If being asked to confirm that you have not committed war crimes makes you uncomfortable, then you might be a war criminal.
I'm pretty sure Japan's immigration asks if you've ever been convicted of a crime, so how is this any different?
this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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If israel doesn't like this treatment then they should stop the policy of forcing israeli citizens to serve in the israel genocide forces.
Classic Japanese. No dancing around or confusion about anti-semitism, just straight out asking the Israeli about recent war crimes.
Had the same as a Swiss guy living there: sure, everybody loves Roger Federer, but they also know about Nazi gold and the banking secret protecting dictatorships. And they just ask about it directly. Would never happen on Japanese topics though.
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This right here is what I love about Japan.
When I was there a few years ago to snowboard, they had a "fuck you" policy to non-Japanese speakers in some towns because the Aussies basically run around rough shod and turn everything into a loud party.
Imagine being in a sleepy resort town while 7 dudes are walking down your cobbled street screaming about Ruggers, then one falls into the cold stream because they're drunk, so a rescue team is sent out... On a weekly basis.
There's simply a no more bullshit cap.
As an Australian, what the fuck is a ruggers?
Not only that, but it happened in Kyoto which is verryyy traditional. Plus it’s a small city that’s getting overrun with tourists. It was the only place where I felt bad for visiting. I mean it’s packed at especially the temples, you’re slow walking in this sea of people.
So, to be clear, you get how that's more than a little bit fucked up, right?
To demonstrate, imagine a deep southern U.S town instituting an English-only policy and aggressively turning away for example Spanish or Arabic-speakers.
This is not something to be celebrated. Ban the thing you actually want to prevent instead of pushing through unmitigated xenophobia.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but a big difference here is that up until VERY recently, the US did not have an official language, so for them to say "English only" would be a bit more offensive than for Japan (whose official language is Japanese) to say "japanese only".
Additionally, the US is on colonized land, so English wouldn't be the native language of the land. Japan on the other hand has existed for close to 40,000 years and was not colonized in the same way (Not saying that the Japanese historically haven't been colonizers, but the island of Japan is generally not). I genuinely wouldn't even be mad about it if someone in Manitoba made a rule that was like "Ojibwe only".
But also to your point, yeah the US did recently pick an official language AND launch an "English only" campaign for a whole profession and it is extremely fucked up.
imagine a deep southern U.S town instituting an English-only policy and aggressively turning away for example Spanish or Arabic-speakers.
Yeah that's called Tuesday in the rural south.
Yes, I do. But I am a foreigner there. When we don't observe their traditions and disrupt their society, I feel like it's okay for them to set boundaries.
I get why it's not right, but I also accept it. It's not my country, not my rules, not my traditions. So, I am willing to live by their rules.
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What was the policy? Or was it just that they literally said "fuck you?"
Not literally those words. From what I've seen online, various establishments, if not entire towns, have thrown up "Japanese only" or "Japanese language only" to discourage foreigners. They generally only do this after there's been a trend of tourists making asses of themselves, but since the first places to do it kind of went viral, it's not too surprising if the habit has sprung up elsewhere.
Sure, it's only a handful of disrespectful tourists when all the rest are fine, but if you allow any non-Japanese (person or language, pick your preference) eventually you'll get those tourists.
Like it or not, it's a simple way to say no to that.
I have no idea why the west is so ok with Japan's ranked competitive racism...
Yeah, that's racism.
Not only that, it's not a hard and fast rule. The operative word is "discourage." If you're polite, ask nicely, have at least a rudimentary level of skill in the language, the staff will most assuredly seat you.
I was trying to get into this one sushi place in Nagano for weeks when I was there, finally threw up my hands and just walked over. Very modest, very simple, and probably the best I had while I was in the country.
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Wait, so Israel is not even trying to distance itself from war crimes... Their actual point is "not all war crimes are equal and it's difamatory to label everyone who commits war crimes with the same 'war criminal' label"... Wtf is wrong with those people.
No, their point is you shouldn’t be randomly asking Israelis if they committed war crimes.
The article points out there are ten nations whose citizens they ask this question.
Based on the article there's nothing random about it and it's not just any citizen. They ask it of people who served on nations that have active conflicts. So basically, people who might have been in position to commit war crimes.
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Its what the free market wants ;)
What's the protest? "We don't want to be pointed at when we commit war crimes" ?
The embassy thinks it is messed up to ask people if they committed war crimes.
This is ignoring they ask people from 10 different nations this question.
Is "asking" messed up or committing war crimes more messed up?
the same amount of war crimes as happened in Nanjing
Japanese man scribbles down zero
How could any Israeli citizen say no on #3 At this point. Even if you arent directly committing atrocities yourself you still are funding the government engaging in it. Not to mention most all of them have served in one capacity or another (involuntary aspects nonwithstanding)
This honestly doesn't make much sense. The implication would be that all citizens are culpable for their government's actions once they start paying taxes.
Funding your government isn't a voluntary act, so your last parenthetical already invalidates most of what you said.
So by that logic, are all Americans war criminals because Americans pay taxes, which go to fund drone strikes that murder civilians overseas, domestic militarization of police, prisons, etc?
This is the same logic as "all Palastinians support Hamas."
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So ... we should've hanged all the Germans in '45? The child soldiers drafted in Berlin? Shot the entire Japanese army? Drag all US-citizens to court for acting against the constitution?
I am going to be downvoted to oblivion, but: Lock up all Palestinians for not extraditing terrorists and war criminals?
Where do you think this will go, honestly? How is any of that justified, or fair? Should we commit a genocide of our own upon the Israelis? I know that's not what you said and I very much hope it's not what you meant.
This platform sometimes, fuck me.
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