Japanese Police / Discrimination: A Widely Spread Myth

Overall, I will say that Japanese police have so far been quite polite and helpful for me. I had read a bunch of horror stories before coming here, with many claims of discrimination by the police due to being foreign.

It is a popular sentiment that most, if not all crime in Japan, is committed by foreigners. (Often times, when a major crime had been recently committed, we discuss the story in our English conversation class. Without fail, someone will mention that they think the alleged perpetrator was Korean or Chinese, aka non-Japanese.)

Regardless, I've only had four experiences with the police when I wasn't specifically seeking them out for help. Twice, I was stopped in a random bicycle checkpoint (quite common) but waved on after being told to turn my light on. Another time, another bicycle checkpoint where they went ahead and actually checked up on my bicycle certification to ensure that it was not stolen. Again, nothing special and certainly not discriminatory; they check most Japanese folks' bicycle registrations as well. (On a side note, by far the majority of discrimination I experience is the good kind, where I get special gifts due to being a foreigner.)

The fourth experience was rather humorous; I was heading out to meet a friend at a restaurant, and realized I had taken a wrong turn and was going opposite the direction I should be going. I started to turn around, and while making my U-turn on the sidewalk, noticed two police on patrol (also on bicycles). I sort of chuckled to myself, thinking about how suspicious I must look. The cops were having a rather loud conversation with each other, and this was before my Japanese was very strong, so I didn't understand a word. Nor did I notice when the conversation stopped and they began yelling orders at me!

Needless to say, from behind it looked like a Japanese guy was ignoring their orders. They went into uber cop mode, and did a seriously impressive maneuver with their bicycles that basically pinned me in place with a cop in front and one to the side, with an obstacle to my other side. This was sprung on my rather fast, so that I had to slam my brakes and had an angry look on my face until I realized they were cops, at which point I would assume my expression was bewildered.

At that point, they both see my clearly Western face, and look at each other, and chuckle. They ask where I am going, I tell them, and they tell me to please ensure that I keep my bicycle light on at night. Almost as an afterthought, one of them asks "Bicycle.. yours?", to which I nod, and they both bid me a good evening.

Especially when looking all sorts of mad suspicious, I would expect some form of interrogation, or at the very least proof of my registration, but they were quite relaxed about the obvious misunderstanding and maintained a very polite and non-suspicious attitude the entire time.

Overall, I am quite impressed with the experience of the fine men and women serving in Osaka's police force, and would like to ease the worries of anyone reading this for information about potential discrimination, as stories of such seem all too prevalent on the internet.

Specifically in regards to that, with every story I've seen or heard of first-hand from my fellow expats living here in Osaka about discrimination, they are all stories involving the "victim" acting like an asshole within the custom and culture of Japanese society prior to receiving some form of discrimination.

Of course, I acknowledge that there is undoubtedly many true stories of people receiving totally unwarranted discrimination in spite of their best efforts to respect the Japanese cultural norms. I don't mean to say that every story about thus is an exaggeration or somehow was earned. What I do mean to say is that I have met a lot of people living in Japan with a chip on their shoulder, who have a masochistic hatred the Japanese and Japan's society, and yet continue living here year after year.

People like that love to post horror stories for people who are seeking information on what its really like to live in Japan. I myself visited a few message boards seeking similar information, and nine out of ten responses were all about how hard it was to live in Japan, how most people couldn't cut it, and how much it sucked. Basically, people who wanted to pat themselves on the back for surviving such a hostile environment. Bullshit, I say.

The Japanese are the most accommodating people I could possibly imagine, and welcome foreigners to visit their country and experience their culture. Living here is arguably easier than living in America, and I can barely speak the language. The experience as a whole has been unbelievably positive, and I have had sooo many acts of random kindness by countless Japanese people who I barely know, or literally do not know.

So this post is my little public service message, to try and act as a counter to all the people who would love for you to believe that Japan is a terrible place, full of discrimination and terribly difficult to live in. It may be like that in some places, at some times, but don't believe that it is always like that, everywhere. I for one would say that if you have the right attitude and learn what's polite and what's not, your experience in this country will be priceless and wonderful.

I'm going to have to cut this rant short, as it is now time for me to go to "work". And by "work", I mean I go sit in a comfortable chair and talk to people, while sipping some soda water or herbal tea, and get paid way too much for it. If living in Japan and working as an English teacher is difficult, then you are in for a rude awakening when you get a real job.

Comparisons

When I first arrived, Japan was almost magical. I had never been in such a foreign setting, and I had never had so much fun; every trip to the supermarket was an adventure. Every conversation around me was completely incomprehensible. Every cultural difference was a mystery unfathomable.

Now that I've lived here for over a year and a half, things have become mundane. I can understand a good deal of the every day conversations that I happen to hear. I've become quite comfortable with my home area and city life in general.

For the most part, I no longer go seeking experiences with the locals after work, instead preferring to come home and play video games or watch episodes from American TV shows that I've downloaded. In short, my life here has become no different from my life in America, aside from my being on the other side of the planet from my family and most of my close friends. (I had made quite a few new friends, but after the failure of our mutual employer, most have returned home or moved on to South Korea.)

A large part of this change has nothing to do with Japan, and only a little to do with my understanding of what was once fun and mysterious. I think, on the whole, I have become rather homesick. I've begun making loose plans anticipating a move back to America sometime before Thanksgiving.

I really want to get my second degree, which is frustratingly one class away. I also hope to start taking an official college-level Japanese course, as my efforts at self education have increased my vocabulary quite impressively, but have failed to help me understand a lot of the basic grammar.

I have a vague notion of returning someday, armed with a better than basic grasp of the language and in possession of a better job than one can find in the language teaching industry. But for now, I am more than ready to return home and immerse myself once again into good 'ol American culture.

Speaking of before and after differences, I'd like to share the differences between my old job at NOVA and my current one at a much smaller conversation school. At NOVA, I taught eight lessons a day and had at most one kid lesson. At my new school, three fifths of my lessons taught are kids lessons. At NOVA, I was on a webcam and could post a picture at will, hiding my face and allowing me to yawn, enjoy a McFlurry, or make silly faces at the camera. Now, I teach face-to-face with nothing to hide behind but a smile.

Before, I was treated with respect, and viewed as a professional. Now, all of my Japanese coworkers are quite openly jealous that I am making three times their wage in spite of their extensive teaching experience and qualifications, and all consider me an amateur (quite accurately, compared to themselves) but fail to treat me with any measure of respect or courtesy.

At my old work place, rules weren't flexible and it had a definite business/corporate air to it. Now, I work at a fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants small school with only two branches. There is a decidedly non-corporate feeling at the school.

Overall, I find myself quite frustrated by the lack of professional courtesy, the lack of organization, the extra work inherent in a poorly organized school, the constantly ambiguous attitude of my boss, and the generally condescending attitude held by most of the school's staff towards the foreign teachers. Most infuriating is the occurrence, on more than one occasion, of being chewed out for doing something wrong or failing to do something entirely, when in fact I did whatever exactly correctly.

Nobody's English, owner included, is all that great, so there is a lot of misunderstanding and if they get an idea in their head they are then incapable of understanding anything said in English in conflict with this idea.

Given that, at NOVA I worked within a fairly constrained teaching style with little room for change or adaptation. I worked a full work week and had to work for all national holidays. At my current school, I get all national holidays off, I have a very relaxed working environment where I am basically in control of my classroom and can teach what I want how I want, and have dramatically less hours worked for only a moderate cut in pay.

If I could choose, at this point, I think I would like to return to a professional Eikaiwa environment with the higher pay and more hours worked, if for nothing else, the satisfaction of being treated with professional respect.

Remind me to post about the differences between how English culture and Japanese culture treat and raise their children, next time.