I've met many expats like you while living there and my evaluation is that their perception is dominated by an inability to assimilate the value structure that makes the Japanese culture what it is. This subset of expats can never get past the fact that such a fundamentally different belief structure - so alien to their own intuitive view of "how things should be" - could actually produce a product that in many ways functions better on a basic human level than what they grew up with.
I don't view Your obvious revulsion as being rooted in anything related to physical characteristics or physical differences, I see it as being a result of confusion, isolation. It results from trying to apply the
"why do they do that" lessons you learned about human behavior as a child to a different world where you are having to struggle in order to get through the mundane acts of living- each and every waking day reality has more than bit of skew to it that can wear on you if not addressed.
If You wish to call that racism that is Your word selection, but it is not one I would choose.
Yes, I've worked at two Japanese companies; I also went through a 4 year program at Japanese college to study cultural anthropology with a focus on comparative analysis of Japan, China, Europe and the US. I have no illusions about their culture and I recognize that just as everwhere there are areas where great wrongs are accepted as normal. But I also know that they are a people with a highly successful culture that has accomplished some remarkable things. And while they
are subject to the same ills and weaknesses as all other humans, you can bet that when your view is oriented around the perception that the people of Japan and their methods are characterized by
"incompetence, intransigence, irrationality and ineptitude", as you wrote above, then you can be assured that it is you, not them.
My experience with Japan and foreigners who have spent lots of time there tells me you really might want to consider where you go from here. It is possible for someone enduring the kind of cultural isolation you seem to be experiencing to develop some issues that are better avoided if possible. You can always go back after you've centered yourself a bit.
Let me ask you a question, have you ever had a Japanese person seem to deliberately not understand something you know you've said correctly? You know, a taxi driver or something like that?
If you have, what do you think was the cause?
You could be sitting on a fuel source in those old jeans
BY RYO IKEDA STAFF WRITER
2011/09/13
Masaki Takao is involved in recycling clothes. But, no, he does not refit dresses or deal in vintage clothing in a trendy Harajuku shop.
What Takao does do is convert used clothing into an energy source. He has succeeded in refining bioethanol from cotton fibers and has commercialized the process. "...
"The accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has brought home the fact that there are limits to energy," Takao said. "A small accumulation of recycling efforts will turn out to become a major contribution in the end."
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201109120144.html'Smart cities' envisioned / Raft of high-tech green energy projects planned in devastated areas
Plans to rebuild many areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake as environmentally friendly "smart cities" are being explored by corporations and municipal governments.
By promoting large-scale projects that include power-generation facilities utilizing renewable energy and smart grids, the plans are also meant to create jobs. Some companies and local governments have already started working together on these projects.
Major electronics manufacturer Toshiba Corp. has proposed an integrated system, with facilities ranging from power generation and water-treatment systems to "smart meter" next-generation power meters, to some local governments.
An official of the company's smart community division said, "In the future, to export technologies created domestically."
Hitachi, Ltd. is ...
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T110912004466.htmAnd you might enjoy taking a look at this polling:
http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/pdf/AP-Gfk%20Poll%20Japan%202nd%20release.pdf