Far East Cynic

Those damned gaikokujin

Courtesy of Fucked Gaijin comes this little tidbit of yet another less than flattering portrait of foreigners in Japan:

 

The myth that Japan is a homogenous society lost its veracity long ago. With the growth of globalization, the sight of foreigners living and working in Japan is certainly no longer a rare occurrence.

However, how much do we know about the real lives of Japan's foreigners?

This is the question that Kota Ishii, a spirited non-fiction writer, raises in his new book, "Nippon ikoku kiko — zainichi gaikokujin no kane, seiai, shi" (Journey through foreign Japan: The money, love, sex and death of foreigners in Japan).

"What happens with the bodies of foreigners if they die in Japan?"; "A Mie Prefecture island: A haven for foreign prostitution?"; "A South Korean church helping Japanese homeless — what is its real aim?" These are just a few examples of what Ishii tackles in his latest work.

Ishii, who has published several books on prostitution, slums and underground businesses in Asia, sheds light this time on different foreign communities in Japan.

The book introduces a South Korean who has conquered the Japanese sex industry by undercutting prices; an Israeli man with an expired visa who pays a Japanese woman to marry him to obtain Japanese nationality; Chinese who flee from the country after obtaining citizenship, and many other examples that portray the reality of "underground" foreign communities in Japan.

 

One of FG's commenters has a pretty good response to still this Gaijin bashing:

 

money, love, sex and death-

Sounds like a night out in Ueno for me.