Originally Posted by
Kathranis
A lot of people in this thread are overstating the xenophobia. I've got friends of all ages and ethnicities who either have lived or currently live in Japan and they've all had good experiences.
First off, they're not racist. I mean, there are some hardline right wing ultra nationalists, but those exist everywhere.
Second, you're thinking about racism with a Western mindset. Being a foreigner in Japan isn't like being black in the US.
What you're most likely to encounter is people who are either curious or shy. Sometimes they'll have misconceptions, sometimes they'll want to practice English, sometimes they'll avoid you because they're afraid of speaking English poorly. 99% of Japanese people are too polite to do anything untoward, and often when you do encounter, say bars or apartments that are non-gaijin, it's really an anti-tourist thing resulting from jackasses on vacation causing trouble.
You also definitely don't really need to speak Japanese. It's a bilingual nation. The advice I always hear is to wait until you move to Japan and decide you want to live there, then start studying more seriously.