A lodging facility in Kyoto has drawn a protest from the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo for asking an Israeli man to sign a pledge that he had never been involved in war crimes.
A lodging facility in Kyoto has drawn a protest from the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo for asking an Israeli man to sign a pledge that he had never been involved in war crimes.
What was the policy? Or was it just that they literally said “fuck you?”
Not literally those words. From what I’ve seen online, various establishments, if not entire towns, have thrown up “Japanese only” or “Japanese language only” to discourage foreigners. They generally only do this after there’s been a trend of tourists making asses of themselves, but since the first places to do it kind of went viral, it’s not too surprising if the habit has sprung up elsewhere.
Sure, it’s only a handful of disrespectful tourists when all the rest are fine, but if you allow any non-Japanese (person or language, pick your preference) eventually you’ll get those tourists.
Like it or not, it’s a simple way to say no to that.
I have no idea why the west is so ok with Japan’s ranked competitive racism…
Because it still keeps up the bs mist of “undiscovered fancy place to visit” that attracts dumbasses and neckbeards who spend their days taking up-skirt pics, riding e-scooters like idiots, and getting cheapshit games for their old consoles at barely cheaper than US prices.
Yeah, that’s racism.
Not only that, it’s not a hard and fast rule. The operative word is “discourage.” If you’re polite, ask nicely, have at least a rudimentary level of skill in the language, the staff will most assuredly seat you.
I was trying to get into this one sushi place in Nagano for weeks when I was there, finally threw up my hands and just walked over. Very modest, very simple, and probably the best I had while I was in the country.
Reminds me of the Nazi bar analogy.
Never heard of it, can you elaborate?
I suspect they’re referencing a story told on Twitter back in the day:
https://www.boredpanda.com/bar-bartender-nazi-punk-iamragesparkle/
TL;DR: If you let the “nice” ones in, eventually their less nice associates will come along and before you know it, your bar is a Nazi bar. Or, in this case, your restaurant/town is now a haven for obnoxious tourists.
It’s not quite the same because you can’t equate a “nice” Nazi with a respectful tourist, but similar logic applies otherwise.
Ohhh, I gotcha. Makes sense. I agree, it’s a bit of a stretch but regardless I see the logic in the reference. And yeah, I think I’ve heard of that thought experiment before.