🚀 go-pugleaf

kenji@tom.astem.or.jp (Kenji Rikitake) writes:

>Chiaki Ishikawa (ishikawa@ds5200.personal-media.co.jp) wrote:
>: I don't know if Japan has taken advantage of immigration policies of
>: other countries [rest deleted]

>Quite a lot of Japanese are working abroad (e.g. New York and other
>major US cities). I think they are fairly well-treated. I see several
>Japanese persons who showed me their US greencards. Does Japan provide
>such beneficial and friendly attitude towards non-Japanese residents?

Most probably not, but IMO this is like comparing apples to oranges.

If we compare Japan as a whole to the US as a whole we might say
that non-passport holders are treated "better" in the US. But as we
have talked about before, Japan is more of an ethnic/cultural
*nation* than the US so the comparison isn't really so useful. 

While people from outside of the US tend to think of it as One Big
Open Country this really isn't so. There are ethnic/cultural groups
within the US and if you aren't a member you don't get treated well. 

My guess is that the Japanese who are in the US are probably
working/living with a relatively small subset of the US culture: the
upper-middle class of which I am a member by virtue of the fact that
I went to college and have acquired some non-manual skills. I can
fit in fairly easily with people in this class but if I were to try
and work/live with another class, I believe I would have a very hard
time indeed. I certainly did before, when I moved from the city to
the country, and from what I hear things haven't changed all that
much..... 

Along the same lines, I think there is a lot of confusion because
people think that when they meet people like me they think they are
meeting a typical American. This isn't so. Just about everybody who
has a teaching/working visa for Japan is a member of the upper
middle class. Ordinary Americans don't come here except perhaps as
tourists, and probably not very many middle class people (or lower)
can afford it. 

So we have all these upper middle class Americans (or upper middle
class people from other countries) trying to get along with all the
classes that exist in Japan (and if you'll tell me that Japan is all
middle class, I'll just smile :-) IMO, once you stop believing in
what people *say*, and figure out what the in-fact classes are and
begin to act appropriately, life becomes easier whether you are in
Japan, the US, or any country. 

Dave

--
Dave McLane  davidg@aegis.or.jp
You're free to copy/quote/translate as long as credit is given. 
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087