I was yelled at with a “No, you’re not! A Japanese person felt a sense of discomfort in dealing with foreigners at airports in the “land of hospitality.

When I was standing in line at the Japanese passport lane, an official came running all the way to me. I was so surprised. I was so surprised.

ANA, 28, was born to an American father and a Japanese mother. She has been in Japan for a long time, is a Japanese citizen, and the first language she learned was Japanese. On the day of the incident, Ana was at the airport going through immigration to return to Japan.

When she was told in a strong tone, “No! the official was clearly angry when he said in a strong tone, “‘No! The foreigner and Japanese lines are separated, but that day the Japanese line was empty. It seems that many foreigners lined up in the vacant Japanese line because the information board was difficult to understand. The staff was annoyed and said, “Why don’t you understand? I had my Japanese passport with me, but I had to wait in the Japanese line. But even though I had a Japanese passport in my hand, I was treated roughly as a foreigner who did not understand the language just because of my appearance.

Ana-san has a dark complexion, which may indeed be a type of appearance that is rare among Japanese people. However, despite her identity as a Japanese, she says she feels bad whenever she is treated in a way that excludes her from the Japanese community. When he sent out a message about this on Twitter, he received more than 10,000 “likes.

I had to say ‘I’m Japanese’ four times at the airport to enter the country. Are you a foreigner?’ ‘ without being asked, and I was ushered into the foreigner line before they could confirm my identity. It was very unpleasant to have my nationality judged solely on the basis of my face.

Japan prides itself on its culture of hospitality. In fact, many foreigners have had terrible experiences at airports. Ms. Ana continues, “I was hit by a foreigner’s backpack.

A foreigner’s backpack hit the partition of the line, and he was trying his best to fix it. The staff member suddenly shouted angrily at him, ‘Just don’t touch it! and suddenly took the partition from him in an angry tone. It was sad to see them treated in this way, as it might have been their first opportunity to interact with Japanese people after landing in Japan.

The mistreatment of foreigners did not end there. He said he also felt “discrimination” when receiving his luggage.

There are ‘quarantine dogs’ at the baggage claim area,” he said. From the standpoint of preventing livestock diseases, it is prohibited to bring meat products into Japan from overseas. However, because there are people who enter the country secretly carrying them, the quarantine detection dog always conducts random scent inspections of luggage.

I was entering Japan that day from Manila, Philippines, and there were many Filipinos on the same flight. Perhaps it was because there were many illegal meat products being brought into the country by Filipinos, but there was a quarantine dog waiting at the exit of the immigration checkpoint, inspecting each person one by one. I felt that they were making assumptions and saying, ‘You are definitely trying to bring in meat products without telling us,’ which made me feel a bit annoyed.

He also felt uncomfortable with the fact that many staff members treated Japanese people politely and with honorifics, but spoke to foreigners in a commanding tone.

At the counter to check vaccination certificates, I was explained in a strong English tone, but the moment they realized I was Japanese, they said, ‘Oh, is that so? I am very sorry. He clearly changed his attitude and politely explained to me, saying, “This is…. Because I happened not to look Japanese, I could understand the reality that foreigners were being treated roughly at the airport. I can hardly believe that this is the way a country of “Omotenashi” should be.

Why do Japanese people, who are supposed to have the spirit of “Omotenashi,” take this kind of attitude?

It may be partly a matter of awareness, but the problem lies in the English manuals. In Japanese, it is ‘Please line up here,’ but in English it is ‘Get in line. Even if you don’t speak English, just adding “please” softens it up a lot, but I think there is a problem with airports that don’t make it part of their manuals. I later heard that the percentage of non-regular employees at the airport is very high, and among them, no training related to racial discrimination is provided at all. I was surprised that such training was not provided as part of the “gateway to the country.”

As we enter the post-Corona period, it is expected that the number of tourists from abroad will increase. Can we offer the best hospitality to those who are looking forward to visiting Japan?