I was skeptical of this comment at first, but well said. You clearly have a solid understanding of social and cultural undercurrents at work here which is really refreshing for a Reddit comment about Japan.

I'd also add that Japan is certainly not the only country that exudes xenophobic qualities. It's common through much or Asia, and even precious Europe. Spain in particular is difficult to integrate into in my experience, though oddly no one ever seems to talk about that.

The difference is that Japan is essentially the only country where westerners are both a minority AND not given special preference. It's one of the only counties in the world where white people in particular experience being not socioeconomically advantaged, in addition to being a minority in a homogeneous society. I think this is predominantly why Japan is singled out as being racist by (white) Westerners who visit the country.

And for people who bring modern treatment of Koreans/Chinese into this- that's not really racism either. That's just Japan acting the same way that Westerners do when they see a hoard of Chinese mainland tourists overtake a buffet restaurant.