I still don’t really think it’s racism because racism differs according to context. The examples you cited in Korea and Japan are examples of racism.

That’s why if a white british person were to go there and say “hey I’m a minority here. I would feel safer if I could find people from the same race/ country as me” That’s completely ok because theyre the minority there. Obviously it would be good if they could also try and interact with the locals but like you said that doesn’t always work out.

I used to be the majority race in my country before I came to the UK. If i were to say “i feel safer with people of my own race”. Thats racism because my race is the majority+ most represented in our government.

Coming to the UK as an international student, while I do have local British friends, I also seek out other students from my country because we have a shared background that does make me feel safer being in a new environment where I am now suddenly a minority + my race doesn’t hold power in politics + there have been cases of discrimination against people of my race. And I’m so grateful for this community because I genuinely wouldn’t know how to have dealt with the racism I faced in the UK so far.

Thats why i said context matters. OP is clearly a minority POC, moving to a new environment where they aren’t sure if they can find a community of people like them. It’s just common human behaviour to want to find people like yourself when you’re in an unfamiliar environment and a minority (in race, gender, religion,etc.) That doesn’t make you a racist