That's quite poignant. Of relevance, but not particularly interesting is that I've known Koreans and Japanese who have dated over the years and who don't seem to care about their interesting nationalities. On the other hand, they are of middle to upper middle class and 40ish and under.
Not sure if this is one of those things that'll disappear as the newer generations displace the older. Or if the black car squad will somehow keep the attitude alive.
Quite interesting is that there are degrees of zainichi, those who adopt Japanese names and who have assimilated and on the other end those want to retain more of their Korean identity and nationality.
There's also the intersection where some people of Korean ancestry in Japan express sympathies for North Korea, a country which is typically Japan's current arch-enemy,
One thing that conflicts with people's preconceptions, is that Japan isn't as racist as people believe. Usually the reverse is true, Koreans and Chinese claiming Japan is racist, while being racist themselves.
Take a look yourself. They did several scientific studies. They found Japan is less racist than France, and equal to most European countries:
That entire line of reasoning is reliant on truthful answers to a survey that, at least based on my level of Japanese cultural knowledge, would be answered falsely by a significant number because either they mentally argue that not being Japanese is from a different culture not a race, or they have internalised the logic of "we all do this but must not openly say so, because saying so is wrong, but everyone knows we do this anyway, so its ok as long as we don't say this is how we feel". That's just the start of "broad survey interpretation failure" I see here.
You don't think they took those factors into account? They did. Did you even read the article? They didn't ask people outright "Are you a racist?" They tricked people by asking them other indirect questions. Like, "Would you mind if <insert race/nationality> lived next door to you?" Those kinds of questions get to heart of the matter. And they didn't just ask Japan those questions, they asked every country on Earth the same questions.
The question just forces the person being asked to think, "Would I mind if this researcher saw me as someone who would mind if a foreigner lived next door to me?" And the degree to which this second-order question matters depends heavily on social mores.
Japan is a country where people are expected from a young age to compartmentalize their tatemae (external appearance) from honne (true thoughts), and consider it perfectly normal to do so. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were simply better at hiding perceived-as-negative sentiments from naive researchers.
Koreans, on the other hand, admire Americans and Western Europeans but look down upon Africans and South/Southeast Asians, and often express outright contempt for the Japanese and Chinese. Depending on their political views, they may even feel socially compelled to express a hatred of one or another nationality. Meanwhile, Korean culture doesn't acknowledge the tatemae/honne distinction, which makes it a lot more difficult for people to compartmentalize.
tl;dr: We're all racists, but some forms of racism are easier to measure.
Not sure if this is one of those things that'll disappear as the newer generations displace the older. Or if the black car squad will somehow keep the attitude alive.
Quite interesting is that there are degrees of zainichi, those who adopt Japanese names and who have assimilated and on the other end those want to retain more of their Korean identity and nationality.
There's also the intersection where some people of Korean ancestry in Japan express sympathies for North Korea, a country which is typically Japan's current arch-enemy,