreigners. Ask any foreigner here with a clear vision about Japanese not getting on subway cars with foreigners inside, or avoiding sitting down next to one. Or the ¨irashaimasse¨ yellings from shop employees when a foreigner enters any shop - with the true meaning of ¨there´s a foreigner inside our shop! robber insiiiide!¨, instead of the soft voice ¨may I help you?¨ which is reserved to the Japenese customers only? What, 2016 Olympics For Japanese Only? I do expect to hear something like this soon. Any wise guy will do like Bill Murray in ¨Lost in Translation¨: cash your credits ASAP and flee from this boring country.
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    lol.. at julius' comment. i guess there's some truth in it, but i stayed at a small hotel 20 miles south of osaka last year, and the management was really nice. i have an okay grasp of the japanese language, so i was able to communicate with them, and i was pretty surprised at how accommodating they were. however in tokyo, management wasn't as cool... a lot of times even tho i wanted to practice japanese i got forced into broken english conversations despite my persistence. i felt like slapping management at those times.
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    I've lived in Tokyo for a while now and Japan is easily the most childish, ignorant, and racist country I have ever visited. Being the ultimate group society they just can't get over the stupid idea that there are two kinds of human beings in the world, Japanese and the gaijin. I have adapted by making many "gaijin" friends and by working for myself (i.e. having little contact with the natives) but I still remember well the early years having to deal with these knuckleheads every day. If you come to Japan on a business trip or for a short vacation you may not notice the negative side of Japan and more power to ya. But if you stay here a while and learn the language (get out of your bubble) you will start to see the way things really are. Individually I like many Japanese but as a group I can't stand them!

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