Marxy, sorry to hear about that. Nothing like that has ever happened to me out here in Kansai.
In fact I've gotten so slack that sometimes I go around for weeks without my gaijin card.

I recall reading a long time ago that David Aldwinckle would bait the police in certain parts of Tokyo where they regularly check gaijin cards, then he would get into a discussion with them and tell them that he didn't have a gaijin card. Finally he'd pull out his Japanese passport to shock them. Guess people get their kicks in different ways, eh?

But your experience this evening immediately reminded me of what would happen to a black friend of mine I knew when I worked at an institute in the predominantly white L.A. suburb of Pasadena. This guy would regularly get stopped by the police on the streets just off campus. But they would apologize as soon as they saw his student ID. Once he didn't have his ID and he actually got taken to the Pasadena police station.
This guy was a Harvard grad and one of the most articulate people on campus. Totally non-confrontational and with no interest at all in provoking these things. He just happened to be one of the very few blacks on campus. And he had dreadlocks, which didn't help, though the closest description of his appearance otherwise would probably be 'preppy'.

wait, is there really something called a "gaijin card"?
or is it just a spiffy printed visa? like a mini laminated passport?
referred to by gaijin, as "gaijin cards".
and, the needless star war quote is quite nice. star wars quote's can be one of the more gratting experience's imo, and its always good to see them used, more or less, properly.

weren't the police in japan, [post the ww2, pre now] once just goverment [US gov. even?] paid "mobsters" ?

I worked at an institute in the predominantly white L.A. suburb of Pasadena

Caltech? I just came from 3-4 years in Pasadena (Art Center). The city might be leaning towards predominatly Asian at this point. Regardless, yeah, still not many blacks.

Anyways I just found it amusing to find my second hometown show up in this Tokyo blog. Sorry to Marxy for this irrelevant post...heh.

marxy: contrats, you lost your cherry! next comes the "getting stopped for riding a bike while being white/brown/black"

trevor: the formal name of a gaijin card is a "gaikokujin torokusho" which just means alien registration document. We all carry em here. By law you have to carry it if you go more than a certain distance from your registered domicile. Wanna know something else? People of korean decent born in Japan have to carry em too. You dont get Japanese citizenship by being born here.

In all my time in Japan I've never been stopped by a policeman. In fact, I'd started thinking the main activity of the police in Japan is to sit in a koban waiting for people to come and ask for directions.

Chris_B: Zainichi Kankokujin (non-naturalized Korean residents of Japan) are entitled to naturalize, though it involves, amongst other things, adopting a Japanese name. Many resident Koreans don't want to naturalize: in some cases their grandparents were brought forceably from what is now North Korea during the 1930's and quite understandably they may not be keen to go back just now. There's an all North Korean high school near Ginkakuji temple in Kyoto.

Part of getting a green card in the USA involves full printing of all fingers and thumbs on both hands. The process takes a better part of an hour and leaves faint ink stains all over your hands. A special immigration lawyer worked on the case for several months. Nothing like that was needed to get a Japanese green card (eijuken). And the paper work was easily prepared with the help of a non-specialist administrative assistant.

I think Japanese also are legally obliged to carry ID at all times, though I'm not sure about it.

Also worth a comparison: the new procedures for all foreigners (except Canadians) entering the US, even as tourists involves printing both thumbs and taking a frontal mugshot. Entering Japan as a tourist is a piece of cake compared to that.

One last point. Even before 9/11, it seemed like a high percentage of US border officials were rude and abrasive. I've yet to counter a rude Japanese border or immigration official.

I don't want to go as far as saying "Now, I know what it's like to be a minority" because I think that's pretty patronizing, but I was a little weirded out by the "Papers, bitte."-ness of the experience. The cop was nice enough, but I was just walking down the street. I've never been stopped in NYC for walking down the street. (There I go, comparing Japan to America again!)

I have dealt with less-than-enthusiastic customs people at Narita, who started grilling me in Japanese and checked my bags for false bottoms.

sparkligbeatnic: YMMV. I've had more than my share of hassles at Narita as have plenty of people I know. Conversely, I've yet to meet anyone who complained about procedures at JFK/LAX/DFW/SEA in the pre-9/11 days.

An anecdote on alleged discrimination against foreigners in Japan: on Saturday afternoon, I needed some shinsatsu (new bills) for the go-shugin (gift money) for the wedding reception I was attending. I decided to try to change 3 ichiman bills I had (the traditional amount for go-shugin) at a convenience store near Meguro station. The owner nodded and went into the back of the store to look for new bills. He came out with 3 notes then looking at them, noticed one was creased. He left two 10,000 notes on the counter in front of me and asked me to wait for another moment while he went back to look for an unwrinkled bill. This would never happen in the USA - no shopowner would trust a stranger, let alone one who is visibly a foreigner - with $200. It's amazing but wonderfully re-assuring that this level of trust, and lack of distrust of a foreigner, can exist in the downtown area of the world's largest city.

Yeah, I find Japan to be generally pro-Western foreigner. I don't think Ishihara thinks Australians and Brits are causing crime. I was surprised to get pulled over, and I have a feeling that my beard was confusing the cops to my origin. Once they saw I was American, they were happy to let me go and speak to me in English.

So, Japan is not racist as long as you are part of the right race. That's still racism, no?

Sure there's racism in Japan. There's racism everywhere. In some countries it actually amounts to regular violence. I was in L.A. during the last major outbreak of rioting. But my day-to-day experience of racial tension in the USA is greater than I have experienced in any of the other 3 dozen or so countries I have visited.