Laranzo Dacres thinks it's fascinating how many people across Japan — and all of Asia, for that matter — have never met a Black person in real life before.

“I interviewed this lady, a woman in her 70s, and I was the first Black man she met," he tells The Japan Times. "That was crazy.

“What they see instead is through (Japanese) media, and the message portrayed is largely negative, unfortunately. That changes the way they view us, that’s a problem.”