The Small Minority That Makes Japan’s Social Media a Mess
Living in Japan for over six years has been quite an experience, for most of it. The people are nice, respectful, and welcoming — at least those that one meets face to face. Social media? That’s a whole different ball game. It peels back the polite facade and finds a surprising amount of xenophobia and stubbornness, uppermost from a very vocal minority.
It all started when I began engaging more on Japanese social platforms. I noticed some, shall we say, peculiar patterns, particularly from older Japanese men and occasionally young women — or maybe men hiding behind fake profiles-who knows? This group, though small, makes it their mission to attack any foreigner who dares to critique even the smallest aspect of Japan. Say something as harmless as “Bank wait times here are long,” and it’s a torrent of “Go home! “ comments.
It’s like engaging with a less eloquent version of a Trump rally.
Then there are the “Japanophiles.” These are foreigners-usually not even living in Japan — who aggressively defend Japan with more passion than logic. Honestly, I don’t care about these folks; they’re easy to ignore. But the Japanese commenters? That’s where things get, let’s say, a bit worrying.
The racism is often blatant, and it’s disheartening to see how many people jump to xenophobic rhetoric at the slightest self-inflicted provocation. This has become even more apparent with the recent trend of interviews with foreigners in Japan. The foreigners might say some mild dislikes about certain aspects of life here, while still overall enjoying their experience. The comment sections, though, become a breeding ground for hatred.
It doesn’t matter how minute the criticism is; the response will always be the same: “If you don’t like it, leave.” You don’t even have to say anything. A black man dating a Japanese woman is enough to trigger these comments. It is sad, really, but the worst part is the silence from other Japanese people. Nobody steps in to challenge this behavior, likely because confrontation isn’t in their nature.
But isn’t this the kind of situation where confrontation is warranted? Either way, let me hop on to the point before I turn this into a novel.
Take a recent experience on Threads. A guy was trying to learn Japanese and wrote some phrases. I corrected him because I’m fluent, and it seemed like a helpful thing to do. Enter a Japanese woman who insisted my correction was wrong. She didn’t understand that I was trying to say “(reji or kami) bukuro” in English is the same as saying “rejibukuro or kamibukuro.” She thought that what was in the parenthesis did not connect to what I wrote out of them, and so I would be using the word “bukuro” incorrectly. Broken English aside, she continued with stubbornness fueled by pride even after a couple of times correcting her. Lastly, she blocked me from replying further just to avoid admitting that she was wrong.
It’s amazing how far some people will go to avoid losing face.
And it’s not just language disputes. Not long ago I came across a Japanese woman on Medium arguing that foreigners using Japanese names was cultural appropriation (look her up). Never mind the fact that Japanese people use foreign names all the time, and names like Karen, Lisa, and even Rin — which is originally Chinese — are given to children here as a matter of course. This being pointed out didn’t sit well with her, and the conversation quickly became a mess of stubborn denial and blocking-again lol.
At the end of the day, most people in Japan are great. Life here is smooth, and I have no big issues. But social media has shown me a darker, more “sensitive” side of a small minority. It’s a reminder that even in one of the most polite societies on Earth, the internet will always find a way to bring out the worst in people.
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