[pheon]

As someone who also a "foreigner" who also owns and runs a company here in Japan, much of the article was thats so entertaining... now... but was so not funny at the time.

Unfortunately the vast majority of foreigners here are 20-something year old assholes who demand Japan to be the same as their home country or clueless tourists enjoying the sights and sounds. Its though this lens that Japanese people experience either directly or indirectly foreigners and like everywhere on the planet, people remember (and exaggerate) the negative aspects like it was yesterday, but quickly forget the neutral and positive experiences.

If you can digest the above, then its easier to understand the Japanese perspective which is, all interaction with foreigners has substantial risk attached. All this means is, if a task has a local interaction then its likely got an additional risk management component to it.

This risk component is probably different, possibly offensive based on your own cultural norms, but if everyone has the same expectations and culture as you, then your not living in a foreign country.