My wife is Japanese, and she's really funny, she claims to hate Japan and Japanese culture, she much prefers America. So this is her favorite statistic! She heard one that at some point there will be 2 Japanese people!
I am half-Japanese, which can be an advantage in Japan, especially since biracial people have become more accepted there in the past 10-20 years - there are some hot half-Japanese celebrities on TV! And maybe it wasn't quite so weird for a "non-Japanese" person to be speaking Japanese, especially in school. But out on the street, I definitely always felt "non-Japanese" - got stared at, people would refuse to speak Japanese with me, etc. The whole "in-group/out-group" thing is built into Japanese society, so not being Japanese is definitely as out-group as you can get! Actually, some of the people who would get discriminated against the most were Japanese-Americans! So it's not only race, it's cultural/ethnic as well.
But there are definitely some cool basses in Japan! Both imported vintage stuff and stuff like Fender Japan!