The Japanese subscribe to ethnic nationalism, which is an ideology with the aim to develop an ethnically exclusive and homogeneous nationhood. One manifestation of ethnic nationalism is the belief that Japan is, or should be, a mono-ethnic society. Ethnic nationalism is manifested in the exclusionary attitude or opinion of the Japanese. In the context of foreigners living in Japan, the exclusionary attitude or opinion of the Japanese often translates into the insistence that foreigners should do things the Japanese way. This is unfriendly to foreigners living in Japan, to say the least. This article illustrates how unwelcoming and inconvenient Japanese exclusionism can be by using two examples that directly affect foreigners: housing and discrimination against foreigners.
This paper focuses on language difficulties in the co-existence of the Japanese and foreigners in Japan. Language is without doubt one of the most important factors in how successfully locals and foreigners live together. The author demonstrates the difficulty of co-existence when foreigners lack Japanese language competence in two areas, housing and medical services. Most publications on co-existence base their arguments on how the Japanese view the issues or how they behave in this area. This paper takes up foreigners' views, thus examining the issues from an outsider's perspective.
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