What's it like being Black in Japan?

what's it like uh living in japan as a black person okay uh first of all honestly it is what it is like me being black in japan if we were like a bunch a bunch of white dudes walking around maybe we'll get any black person out there who's watching your channel and wants to come here i don't think there's any reason to worry hey guys how you doing i'm takashi from japan today i'm going to interview black people in japan what's it like being black in japan and i got many comments asking black people what's it like live in japan sometimes so i'm so i decided to make a video this topic okay let's find out today on my channel i interviewed japanese people and foreigners in japan so it's the best channel for anyone who wants to come to japan without traveling or living and you can also learn japanese here so if you haven't subscribed yet please subscribe to my channel and on my instagram i show my daily live in tokyo in shape of measure by japan so if you have been for a year please provide too okay let's get started okay thank you for your help we're from i'm from america nice to meet you nice to meet you how long have you been japan uh this will be my sixth year in japan six years well six years six years oh wrong yeah uh can i ask what they do so i teach middle school and high school kids um not conversation english but like academic english and academic writing and stuff like that okay okay so you're from america so you're black american what's it like what you like living in japan as a black american it's you have any opinion it's i have many opinions when i first moved here i felt like a spectacle i felt like a lot of people were looking at me um yeah i just felt like a lot of people were looking at me but now that i've lived here for so long it just feels like where i would live anywhere else people are just gonna look because they have this this notion of black people so there's always like oh well can she do this or can she speak japanese or stuff like that so like honestly it is what it is like me being black in japan would wouldn't be any different from me being black in like uh europe or china or anything to me personally because i just think that people are going to look anyway they were going to make assumptions about me anyway so i mean you might as well give them a show okay i want to i wanted to ask you this question specifically okay in tokyo young japanese people they do you know their hair like dread yeah um what do you think do you think it's yeah what do you think some people say like oh it's appropriation and other people will say like oh no it's appreciation i personally don't like it but i can't make anybody do anything so i'll just i'll just sit and look and mind my business that's question do you speak japanese [Music] if you live here for longer than three years i personally think that you should learn more japanese don't be that 25 year old they're like i don't know any japanese and you live here for like 50 years like i'll never learn like that's stupid i think that's stupid thank you so much you're welcome thank you yeah okay thank you for your help um where from i'm from i'm from uh right outside dc how long have you been japan i've been in japan since 2016. 2016. yeah yeah yeah uh what do you do oh i am an english teacher i work with little kids uh and i teach them english but forget all that i'm actually i'm a rapper i'm a recording artist a singer whatever you want to call it uh i go by jay the protagonist you know all platforms spotify itunes everything like that because i like to ask you about life in japan as a black person how do japanese people see black people what do you think uh well when it comes to stuff like that you know uh you know my perception i don't really know how they see me you know that's that's a very good question no i've never actually asked a japanese adult how they see me or something like that and no one's ever really told me either so it's but i do imagine a lot of people when they hear the word foreigner they might think of a white person generally you know yeah yeah yeah like usually when they're like hiring for a job or something like that and they want to like hire a foreigner you know in their mind they want like a white guy oh saying they not they're not usually not picturing like like a black guy or something like that you know you know when they foreign you know foreign and a white person they're like synonymous you know what i'm saying like interchangeable that's true that's true yeah but uh you know uh like like i said all my friends and all my homies were like rappers and artists so usually when we go someplace like together or like in a group we're performing right so we get a lot of love and we get a lot of support you know hip-hop is very popular yeah yeah it's global you know what i'm saying so no matter where we go what we do you know we get love so it's been mostly positive you know uh like i said i think if we were uh if we were like a bunch a bunch of white dudes walking around maybe we'll get maybe we'll be treated a little better but we're not exactly treated bad you know what i'm saying but yeah yeah like you know hip-hop in general it's trendy in japan yeah and many you know guys you know japanese guys you know they listen hip-hop and then you know they getting known about you know black culture like including hip-hop you know yeah so yeah maybe that's true yeah it's like a cultural thing uh in america actually they like black people as a culture yeah they don't necessarily like us as a people when it comes to embracing us as people you know who we actually are uh we got a lot of work it's kind of the same here uh but i'd imagine there's not as many black folks here in japan as there are white folks we just need a few more of us out here just to you know you know show what our actual culture and our actual our actual way of living is like you know but we all people we are the same you know what i'm saying so it's not really much of a difference everywhere okay our last question do you speak japanese uh my japanese is very low you know actually with my job we're encouraged to only speak english most of the japanese i learn is from my students so when i speak to an adult i got to be very careful of what i'm saying to make sure it doesn't sound like stupid or silly or or cute or something like that you know so it's tough you know all right thank you so much thank you so much appreciation thank you i'm thank you for your help where are you from i'm from kenya i'm also from kenya nice to meet you nice to meet you too um how long have you been japan uh right now two months but i have been here before in 2020 i was here for like nine months and then now i'm back it's been two months it's been two months so in total almost a year yes oh okay well i've been here i think in total this is my fifth year like what's it like being african in japan like what's it like being at brock in japan do you have any opinion on that first of all um it's it's it's definitely a bit different for us being black compared to like the white people but then it's not bad i'd say my personal experience you'd get a few stairs sometimes but mostly no one cares so that's good i've had a i haven't had any negative experiences in terms of my racial identity because in my opinion japanese are very welcoming and even the stairs that you get it's not it's not malicious it's uh people are just yeah so if you look at it in that way because if it's not something you see every day so when you see someone different of course you're going to be curious so it's not something malicious and and people are friendly there have been so many cases where um i've been helped yes yes so many times i've been helped by strangers by japanese and i think that is something that i'm really grateful for and the country itself the systems they have systems in place to help foreigners yeah so any any black person out there who's watching your channel and wants to come here i don't think there's any reason to worry yeah because japan is very welcoming in my opinion nice yeah next question when japanese people refer the world foreigners it's usually like european or american like western people or maybe asian like chinese or koreans when i ask japanese people about black people or african people from my perspective they don't have much like um knowledge they don't have much experience to seeing them uh what do you think oh yeah that's a good question but at the same time i feel like just as she said this is not something oh these are not people they see so many of because even when you walk through a station you might see maybe just one other black person apart from you so if they haven't seen as many black people they don't know what to expect and so i'm not so sure but i'd love to ask a japanese person what they do so we need to differentiate between the blacks also so yeah yeah because there's black african and there's black american this is just my opinion my view i think a lot of japanese have more experience with black americans and they can sort of identify more with them because of the media you know they consume their movies the the the movies the music from black america right but not black african and if you tell them you're from africa i think the first thing that comes to their mind is the the national parks the animals the pakistan and and that's what africa is best known for that's what kenya is doing not just not just for japanese people right yeah yeah yeah to other foreigners i meet who are not africans probably i think if we need to to like change the perception the japanese perception towards black africans we need to put ourselves our culture our our normal life in you know out there not not just the tourist side of it yeah actual actual life actual life last question do you speak japanese no maybe ask me this question in like one year and the answer will be yes i speak japanese thank you so much you're welcome thank you so much and thank you for your help where are you from i'm from jamaica nice to meet you who approaches japan uh first i took a flight from i'm kidding okay okay i actually wanted to escape jamaica and i wanted to expand my world view so to speak how long have you been japan a long time like over 10 years over 10 years what's it like uh living in japan as a black person okay first of all a lot of times i forget what color i am because uh japanese people are not outwardly racist thank god and so i often forget what color i am but in any case um i've had many more positive experiences in in fact japanese people give give me more positive qualities or more superstar qualities than i have like they think i can definitely play basketball or they think i'm probably a good singer or they think i am somehow athletically blessed or something yeah that's kind of like positive stereotypes yeah positive that if japanese have towards you know black people right yeah and that's good um the more you interact with japanese people and you enter their social circle the more they treat you like one of them there are certain social rules that you have to accept japanese society is based on a lot of social rules and even a japanese person who doesn't behave in the way that is is expected even they will be rejected i believe there is a saying that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down so the best thing you can do in japan is try not to stand out in a bad way and if you just behave like japanese people then you'll be accepted but not like you're mimicking them because that that's another that's a totally different thing accepting the unspoken social rules so things like taking off your shoes before you go inside things like wearing a mask if you have a cold don't talk loudly on the train for the love of god i'm the only foreigner who lives in my apartment complex and i wondered why they accepted me i remember back when i was signing a contract with the real estate agency i heard her saying on the phone to the owner um oh and then i was wondering nihonjinpo is it me my face or what but then right yeah yeah yeah yeah japanese people accept if you behave just like them but in fact you're a guest in the country so you should behave better my pleasure thanks so much okay thank you for watching so far how was it that was interesting i'm also planning to interview latin people latino people asking them like what's it like being in japan like um as i did uh asking like you know asian people if you are from latin country can you like give me some question idea that i can interview i can ask them okay anyway thank you for watching if you like this video click like button please subscribe to my channel and if you have any questions you want me to ask people in japan please leave a comment too see you next time

Channel: TAKASHii from Japan

Views: 4,890,008

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Id: e2eqJ4hZkFg

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 07 2022