acception of chinese-korean

[shao]

i heard the story from my father:

he's chinese. my father was on the business trip to japan with several white americans. while they took break from working, they walked into a downtown and went to the bar. as my father entered the bar, japanese waiter stood in the way of white americans and spoke in english: "i am sorry, no foreigner..." white told him that my father is chinese, not japanese. the waiter still allowed my father enter, but not whites, still saying "no foreigner." white had to leave and looked for another bar. my father went with them.

why japanese didnt cast chinese and korean as foreigners? i heard that japanese cast south asians like, vietnamese and thai, as foreigners... whats up?

maybe i heard wrong information... im sorry.

[thomas]

Debito to the rescue

=> http://www.japanreference.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=938

Check out his new book: "Japanese Only--The Otaru Onsen Refusals and Racial Discrimination in Japan" (in Japanese)

[Maciamo]

I guess the waiter didn't even understand what the American was saying (that is, that your father was Chinese). I wonder how they would react if a Caucasian with Japanese nationality such as Debito wanted to enter and showed their Japanese passport or proof of citizenship. Would they still be refused entry on reason that they are not "ethically Japanese" ? But that's true that Japanese are very bad at distinguishing Koreans and Chinese from themselves. That isn't the first time I hear Japanese-looking people being considered as Japanese, even when they knew very well that person was actually Canadian, Singaporian or Korean, for example. Not just for discrimination cases, but also for the other way round. I know of a Brit of Japanese descent with a Japanese name from whom Japanese would expect to speak perfectly politely (in keigo) at work and not give any special treatment, while they would never expect the same from any Caucasian, even born and raised in Japan.