Discrimination is an all too common experience for non-Japanese residents who study, work, marry and raise families here. Many of us have come to terms with this prejudice and deal with it in our own ways, often avoiding confrontation. There is evidence of improvement and some non-Japanese may experience little more than petty hassles, but as in other countries around the world, foreigners are too often an easy target.
Even though Japan effected the United Nations' convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1996, it still has no law against racial discrimination; thus a treaty obligation exists without an effective means of carrying it out.
Debito Arudou (previously David Aldwinkle before he became a naturalized Japanese citizen) decided that confronting discrimination was important for his family, other foreigners and Japanese society. After reading this excellent account of his struggle against prejudice and racial discrimination, I think we are fortunate he did so.