Originally Posted by
joejones
And all the comments about Japanese xenophobia are unfounded. The reason for all these entry restrictions was that Japan was trying to cap the number of people coming into the country from overseas as a way of stemming the inflow of COVID cases until a critical mass of the population was vaccinated. Japan couldn't restrict entry by nationals because they have a constitutional right to come home. So they shut down entry by foreigners and then re-opened it in stages. To the extent that Japanese people complain about foreign tourists at all, 95% of their complaints specifically pertain to tour groups from mainland China.
While xenophobia might not have directly played a part in what happened to OP, xenophobia was certainly a driving factor in the suspension of visa waiver reciprocity that led to OP's situation. Japan's entry restrictions were discriminatory in ways that were unique amongst the G7. For a time, permanent residents born in Japan and who had only ever lived in Japan were denied re-entry. For most of the pandemic, family members of most non-Japanese living in Japan were banned while family members of Japanese were allowed. Japan also callously mislead international students and prospective employees regarding re-opening, leading many into debt and other hardship. And as time went by, Japanese policy did not seem to evolve in line with any science or global best practice. Japan did not listen to constructive criticism from their international community.
Xenophobia is an issue throughout the world, but in Japan it can often have a sharper edge when it comes to your legal rights. When we are denied access to restaurants on account of our skin colour despite speaking fluent Japanese, there is no legal protection. When we are denied housing for having a foreign-sounding name, there is no legal protection.
Don't get me wrong, I like living in Japan and I think Japanese people are generally lovely, but there is no reason to deny that xenophobia has an impact here.