Her sign reads:  “The true color of Koreans living in Japan (using a derogatory term) is that of criminals and they mostly sneak into the country illegally.  There is a project to return them to Korea, but they stay in Japan of their own will.”

It is written in rather difficult (for me as a foreigner to read), Japanese and was held by one of a very vocal, seemingly extreme, hateful group of pro-nuclear protesters who positioned themselves and screamed profanities and insults at a peaceful anti-nuclear protest as it walked by on May 8th in Fukuoka City, Japan.

The sign is nothing short of racist and comparable in my eyes at least, to a protester in the U.S. holding a sign saying something like “Let’s return negros* go back to Africa.”  It is disgusting.
(*NOTE:  I am half black and use the term to make an example and comparison, not to degrade my own race or anyone else.)

The sad thing is that there is a racist undercurrent in Japanese society.  You just don’t notice it because the country is 98.5% Japanese.  While strict social manners and a strong cultural fear of confrontation and a general desire for harmony (no matter how fake or superficial), keep people from overtly saying it, I have sensed more than a few times in my years here some people who seemed if they would be happy if no foreigners lived in Japan.  Also remember, this is the country that closed it’s doors to the world for 200 years during a period of increasing contact between different parts of the world.  Looking at this photo brings to mind the phrase “the more things change the more they stay the same.”

My Japanese friends and coworkers will have to pull some overtime undoing the damage that these closed minds from the 鎖国時代 (national isolation era) are doing to Japan in this modern age.

I spoke with a man from this group who had the balls to tell me that “We are REAL Japanese” and that “many Japanese are confused.”  I have some educated, hard-working Japanese friends and coworkers who would beg to differ.