I was cruising Yahoo Auctions earlier today and was about to put a bid in on a Famicom game from this seller by the name of gs76u87o.
Then I stopped because I wasn't allowed to. Not because I have any problems with my feedback. Not because I couldn't pay promptly. Not because of anything I had done or would do.
The reason I couldn't put a bid in on the game was because gs76u87o is a piece of racist garbage.
If you can read Japanese and take a look at any of his listings, he openly states that he won't deal with foreigners. Note that the language makes it clear that he isn't referring to people living overseas - which would be OK since most sellers only ship within Japan for a variety of legitimate reasons. No, he means anyone who is not ethnically Japanese he won't deal with regardless of where they live.
While not in the majority, it is disturbingly common to find this sort of racism being openly displayed by sellers on Yahoo Auctions. It probably doesn't get commented on much since these things are always written in Japanese so most foreigners don't notice and it has less visceral impact than seeing "Japanese people only" written in English..
It pisses me off that Yahoo Japan - a major company if there ever was one - allows this open type of racial discrimination to go on. If an Ebay seller put up a condition saying "Only white people can bid on my stuff, if I find out you aren't white, I will leave negative feedback and blacklist you" you can imagine the shitstorm that would happen. That guy would not have an Ebay account for long. On Yahoo Auctions though it is totally OK and good luck trying to complain about it.
This sort of shit is, while not an everyday thing, something that foreign residents of Japan do have to put up with in various situations. The only time it ever really causes a stir is when the perpetrators make the mistake of expressing their racism in English - as was the case with the incident in the photo at the top of this page (which occurred at a pro soccer game - the team actually allowed that banner to be hung in the stadium for the duration of the game and were only punished by the league after an outcry following the photo showing up online).
So anyway, what was my point? Fuck you gs76u87o I guess is obvious, but also fuck you Yahoo Japan for allowing this shit to exist on your service that I AM FUCKING PAYING YOU TO PROVIDE TO ME and have a LEGITIMATE EXPECTATION THAT MY ETHNICITY WILL NOT PRECLUDE ME FROM FUCKING USING IT.
Sorry for the all caps, but that really needed to be emphasized.
Whoa... I think this is the first time I've ever seen such strong language on here. But man, you are right. Racism should NEVER be tolerated ANYWHERE. It's really sad that there would be some people who wouldn't accept money just because the customer is a different race than them. All we can really hope for is that karma bites this guy (and any other racist losers) hard on the ass. You know what they say about karma... the longer it takes to hit, the more devastating it will be.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry about the language :) I got a bit riled up there.
ReplyDeleteI should perhaps emphasize that the vast majority of sellers on Yahoo are cool, but there are some guys like this out there who are just openly racist.
Some people in business just don't like money that much.
DeleteThat's OK, let's stay positive, I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't take care of the way he packs the games, that the products he sells don't work and that they smell like dog poop... I'm sure you're not missing anything ;D
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt, yes, his stuff probably has all that stuff going against it. My victory for having avoided giving him any money :)
ReplyDeleteMy sister was once refused tissues on the street. She asked him "Gaijin kirai desu ka?" He almost shit his pants. His companions gave her lots of tissues as an apology. He just ran away like a little mouse. Some of us do understand Japanese. Surprise surprise. If you live in Japan you should be able to buy whatever you want.
ReplyDeleteEven if I could order in a friend's or husband's name I still wouldn't buy from an asshat like that and I'd let everyone know what a shitty behaviour is going around. It would never be tolerated in my country and it's illegal at that.
I don't live in Japan right now but I've been visiting a lot. Maybe one day I might live there, who knows. I could met someone and end up staying there. If I do the first thing I'll do is writing to the Japanese government and stop this bullshit if needed. Heck I'd do it anyway and get others to do it too. I think it's serious enough, actually.
Foreigners are probably more accepted now than before but it's still not quite comfortable knowing people can put up signs like that. Gosh heavens, how could anyone accept that, even if someone is pure breed Japanese?
Next time I'm Japan, if I spot any racist asshats I'll be sure to let them know that I wont accept their opinions. Don't worry, I'm not gonna bitch and yell, I'll ask them as calmly and polite as possible to take down the sign or whatever it's about. Or you know I could send 50 foreigners their way and see how they deal with rejecting them all from entering. lol
If you can't figure out why they don't give free tissues to gaijin then i feel sorry for you.
DeleteWhy do they not give free tissues to gaijin?
Deleteclueless here
I have encountered similar sellers before. On both ends of the spectrum though. I am glad to say more often I get sellers who when they see I am not Japanese engage in friendly banter about world travels etc more than the few who have canceled the sale and black listed me. While I agree with you that this kind of behavior is horrible. I would only say "Fuck You" to yahoo if they were made aware of the issue and did nothing. Have you contacted yahoo about this ass hat?
ReplyDeleteSo what about proxy companies. Do you think they run into these type of issues? I rarely buy stuff off Yahoo! Auctions these days, but when I do I use a proxy company like Rinkya.
ReplyDeleteso racism, much wow
ReplyDeleteseriously. why!? there needs to be more strict anti racist polices on auction sites, that's why I never use them, along with ludicrous shipping charges and scammers
I found your blog after googling that seller and had a similar experience over a PS2 game bundle (I can probably find elsewhere, but that's beside the point)
ReplyDeleteNo reason was given. My bid was removed and I was blocked from all communication and bidding with him.
Here's the thing. *I am a naturalized Japanese citizen* it's pretty crazy. If he didn't block everyone he thought was foreign his rating would be a lot lower. Is there anywhere else online to complain about sellers like that? Yahoo Auction is unwilling to help.
That is crazy. Yahoo Auctions really needs to institute some sort of rules/buyer protection system - it is a total free for all out there and while most sellers are perfectly fine there are enough bad apples like this guy out there trying to ruin it. Not sure what can be done, other than of course putting up blog posts like this (would obviously be more efffective if this blog was in Japanese but I guess its a start).
ReplyDeleteTry putting up a blurb in Japanese about it to catch searches in Japanese?
DeleteMan, that is some bullshit. Like Candiman asked, have you reported this guy (or anyone else with similar nonsense on their shops)? If so, what was their response?
ReplyDeleteThere is no reporting option for being racist, and no custom option either. Yahoo doesn't care.
Deletebut there would be no problem that a japanese buys him cheap and fucks off some people on ebay later... (especially when it's some koreans (who were supposedly hated by japanese..) whichs makes the fuck. it's a gay orgy there
ReplyDeleteYou alright?
DeleteI don't see any problem with this, I'm pretty sure that it's just a hassle dealing with foreigners when Japanese isn't their first language. Unfortunately it's just a bit of a blanket rule probably to streamline the process. It's not like they hate you. I was born in Australia and I'm not Caucasian, I've lived with REAL racism all my life. I know no other language other than English but because of my appearance have been told to my face to 'go home to China' numerous times. Firstly I'm not Chinese and secondly all I had to do to score the nasty comments was to just exist. If the roles were reversed and you were the seller, would you really want to keep communicating to Japanese customers that communicated only in Japanese and kanji?
ReplyDeleteIf you think Japanese people don't exhibit "real racism", then maybe you should indeed go home to China.
DeleteThe point you seem to be making is that since there are worse instances of racism out there this instance of racism is OK. I don`t really accept that in principle, though I acknowledge that you being told to go home to China is way more egregious. I also acknowledge that I am a white male who never experienced racism of any sort before (and of course that white males in general have heaping racism on others in horrible ways for centuries).
ReplyDeleteThat said, my personal experience is largely irrelevant - the racism I am complaining about doesn`t apply just to white males but to all foreigners resident in Japan (the vast majority of whom are not white males).
You note the intention of the guy as if that was somehow important. It is totally irrelevant. If some Australian business refused to serve people who looked Asian not out of personal hate but simply out of concern that their English might not be so good and banning all of them "streamlined the process" would you accept that? If not, why do you think foreigners in Japan should?
But even if we were to accept your suggestion that it wasn't about hate, you have the problem that contrary to what you suggest, everyone who uses YAJ has to speak Japanese so language isn`t the problem. Nobody is trying to message back and forth with sellers in English or any other language (the whole website is in Japanese and just signing up for the account, not to mention using it, requires a fairly decent command of the written language).
So your example about the roles being reversed is a misleading comparison. When I sell stuff in an English language website (as I sometimes do) I naturally expect to be communicated with in English. For the same reason I don`t expect YAJ sellers to communicate with me in anything but Japanese. What I don`t do as a seller is pre-emptively ban everyone who has a name that doesn`t sound English from doing business with me. You know why? Because I`m not a racist prick like this guy, that is why.
Yeah it doesn't matter if there's worst cases of racism, it shouldn't be tolerated or allowed anywhere in the world. If he wont sell to non Japanese he may as well stop going to Mc Donald's and stop eating pasta and bread and all the other things that isn't considered Japanese. I'm being a little silly here but I'm not wrong am I? We're not moving into his house, if we pay him for the games he should have no rights to complain.
DeleteTo be honest, racism is another face for being a prick.
DeleteSo how is that ever right?
But being totally honest, if a seller was racist the way you pointed out, you were lucky - you avoided dealing with an individual like that and that is a red flaq all around.
and yes, yahoo should curtail their auctions that have that behavior, but not until after you can weed out who you should not buy from first lol :D
Ah boo hoo now ya know what us Japanese/Asians feel in the US etc.. Hint. Nothing any of you say or do would ever change peoples private views and no matter what the fucking govt or some company rule.
ReplyDeleteLike with all the PC crap here in the states which have done shit for racial problems. For fucks sake its a damn ebay trader for a stupid whatever the hell a famicom is on the god damn internet of all places..Move the hell on you white/non asian sissy's.. Racial shit where you dweebs live is a 1000% times worse than Japan so stfu.
You just troll the internet for 3 year old posts on random blogs to vent? Surely you have better ways to use your time.
DeleteHeh, just stumbled upon this 3 year old post and immediately recognized the seller name. Tried to buy a few games from him just a couple of weeks ago (a boxed FC copy of DuckTales among other things), but despite placing my bids less than 10 minutes before the end of the auctions they all got immediately cancelled and I was blacklisted.
ReplyDeleteMany of his auctions seem to go for cheaper than the market rate but I guess that's just because he intentionally drives a large portion of his potential customers away.
Fantastic blog you have here, by the way. Great fun to read about the adventures of a fellow gaijin game collector. Have spent a good couple of hours here today (slow day at the office).
Thanks!
DeleteAh, can't say I'm surprised to hear that he is still at it, once an ass hole always an ass hole. I've stumbled across a few more guys like that over there on Yahoo Auctions in the last 3 years, its always frustrating when I do.
And thanks for reading!
So wait, this guy is being racist, and at the same time is using Yahoo!, a service created by... oh, what's that? Yeah, that's right. Americans. Foreigners. Whatever you wanna call 'em. I don't care if it's the Japanese branch or not, it's still a joint venture with an American company and also happens to bear its name.
ReplyDeleteThe irony here is absolutely stunning.
This is not stunning, this "irony" is grasping at straws.
DeleteI had the same experience with this seller before I found your blog.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a different perspective I can add, that other people here cannot:
I have sold on Yahoo auctions myself for years and know how the system works.
Unless "shop" accounts have different tools available, you cannot see any information about a user before they win the auction.
In my case I was blacklisted before the auction ended. They would have had no way to know I was not Japanese. You can click a bidder's username and check their public account (which has no info), but that's it.
Likely the reason for them blocking me was their asinine crap in their asinine description, cuz on Yahoo Auctions, apparently you can just make up your own rules (not entirely true, but kinda true nonetheless):
"Those with an evaluation of less than 10, those with an evaluation of 0.7% or more of the total (excluding the evaluation at the time of sale), foreigners, vendors, those thought to be agents, those with a history of cancellation, and those whose most recent evaluation was less than 6 months ago. Bids from the above will be cancelled and registered on the black list. We have no choice but to cancel bids from first-time bidders right before the end of the auction because we cannot check their evaluation."
At the time of bidding, I had 85 good reviews and 2 bad reviews (this is my buyer account, my seller account has hundreds of transactions). Also my last purchase was more than 6 months ago. These people (and I noticed the following pattern a lot in Japan), love making up rules that they THINK will help, without having ever measured or quantified their results. Blocking people with good reviews that have not bought things for a few months is completely irrational.