A week never seems to pass by and I am spammed by constant Mixi messages and e-mails about joining some sort of International Party （国際交流会）or 'Event' in Shibuya and Roppongi every weekend. Normally the events are billed at the whopping cost of 2000 yen (about 500 yen more than some club nights in Pongi) and are often swamped in a see of English.

The offennding site that gained my ire this week was;

http://internationalparty.p-kit.com/

2000円？高そうな！詐欺だ！そういうことは全般的に自由だと思った。

And if you don't speak Japanese, I'm saying (or is it writing?) 2000 yen is a bloody con and I thought that such things as networking were free in this world.

I appreciate such gestures now and again but I have a few pertinent questions that need answering whenever I receive such mails. Firstly, who actually makes money off this? And secondly is who stupid enough to want to go to these things anyway? This might seem blunt but I simply can't comprehend the answers for either of them.

I thought such things as social networking were free? I can understand if you market this as some type of speed dating thing but its clearly a social mixer for gaijin and Japanese people. I suppose if you want a quickie, there is always Gas-Panic and if you want a language exchange there are practically tons of ways to engineer this (such as various internet sites and newspaper ads.) But this seems to fall into a grey area of not knowing where to fall (or even stand.)

The problem I have is that I am struggling to know if such things exist because of foreigners in Japan who refuse or struggle to integrate or whether it is the problem of the Japanese in not accepting foreigners into their own country. Why do we need to have these things? Surely if we were active enough, everything would fall into place.

Oddly the Japanese are exactly like the British. Perversely obsessed with what goes on outside our little island but as soon as it dirfts upon their shore they hide away and universally double-think it to death. It'd be cool to have a [Japanese/gaijin/American] friend but I am sure as hell not going to go up and make the first move.

On an initial front, especially from my own experiences the Japanese can be very cold and very awkward when it comes to dealing with foreigners. Foreigners or 'gaijin' represent the concept of 'uchi' and 'soto' basically the ins and outs of Japan. For the most part Japan is punctuated by plenty of social groups which range from what school you represent and where you grew up. It explains why Tokoyites remain slightly aversive to people from Osaka and how a Waseda student will never fraternise with a student from Keio university. Gaijin are eternally 'uchi' to the Japanese 'soto'. As much as any dreamer will try and have you believe the Japanese will never fully accept a foreigner no matter how 'jouzu' their Japanese is or how well they bow and slurp their noodles.

Such markets represent something of a growing danger for Japan, one which stems from the mass commercialisation of 'foreignhood' in Japan and also of the apparent holes within Japanese society.

Firstly, by making money of such events you are allowing it to be corrupted by those ignorant enough to abuse the system for their own ends. Thus you can get a nefarious cocktail of any number of 'eigo-bandits', 'eigo-leeches', 'ounetsudansei' and 'gold diggers'. Worse of all comes from the fact that although some companies and NPO's will make tireless efforts with good intentions and in immense faith it can be turned over to money making machines who see no interest in fostering some type of international relations but merely to make as much money as possible.

Secondly, and slightly more crucially to the main point of my article, is that the mere existence of such 'events', especially those on a wider, mass-scale expose a certain level of failure within the Japanese system. It becomes more apparent that such issues as internationalisation and cross-cultural boundaries are failing - in part to such issues as 'uchi' and 'soto'.

Unfortunately many people in Japan, and it goes without saying this applies to a lot more countries as well, are still fairly ignorant when it comes to foreign countries and cultures. We still live in a world where the boundaries are scribbled in with a pencil and coloured in with blotchy ink. We still think of the Japanese in a certain way as industrious sexually repressed technocrats and they still think of us as those blonde haired Hollywood types with funny noses. Sadly this is continued more so whenever these international events are advertised and sold to semi-gullible twats in Japan. Replace the word International with the word 'America' and the gerund 'meeting' with 'speaking English' and you have a fine summary of what a lot of Japanese half expect at such events. I will draw from personal experience my time in Osaka and Himeji when me and my friend Chris were constantly mistaken for Americans despite the fact we spoke British English and ironically self-depricting ourselves every six seconds. (the above site avoids this misconception but there are worse ones out there which flow down this line.)

Unfortunately, for the Japanese foreign countries extend far beyond America. Believe or not, if someone has white skin, there is great statistical possibilities they will not be American. America itself is not even as close to being totally Caucasian if you compare to countries such as the UK and France - even with the number of immigrants and those descended from immigrants.

Its perhaps this startlingly high level of ignorance, along with the fact I have absolutely no interest in speaking English that I tend to avoid these events like a man covered in honey next to a swarm of killer bees.

However, something is changing inside me and believe it or not I am starting to understand even with my massive reservations and criticism why such events must or even have to take place in Japan. For one thing, the Japanese will never ever take it upon themselves to attempt to make conversation or break from their structural norms in daily life. Unlike the British who can be quite reserved in daily life, we have our places for social interaction and areas where one can forgot the norms of society and vent free (often for most places this is the local pub) for the Japanese even the most open izakaya and liberal ramen shop in the world will never change the spirit of the nation.

Lastly and probably more pertinently to the whole discussion of the issue, is that of language, both for the Japanese and for the foreigners themselves. As the vast majority both share a sense of reservation about their abilities and connections. No-one is willing to guess that all Japanese can speak fluent English as much as a foreigner can speak some level of Japanese. Here in Tokyo, you are branched into two main categories; either you are a foreigner able to speak Japanese or you are a foreigner that can speak none at all. Such events actually tear down this presupposition and presume parity on both sides upon which there is a common consensus and language to be shared; be that Japanese or English and be that from a zero to basic level to practically fluent.

It is with these deep considerations that whilst I freely look upon such events with some type of annoyance and confusion, I have been borne with being able to see some new found value. I feel now I am able to understand to a certain extent why these events exist in Japan and why they will probably still exist for the foreseeable future. I just really wish they would stop using my e-mail for the purposes of international communication.