Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese immigration
From: tloh@husc8.harvard.edu (Teck Loh)
Date: 10 Sep 92 19:00:46 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <MS-C.715991050.1147902781.mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU> mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin) writes:
>The last time I visited Japan was at a time when several flights had arrived
>within a short period of each other.  On top of this, the clueless were in
>particular abundance.  Yes, you DO get into line in this area that says
>`foreigners' with the rest of us.
>
>I had my immigration card all filled out, with my address in Japan and the
>`occupation' and `reason for visiting Japan' in Japanese.  I resigned myself
>to a long wait.  I took out the manga (`Itoshi no ERI-') I was reading on the
>plane, opened it to where I had left off, and continued reading, shuffling
>forward at the glacial pace the line was moving,...
>
>Two episodes in my manga later, I was nearing the head of the line, when a
>major commotion at the Immigration counter.  A young female (I hestitate to
>use the term `lady' or `woman', as either imply maturity that was absent) was
>throwing a TEMPER TANTRUM.  She was yelling in a East Coast accent at the
>Immigration officer in the line she was in, then cutting into the line *I* was
>in and yelling at that Immigration officer.  He merely pointed to the line in
>front of him and tried to explain that there were a lot of people in line.
>
>The little bitch wouldn't hear it.  She held up our line for 5 minutes
>demanding immediate service, and the officer was just as firm in pointing to
>the line waiting for him.  Finally, she stormed away, screaming `THIS REALLY
>SUCKS!!!' and went to complain at one of the airport security guards.
>
>I have no idea what her problem was, other than she was upset at having to
>wait in line.
>
>The Americans in line had been watching this little comedy with increasingly
>sinking hearts.  She was obviously from the East Coast from her accent.
>Another loud-mouth New Yawker making things worse for everyone else.  As she
>stormed away, I caught a glimpse at her passport and passed the good news
>around:
>
>	She isn't one of us, she's Canadian!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>There was a noticable sigh of relief.
>
>When my turn finally came, I asked the officer, in Japanese, `do you get a lot
>of people like that female?'  He chuckled and answered, in English, `Every
>day we get many'; then he stamped my passport and waved me through.
>
>--
>
>I think there is a lesson to be learned here.  Immigration officers are human
>beings doing their job.  Everybody is having a rough time.  You'll get a lot
>more doors opened with a smile and a sense of shared hassle.

Let me tell you a different story. I was on my way back to Malaysia this summer,
and I decided to go Tokyo to vist my former classmates and to give a talk in
my former university. While I was going through the immigration, the officer
held my passport up in the air and loudly asked me if I am coming here to work.
Then, he asked me to show my identity card (which is only used in Malaysia). I
was totally shock at his attitude and I started to search my luggage for the
ID which we do not carry when we go abroad. I told him in Japanese that I am
just going to stay here for two weeks as stated in my card and it is impolite
to disgrace me infront of all the people. He started to get angry and told 
me that a lot of the Malaysians have come here to work illegally. I told him
that this has nothing to do with me. Discrimination against a certain race
just because of a few Malaysians working illegally in Japan is just absurd.
I told him that a lot of the Malaysians have been cheated by the companies 
that hired them. They are required to work under harsh conditions, pay below
the minimum wages and badly discriminated. 

He then wanted me to go to a special room, probably to ask me more questions
and to check my luggage. At this time, I got very angry and ask him for his
name and I told him that I have a lot of friends in Japan and I am not going
to let this matter unsettled. He reluctantly let me passed the immigration

This just an example of how the immigration officers in Japan look at a certain
citizen and judge him or her by their prejudice view. I agree that the 
immigration officers have rough time with their work. However, as a immigration
officer, he should has a more open mind when dealing with citizens from 
different countries. I have stayed in Japan for more than 7 years and I know
the difficulties of Asian staying in Japan. Discrimination against housing,
work, etc is not uncommon. 

On the personal level, the Japanese are very polite and kind people. However,
the Japanese has a tendency to blame on the whole race just because of a few.
The medias are the real culprits. Recently, they are talking about "Kokusai-ka".I think it is a long way to go. Their excuse "shima-guni desukara, shoganai".

T-P Loh