This woman at Adores gaming center was giving some sort of discount card or ticket to everyone who came in, but didn't offer any to my husband and I. This is despite the fact that we actually patronize their establishments.
Walking down the streets of Tokyo or going into shops, you see people sometimes handing out free samples, tissues, coupons, and flyers. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you will be given a flyer regardless of foreignness. About a third of the time, however, you are not given tissue packets. And an even smaller amount of the time, you are given samples or coupons. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I can see when every person who walks by is offered something and I am not. It's hard to conclude anything other than it is highly likely that foreigners aren't seen as important enough potential customers to be given the same treatment as Japanese. There might be an assumption that we can't read what we are given or the people who hand out samples may have been explicitly told not to "waste" them on certain groups of people (including foreigners).
I won't miss being seen as so unimportant as a customer that I am not extended the same benefits, small as they might be, as Japanese people.
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