Travers Naran wrote:

> Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:
> > On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 04:25:58 GMT, Travers Naran <tnaran@direct.ca>
> > wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Heck, some
> >>of them have lived in Japan for 20+ years and said the locals treat them
> >>as part of the "family".[1]
> >
> >
> > I know about discrimination against incomers, as I used to live on a
> > small island in Scotland with a "unique" culture, and incomers were
> > usually labelled "white settlers" until we found out a bit more about
> > them. The ones who came in and started telling us how we ought to be
> > living our lives, or complaining about this, that, and the other never
> > lost the tag, but those that accepted the community, even though they
> > might live their lives very differently (our Pakistani families, for
> > instance) encountered few problems.
>
> This is a near universal trait of humanity.  Is there any evidence that
> the Japanese are worse than say an American rural small-town?

Are you also including urban Japanese? It can certainly be said that urban
Japanese are not as friendly as those in even a Japanese rural town, among
Japanese themselves. This most certainly has been demonstrated, by even
Japanese who've tried.

> It seems
> like people who come to Japan thinking it's a utopia or some sort of
> perfect society seem to be the ones who complain the most about it.

Not "is", because it most certainly is not, but what should be, for it is
Japanese themselves who claim as much. Or perhaps foreigners who complain
(can't imagine why) expect modern  Japan or Japanese to exhibit favorable
traits seen in other modern countries years or decades earlier. Also, it seems
that Japanese in private, complain as much or more about their lives or
country they live in, as foreigners do in more public situations. For example,
if Japanese working women or housewives actually tried to change their society
to get what they wanted (such as increased rights and opportunities), as women
in other modern countries have, they wouldn't still be in the situation they
are in, despite Japan having actual laws on the books or a Constitution that
should prevent it.