[https://goemon-jp.com/vi/news/izakaya-in-okinawa-to-refuse-entry-to-foreigners-by-hanging-japanese-only-sign-18xc3s7ABDSby7kQCioMDf?language=en](https://goemon-jp.com/vi/news/izakaya-in-okinawa-to-refuse-entry-to-foreigners-by-hanging-japanese-only-sign-18xc3s7ABDSby7kQCioMDf?language=en)
by SnooPeripherals3688
46 comments
I gotta be honest. I don’t like most foreigners in my places either.
Looks like the sign was taken down last month
Sounds like they have trouble often with language barriers
But at least they say they’re sorry!
How is this not okay but charging more if you’re a foreigner okay? I’m speaking about adding a months rent to the deposit of you weren’t born in japan
This is non-news. Plenty of restaurants have a no foreigners policy. It’s legal to discriminate in Japan and it’s up to private businesses to serve who they want. Take your money elsewhere.
Honestly in 2023 it’s sad Japanese store staff don’t make any efforts to whip out their phones and use Google Translate or any translating app.
Last year I visited Portugal and the waiter at a restaurant couldn’t understand our English so he took out his phone and helped take our order. All it takes is a couple minutes to do that and you’ll get your business and make the customers feel happy. Why do Japanese people find it so hard to use translating apps to communicate rather than just be lazy and put up a sign saying no foreigners allowed? They’re only hurting themselves and showing others their laziness.
Let them discriminate. It’s not like people are flocking to that damned area anyway. And when the time comes when they have to to pay bills let them wonder why they’re having a harder time than other people.
That’s normal in Japan. A lot of “no foreigner” signs. xenophobic? Maybe.
I’m sure if they had a sign saying something like “Please be aware that we cannot offer assistance in English” it would convey the same message without all the fallout.
Oh no!
That was the only izakaya in the whole town too
damn!
I have no problem with this. Small Japanese shop, staff doesn’t speak English, and they’re forced to live next to 80,000 Americans. I frankly feel sorry for them.
Wouldn’t it have been better just to say “No English available”? Then nobody would be offended.
Tbh I would have preferred this to the bar I went to the other day in Kyoto that funnelled us into a private room away from the main bar and massively overcharged us. It was just telling us we weren’t welcome with extra steps
I’ve always been able to get into places like this after opening my mouth and speaking Japanese.
This is bad communication not xenophobia, most likely.
A lot of this kind of signs everywhere in Japan
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I think this is just a really poorly worded way of saying they don’t want someone to yell at them in Chinese or English, so please only enter if you speak Japanese. I’m confident if I walked up speaking Japanese and acting politely, I’d be allowed in.
Alternatively, depending on where this is in Okinawa, this could be to ban US military from entering the bar. Maybe they’ve had some unruly Marines in the past.
Weird that this makes the “news”. It’s not that rare and also, it’s their right. If for whatever reason they don’t want foreign customers, they should say so and be done with it.
That’s their right. Let them ruin their business in peace.
Pub hangs sign saying „English only“.
German bar hangs sign saying „Germans only”
Spanish restaurant hangs sign saying “Spanish only”.
Sounds bad, right. Why are people here so insistent on giving a clearly xenophobic action a pass, just because the person doing it happens to be Japanese?
Are they including mainlanders? Is it only Ryukyuan language speakers?
🤣
Is this any different from when you walk inside and they tell you this to your face?
A lot of people here are making judgement with a lot of hypothetical scenarios and even downplaying racism.
It’s understandable because it sound like one of the little Izakaya by the corner. It probably has the same group of customers over many many years. Japanese themselves just won’t walk in this kind of Izakaya randomly.
普通に対応するのが難しいからな
差別とかそういう訳ではなく
Good
Come in with these kanji 人種差別. Stands for racial discrimination.
As a bumbling GI, I’ve never been turned away from any Japanese restaurants. A little “konichiwa! Biru kusasai” goes a long way to show you can at least stumble by.
So even if I speak Japanese I’m not allowed in? Damn.
Some time ago Debito had a “rogue’s gallery” on his [circa 1996] website which named and shamed places refusing entry to foreigners. While I get the gist, and vehemently stand against discrimination in any form, the places featured on that page were places I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in to start with. I mean, these were some seriously seedy places where they probably roll customers as a standard practice.
My policy is simple. If someone wants to deny me entry based on race/ethnicity, then I’m like, “Fine and fuck you. I’ll spend my money elsewhere, and I hope you die broke and alone.”
There’s so much weird cuckery here, I don’t know why Westerners have such a hardon for East Asian monocultures. Justifying the “no gaijin X of rejection” isn’t going to get your next visa/PR application approved faster, you too will always be an outsider to them. Have some self-esteem and pride in your own country. If Japanese owners want to stereotype all foreigners based on the behavior of a few bad apples instead of treating people as individuals, that’s their problem.
as a foreigner i have no complain against it, there’s plenty of offering for food and drinks in japan to not die of starvation. If some owner is not confortable having me around not speaking japanese i guess he has a point, i’ll just bring my money in some other restaurant that doesn’t mind.
“I want the government to introduce foreigners to Izakaya culture too rather than just inviting them here”
Lol ok. Such a whole lot of culture to be learnt.
Okinawa has long been plagued by U.S. military crime.
It has a strong hatred of foreigners.
Even now, civic groups sit-in and protest 24 hours a day in front of the U.S. military bases in Okinawa. They have been doing so every day for more than 20 years.
In that sense, it is understandable that there is a strong xenophobia in Okinawa.
Don’t take it personally.
They are likely tired of
A. Being semi annexed by the USA.
B. Being semi annexed by Japan.
C. Drunk sailors, marines and airmen.
good for them. when i was stationed there, 90% of the violent crimes were caused by americans. and soldiers at that. there’d be a rape, robbery, or murder every day. I honestly felt bad for them because our government would always try to sweep it under the rug. Even the many protests that errupted every time a sailor or marine would rape or murder someone were never ever shown in the american media.
tbh bootcamp needs to be more strict and beat the ghetto out of the new recruits. as it is, the recruits are bringing the ghetto with them everywhere, it’s like they never left the hood.
旅行先で日本語で対応してもらったことにはとても感謝するが、当然の権利だとは思っていない。海外旅行に来て自国語を強要するほうが問題かと。だからこのような店が増える。
don’t blame them, too many entitled tourists lately. although its not all of them, its those small incidents that make you question how they’ve been able to survive up to the point of their life
After visiting Japan recently I have nothing but agreement for policies like this. I saw some tourists do the most disrespectful and annoying shit while I was there. Learn the customs or stay away.
The country doesn’t belong to us
If you want to ban gaijin, then don’t use katakana in your explanation as to why…
Anyway, yeah, I don’t think this is about language in reality, and if it was, they should have just put up a No English sign (which would be understandable; I’m not gonna force an elderly izakaya owner to fuck around with Google).
The tourists are awful. Mostly loud and obnoxious. Can’t blame them. Their country, their rules.
Racism >:( , racism japan :O :3 sugoi
I’m surprised that members of the local community spoke up about this policy. Good for them!
Lol Admiral Perry would like to have a word.