Claims that Tokyo's governor, Shintaro Ishihara, is racist because he recently described Asians here as "sankoku-jin" (third-country nationals) -- a fairly neutral Occupation-era term used to distinguish resident Koreans and Taiwanese from Westerners -- were a bit far-fetched.
And many of the critics failed to note that the original agency report of Ishihara's remarks had distorted the fact that he was only talking about "furyo" (non-law abiding) Asian immigrants.
Ishihara's point was that Tokyo has suffered a severe rise in the activities of these people, illegal Chinese immigrants in particular -- a perfectly valid point. Indeed, Japan should be much more concerned than it is over the sudden rise in Asian immigrant crime, and the fact that areas of Tokyo are now unsafe at night as a result.