Do Japanese Elders Like Foreigners in Japan? | Street Interview

6 comments

1. I have worked for 8 years in a couple of facilities for elders with dementia, and they didn’t care at all about me being a foreigner, even when I had to help them bath or change their diaper. They would ask especially for my help, give me Japanese nicknames and origamis, sometimes even biscuits they had received from their family.
   I am now working part-time in a convenience store and it is the same, they are very curious about where I come from and want to know everything about my country. Also they will come back and start little conversations whenever they can.
   Even the ones who didn’t seem to appreciate seeing a foreigner at the cashier where only worrying about my level in Japanese, wondering if I would be able to understand what they are saying. When they see that there’s no problem, they immediately open up. It is always a new surprise for me because I’m French and in France elders aren’t that opened.

2. Elderly people are just as varied and just as diverse as any other people on Earth. I’ve met some who were awesome, cool people who were still sharp as a tack and who lived a more exciting life in their 60s than I lived in my 30s. I’ve met others who were dim bulbs that I wouldn’t completely trust to make toast in the morning. And all sorts in between. It’s only natural that they wouldn’t all have the same opinions about us.

3. my guess is the current generation is much more xenophobic/incel-nationalist

4. That lady saying about how a bad experience as a child can help you to hate a country is a good reflection on how prejudices can be supported. There’s a lot of kids in war zones ATM.

5. Rather, isn’t it the case that foreigners often hold prejudices against elderly people in Japan?

6. Streets interviews is very common political manipulation tactics.

   In elections in Taiwan, the losing party always resorts to street interviews while the winning party talks about the polls.