Is Japan a multicultural society?

Question

I know that in places like Britain there are many races and religions these days. Britain used to be almost all white and Christian but that has changed. I was just wonderring whether Japan was like this also. Are there many races like white or black in Japan? Are there many religions like Islam or Christianity? I would assume that if there were that it would be mainly in Tokyo and not much in other parts in Japan though..

If Japan is multicultural then how multicultural is it? Would I get stared at?

Answer 1

Canada = 10 on multi-cultural scale
Britain = 6.5 - 7 on multi-cultural scale
Saudi Arabia = 1 on multi-cultural scale

Japan = 1.5 - 2 on multi-cultural scale

edit: explanation for the scale
- Canada...its open to everyone...i mean...its still culuturaly biased in the sense that you have defined sects in the community where people of one race/culture will coalesce however in the general community and workplace and schools...you will find someone from almost every continent (cept antarctica) if not most countries...

- Britain...been there...similar to canada, just a little less so

- Saudi Arabia - they will never let an immigrant become a citizen, so minus the immigrants who live there (via sponsorship) its predominantly arab (middle eastern) and not much else, the diversity if so claimed will come from the tourists, corporate cxo's and ambassadors.

- Japan is better than Saudi though not by much, dunno their immigration policies however based on what i have seen, heard, read about...its predominantly japanese and they like it that way.

- You'll probably get stared at the way japanese tourists are stared at when they make themselves obvious (chattering, being all excited and taking pictures as often as they blink)...i mean...as a tourist...theres tourists who go to japan, and everyone stares at someone who stands out...but it won't be out of malice...it'll just be a 'ooh, someone different, and now i'll move on with my life' stare.

Answer 2

MarZ has a realistic answer.

If you're already starting with the U.K. as an idea of multicultural, then Japan is nothing near that.

There are still places in Japan where people have never seen a white, black, red, brown, or combination person in real life.

I can give you some stats from 2001:

There were a total of 1,778,462 registered foreign residents in Japan. About 36% Korean, 21% Chinese, 15 Brazilian, 9 Phillipino, 3 Peruvian, 3 American (U.S.), 2 Thai, 1 Indonesian, 1 Vietnamese, 1 U.K., 8.8 Others.

In 1999, 24,272 Japanese men had a foreign wife. 7,628 Japanese women had a foreign husband.

The population of Japan in 2001 was 127,291,000 people.

As far as religion goes, most Japanese are not fundamentalist and have no problem visiting shrines at any time, having a Christian wedding, and a Buddhist funeral.

Again, some stats:

50.1% Shinto
44.3% Buddhist
0.8% Christian
4.7% Other

But, yeah, Shintoism and Buddhism sort of overlap in Japan. You can find Shinto shrines beside, and even inside of Buddhist temples.

You may be stared at. It depends on a few things. Mainly how you project yourself and where you are.

Answer 3

There is nothing multicultural about Japan at all!!!

It's unusual to say the least that they aren't. Germany was punished after WW2 with immigrants, same with Italy who allied with them. Japan...? No of course not. It's extremely bizarre how this far eastern nation is seen so differently in the NWO's eyes from Western countries!

It's also extremely bizarre that when the Japanese navy went in Sydney Harbour, they had their old WW2 naval sign! Can you imagine if the Germans had theirs!? (God forbid!)

Answer 4

Japan is mostly Japanese. There are some Koreans and Chinese people to, but not many. This can, sadly, result in racism against those two groups, but only by a few Japanese people.

Because Japan had become a world super-power and its culture is so popular in the West, there are foreigners in practically everywhere. They are more or less used to seeing foreigners, but in some rare cases people can be cold toward them. So, would you get stared at? Depends where you are, but maybe. It's not like you'd be attacked though. =P

Japan, for the most part, is full of Japanese people who think and dress the same way, based on their historical roots.

Answer 5

If the start fee retains dropping and that they don't have sufficient young toddlers to take up sufficient jobs to hold the country up... yea, i think of they are going to. that's not correct if Japan is has a good tie someplace to their traditions and history (that's yet another question if jap will start up dropping their cultural identitiy further and extra). As for the effectual financial device and the turning out to be older inhabitants/ lowering start fee combination... extra distant places workers may be notably needed sooner or later. basically time will tell, yet I easily see it as achievable.

Answer 6

Absolutely not. The most liberal Japanese believe that all social problems are caused by mixing ethnic, racial and cultural groups in a single country, and that they therefore haven't got any problems. I am not making this up. Japanese have even told me that all discrimination is the fault of foreigners, because there was no discrimination before foreigners came to Japan.

The UN sent Yasushi Akashi to Bosnia to stop ethnic cleansing. He just sat there and watched it happen because he didn't think ethnic cleansing was a problem. Tokyo has the most foreigners in Japan, and when Akashi ran for governor he was the liberal. The Tokyo people chose someone even more fanatical, who has publicly denied that the Nanjing massacre ever took place, and who called on the self-defense forces to round up foreigners in the event of a natural disaster or other excuse.

There are 1% Christians in Japan, and 1% of 1% Muslims. Most Japanese believe both Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto teaches that Japanese are divine beings, superior in every way to mere mortal humans, while Buddhism was responsible for closing the country and massacring foreigners.

Sure, they have been forced open, and forced to stop attacking their neighbors, but the instruction that all Japanese get in school is still heavily nationalistic.

Answer 7

The foreign residents are about 2 million last year (incl Japan born foreign nationals).
The population of Japan is about 127 million.
This means 98.4% is Japanese national.

East Asian nations are similar.
92% in China is Han race.
98% is Han Chinese descendant in Taiwan.
Nearly 100% is Korean in Korean Peninsla.

The population of Tokyo 23 Special wards is about 8.4 million. However, Japan is mono culture and very homogeneous basically. Japan don't find a benefits of racial diversity and do not hope to repeat the racial conflicts like London and Paris. I have lived in London before. To my view, seeing enormous group of Arabic ppl in Tokyo is seldom.
However, there are a China town in Yokohama city, located next to Tokyo.

Answer 8

I remember once reading somewhere that Japan is one of the LEAST diverse countries on earth, in other words, everyone is Japanese. Minorities are practically none. South Korea is another such society.

Answer 9

No, Japan is about 98~99% Japanese. You would get stared at, but it's not meant to be malicious.

Answer 10

Hi, I live in Japan at the moment, lived in Tokyo before now in Chiba, the prefecture right next door, it takes me 1 hour on the train to get to Tokyo Station (remembering that the average commute is 1 1/2 hours) Just this week an old lady crossed the road to avoid me (the scary gaijin). I am married to a Japanese man. I am the first foreigner his grandmother has ever seen/spoken to. They live in Osaka (it aint small).

My husband has been attacked for speaking English with me and not Japanese as he should. Most Japanese assume he isnt Japanese when he is with me, and try to speak English to him. They have no concept of what their own race looks like - they say they can tell Japanese from other Asians, but all my Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and Korean friends will tell you otherwise.

My son is Japanese, however it was only recently they changed the law so that "hafu's" with foreign fathers can be citizens. Most people dont think of him as Japanese though. If your parents aren't Japanese and you are born here, your not Japanese and can never be. Many parents of 'hafu's' are constantly asked what nationality their child is directly after saying their child was born in Japan.

Most gaijin can never become Japanese even after living here for long periods, perfecting the language and marrying a Japanese citizen because the government REALLY doesnt want them. Only 'usefull gaijin' like soccer stars become citizens.

As for language, even when you speak Japanese with perfect pronunciation a lot of Japanese freak out and tell you with broken English and big guestures 'NO ENGRISH'. They cannot come to grips with a foreign face speaking Japanese. They dont listen or even try to understand you when your Japanese is not good they just see foreigner and run. (This however is a strange case because some Japanese go out of their way to help and try to understand you. But it depends a LOT on location!!!)

Hmmm cant think of anything more right now, but to make a long answer short. Absolutely NO WAY IN HELL is Japan multiculutral. And while their government continues to perpetuate the fear of the scary criminal that is gaijin it will never change. Remember during the war people threw themselves off the cliffs because their government told them the Americans would eat them. Just this week it said foreign countries over dramatised the effect the earthquake had on its nuclear plant (the one where radioactive water spilled on two visitors). Here they reported no problems until days later. They tried not to let the International watchdog in, and just tried desperately to tell everyone everything was okay (even though its not) because they need nuclear power to fulfil their part of the Kyoto Agreement.

They claim a North Korean spy stole Japanese children, but they were his children (see above citizenship) so therefore they weren't Japanese. But North Korea is the enemy so anything goes.

I am constantly told that foreigners are rude, loud, violent, aggressive and criminals. But I dont sit in the priority seat while pregnant ladies, old people, injured and disabled people stand (almost all Japanese do), I dont blast election dribble, and food, oil, secondhand sales from a speaker on my truck everyday, I dont hit people who dont look like me (I was shoulder charged as I got off a train, while I was pregnant), I dont push past people without excusing myself or push-in in lines like the bank, bakery, supermarket, train, yet everyday they do it to me and each other. And I have never committed a crime, yet someone tried to steal my bike, my mobile has been stolen, my hat has been stolen, My son's hat and his teddy were stolen.

You get stared at, I know people who have been spat on, I know two people who were gang beaten so badly they needed to go to hospital (both males while they were with a Japanese female - and both in Tokyo).
The old ladies will barge past you like you are nothing (but that they do that to everyone hahaha)
Then you'll get the people who will go out of there way to help you. It's the same as everywhere there is good and bad, I think people living in Tokyo are a little too shielded though and like to rose tint it all. There are so many people here that you are bound to come in contact with so many a#!^holes. The further you are from Tokyo the more strange you are. Paradoxically it's the middle ground between Tokyo and rural Japan where you get treated the worse.