feitclub

The above photo perfectly sums up the ickiness of a couple (in 2010!) deciding to have a “Colonial Africa”-themed wedding, complete with all-Black waitstaff in fezzes.

There are more photos here. I also recommend reading the comments and notice how it changes from the initial “what a beautiful wedding” fawning to “my god, what is wrong with you people?” outrage. EDIT: the original source took down the pictures and erased the post, including all the comments. But the images live on for all to see at the new link (above).

“The 2011 Campaign Against Illegally-Employed Foreigners”

Of all my years of living in the United States, a nation that certainly has it share of immigration woes, I can never recall seeing a poster asking for my “cooperation in preventing illegal employment for foreigners.” Especially since those darn illegals “cause all kinds of problems” (yes, it really says that).

I know Debito has a reputation for overreacting but seriously, why the fuck is Japan printing posters that all but label me as a suspected intruder? Notice that the poster is entirely in Japanese; this cannot be viewed as a public service announcement to remind foreign residents to make sure their visas are up to date.

No, this is a poster designed to rile people up. It offers zero facts aside from “there are an estimated 90-100,000 illegal immigrants in Japan.” And then it includes a cartoon rendition of foreigners, two of whom are white with blue eyes. Never mind the fact that a majority (nearly 70%) of foreign residents in Japan are Asian.

One more important, unnerving point: this is not a poster made by a private hate group or by some psycho running for office. This is an official campaign sponsored by the Department of Immigration.

What. The. Fuck?

Apparently Ryu ga gotoku 3 (known as Yakuza 3 outside Japan) had an entire series of side-quests cut from the international version where Kiryu studied English. As seen in the above clip, a woman on the street gets him to buy increasingly expensive textbooks from which he learns one or two phrases. These phrases pay off immediately when, minutes later, he meets a white woman named Stacy. Not only does she seem to be falling in love with him, she gives him presents.

Each conversation they have gets more and more ridiculous/steamy, but in the end it proves to be a scam; the women just want to get him alone to extort a huge amount of money (250,000 yen, nearly $3 grand). In the clip, the player refuses which triggers a battle with three foreign punks. When Kiryu wins, he gets a complete refund of everything he previously paid. Stacy apologizes and gives Kiryu one last gift.

While I find this hilarious, it is a shame that the game relies so heavily on Japanese stereotypes of non-Japanese. Stacy is shown speaking English and Japanese, but her Japanese is written in katakana, suggesting that her speech is somehow “off.” This is typical in Japanese media where subtitles are commonplace - foreigners are often shown speaking katakana-Japanese no matter how normal their pronunciation might be.

There’s also the matter of Kiryu having to speak English in order to talk to Stacy even though she demonstrates a knowledge of Japanese from the start. Granted, in this case she is a con artist, but even when that’s not the case that’s exactly how Japanese people perceive non-Japanese. I’ve been living here for years and I still encounter people who feel they must address me English. Most of the time their English is really bad, making simple conversations labored affairs where I must interpret their every word into Japanese in order to understand.

For more on the connection between English study and the (actual) Yakuza, read this post on Kotaku from Brian Ashcraft.

As foreign crime rates continue to drop, the Kanagawa police department responds with racist caricatures on flyers warning Japanese people about “international organized crime.” Fuck you very much.