Daily Racism
I bought a popular Japanese language guidebook on "Hawaii" before heading for paradise last summer and was really shocked when I read the following in the sections "advice for female travellers" (all passages translated, original Japanese at the end):
”Men who start talking in Japanese to groups of Japanese girls, should better be considered as criminals respectively as near criminal. Japanese girls are in a very open mind abroad , which is why there are many cases of them being robbed, forced to take drugs or raped. Therefore, it is also possible to get diseases like aids. Unfortunately the reputation of Japanese girls being weak towards seduction is reality. Exerce self control, even when looking for adventures."
Last week, I finally wrote a mail to the publisher, well-known shobunsha, saying how shocked I was, and accusing them of blatant racism ("all locals or Gaijin being criminals"), especially unexcusable as "foreigners" are the very reason of their business (guidebooks to foreign countries).
Surprisingly, they answered within 4 days. Here are the core parts of their answer:
"Concerning the text in question, we agree with you that it is inappropriate. We express our deep regrets. Probably, at the time of the writing, in order to sensitize the readers in a disproportionate way, we were using inadequate expressions, exceeding the limits of our intention. We are really very sorry.
Initially, as expressed above, the text was meant for Japanese travellers just to tell them: "Dont let the open mind that comes with traveling abroad, betray your judgment, otherwise you could get into trouble.", but we are deeply sorry that we were not diligent enough in expressing that message.
As for the text in questions, we promise you that we will erase and rewrite the inappropriate parts and that future editions will contain revised texts."
Lets see if they keep their promise.