Blame Logan Paul and Johnny Somali. Japan has been limiting foreigners more harshly lately because of their antics

Speak Japanese Or Go To The Shadow Realm

Reminder there is no discrimination laws in Japan so they can tell anyone that they arent welcome in the establishment

And that is why it's not as simple as "just move to Japan and play OCG format."

Times have definitely changed, going to Japan in 2020 (January) to see worlds for vanguard plenty of stores were chill and let players join and interact for both vanguard and ygo related things. Tourists have probaably destroyed everything

I've lived off and on in Japan for years, going all the way back to 2008. The Japanese have always been a bit racist and xenophobic but it used to be that if they saw you making honest attempts to understand their culture and follow its rules, you were generally accepted. They'd deal with the language barrier, or a brief bit of awkwardness, because they could see you were trying to be respectful. In the last few years though, especially post pandemic, all that has gone out the window. If you don't speak the language reasonably well they won't bother, and at best, you'll get pointed to a more touristy place where they've likely hired English speakers and have been trained to deal with "unruly situations". I was there last year for a couple of months and I constantly had to prove I was fluent and knowledgeable enough to even do things as simple as grab some lunch or do laundry.

I went to Japan in January. I didn't play in the tournament but I did just free play with some people. I'm half Japanese so I saw it as an opportunity to practice my language skills. I surprisingly had a positive experience even though I'm not 100% fluent.

I think that the first game store wasn't being genuinely racist or xenophobic. I have a feeling that they just didn't want to go through the hassle of accommodating a foreigner, whereas a European game store would probably be more than happy to. To my understanding, they are within their legal right to deny service, even on the basis of nationality. In my opinion, while this type of discrimination is still wrong, this is the way it should be. Forcing people to do business with someone that they don't want to do business with never goes well. It's sort of the same reason why I don't like top-down forced diversity in any space. Like, if the US government forced a city full of white racists to accept foreign refugees, that entire thing would be a disaster. Why would the racists want to deal with non-white people, and why would the non-white people want to deal with racists? You can't force someone to tolerate another person. It's just not possible.

Head in the Philippines, every single playee here could speak english

for what it is worth, it really is about the language to them and not the country or race. I lived there for years and never once got turned away from playing in local tournaments as a white american. But I spoke and read the language at a pretty advanced level.

imagine if this was in the america

Yugioh community when racism and xenophobia: 😰😱😡😡😠😠 Yugioh community when racism and xenophobia in Japan: 😄😃🤔😇☝️🤓🤐

There’s been an uptick in foreign visitors basically being nuisances in the country for the past year. Among other cases, this includes Johnny Somali, desecrations of religious sites by two different foreign nationals, numerous instances of unwanted physical contact in Kyoto prompting a ban on tourists in the Geisha district, a Lawsons in the Tokyo area deliberately obscuring a skyline because of tourists jaywalking to get photos of Mount Fuji… The issue isn’t that Japan is being racist; it’s foreign visitors forgetting they’re in a different country, and the locals are simply not going to bother with nuance anymore.

this is kinda weird, someone I know (we are competitive OCG) went to jp cuz of family matters(this was during the arc-v era), even though he wasn't able to speak jp, he was still able to play in pods there and even told us his exp dueling there. I'm guessing streamers might got a hand on this one cuz a lot of them are doing stupid things there lately

I cannot speak for the current era, but in 2017-2019 Americans could play in their local tournaments. They even let me use English cards. I do not know what happened since then, but that is not the japan I remember

As someone who participated in a lot of events, you barely need to speak at all. Ordering food was more difficult. Definitely not a language thing

This was crazy to hear happen and honestly I think it's more bad on Japan than on the dude. Hope things like this don't happen that often in the future cuz man this was unheard of to me before this.

is this the same squddy that appeared in Xtevens' duel network video???

Fun fact In the policy doc for OCG locals, Konami states that you need a japanese address (basically be a resident) in order to play locals. Once again another example of Konami japan being so against foreigners. Ive been living in Japan for the past year on a study abroad program, so ive been playing yugioh ocg here and i speak relatively ok japanese, its not fluent, but it gets the job done. I cant even play competitive OCG because konami bars all non-citizens from playing, and despite being a ressident of the country i cant play in them. So stupid. Anyway, now im pretty sure that ive been to the same shop that squiddy tried first (i think its the satellite shop in akiba), ive played yugioh there, they almost immediately turned me away as i aproached the counter but they suddnly got friendly when i spoke a bit of japanese. And even then they almost didnt let me play until their manager happsned to come over. Theyre afraid of anything thats not the norm and might not 100% be exactly as planned. Its quite sad honestly how Konami just has this stance of OCG not being welcome to foreigners. Yugioh trancends language. At least MTG isnt like that here

One of my friends recently went to Japan. He did not tell me anything like that, BUT he was doing Pokemon and site seeing.

In my trip to Tokyo (I can't speak to the rest of the country), I didn't have any negative experience for not speaking Japanese, but I also didn't try to play the game there. But I know that there are some spots that are closed to tourists or non-Japanese, for various reasons.

Hold up. How do you play without arms?

May this hopefully be a one off incident. Justice for my boy.

Back in the days when I used to play in the TCG, I went to the very first YCS held here in England, YCS Brighton. There, they were representatives from all over the world, and to accommodate different nationalities and languages, they had judges there to help translate. Also, some of the duelists had printed out pages (translated into English) what the effects were to help out and speed up the duels, without the need to call a judge over every 5 seconds. I mean, I could easily be wrong here, but it sounds to me more like, they had bad previous experiences with streamer/KZfaq personalities and just didn't want to cause trouble for their local players. I mean, I could be wrong, but this is just my 2 cents on the matter

I think that's ridiculous. At my locals we have a deaf and mute duelist. Nobody ever has an issue playing with him

Isnt it Konami policy that foreigners cannot purchase entry to large ocg events?

I spend two months there as a tourist and had no issue and I'm not Japanese or can speak it. I was able to john a few MTG tournaments and played just fine. I visited a ton of Yugioh shops and bought stuff with no issue. I didn't play any yugioh namely cuz I don't own an ocg deck. I would have like to visit the YCS tournament that was going on but you need a lottery ticket to enter and register.

I've played a few tournaments while I was in Japan both yugioh and magic. Never had this problem. I've acually had the opposite experience people where excited to have me there even wanting to trade for my English cards. I would understand if they felt like I shouldn't play as my Japanese is horrible and that could definitely make the tournament drag longer.

From what I understand, if anyone that doesn't speak Japanese tries to go into a restaurant or a nightclub as a tourist you will be turned away not so much because of your inability to speak Japanese it's largely because that establishment's ownership or staff aren't confident in their ability to speak English so, it's easier for them to turn you away and maybe point you to a place that will accept you

Interesting video 👍

just my experience as an exchange student fluent in Japanese that went to that same store and many others: I for sure have found some opponents that seemed to be a bit concerned about having to speak English/being unsure whether I could understand Japanese enough to play properly but never was I rejected from the staff, I always felt welcome and a lot of them were also curious about the tcg, our exclusives, our banlists etc and had a lot of talks. I'm confident to say that it wasn't a case of racism, rather they were concerned about the matches not being able to be conducted in a decent way. Also there's a lot of stores that have a duel space but don't host tourneys

Given the amount of tech we have today, using a translation app should do the job. Konami could have one made so that all ots stores would be required to have one so all are able to play.

its not the store, that's just japan, there are multiple stories of people being polite to people but not actually being welcoming to forgieners

From my understanding, and please someone correct me if I’m wrong, but Japan has always had a no gaijin policy for a lot of non tourists areas. Now with the whole streamer situation just made it worse. Japan is a very different culture from us, like VERY different. So while it’s unfortunate it also not surprising to me. I still would love to visit there one day to get to experience the old architecture and rich history that is there.

Lucky guy, don't came to Brazil

That's why I don't travel, this bullshit.

Yeah Japan is like that. When I was in Japan I was going to get a drink because I was very thirsty because I was walking all day and they denied me service because I was in Japanese and I said I will be quick I can also take it with me and not be inside and they said no we don't serve foreigners. It isn't nice but sadly what can you really do 🤷‍♂️

From my experience they either refuse to serve me at stores even when google translate is around or they give lower quality/portions to me compared to other japanese people in restaurants. I wasn't rude or loud at all at those places

so is everyone not gunna talk about the elephant in the room that cards shop was small worlds, nats and ycs's are huge events ive seen no one mentioning that only "but ycs's but euros" japan is japan but lets not ignore it was a smaller store that cant make the necessary set up. not to mention he walked up on the day of the event like come on .

I've actually seen a Japanese alphabet before and now I'm learning it.

I live in China and play at my locals in Wuhan every weekend. Even though i don't speak the language they are completely fine with me playing. I know what most of the cards do but if i dont i just pull out my phone and pit it on the table so they can see im looking up a card. No one ever hss a problem eith that. I just use ygo pro and typ in the card name and read it. Its not so hard so i think its really messed up they didn't let him play in Japan:(

This is first time i saw someone got kicked. For years asian (not just chinese. Theres a lot of races in Asia) going to tournament or local never get kicked. This was before covid. Cardfight vanguard and yu gi oh OCG are the most popular here. Still remember 5 player from local joining tournament in JP back then set in Tokyo (cardfight vanguard btw). None were kicked. Now this?. Those streamers really putting bad image for real.

Got weird looks and heard someone say “scary” because I’m tall and dark skinned 😂 Japan has BEEN racist and xenophobic it’s not a surprise to me that he got kicked from stores.

MegaCapitalG, amazing content dude

When I was In Japan my limited Japanese was enough but a lot of people who go to Japan speak the language, I didn’t have problems playing vanguard there

Look at it this way. When he play a card did he say the japanese name or U.S. name.

Just use Master Duel sound effects to communicate what you're doing 😂

In the EU we will mostly speak English when we are from different countries. Except the French.. they love speaking French and live in an illusion where French is a language of importance.

Most Americans/ people from the western countries don’t realize that a lot of other countries discriminate, been to many other countries and seen a lot of stores/ restaurants that didn’t allow foreigners in.

I've been living here for 5 years, and I go quite often to that store (Akihabara Card Lab, Satellite store) and I've never been told that only japanese are allowed, though it is true that if you don't speak Japanese you may be asked to refrain from playing, since japanese don't speak English at all. Even though I think that message was quite racist 😂

Squiddy was a legend on DN

Crazy ass question are you in SC or NC? Cause you spoke about a player named Bubba with no arms and thatd be a CRAZY coincidence otherwise

Friends: why don't you wanna go to Japan? Me after also explaining my social anxiety:

It might be just because you're viewed as a foreigner. Japan has started cracking down on foreigners due to tourists coming and causing trouble, like messing up historical buildings/landmarks. Streamers have also been showing up and becoming nuisances.

It’s likely due to to the rampant bad behavior from foreign tourists. It’s gotten so bad over there, Japanese people have gone out of their way to block off areas of Japan so people couldn’t visit there. I wouldn’t be surprised if this caused others to be cautious of foreigners as well outside of tourist areas. Japan usually has some foreign hating folk, but what country doesn’t? The whole bad tourist thing is likely making it worse and making those haters feel justified.

As I understand it....Racial Discrimination is legal in Japan.

"how can you play without communicating?" literally all you need to communicate in a duel is "this card, activate", "this card, attack"

There is no way this made full circle

Been there before, played just fine, you do need basic japanese skills not to play but to do anything else at the local like registering, discussing eventual ruling issues etc

Yeah it’s might be unfair but at the same time it makes sense.

Pegasus didn't seem to have a problem with bandit Keith competing in duelist kingdom

Japans history has shown heavy isolation for thousands of years now. I do not find this surprising. I find it surprising that people wonder why their brith rate is not sustains population growth and they have the highest rate of loneliness and other sad things. It’s not utopia like people think.

Well, their rules say you need to be a japanese resident to participate. Simple rule, but unfortunately yugioh players don't read...

Yep, this is very common in some asian countries, I know by people not only Japan but China and South Korea as well are the worst.

I dont think its because of yugioh and the language barrier,he told that even a sushi place kicked him out.I think its because of the Jonny Gay Somali story and the youtube vlogger disaster that happend that ppl there hate tourists right now.

Even if your exp tells you the language barrier doesn't matter it doesn't imply that those japanese's employee know that. YGO is a very complicated game and yes communication is important. They don't know you are an expert you might need some explaining and not being able to speak the language then it is a big problem.

Nah this would have been more trouble than it was worth for the stores. I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill.

How does world's work then?

Damn, japan really be out here being the america of the east huh? 🤣

I visited Japan in 2010 and I had a good time.

The argument "Well, Worlds and Europe do fine with multiple languages" is a really bad argument. Tournaments in multi-language environments are designed to accomodate multiple languages, unlike tournaments in solo-language environments. So when all of a sudden someone in a tournament in a solo-language environment suddenly needs to be accomodated for a different language, that's a huge issue.

Sad but not unexpected. On one hand I dislike how other people have ruined it for people who WANT to do the right thing in Japan and people shouldn't be blamed for what they have experienced from bad actors, on the other it almost says something about a country that wants to take pride in their culture but not give others a fair shake when all they wish to do in engage with people in a fair and honest intent.

OCG vs TCG I wouldnt say the language isnt a problem.. in this case its most definately is as OCG has cards never released in the TCG and cards not released yet so cards you have absolutely never seen can and will show up. If you cant read the card how can you translate it when you cant read/speak the language? TCG on the other hand every country has the card and you'll be seeing alot of cards you know. So translation is abit of less of an issue at least with the cards themselves.

As an obviously non-Japanese person, I have been to dozens of card shops in Tokyo and bought tons of cards and never had any issues. The store employees were all friendly and respectful. Never tried to enter a locals over there though, so can't speak for that.

Insane, meanwhile we got folks from Asia who have come to the UK for education and don't speak English too well yet we still allow them to join us in locals. Heck we've even had one guy playing against us with his full OCG deck.

Konami kinda has huge beef with europe for whatever reason. We don't just have no YCS, we also didn't get the newest Speed duel box, which had WONDER FUSION and Neos (my beloved). ... I don't get it. Why does europe gets discriminated? That's so unfair

I literally play with a German deck if somebody needs the translations I always have my cards in English on the side but for the most part people just don’t need to read or talk to play the game you just need to know what the card does

Native or normal citizen of most country usually not really that interested in learning other language. It's less problem to not accept the customer if they don't have any worker who can understand English. Of course there's a more international friendly shop. It's just still not that many, I think.

they are not wrong to do it though, I mean how you will explain your plays/card effects to your opponent if they can only speak/understand Japanese and most of the translator app are not that good.

Maybe it is a culture thing and maybe they are just shy of not being able to accommodate. However, that does not take away from the fact that Japan has a huge xenophobic reputation. Claiming that the store was just trying to avoid an awkward situation just further causes that reputation to persist. For those Japanese citizens that want to remove that stigma from their country maybe they should push for more inclusive policies. Because I know in my heart most of Japan isn’t racist or xenophobic. At the end of the day I get it different country different rules and they have the right to run it how they like. It is just sad that these kind of issues still persist in modern society. At a certain point people around the world have to realize how closed minded our previous generations have been towards one another. Why can’t we accept each other’s differences and just make accommodations so that we can collaborate. I don’t know the story they told in Japan for yugioh, but on 4kids it was all about friendship and teamwork. I think the store missed an opportunity to showcase how yugioh can overcome all sorts of barriers and bring people together.

To solve this problem, all events that are open to both OCG/TCG should be held in Switzerland. Neutrality, right? 🤣 Otherwise, he should probably take this up with corporate Konami. Might be able to get something out of it. As far as OTHER places not serving you because you can't speak Japanese, might I recommend you look up the many, readily accessible guides to Japan for non-Japanese speakers?

It's fine in my book. It's not like Europe asked to be flooded, let them have an actual choice.

I understand why the OCG requires you to speak Japanese and why the TCG doesn't require you to speak a certain language. It's because the OCG is two languages, Japanese and Korean, and only one of those languages is spoken in Japan. The TCG has many languages and people in countries where they play the TCG typically speak multiple languages. Europe, Canada, the US, and even some countries in Asia all speak multiple languages. So, having language requirements wouldn't make much sense.

I feel like this is a very American assumption that anyone will be willing to accommodate for someone who doesn't make the effort of learning the language. To me it makes perfect sense to not allow people who don't speak the language. If something were to happen it would be just too much of a hassle for everyone involved if you cant easily communicate. If people in US tournaments are willing to do extra effort to accommodate those who don't speak English props to them but you can't expect that from everyone. To me this is like going to a restaurant and ask them to make a meal that isnt on the menu. Some might be willing to accommodate but most obviously wont want to deal with that. Why make extra work because one customer is too lazy to learn Japanese?

I see people blaming it only on japan, but I would be willing to bet, that if someone who doesn't speak english and only communicated through translator app showed up to an event in US, most stores would deny entry to that player as well.

Hahaha I used to play with Squiddy. Good dude is good, but honestly how would he or anyone think they could play in a Japanese tournament without being able to speak Japanese and not run into problems? That's kind of like trying to enter a Fencing tournament without a sword or ppe. I can't imagine trying to play in a language I don't speak or vice versa because it'd be very challenging for me, and this is coming from someone who used to know every card. It's pretty crappy tho that he got shafted in what's essentially unofficial locals or gathering as a result. If someone didn't speak English and came to my card shop, I'm pretty sure nobody would be a dick about it and we'd find some way to help them out by at the very least googling a few words like attack, effect, end, etc and showing pictures of cards in their familiar language that players don't have memorized. I did this pretty often with things that received erratas or even something like Relinquished where some (if not all?) versions omitted some relevant information.

If you're not allowed to use non - Japanese lang cards then why would you be allowed to use another lang for communication ?

I always wonder if anyone can play without hands or arms now I know they can n do 👍

I cant speak on the shops themselves, but the people saying squiddys clearly in the wrong is mind boggling. You're not bad for trying to play with other players who speak a different language, and you are wild if you think that makes him "insensitive" or a "bigot". Leaving politics aside... I dont get this whole "you gotta know language to be able to play" argument. Yea yugioh is a hard game, but game mechanics are universal unlike an entire language. People who get payed to play games (esport games like LoL or CS) competetivley arent stopped by "language barrier". They want to play with/against the best players they can find. Maybe yugioh is just different and im comparing apples and oranges, but I feel you shouldnt need to know the persons entire language to be able to play a game with them if you both understand the mechanics. If the shops dont wanna deal with it or its an nats qualification thing then thats fine. I get hung up on this language barrier argument though. Is it really that undoable?

I side with the shop owners here

Theres a huge difference between translating european languages like spanish, english and french which have similar roots. However Japanese google translate is horrendous. It makes perfect sense. Like you are also comparing regionals and locals which is weird. American sure are weird.

Yugioh is complex enough. I wouldn’t want to explain a ruling on why X effects are negated due to X conditions meanwhile my opponent speaks a completely different language 🙆 So I’m not blaming the Japanese for not dealing with that bull💩 😂

While it is likely just an isolated incident one thing I will point out is The West is not the world, and in much of the world they will not make the same effort we do in The West to accommodate things like language barriers, hell in some places they won't even accommodate disabilities. I'm not surprised to see it happen in Japan tbh, and if I was going to visit another country I would do as much as I could to ensure I would be able to communicate with people effectively be that learning their language at a basic level, finding a translator or whatever. Often times simply being able to show you are making an effort on your end will result in people being more willing to work with you.

This is wild smh it’s unfair and almost racist to other languages there should at least be translators for English and Spanish and German

If Japan is open to tourism they NEED to sell to tourists. simple as that. biases aside this is a money thing above all else. The fact that theyre saying your money is no good because your a tourist is CRAZY. However your right i he can't SPEAK the language he cant play the game. it would be the same here. But shitty people going to Japan and acting the fool have absolutely ruined things for everyone else.

Yea this is fair. I understand their decision

When u visit a different country understand that you're the guest in their house. U don't come in and argue why they gotta let u do whatever u want in their house. Thats basic manners

The argument comparing it to Europe is bad, because almost everyone in the EU can speak at least basic English, that isn't the case in Japan. I also think one of the main reasons for him being turned away, is because they are small local tournaments. There my be no one that speaks English there, where that properly isn't the case in larger tournaments.

well at least he wasn't..... your know

Its because they updated the Ocg Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament qualifying rules you cant be a foreigner and or speak English you gotta know at least some Japanese or at least enough they pass you