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Konnichiwa minasan,

A year from now, I am planning to attend Kansai Gaidai Daigakku for a semester as I can hardly afford that (I'll need to take out loans). I'm also looking into an East Asian Studies double major (emphasis on Japanese language and history) with Mass Communications (emphasis on film and probably writing), and want my credits to count into my B.A. degree.

I am really excited to study abroad, but I want to do my best to prepare before I go. It recently came to my attention from my other guild (Korea) that there is some bitter feelings between Korea and Japan. As a Korean adoptee (I'm an American), I know very little about any of the situation between countries -- just 2 years ago now I gained an obsession with Asia (culture, languages, and philosophies -- Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism). I am also not particularly interested in politics (mildly democrat and feminist), so I am not entirely sure what is going on.

Considering that I will be living there for a semester (6 weeks?) as well as attending school (but my classes except Nihongo will be in English), I feel I will need to have extra preparations before going.

Does anyone know of the situation between Japan and Korea, what I can do (I'm an American, but obviously Korean as I was born in Seoul) to get along with everyone? Is it likely that I will discrimination and is there anything that can be done to make friends not enemies? When I encountered discrimination in the US, I was only able to relate and feel a part of a people as a group of diverse individuals, who were teased/discriminated/harassed against, thus, I am more likely to befriend these individials.

I don't know if it's just because in America, we tend to group similar ethnicities together (black, asian, white, native american) that I do not quite understand the scenario between countries (Korea and Japan) and happen to currently be interested and practically have fallen in love with Asia as a collective whole?

Any advice, minasan?

Doomo arigatoo gozaimasu!

Sincerely,

hollywood_addict

True true, Japanese are having a Korean boom right now, what with Pe Yon-sama and Che-ju (sp?) all over entertainment news.

There is even a sort of "Korean Town" in Tokyo, the district of Shinokubo, just one stop after Shinjuku. That is also where Kai Nihongo School is located, if ya wanted to know. wink

I did have some Korean friends, and they'd tell me little tidbits of their life outside of school... sometimes they'd get mistaken for Japanese, but when it was discovered they couldn't speak it well, the Japanese speaking to them kinda just dropped the conversation (probably assuming English was the only other way to speak to them).

However, the racism aspect really varies. Some people don't care. Some people like other races. And some don't. I was quite surprised one day when a European classmate of mine asked me if my husband "liked Koreans". I just said he doesn't really care about racial controversy, he's ok with anyone, and she told me her boyfriend (also Japanese) hated them. I found out later that he came from a nationalist family (but why he had a European girlfriend, I don't know...).

So, it just depends on the beliefs and "how Japanese" the Japanese person or people you are dealing with are.

Some Korean immigrants to Japan, or even half Korean kids still get bullied in school, and even TEACHERS get racist or have biased, close-minded opinions of half students in general. When one foreign teacher was asking why a certain student was acting out in class, the only excuse her Japanese colleague could give her was "He is half-Korean, that's why". Pathetic.

Just keep in mind that Japan is an island nation, and they are still affected by the fact that they have closed their country for hundreds of years. It's not blantently on the surface, but it's there, and my husband would always mention that "we closed our country for sooooo long" whenever we discuss Japan and foreign.. well, anything foreign!

You'll be in college with the younger bunch, and the younger generations are a lot more open to change, international stuff, etc. IMO, I think that people of Chinese descent in Japan would have a *bit* harder time than Koreans right now.

Be ready for anything. But don't let it stop you making friends with the natives. Also, maybe you could get in touch with your Korean roots as well. It's only an hour plane ride and about $100 to get over to Korea from Japan.

2010 ni, nihon no gakkou, "Tooin Gakuen" ni ikitai. Ichi nen mae, "Tooin Gakuen" ni itta, omoshirokatta desu yo! Boku no yume wa, moichido Nihon ni ikitai!