Interview with Ms. X

"At the international school I attended in Japan, I rarely encountered discrimination. The environment was open and welcoming, and Japanese classmates didn’t look down on me for being Chinese. Ironically, I had faced more prejudice back in China—when I was in elementary school there, some kids would call me “Japanese devil.” Maybe they didn’t really understand the meaning, but it still stung.

In Japan, how much tolerance you experience really depends on where you are. In some regions, people are quite open; in others, far less so. Sometimes discrimination even happens among Japanese themselves. Take Kyoto, for example. Many locals there dislike outsiders, especially people from Tokyo. Perhaps it comes from Kyoto’s long history and the pride of a community that rarely leaves its own city. That same insularity often means they’re even less accepting of foreigners.

Because of this, I sometimes find myself holding back. In places where I feel the atmosphere is less welcoming, I avoid speaking Chinese loudly in public. It’s not fear exactly—more the sense that others might stare, and I’d rather not invite that cold look."