Remember never judge a book by it's cover. As an Asian-American resident of Japan, I found that there are many Asian "Westerners" like myself (Americans, Canadians, British etc in the same position, my first boss was Asian-British or however you call em across the pond) that often blend into the crowd (it's one of those unique experiences I don't think other westerners experience, but that's another story...). Students never come up to me for English practice or to do English student surveys when visiting major tourist spots ;( Then again when traveling with my obviously looking foreign friends most of the time no one bothers us then either. But again I'm mainly in the Tokyo area.

When I see a helpless tourist around Shinjuku Station, I usually stop and see if I can assist them. They are usually thankful and say to me "your English is great", and I respond, "so is yours!" which makes them @_@ lol. unless they were a foreign tourist who's native language is not English.

Though one item mentioned already is, you probably won't be targeted for money or scammed, or be approached by beggars asking for money as you would in some other country. I like Thailand, it has some really beautiful places, but a big turn down for me in visiting that country was all the poor and getting hassled a lot for money.

The only exception in Japan would be those old ladies always asking for earthquake relief funds, I either walk around them or just say I donated to another person at Shinagawa Station, however they are harmless.