Been living in Japan for 5 years, work in a Japanese company as the only foreign worker (video production - tv/online etc.)

I'm just going to point out that the experiences of someone who speaks Japanese and only hangs around Japanese people and who doesn't speak Japanese and mainly hangs around with a foreign community will be very different so take these answers with a pinch of salt.

For the most part for me living in Japan is like living everywhere, you get up go to work, do your thing. Sometimes people are dicks to you but sometimes people are dicks to you in the UK or the US - sometimes people help you when they didn't need to because they can "see" you might be struggling - some people find this assumption offensive.

It really goes both ways.

Unless you're Chinese or Korean in which case Japanese people racist AF.