I`m not a Guest in Japan!

by Kevin Burns
(Odawara, Japan)

I feel it is a mistake to think you are a guest in any nation. "It`s a small world afterall." We are all citizens of the world and we deserve to be treated with respect and dignity wherever we are, and
wherever we choose to live.



If you feel you are a guest, it really means that you are in someone else`s home and they make the rules.
If you don`t like it, you can leave.



This feeling puts you one place down from the citizens who grew up there (in this case Japan). Again it is a mistake to feel this way.



Expats are not guests in Japan. We live here.
We pay taxes, we marry locals, we raise our children and we speak Japanese (of varying levels at least).



After 20 years in this country, I am certainly not a guest.



Do I deserve the right to vote? Tough question!


I would like the right, but I don`t want to have to give up my Canadian citizenship to get it.



Indeed I think all nations should strive to treat
all citizens equally, whether they hold the nationality of the country of residence or not.



The right to vote I don`t have to have. But
fingerprinting me repeatedly everytime I go to the airport (isn`t once enough? It isn`t like I am changing my fingerprint everyday!), and not doing the same to the Japanese man behind me in the line is wrong. It is prejudice. Why am I singled out?



This is basicly saying that I am a potential
criminal and he is not--simply based upon the way we look.



If you want to get more involved in fighting against ethnic profiling like this you should join
Amnesty International Japan.