Japanese visitors to the ‘lovely friendly’ Northwest have been shocked at racism figures here.
This emerged after Headliners young people interviewed a group of female Japanese students on racism and some of the other differences between Japan and Northern Ireland.
All the girls were shocked to hear that the Northwest is considered a racist place because none of them had experienced any discrimination while being here.
Sara commented: “I actually thought that because Catholic and Protestant peoples were getting on a lot better now that everyone would be getting on better. I am very disappointed to hear that racism is rising. It is so lovely and friendly here.” 
Although Tomoko did also not sense any racism in the city she was not surprised to hear that support agencies fear that there are a lot more racist attacks that go unreported.
She suggested: “The language is so difficult here maybe that is why people find it hard to report to the police. I think if it happened to me I may also just feel bad and forget about it rather than talk about it to the police.”
Sara added: “There isn’t really any racism in Japan that I could talk of.”
Headliners reporters also discovered that unlike Northern Ireland religion is not a subject the Japanese are likely to fall out over.
Headliners reporters explained to the girls that In Northern Ireland religion can all too often define you whether you want it to or not.
The girls explained that In Japan the opposite is true.
Sara continued: “Religion is different in every family. I didn’t know what religion I was until I asked my parents. Even then they weren’t sure what our religion was. Since we don’t believe in the old religions anymore we don’t even know what it is really. We don’t have set times to worship or anything either.”
So, neither racism nor religious division are big problems in Japan. It is difficult to imagine that the same could ever be said about Northern Ireland.
About this story:
By Fiona (17) and Grace (16)
