Interview with Mr. S

"From my own experience, I’ve found that Japanese people are generally very pragmatic. As long as you have a skill and can prove your ability, they will respect you. When I first came to Japan, I already spoke a little Japanese, and that helped me overcome the initial language barrier. Once that was out of the way, I didn’t really feel much discrimination based purely on nationality.

As for foreign tourists, I think most Japanese are actually quite welcoming. Tourists bring money, stimulate the economy, and create opportunities for locals to earn more. That’s why national policy strongly supports tourism. At the same time, visitors can sometimes cause trouble—wandering into private homes by accident, or breaking local rules without realizing it. But from what I’ve seen, most of these issues aren’t malicious. They come from not knowing the customs. If the government and local communities make the rules clearer upfront, I believe a lot of these misunderstandings could be avoided."