ok, so it happened to 1 guy, and it was such a novel thing that you happen to know about it because its an interesting factoid. it's not common. realistically it's impossible for most people. I know someone who is white, born in japan, has lived there for 40+ years, native japanese speaker and she does not have citizenship.

my wife and extended family are japanese. she is actually half japanese, so i get a special view of all the weird racism embedded into their society. she even has citzenship as well as my kids, but she still is not treated as japanese because of her appearance.

That's just false. Becoming a Japanese citizen isn't harder than being a permanent resident and in some cases it's easier (https://www.turning-japanese.info/2010/07/faq-which-is-more-...). The most common thing is that people don't want to become Japanese citizens because it requires giving up their native citizenship and the benefits of permanent residency is basically equivalent to that of citizenship (other than voting).

>ok, so it happened to 1 guy

No, it happens to a bunch of people, I just chose the guy who has a Wikipedia article so you can't claim I'm fabricating an anecdote.

>she does not have citizenship

That tells us nothing. Has she tried applying for citizenship and was rejected or does she just not want it? The approval rate for naturalization requests is upwards of 95%, by the way, above that of the United States even.

You have a Japanese wife? That's nice. I'm actually Japanese and live in Japan. I think I have some authority on this topic as well.

the point is my wife is half, born in japan with citizenship, and as a result gets exposed to all kinds of edge cases that you yourself wouldnt experience or be aware of. the xenophobic tendencies of japan are well known, its disingenuous to downplay them. stuff like Atsugiri Jason is basically a minstrel show. a white guy with japanese citizenship will never get the same treatment as someone "actually japanese" like you. personally that doesnt bother me at all, im aware that im not japanese, but it sucks seeing my wife treated differently because she doesnt look full japanese.