I'm a white male living in Japan. I feel little discrimination and I find that the benefits of being foreign here far outweigh the drawbacks. I really don't think that this is anywhere near what a black man feels in a small town in the southern US (particularly ~20 years ago). While we might get a cold glance every now and then or maybe the seat next to us on the subway is the last one taken, nothing has happened to me in two years that made me feel genuinely offended. Most of it is humorous if nothing else.

Bang on with this observation, though I always get amazed by the number of hypocritical people who don't get it, i.e. the foreigner in Japan who whines on about how discriminatory the Japanese are while whining on about how "the immigrants" are ruining their own home countries.

My parents and I were the only gaijin I could see there and were were with my brother in law. It was a restaurant recommended by one of his friends. It was notable for it's agemono. I found the kakiage a bit too greasy for what I like.

Then there was another time in Kyoto, but that was more like the opposite. I was given a resoundingly firm ignoring by a vendor on the way to Kiyomizu dera(I think that was the shrine).

-Jay

That really freaked me out for at least a day after, although I did get a few ohio's from the locals so I guess there is good and bad in all societys.

I don't think it's the same thing. There's one very important difference: we're foreigners. I just don't think it's the same feeling as being the object of discrimination within one's own country, growing up with it. Not having anywhere to which you can escape.

The feeling just can't be the same.

So true, I feel it everyday in some form or another while walking around on the weekends with my family or commuting to work. I also know a lot of Japanese that are very embarrassed with the way that the Japanese government just sits back. They are 20-30 years (or more) behind the U.S. in a lot of ways. Living in Japan has totally changed my view of the world.

- sockoinjapan.blogspot.com

There's a Newsvine article on it, too.

Sorry for the blatant self-promotion.

I had a chance to see quite a bit of this "mook" and found it to be so over the top as to almost lose its offensiveness. At first, it's unpalatable, but then you start to think, "This has got to be a put-on."

I'm surprised Amazon pulled it. When they responded to James at Japan Probe, they pretty clearly said they were going to continue to sell anything that wasn't illegal and kind of gave him a mini-lecture on freedom of speech.
I guess they figured the bad press was not worth it for a magazine that probably wasn't selling anyway, except to foreigners outraged by it. When the Metropolis story came out (well after the fact – it had been pulled from most conbini shelves at least a week before), a number of my colleagues asked where they could find it.

Kind of clever on the part of the publisher, when you think about it.