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In article <BuqAsM.4JE@iat.holonet.net> 
patric@iat.holonet.net (PATRICK) writes:

[stuffs deleted]

>I am especially interested in hearing from Japanese and their candid
>opinion of to what extent it really exists.  (No "tatemae" please!!)

As for me, most of the information comes from newspapers, so I'll write
according to the memory on some recent newsstories much impressive for 
me. 

- On June or July, there was a rumor in small town in Kanto area that 
  foreigners from Asia were walking around to find a chance for rape.
  The rumor, which maybe came from the fact that a foreigener raped a
  Japanese woman to death in another town in Kanko, was believed by 
  so many people that the town authorities had to call warning for 
  them not to believe in the rumor and never to attack foreigners.

There has been flows of labors into Japan in recent years.  The people
in such a town where no foreigner used to be would have no will and means
to communicate the newcomers, and should have suspicions for them. 
It is suppressed until a certain accident will arise.  This reminds
me of the fact that Japanese killed much Koreans soon after the earth-
quake hit Tokyo on 1923.

- On August, a young Ainu from Hokkaido just arrived as season-worker
  in Tokyo, died of the heat.  Ainu people, who had been living in the
  cold regions, have less ability to persist under hot climate.  But
  the man hided that he was Ainu maybe because of the fear for the 
  discrimination, which led him to endure far over the extent that 
  he was able to endure physically.

Ainu is a minority people living mostly in Hokkaido.  Japan has been 
developed Hokkaido for hundreds of years, and the history was invasion 
and conquer to the Ainu people.  Our government forces them to name
in a manner Japanese do, and to identify themselves as a Japanese
though they have their own history and culture.  This is exactly what
Japan did to Korea before WWII.  

- Nearly a week ago in Yokohama.  A women from southeast Asia falled 
  down from the 4th floor of a building and badly injured.  An ambulance
  soon arrived and tried to get her into hospital, but they were
  given four or five subsequent refusals because she was suspect for 
  illegal stay in Japan thus had no ability to pay.  It took several 
  hours for the rescue team to find the place.  The doctor told she had
  injured her backbone and would have died if it were a couple of hours
  later.

Women workers from Asia are also increasing in red-lighted spots.  
And there are rumors that women from Asia bring AIDS.  Fear and 
ignorance of AIDS are widespread all over Japan, and refusal of 
AIDS carriers from hotels and hospitals are also frequently reported.
I think it is another background for this case though it has not
been apparently told.

		*		*		*

I'm afraid some trivial facts might contain some errors, though it
may not serious problem for what I want to tell.

Each fact should be an extreme case.  But one may point out that there
are a logic of exclusion to whom they think of as unfavorable to 
the society.  Of course it may include racism.  

>Patrick Hanley

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