‘‘Sorry sir, the pet is allowed but the owner doesn’t want a foreigner’’

The title of the blog is made up. That conversation never happened, but here’s a funny story. That made-up sentence is actually true.
If you are looking for houses in Japan, especially in Tokyo, you will find that there are houses that aren’t open to foreigners. They can be only rented by Japanese people. It gets funnier when you find out that an apartment you like, the one which can host your pet in, allows pets but not open to foreigners.
Now how do you define this behavior? Is this racism? Is this xenophobia? Probably leaning towards xenophobia at first look. But when you live in Japan long enough you have a better understanding of this. Yes, xenophobia is definitely prevalent here. I am not going to defend that. But there’s also the aspect that a homeowner doesn’t want to deal with all the problems of renting out to a foreigner.
What problems you might ask. Foreigners don’t actually help other foreigners’ cases. There are some who are noisy, some who break the rules while others are not punctual with the rent money. There are a host of added things a homeowner needs to think about when renting out to a foreigner. But the issue lies in barring all foreigners just for a few bad ones. They even ask your nationality before confirming with the owner. So it’s not just about being a foreigner, sometimes X country’s citizen can be allowed while Y isn’t. You will understand which countries are X and which are Y if you start living here.
Will this ever change? I think so. Just like everything else, change is inevitable. It’s the law of nature. This will change and newer problems will come. But till then make sure you ask if a foreigner is allowed before asking about your pet.