Do rural areas (from what I heard) deny service to foreigners because they hate them? Or is it because they just don’t know how to deal with them.

6 comments

1. Very uncommon these days. Probably some old mom and pop shop/restaurant might not know how to handle but otherwise you really don’t see this much.

   Bigger problem is descrimination while looking for a place to rent.

2. >Japan from what I hear isn’t as customer centric (customer is ALWAYS right) as america.

   In America people (willfully or otherwise) misunderstand the spirit of the phrase ‘the customer is always right’. In Japan the equivalent phrase is “the customer is God”.

   [https://www.eubusinessinjapan.eu/about-japan/business-culture/customer-god](https://www.eubusinessinjapan.eu/about-japan/business-culture/customer-god)

   -edit-
   A different non-paywalled article: https://japanintercultural.com/free-resources/articles/in-japan-the-customer-is-god/

3. I’ve walked into tiny mom and pop shops in super rural Japan, and usually I’ll see a moment of “oh, no” on their faces until I speak to them in Japanese and they look relieved. As someone who has worked in customer service, I know that nervous glance to mean “I sure hope they speak my language”.

   I’ve never been denied service for being white though.

4. I went into an electronics shop to buy a laptop. The sales guy looked at me as I was speaking English, then got really shy then ran away.

   I didn’t think he hated me but he was a little scared.

5. I find more people are embarassed with their english level skills rather than it being out of any form of malice. I live in the least populated prefecture and am generally treated as good as, if not better than other people when I go to shops. (Things like my local bakery often giving me extra bread, likely due to my size lol). I would say that you run into more trouble with long term things such as rent as mentioned in other posts or setting up a bank account. People often are more cautious as foreigners sometimes have left without warning etc., not to mention the fear of having to communicate with someone that may not speak their language.

6. I think there will always be a small shop somewhere that will deny service for being a foreign, Japan is not 100% perfect, and like all other countries, not every Japanese likes foreign.

   Now, renting apartment is on another level.
   I’m white European and when I was searching for an apartment, I found 8 that I liked and 7 of them rejected me right away for being “gaijin” lol.

   I think there could be many reasons:

   1. Foreign = trouble
   2. Don’t speak Japanese properly
   3. Bad experience renting to foreign before
   4. Could flee Japan without paying remaining rent and damages and leaving all furnitures inside
   5. Don’t like foreign at all
   6. Already rented (most common excuse)