Foreigner Phobia in Japanese Society

Ticket of Shinjuku National Garden

A man of 73 years old had been giving away tickets to foreign tourists only because “he was afraid of foreigners, not speaking foreign language” : total loss of 25000000 yen during two years from 2014 to 2016.

Maybe the foreigners would have been ready to give him a language lesson for 2500 yen per hour rather than receiving a ticket of 200 yen.

It happened at Shinjuku National Garden under the control of the Ministry of the environment. The employee is an ex-bureaucrat of the Ministry. Because of the neglect of duty, he was punished by salary cut. He received only 10% of his normal salary during a month. After that he submitted his resignation.

Apparently they should have hired someone who speak foreign language or provide language lessons for the employees. The garden is frequented by foreign tourists.

Shinjuku National Garden

The foreigner phobia or foreign language phobia looks like a kind of shyness this time. But it had sometimes more aggressive form in Japanese history.

Terror can easily turn into aggression.

Shinjuku National Garden