For general background, I am fast approching the point where my time here will be longer than where I was born.

There is a flaw in your generalizations about people who are still living here, you are assuming that all foreigners here have been "shafted" in one way or another. The fact of the matter is, not everyone feels the same way, I know I have been treated very well by most people here (I won't say all, but I would encounter rudeness even if it is in a different manner where I was born).

I see a lot of people get all upset where they "think" they are being discrimnated against or they believe that they are being treated the way they are b/c they foreign, but in most cases those doing the "mistreating" would most likely treat their fellow Japanese the same way. It is so easy fall back on the "its b/c I am foreign" mentality b/c we feel so insecure about our environment b/c ultimately it is foreign to us. I won't say discrimination does not occur here, but in our daily lives I rarely come across anything that would make my life more difficult than where I was born. (I say where I was born b/c I feel Japan is more my home now)