On Feb 16, 3:24 pm, "John R. Yamamoto-Wilson"
<j...@rarebooksinjapan.org> wrote:
> Prophet of the Way wrote:
>
> > Debito should take a better look at things and try to see
> > racist practices in the wider perspective.  For example,
> > 50 km south of Otaru is the town of Niseko which thrives
> > on the policy of "gaijin welcome".
>
> Just guessing, but I wouldn't mind betting "gaijin" means
> European/American in this context and they'd soon lose that slogan if
> busloads of Brazilians started taking their weekend breaks there.

"Gaijin" in this context means "Australian".  Not because of any
impetus on the part of the people of Niseko, but because of a somewhat
unusual case of 口コミ in Australia.  But the townsfolk knew they were
bringing in the money, so they adjusted to the new customer base, with
English signs, for example.  If busloads of Brazilians started showing
up, it would not surprise me to see Portugese added.

FWIW, I entirely agree that there are levels of racism in Japan, and
that Caucasians get preferential treatment.  But that hardly applies
to the Otaru incident, as the ryokan stopped serving foreigners
because of white Europeans, and Arudou, a Caucasian, was refused
entry.  The basic issue with Arudou is not that he fights racism and
discrimination, which is admirable, nor even that he is zealous, which
is pretty much required, but his "ends justifies the means" approach.
On the whole, I daresay ダーリンは外国人 has done more to improve the
situation of foreigners in Japan than Arudou's crusade.  Arudou has
succeeded in getting some bathhouses in Otaru to change their isolated
policies of gaijin exclusion, while getting the majority of the
Japanese public to turn away in shame and embarrassment.  ダーリンは外国人
captured the hearts and minds of thousands, if not millions, of
readers, and gave them perspective they perhaps didn't have before.

Josh Reyer