>>When I lived in Japan I had to carry an 'Alien Registration Card' at all times as well as having my finger prints taken when I did register.

This was a bit of a surprise as no Japanese citizen has to carry an ID, only foreigners. On looking into it and talking to friends I found out more about the treatment of ethnic Koreans and Chinese. These are groups of people who have been born in Japan often to parents who were taken as forced labour prior to and during WWII. They can never get full Japanese citizenship and are not allowed to take jobs in management positions. A recent case was highlighted where a nurse applied for a sisters position in a hospital but due to her Korean ethnicity it was refused despite the fact she had been born in Japan and Japanese was her first language.

These groups more often than not do not marry 'full' blooded Japanese even if they take Japanese names as background check are carried out of the prospective partners as to their parentage and heredity.

Even amongst the Japanese there is a sub group called the burakumin who are descendants or children of those Japanese who worked with butchering meat, preparing leather, or burying the dead. In olden times they were called 'eta' (filth) and were forced into the lowest and dirtiest jobs such as night soil collectors. This group is forced to intermarry as 'normal' Japanese would not marry them.

Add to that the dalit class in India and you have millions of people in the East who are disadvantaged by their background.

I have seen some pretty blatant discrimination here in Shanghai where Shanghaiese (who are probably the worst) refer to non Shanghai people as waidiren. They are not just verbally rude to them but often will serve Shanghaiese first in a shop or even just ignore them or try and cheat them. But the howls of outrage when Shanghaiese are similarly treated when the boot is on the other foot is a joy to see.

Blatant racism is not just a European phenomena but alive and well in the far east. <<

Obviously you have absolutely no idea what the term "racism" means. Japan is xenophobic--they dislike anyone of any race when they are gaijin. The US is racist. They dislike foreigners only when they are non-white.