Japan's Anti-Foreign (or Anti-Chinese) Sentiment

Japanese have an anti-foreigners streak, that much is apparent. And given that Koreans are the largest group of foreigners in Japan, it does not come as a surprise that they are the ones who have to bear the brunt of such negative sentiments.

But Chinese too have in recent years increasingly made their presence felt, and they are now the second largest group of foreigners in Japan, after the Koreans.

So naturally, the Chinese too have became the object of "demonization", so to speak.

According to Apichai Shipper, former Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro once invoked the "Snake Heads" (Chinese gangs that operate in human trafficking of Fuzhounese workers to Japan) to "further construct a fearful image of illegal foreigners." (Apichai W. Shipper, Criminals or Victims? The Politics of Illegal Foreigners in Japan, Journal of Japanese Studies 31:2 2005)

But this construction was countered by the police who noted that the rise in murders committed by Chinese "Snake Heads" were not considered alarming because victims were mostly members of Japanese organized crime, the yakuza.

The police explained that this was mainly due to a conflict over turf and the low prices that Chinese assassins charged for the services rendered. Apparently, a Chinese gangster would do three jobs for the price a yakuza would charge for one.

Anyway, Ishihara tried to justify his remarks by associating illegal foreigners with ruthless foreign gangsters, and even though the media denounced him for being a racist, there was an outpouring of public support for Ishihara's position.

Oh well. Maybe doing three jobs for the price of one (cut-throat competition!) was indeed ruthless and truly deserved scorn, contempt and even bloodshed.