Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2010

Who You Calling “Cretin”?

Regarding “Baruto” (Sports, May 14): Man, looks like you don’t know so much about sumo… You say “the elders just tut-tutted and hoped Asashoryu would injure himself or bugger off back to Mongolia,” right? Did the sumo council ever state this, or did something show a mob attitude toward Asashoryu? No. Never. On the contrary, the council in the past had been quite indulgent to the bad-mannered and disrespectful Asashoryu. He was a great fighter, but don’t forget that a sumo wrestler (and particularly a yokozuna) must also show personal qualities. What Asashoryu did this January was career suicide. This time, the “cretinously conservative council” could not just let him get through with a two-tournament disqualification.—davidecereda*

Nice article. Bulgarian Kotooshu is the so-called “David Beckham of sumo.” I’ve heard Bart called Leo DiCaprio, but “why” totally eludes me. Probably the blond hair.—sumobaba*

Jerking Around

Regarding “Dear Angry, Shouty Western Guy”
(The Last Word, May 14): While I agree with some of the points made, the idea that “it also makes all of us foreigners look bad” is, in fact, an insult to Japanese. In order for “all of us foreigners” to be made to look bad, then the Japanese watching this scene must make the mental leap of “this one particular guy is a jerk; therefore, all foreigners are jerks.” Give Japanese the benefit of the doubt and don’t assume that would happen. The author seems to think of herself as a liberal, open-minded person, but assuming Japanese would stereotype foreigners based on one man in a restaurant—well, that paints an unfair and unflattering portrait of Japanese.

If I were to see a loud, obnoxious jerk in a bar, I would make one conclusion: “what a loud, obnoxious jerk.” That’s all. I would hate to be the kind of person that would only think in broad generalizations, especially demeaning ones—which the author apparently does with Japanese, albeit unknowingly.—someexpat*

If we assume that some people will lump us all together with the actions of any foreign person present in public in Japan, then we are already lost and should give up on any hope of maintaining a good reputation. A more practical approach is to just live your life and be the natural human being you are. If you crack once in a while, it will not topple the pillar of gaijin image in Japan. I don’t think most Japanese really care what we are doing. And to the few who harbor xenophobic stereotypes: you can’t win them over anyway, so why bother worrying about them?

As for the angry guy in Ebisu: rough day, unknown circumstances, not our business. It is equally possible that he is under a lot of stress raising a mixed nationality family as it being an anger management problem. We just don’t know, and Melissa [Feineman] certainly does not know. So have a little humility, forgive the family for their public display and mind your own behavior. The xenophobes will see you as other no matter what you do.—tkoind2**

I realize that the average Japanese man is far more sexist than the average Western man—even a bit more than the type who relocate to Japan—but the fact still stands that you do yourself no favors by verbally abusing your spouse in public. The public view of foreigners, especially men, is already fairly negative. There’s also a view that Japanese women are being “stolen” by Westerners, and that they are always innocent victims in every spousal altercation. Do you really want to give them more fuel by blowing up in public?

Beyond that, it doesn’t matter what someone does. You don’t scream at them in public. You’re an adult. Don’t justify it. Don’t say “she started it” or “Japanese do it too!” Just suck it up, be an adult, and if you have a problem, talk about it like an adult. If that’s too difficult, find yourself a therapist, stat.—Monkeyz**

* taken from the Metropolis comment threads
** taken from the Japan Today comment threads

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