Is Japan Really Racist? What Black and African Residents Actually Say

The apartment was perfect. Close to the station, decent light, rent within budget. Then the agent picked up his phone, stepped outside for a minute, came back in, and said, "Let me check with the landlord and get back to you."

He never got back to her.

It's one of the most common stories you'll hear from foreign residents in Japan — Black and African residents especially — and it's exactly the kind of moment that makes people ask the question before they've even booked a flight: is Japan actually racist?

The honest answer isn't a simple yes or no.

There are documented cases of discrimination in Japan, including housing refusals, workplace discrimination, racial profiling and exclusion from businesses. At the same time, many Black and African residents describe Japan as safe, welcoming and perfectly livable.

So rather than relying on stereotypes in either direction, it's more useful to look at the government data, the legal history and the experiences of people who have actually lived there.

Here's what they tell us.

What Japan's Own Government Data Says

You don't have to rely only on stories for this part.

Japan's Immigration Services Agency conducted its FY2025 Basic Survey on Foreign Residents between October and November 2025. It surveyed 20,000 foreign residents and special permanent residents aged 18 and over and received 8,874 valid responses.

The results are difficult to dismiss: 47% of respondents said they had experienced some form of discrimination in everyday life, while 53% said they had not.

That doesn't mean 47% of foreigners are constantly being discriminated against. The survey asks whether respondents had experienced discriminatory treatment in everyday life, and people can experience it in different situations.

But the number is still significant.

And housing stands out.

Among respondents who reported discriminatory treatment, looking for a place to live was the most commonly reported situation, at 19.4%. It was followed by discrimination while working at 17.5%, and while looking for work at 13.2%.

That's not surprising to anyone who's lived through the version of the story above.

It's also worth knowing before you're the one budgeting for key money, guarantor fees, and a rent deposit on an apartment you might not actually be approved for.

The survey also found that respondents most often identified strangers as the source of discriminatory treatment, followed by people connected to their workplace and housing or real-estate professionals.

That distinction matters.

Not every difficult interaction with a Japanese landlord, employer or stranger is necessarily racism. Sometimes language, unfamiliarity, concerns about contracts or cultural differences are involved.

But sometimes discrimination really is discrimination.

And Japan's legal history contains a case that makes that distinction particularly important.

The Ana Bortz Case: The Store That Said No

In June 1998, Ana Bortz, a Brazilian journalist living in Hamamatsu, entered a jewelry store looking for a necklace.

The store owner asked where she was from.

When Bortz answered that she was from Brazil, the situation changed.

According to court records and contemporary reporting, the store had a sign prohibiting foreigners, and the owner tried to make Bortz leave. The owner later argued that he was concerned about theft and that his actions were connected to crime prevention rather than nationality. Bortz rejected that explanation and argued that she had been treated differently simply because she was Brazilian.

She did something that was still relatively unusual at the time.

She sued.

Bortz filed a lawsuit seeking an apology and compensation. The case became closely watched because Japan did not have a comprehensive national statute specifically prohibiting racial discrimination in private transactions.

But Japan had ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1995.

That became important.

On October 12, 1999, the Hamamatsu Branch of the Shizuoka District Court ruled in Bortz's favor. The court found the conduct unlawful and awarded her ¥1.5 million in damages. Legal analysis of the judgment describes the court as using Japan's international obligations under CERD together with domestic tort law to provide a remedy.

That makes the Bortz case significant for a reason that goes beyond one jewelry shop.

It demonstrated that discrimination against a foreign resident could have legal consequences even without a standalone national law specifically banning racial discrimination in every private interaction.

The case also became an important reference point in later discussions about discrimination against foreigners in Japan. Contemporary reporting after the judgment noted that discriminatory "no foreigners" practices had not simply disappeared because of the ruling.

So when someone says, "Japan has no anti-discrimination law, therefore there's nothing you can do," that's too simplistic.

And when someone says, "Japan's laws completely eliminate racial discrimination," that's also not true.

The reality sits somewhere in between.

If something discriminatory happens to you, the Ministry of Justice's Human Rights Counseling Centers for Foreigners offer free consultation through Legal Affairs Bureaus across Japan, with interpreters available.

Where It Actually Shows Up

Beyond housing, a few patterns repeat often enough to be worth naming plainly.

Job Hunting

Some foreign applicants report encountering employers who prefer Japanese candidates or are reluctant to hire people who are not Japanese.

The reasons given aren't always explicitly racial. Sometimes they're framed around Japanese-language ability, communication, workplace culture or assumptions about how long a foreign employee will stay.

That doesn't automatically make every rejection discrimination.

But when nationality itself becomes a barrier, it can.

It's part of why we put together a list of companies that already sponsor visas and hire foreign workers — a company that's already comfortable employing foreign workers is a very different starting point from one that has never dealt with international employees.

Police Stops

This is another area where the conversation has become much more serious.

A survey released in 2025 found that around 70% of foreign nationals surveyed had been questioned by police on the street within the previous five years — nearly six times the rate reported by Japanese respondents. The survey was conducted in connection with ongoing racial-profiling litigation and was intended to document differences in police questioning experiences.

That does not mean every police stop is racist.

Police officers can legitimately question people when there are reasonable grounds to suspect a crime or when conducting ordinary police duties.

The concern is whether someone's appearance or perceived foreignness becomes the reason they are repeatedly treated as suspicious.

For Black and other visibly foreign residents, this can become particularly uncomfortable.

How these encounters go often comes down to communication, which is part of why being able to hold your own in Japanese, even without fluency, can change the experience more than people expect.

Everyday Public Spaces

Then there are the experiences that don't necessarily make the news.

Stares. Being spoken to in slow, simplified Japanese regardless of your actual fluency. People avoiding the seat next to you on a packed train. Being photographed without permission. Someone asking invasive questions about your hair, skin, nationality or where you're "really" from.

These experiences aren't always hostile.

Sometimes they're simply curiosity or unfamiliarity — something that overlaps with the same cultural differences we cover in our piece on Japan's biggest culture shocks.

But for Black residents, that attention can sometimes feel different because physical appearance makes it difficult to blend into the background.

And that's an important distinction: being noticed is not automatically racism, but repeated unwanted attention can become exhausting even when the person giving it doesn't intend harm.

Little Nigeria

None of this happens to people arriving into a vacuum.

Tokyo has had a Nigerian community for decades, with churches, businesses, social networks and other community connections that have helped Nigerians establish lives in Japan.

You can find people who have already figured out things that a newcomer may otherwise spend months learning: where to look for housing, how different employers operate, which neighborhoods are easier for foreigners, and where to find familiar food, religious communities and social support.

That doesn't erase what shows up in government data.

But it changes the shape of the decision.

You're not necessarily asking: "Can I survive this alone?"

You're asking: "Can I connect with people who already did this before me?"

And that matters.

Japan is also changing demographically. At the end of 2025, the number of foreign residents reached 4,125,395 — the first time Japan's foreign-resident population had passed four million. That was a 9.5% increase from the previous year and another record high.

Japan isn't suddenly becoming a multicultural country in the same way as Canada, the United States or the United Kingdom.

But the number of people from outside Japan living, working and studying there is growing rapidly.

That means the question of how Japanese society deals with foreigners isn't disappearing. It's becoming more important.

There is also evidence that Japanese attitudes toward immigration are not uniform. A 2026 Stanford Japan Barometer study found that Japanese respondents tended to favor highly skilled and Japanese-speaking immigrants, while attitudes varied considerably according to nationality, occupation and how immigration was framed.

So even the public conversation is more complicated than simply "Japanese people are anti-foreigner."

So Should This Stop You From Moving?

Not on its own.

But it should shape how you move, not just whether you do.

If you're considering Japan from Nigeria or elsewhere in Africa, don't go in expecting either extreme. Don't assume that everyone will treat you badly. But don't assume that discrimination cannot happen simply because Japan has a reputation for being safe and orderly.

Prepare for the practical side:

• Use foreigner-friendly real estate agencies before you fly out.
• Research a company's existing foreign staff before you apply.
• Understand the rules and expectations around housing.
• Learn enough Japanese to handle everyday situations.
• Connect with communities that are already there before you need them.

And if something genuinely discriminatory happens, know that you're not automatically without options. The Bortz case is proof that a foreign resident can challenge discriminatory treatment through the legal system — even though Japan's legal framework is different from countries with comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation.

If you're still working out which pathway even applies to your situation, start with the four routes people actually use to move from Nigeria to Japan — the groundwork you lay before you leave is what determines whether a story like the one at the top of this article becomes yours, or stays someone else's.

If you want that groundwork laid out step by step — the pathway decisions, the paperwork order, what to sort out before you leave and what can wait until you land — the Japan Relocation Starter Kit walks through exactly that, so you're not figuring it out one closed door at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it illegal to refuse to rent an apartment to a foreigner in Japan?
Japan does not have a single comprehensive national law that specifically prohibits every form of racial or nationality-based discrimination in private housing. However, that does not mean every discriminatory action is automatically consequence-free. Japan's courts have previously recognized unlawful discrimination involving foreigners, including the Ana Bortz case. For anyone searching for housing, the practical lesson is simple: work with agencies experienced in serving foreign residents and ask about landlord requirements before paying non-refundable costs.

Is Japan safe for Black people?
For many Black residents, yes. Japan has relatively low levels of violent crime, and many Black and African residents describe their daily lives as safe and comfortable. But physical safety and social experience are two different questions. Someone can feel perfectly safe walking home at night and still experience uncomfortable staring, racial profiling, housing discrimination or insensitive comments. Both realities can exist at the same time.

If you've lived in or visited Japan, does this match what you experienced, or was it different?

If this was useful, sharing it helps more people find it. And we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

So, Is Japan Racist?

There is no honest one-word answer.

Racism and discrimination exist in Japan. They are documented, and some foreign residents experience them directly.

But that doesn't mean every Japanese person is racist, that every Black resident has the same experience, or that Japan is an unsafe place for Black and African people.

The more useful question isn't simply: "Is Japan racist?"

It's: "What kinds of discrimination might I encounter, how common are they, and how can I prepare for them?"

That's the question that can actually help someone make a better decision about moving to Japan.