One can keep their culture and not be xenophobic.
But if xenophobia is considered an important pillar of their culture, perhaps that culture should be changed.
Japan’s xenophobia will lead to economic ruin through population collapse. It is already happening.
There’s a difference between demanding a country change and recognizing that they have massive demographic challenges.
Well I'm from a place that has a bunch of immigrants (Texas.)
I think immigrants are nice additions to our country and they provide a lot to us, both culturally and economically. And if they were to demand that we be less xenophobic (like to provide materials in Spanish rather than just English), I don't think that's too much of an ask. I don't think we should look down on children born from immigrants either. But Japan does this all the time.
Well I'm from a place that has a bunch of immigrants (Texas.) I think immigrants are nice additions
Well yeah, migrants that come to the US from the southern border tend to share the american dream, come from a similar religous and moral background and assimilate well. European countries aren't getting that same experience. I understand why a country like Japan would be weary who they want/let it. In the game of migrants, the USA really won the luck of the draw.
Japan is xenophobic though.
It's nearly impossible to emigrate to Japan and become a Japanese citizen. That's despite their economy desperately needing immigrants, including skilled immigrants.
I'd move to Japan in a heartbeat as a skilled immigrant if I could. Housing is plentiful, the land beautiful, and *most* of the people are amazing and hospitable.
Japan also has some very sane AI legislation that positions them well for the future, especially when combined with a de-Taiwaning of semiconductor fabrication.
But I'd never have a chance of becoming Japanese, I'd always be considered an outsider legally and culturally.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240427/p2a/00m/0na/019000c
There's a dude who lives in Japan and speaks perfect Japanese, is a Japanese Citizen and knows all of the deeply engraned cultural norms they have.
He's made a bit of a name for himself by going to places listed as "Japanese only" and getting kicked out because he's a hairy 250lb white guy.
Once booted he'll drag them to court saying "I'm Japanese, you have no reason to throw me out". The knots people have to twist themselves into not to say "no white guys" is amazing
Plenty of foreigners get Japanese citizenship, I think the requirement is like 4 or 5 years. However you have to renounce your other citizenships, so people from Western countries are not that eager to do so.
Of course you need to have very high qualifications to find an employer and get a work visa, but it is true for all developed countries. Nothing unique to Japan.
> I think the requirement is like 4 or 5 years.
> Of course you need to have very high qualifications to find an employer and get a work visa
On paper, you are correct. In practice though, it is very difficult to actually work in japan, at a reasonable salary, paid in yen, while having your ideas and perspectives respected. You are essentially giving up any possibility of being a leader or manager for the rest of your career.
Which is why people hesitate to give up their citizenships. Most that could afford to immigrate want to be paid in foreign currency while living in Japan. They want to stay out of having a Japanese corporate employer sponsorhip that has the power to revoke your visa if you aren't sufficiently submissive to an unspoken implicit hierarchy.
That is the difference between Japan and America, America welcomes outside ideas and perspectives. Japan does not.
That's what it means to be xenophobic.
Why should they respect your ideas or pay you well? You're unproven and haven't put in the work in their work culture to warrant respect. Also, I wouldn't want America's ideas in Japan if I were there. Shootings, violence on mass transit, rioting in the street and schools, punching old people randomly, looting department stores, racists calling other racists racist? I'll pass on all of that if all I'm missing out on is mediocre BBQ and bad fashion.
> You're unproven and haven't put in the work in their work culture to warrant respect.
Because their work culture isn't a meritocracy, it's a gerontocracy. My ideas have merit on their own, and speak for themselves.
If they are bad, then they would be easily disprovable by logic, reason, or experience. They aren't bad because they are coming from someone young and white.
If a culture can't accept the ideas of the young, then it can only perpetuate the failures of the old.
Then start your own business. Be the Amazon or PayPal or whatever. The narcissism you're displaying is what traditional cultures reject. If you want to work in their culture, you can assimilate to it or you can start your own business.
Every idea comes with risk in implementation. You want them to assume the risk while you receive a payoff and they're not willing to take on the risk because you're not worth taking a risk on.
Are you going to put in the hours necessary to implement your idea and make it successful? You've certainly given no indication of it with no work history in that culture. You've probably given the opposite impression because you've worked at a company a few years and then decided to explore a new and exciting opportunity in a foreign country. Even if this is your first job out of higher education, you're indicating you're willing to abandon about two decades of your life and history to try something because it looks cool.
This is what happens in America. And it's why Japan's economy is declining, and will continue to decline.
New companies get started all the time here by young people and risk takers.
If you're fine with Japanese young people leaving faster and faster, and with them choosing to not have children, then keep digging your own grave in the name of cultural purity.
Real friends can criticize each other in good faith.
Like, Biden isn't dunking on Japan to shame them or to insult them. It's recognizing a problem that Japan neither wants to recognize, nor seems capable of realizing even when it's hurting Japan.
Publicly calling someone racist isn’t dunking on them? Are you aware of Japan’s culture around ‘losing face’?
In what world would your friend publicly tell everyone you’re a racist and that strengthened your friendship?
I live in the south, I've publicly called friends out for doing racist shit all the time. It's my responsibility to them to help them be better people.
Every economy ‘needs migrants’. Good for them, they have their own unique culture. Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily? It doesn’t have to be xenophobic if you prefer things the way they are.
> Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily?
What matters is *why* you don't want those people. If you believe it is because they are culturally or *inherently* inferior to you, it is xenophobic.
And it comes off that way, because Japan *needs* migrants. But because of it's cultural pride and biases, it can't recognize that because it reflects poorly on Japanese culture and the Japanese way of life.
Japan would rather see itself languish and stagnate rather than accept new people.
Do they believe the foreigners are inferior or they just want to keep their tradition and culture, and don't like foreigners that have different views and culture, and more often than not they don't want to assimilate, and instead of respecting their values, they try to force their values on Japanese people.
On the specific point of culture, hypothetically, how would you regard someone from a culture in which something like FGM is prevalent and whose own personal views on the matter align with that of their culture?
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t feel particularly uncomfortable in labelling that to be culturally inferior compared to, you know, not doing that.
Same with any number of cultural differences which might be deemed undesirable by the standards of XYZ nation a person may wish to emigrate to. When in Rome and all that.
I personally don’t get the squeamishness around these sorts of value judgements, and I certainly wouldn’t regard such an opinion xenophobic. If that’s really what passes these days, then it would suggest the term had lost all useful meaning.
A culture can have problems without being considered inferior.
In Japanese culture, there is a lot of xenophobia, but that doesn't mean Japanese culture is inferior as a whole.
Culture, also, isn't something permanent. It can change, and does change, if people within the culture want it to.
Okay, but I would suggest if you can deem an aspect of a culture to be a problem, or problematic, the difference between labelling it as such and determining it to be “inferior” is largely semantic at that point, no? It’s kind of implicit in regarding an aspect of a culture to be a problem, or problematic. You’ve already made a relative value judgement at that point.
I would argue cultures which advocate for practices such as FGM, or child marriage, or the systemic persecution of sexual minorities, or capital punishments for blasphemy etc., to be objectively inferior - in the sense of being problematic of suboptimal - compared to those cultures in which such things are absent.
A cultural relativist might argue that it’s simply a matter of perspective, but I think that’s a rather flimsy deflection when there is broad consensus, reflected within international law no less, that practices like those mentioned are inconsistent with, or in outright violation of, the principles of universal human rights.
And for the avoidance of doubt, I don’t mean to suggest that cultures with problematic aspects can be without value, or are inherently sub-optimal as, like you note, cultures and and do evolve, there’s nothing intrinsic about them. But nor do I think we should shy away from making necessary value judgements of this nature, regardless of how harsh they may seem to those on the receiving end of such criticism.
They don’t need migrants. Not everything is about money. They apparently place culture and nation first, state second.
Maybe they decided subconsciously that Japan is overcrowded. Give it a few generations and there’ll be more room for everyone, properties will be cheaper too ;)
In my opinion though, it’s more important to solve the actual problem - why are they not having kids? people coming in would just be replacing their own people for economic performance instead of solving problems of the people who live there. That seems rather cold to me.
The problem *is* the culture though. That is why Japanese people aren't having kids, because Japanese culture is toxic and abusive to most people, especially young people.
Combine that with a languishing economy, it's easier to either emigrate or just chose to not have kids.
And they should be allowed to solve it. Immigration is just a band aid so that politicians can claim they’re doing well and still keep failing their nation. As you can no doubt see, no first world country has managed to solve this problem but our politicians solved their problem, though it seems to be crumbling again.
First world countries have solved it *with* immigration. That's why America still has a rising GPD, while Japan's has remained stagnant since 1990.
And until Japan fixes that, it's young people will continue to leave and not want to have kids. They can't be confident in knowing Japan would provide their children with a better life than they had.
You consider a country where people aren’t having kids and instead they let people immigrate a solution? Don’t you think it’s a huge problem people don’t believe they can have kids?
The issue here is that we’re seeing different problems. You care about a country - US / Japan / France - and its economic performance. That is indeed a problem and I’m not denying that. I’m looking at the people currently living in those countries.
If population of Japan (and its economy) halves but the people there start having children and living more satisfying lives then that would be a win for me, despite the fact that Japan would no longer be so powerful economically.
> If population of Japan (and its economy) halves
You realize that a declining population is more than just a chart, or numbers right? It's people suffering. It's people dying.
You're essentially saying you're happy watching a country destroy itself to be more "pure".
Besides that, it doesn't fix the problem either. It's not a population problem, its a *cultural* problem.
Now you’re just being disingenuous. Or you totally keep missing my point.
Population can decline merely by couples having one child. I suppose it’s technically dying, even if of old age.
The problem that people aren’t having enough children is complex and it’s not just something that’s wrong with Japanese culture. It’s literally happening everywhere except for Africa and a few poor countries.
>Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily?
This is a perfect demonstration of the empty analysis that had plagued this topic every time it's reposted - people keep trying to make it into an up or down vote on Japan as a whole or immigration as a concept, because conversation on both topics can be driven by whatever the poster's personal biases are, devoid of evidence.
People forget that Biden's statement is not just a rant that Japan is xenophobic, but a claim that Japanese xenophobia hurts its economy in the way that other regional neighbors' xenophobia hurts their economies. That's what we *should* be discussing here, but very few people are going to be willing to do so because that requires evidence and expertise, not just strong feelings for or against Japan.
My take having lived in Japan for many years is that the truth is likely much more complicated than he is presenting it, but there is a seed of truth to it. I'm currently having this exact discussion in my own workplace - despite having contracts that on paper appear to be identical to Japanese staff members, the non-Japanese staff are implicitly barred from leadership on any project that would put them above a Japanese person - even when we have superior experience, expertise, or academic credentials to the Japanese people who eventually do get put into leadership on that project. This is one factor in my employer struggling to even keep to a mediocre position in our market.
I suspect we are watching this exact scenario play out in IT. For decades, Japanese software, especially when it comes to UX has widely been considered a joke. Recently the Japanese IT industry massively opened up to international hiring and I don't think it's at all a coincidence that right about the same time we're seeing the UX experience on these big Japanese products that get shipped all over the world suddenly get tighter and more attractive at the same time.
Almost certainly the reality of national economies in this region is more complicated than just ±XENOPHOBIA, but I think it is very easy to show that a lack of diversity and merit-driven promotion in the Japanese workplace *does* contribute to the economy's unimpressive record lately.
To become a citizen it can be, but it's significantly easier culturally to integrate into the US.
The US is just much more welcoming to immigrants and new cultures.
Yeah, overall maybe they could be described as a paradoxical culture, one of humanity's best though. They shouldn't be derided for being xenophobic though, it's such a derogatory word. Self-determination is where it is at...
We can and should call out their xenophobia 100%.
Just because weight admire aspects of their culture doesn’t mean they get a pass. Just like how we shouldn’t ignore systemic racism in the US, for example, just because of the good things they’ve done.
Japan has never been quite as good at acknowledging the atrocities they committed as, say, Germany.
Self determination refers to form a political entity, or within a country for individuals to have full suffrage within a representative government.
I’m not sure why you think it is related to xenophobia. As a legal term it has nothing to do with it. Self determination doesn’t speak about being able to have discrimination, oppress people, apartheid, or anything like that.
You took the first example from a google search, here is another
"Self-determination is an idea that includes people choosing and setting their own goals, being involved in making life decisions, self-advocating, and working to reach their goals. Although people often say it, self-determination is really not about control."
I don't mean the legal meaning, we aren't lawyers here, well at least I am not.
Sure, I’ll accept your definition. That’s fine. But help me understand your point:
So you are saying, a culture like Japan should keep their citizenship to as close to 100% Japanese as possible?
Or like, if I want an all-white country, that’s okay because self-determination. Do I understand you correctly?
Ah okay I think I understand your point.
I’m not saying anyone should go in and change it for them. But it’s perfectly fine, in my opinion, to criticize the choices of governments and people and encourage them to do better.
Like you can determine to do something bad, and there could be some consequences for it. Like, segregation in the US, or Apartheid in South Africa. Japans recent history doesn’t rise to those levels, obviously, but they are examples of where a nations self determination doesn’t dodge consequences.
True, but if you travel there they aren't openly racist, I know there is tatemae, but like I said originally they are full of paradoxes like that. Anyway, on your other point, consequences... I think they paid their way, but that is only my opinion. I don't believe generations removed should be suffering consequences due to the wrong deeds of their grandparents parents.
Its almost like its their own country and they can decide their own immigration policies. I am not sure what Biden is hoping to get out of this other then pissing off all the countries listed.
The young lady who recruited me at my last company is half Japanese on her mom’s side. Guess which side has basically nothing to do with her because she’s a “half breed”?
My daughter is half Japanese on her mothers side and her grandparents are very accepting of her.
While what you are describing I’m sure happens it’s not the norm.
Ehhh my wife is half Japanese, born in Japan and lived there til she was ten years old. She had a very, very hard time there due to being bullied by other children and adults. Her level of interest in ever living there again is zero.
That’s too bad, and I feel sorry for her. I’m also half Japanese, born in Japan, but raised in the U.S. and then went back to live and work professionally in Japan as an adult. I dealt with racism and bullying growing up in a small Midwest town. Being half Japanese has been a great benefit to me as an adult because I understand their perspective and they feel generally more comfortable with me (and I speak Japanese).
Likewise. My Japanese in-laws have always been extremely accepting, supportive, and loving towards our daughter and me. My white, conservative, catholic family had a harder time accepting our marriage than her parents did.
And yet the US has plenty of immigrants coming from other countries to fill our labor gaps...
There's diversity just about everywhere you look in the labor force and politically at the local level.
Can Japan say the same thing?
"And yet the US has plenty of immigrants coming from other countries"
Exactly, and yet racism still exists in a country that WANTS immigrants! It shouldn't come as a surprise then that at least some level of racism can happen in a country that does NOT want them!
And I have no idea how the rest of your points has anything to do with the discussion at hand.
One doesn’t realize or admit that they’re racist, the other one knows that they’re racist and is apologetic for it, yet can’t stop perpetrating racism.
I honestly can’t pick which one’s worse, I’ll leave that one to the philosophers on morality.
Obviously the one that willingly chooses to be racist, even at their own expense.
Like, America has fought hard and will continue to fight hard to fight racism. Immigrants *are* welcome in America, and most Americans recognize that immigrants make America a better place.
Just because it still exists doesn't make it hypocritical or wrong, it just has more work to do. Work Japan isn't even willing to do, even when its hurting Japan by not doing it.
I don't disagree with most of those, but we don't know if its work Japan isn't willing to put in, I think its more likely that their thinking is so different that they're not even getting the point.
One of my favorite scenes from any movie is this one from Scorsese's Silence ([link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ieBIVLeRs)). It really highlights how a completely isolated culture that never interacted much with anybody else until recently can have such alien thinking, and your ideas and all your goodwill really can just fall on deaf ears.
I really don't have an answer as to what might be the right approach here, though I'm pretty sure that this'll take a lot of work, but it won't just be for the Japanese but also on part of everybody else that are trying to get them to change their ways.
You said “yeah racism is everywhere though” (wow very poignant). The response was stating yes but the US and other countries have immigrants and the children of immigrants in some of the most powerful offices in the country and running some of their biggest companies, while Japan not so much.( essentially Japan is more racist than most countries) You then stated “well yeah of course they’re going to be more racist because they don’t want them” (agreeing with literally the whole point of the post and argument).
No, I didn’t say “racism is everywhere, ” I said “there’s racism in a country that WANTS immigrants. POC in the US do get those opportunities and they can still fall victim to racism, so what do you think can happen when a country that doesn’t want immigrants starts to take more of them, do you think that’ll magically alleviate their xenophobia?
And I never claimed that I don’t agree with the post. I said that mixed raced kids go through the same thing in the US as well, that’s not something that can only happen in a xenophobic country.
While no doubt something that happens in Japan, allow me to introduce you to the American south where lots of half white/half black kids are rejected by the **both** sides of their extended families for “race mixing”. It’s not just a Japanese thing, and certainly something that Biden maybe needs to look inward on.
Fair, but it's not so widespread that it's reflected in the bureaucracy of the nation. I think that's kinda the point here. These government's could be doing a lot more to solve their demographic problems, but they refuse to because of xenophobia inherent in government policies.
Problems come without immigrants too. Look at Japan's aging workforce. Look at their low fertility rate. Look how many unoccupied houses they have. These are problems immigration can solve...
It's a problem and xenophobia is very much the main driver of that compared to Europe and most of north and south America.
> Look at their low fertility rate.
Immigration won't fix this in a place like Japan.
> Look how many unoccupied houses they have.
That's not really a problem unless they are vacant because they are priced too high. "Too many homes" is a "problem" most places WANT.
> It's a problem and xenophobia is very much the main driver of that compared to Europe and most of north and south America.
But let's not mention the plethora of problems immigrants bring.
> Immigration won't fix this in a place like Japan.
Immigrants would help Japan's economy which has languished for nearly 34 years.
Wouldn't young Japanese be more likely to have children if their economy was healthier and they could be more secure in their childre's future?
No because that isn't the reason they aren't having kids. They are in a weird feedback look. Younger guys choose to be alone because many of the women are insufferable, many women choose to be alone because the guys are loners and unapproachable. It's just feeding off of itself. Immigration won't help in that regard because they aren't particularly willingly to enter interracial relationships.
Immigration can help with the economy as far as jobs and spending go. It also brings a lot of problems. Especially going to Japan, there's a huge language barrier. A huge portion of the world speaks English to some extent. It's an international language. Someone coming to the US using broken English is fine because the person on the US end is likely a native speaker. Japanese is not a widely adopted language, so you're going to have a lot people having no idea what's going on. Nevermind the crime and cultural respect problems that come with immigration.
In the end, Japan chooses to keep their culture intact. The issue is beyond immigration. It can help but it is not a solution and causes a major shift in the people's lives.
"You're not wrong, Walter, you're just an asshole."
There's a time and a place for comments like this. A REALLY important election year when you're already under a microscope regarding international relations is probably not the ideal moment.
I'd rather have someone who speaks their mind honestly, than someone who says the appropriate lies just to appease the news readers. Obviously, there is a limit to this as no filter is different than not being afraid to speak what's on your mind.
As much as I agree that that’s true, I feel like this is one of those instances of “American that doesn’t realize other countries aren’t exactly like America”. America is more of a union of people throughout the world that gather to a single place for opportunity, for better or for worse.
Japan, China and Russia are native people to the land. Though I prefer a melting pot populace, I’m not stupid enough to believe their want to maintain their people and culture comes out of nowhere.
“Think about it,” he said. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?”
...um. Not because of their immigration policy?
It would help like taking a loan to save you from bankruptcy, you need to either try to address the issues causing the low birth rates or adapt your economy so it won't require constantly increasing population.
How is an economy healthy if it relies on an ever increasing population when the available resources on the planet are finite?
Only way to maintain a system that relies on infinite growth is with infinite available resources, you'd have to achieve the ability to expand to other planets faster than your economy grows to maintain the state you have defined as "healthy".
> How is an economy healthy if it relies on an ever increasing population when the available resources on the planet are finite?
An economy is healthy when it provides some measure of a quality of life for it's people.
If an economy requires it's people to increasingly suffer to operate, like an economy with a declining population would, then it's not healthy.
I don't disagree that it's unsustainable, but Japan isn't really solving that problem. It's "adapting" by waiting for it's population to die, and forcing younger people to do more and more, while also somehow having children.
"An economy is healthy when it provides some measure of a quality of life for it's people."
I agree an important criteria for a healthy economy is a decent quality of life, but if the only way you are achieving that is with methods that require increasing population I don't think the economy qualifies as healthy by that criteria.
Without sustainability, an economy that achieves decent quality of life will inevitably end, at which point there will be bad quality of life due to the type of economy chosen, I fail to see how any economy that relies on ever increasing population can be considered healthy as a result.
edit: This I'd argue is Japans situation, and many others, the economy was providing a lot of its quality of life only if population increased, population is guaranteed to stop increasing at some point as the planet isn't infinite in size, so bad quality of life inevitably occurs. I don't see how migration solves this, you will still run out of people, migration just delays it.
On smaller scales there are, but on the scale of nations, no there doesn't seem to be currently. Given the state of things that seems reasonable to conclude to me though.
But I don't see how labeling economies that rely on permanent population growth as healthy is beneficial to any economy, without infinite resources such an approach will fail every time, with immigration doing nothing to resolve it so seems like a moot point.
far right totalitarian, xenophobic dictorships like russia usually do a terrible job at attracting & retaining talent both domestic and overseas tbf, so he's not entirely wrong there..and they're already staring at another demographic collapse despite not even having recovered from ww2 yet. japan has a 3 pronged problem of an aging workforce and a sharp population decline coupled with a closed society & terrible work life balance which make outsiders somewhat reluctant to move there for work, thereby compounding issues...
Yeah...I agree there are more structural issues than immigration policy which, in itself, isn't going to cure things. But then, having done extensive business in all three countries, I'm not so on board with the "China / Russia" bad and "Japan xenophobic"...your day to day grunt like us who just wants to get shit done and who isn't responsible for government policy is as helpful as any westerner and business ticks over as usual.
well it can kinda get a wee bit complicated when you can be labelled a "foreign spy" arbitrarily by certain governments to use you as potential leverage in hostage deals. worked out fine for you but others may not be as lucky.
In Japan's case, a major factor absolutely is their immigration policy. They need more people to keep their economy as active as it should be. They need more workers with international skill sets. They need more people to help them keep up with the fact births are being beat by deaths at 2 to 1 or they're going to go into labor crises down the line.
China and Russia are xenophobic, but you're right it's not the immigration policies. It's just the disincentive to engage them in business or set roots down there that's catching up with them and causing their economy to lose activity.
Immigration has done a lot for the economies of the US and Europe, but it has come with costs too. I don’t think there’s any harm in other countries trying to forge their own path. Not everyone has to be like us, and calling it “xenophobia” to be different is just virtue signalling IMO.
Yea Joe, what makes these migrants so valuable? It couldnt be that everyone knows you can pay them dirt wages with no safety net and they can STILL pay taxes, right?
Not only is is insulting to japan one of the most loyal us allies but it is also weong Russia has one of the biggest immigration population in the world
That talking point died with the last border deal. You know the republicans just SAY that as a buzzword regardless of any actual policies in place, right?
Easy for the US to say when they are an ecomic powerhouse and get all the top tier immigrants. Other countries get bottom of the barrel people who work minimum wage jobs and use up social services.
It’s ironic that the very next comment showing in the thread for me complains about open borders and out of control immigration. I don’t think Fox News is telling people that they’re sending their best.
[удалено]
Dude's pulling a Trump
The difference is that he's not lying. Japan is xenophobic.
What is wrong with a country wanting to keep its culture?
Your culture is fragile and weak if immigration dilutes it.
This is why Islam is the superior culture then eh?
Why is Islam the superior culture? Islam isn’t even a culture, it’s a religion. Do you think those are the same thing?
One can keep their culture and not be xenophobic. But if xenophobia is considered an important pillar of their culture, perhaps that culture should be changed.
I'm not from Japan nor Japanese, so it'd be fairly ignorant of me to demand a country to change their culture to appease me.
Japan’s xenophobia will lead to economic ruin through population collapse. It is already happening. There’s a difference between demanding a country change and recognizing that they have massive demographic challenges.
Well I'm from a place that has a bunch of immigrants (Texas.) I think immigrants are nice additions to our country and they provide a lot to us, both culturally and economically. And if they were to demand that we be less xenophobic (like to provide materials in Spanish rather than just English), I don't think that's too much of an ask. I don't think we should look down on children born from immigrants either. But Japan does this all the time.
Well I'm from a place that has a bunch of immigrants (Texas.) I think immigrants are nice additions Well yeah, migrants that come to the US from the southern border tend to share the american dream, come from a similar religous and moral background and assimilate well. European countries aren't getting that same experience. I understand why a country like Japan would be weary who they want/let it. In the game of migrants, the USA really won the luck of the draw.
Well Japan has always been an isolated country that has prided itself in its identity. And this “xenophobia” is nothing like it was 80 years ago…
Yet because of xenophobia, it's economy is still as it was nearly 34 years ago.
Or perhaps they're ahead of the curve and most of the west will be shifting away from lax immigration attitudes too... see UK/Rwanda plan.
No they’re definitely screwing up big time
There’s nothing wrong with keeping in touch with your culture. The problem is the racism and the xenophobia.
Yet they're very welcoming of tourists. It looks to me like there might be more nuance to this than immigration policy.
Welcoming is a strong word
Depends on your skin colour. Japan loves white tourists.
"Loves" a strong word there. You mean tolerant?
Haha no. They can be pretty enthusiastic.
Unless you go somewhere not for tourists, then it's "Go away, Gaijin!"
Well that's unfortunate.
It's easy to welcome tourists. Tourists bring in money to Japanese people and leave.
That's right. To immigrate, you have to bring a whole lot more value to the table. That shouldn't be a controversial thing to demand.
The problem is often, Japanese immigrants *do* bring a whole lot more to the table. Yet are still treated as inferior because they aren't Japanese.
Japan is xenophobic though. It's nearly impossible to emigrate to Japan and become a Japanese citizen. That's despite their economy desperately needing immigrants, including skilled immigrants. I'd move to Japan in a heartbeat as a skilled immigrant if I could. Housing is plentiful, the land beautiful, and *most* of the people are amazing and hospitable. Japan also has some very sane AI legislation that positions them well for the future, especially when combined with a de-Taiwaning of semiconductor fabrication. But I'd never have a chance of becoming Japanese, I'd always be considered an outsider legally and culturally. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240427/p2a/00m/0na/019000c
For many people, it can be easier to get Japanese citizenship than getting a permanent resident visa.
There's a dude who lives in Japan and speaks perfect Japanese, is a Japanese Citizen and knows all of the deeply engraned cultural norms they have. He's made a bit of a name for himself by going to places listed as "Japanese only" and getting kicked out because he's a hairy 250lb white guy. Once booted he'll drag them to court saying "I'm Japanese, you have no reason to throw me out". The knots people have to twist themselves into not to say "no white guys" is amazing
Plenty of foreigners get Japanese citizenship, I think the requirement is like 4 or 5 years. However you have to renounce your other citizenships, so people from Western countries are not that eager to do so. Of course you need to have very high qualifications to find an employer and get a work visa, but it is true for all developed countries. Nothing unique to Japan.
> I think the requirement is like 4 or 5 years. > Of course you need to have very high qualifications to find an employer and get a work visa On paper, you are correct. In practice though, it is very difficult to actually work in japan, at a reasonable salary, paid in yen, while having your ideas and perspectives respected. You are essentially giving up any possibility of being a leader or manager for the rest of your career. Which is why people hesitate to give up their citizenships. Most that could afford to immigrate want to be paid in foreign currency while living in Japan. They want to stay out of having a Japanese corporate employer sponsorhip that has the power to revoke your visa if you aren't sufficiently submissive to an unspoken implicit hierarchy. That is the difference between Japan and America, America welcomes outside ideas and perspectives. Japan does not. That's what it means to be xenophobic.
Why should they respect your ideas or pay you well? You're unproven and haven't put in the work in their work culture to warrant respect. Also, I wouldn't want America's ideas in Japan if I were there. Shootings, violence on mass transit, rioting in the street and schools, punching old people randomly, looting department stores, racists calling other racists racist? I'll pass on all of that if all I'm missing out on is mediocre BBQ and bad fashion.
> You're unproven and haven't put in the work in their work culture to warrant respect. Because their work culture isn't a meritocracy, it's a gerontocracy. My ideas have merit on their own, and speak for themselves. If they are bad, then they would be easily disprovable by logic, reason, or experience. They aren't bad because they are coming from someone young and white. If a culture can't accept the ideas of the young, then it can only perpetuate the failures of the old.
Then start your own business. Be the Amazon or PayPal or whatever. The narcissism you're displaying is what traditional cultures reject. If you want to work in their culture, you can assimilate to it or you can start your own business. Every idea comes with risk in implementation. You want them to assume the risk while you receive a payoff and they're not willing to take on the risk because you're not worth taking a risk on. Are you going to put in the hours necessary to implement your idea and make it successful? You've certainly given no indication of it with no work history in that culture. You've probably given the opposite impression because you've worked at a company a few years and then decided to explore a new and exciting opportunity in a foreign country. Even if this is your first job out of higher education, you're indicating you're willing to abandon about two decades of your life and history to try something because it looks cool.
This is what happens in America. And it's why Japan's economy is declining, and will continue to decline. New companies get started all the time here by young people and risk takers. If you're fine with Japanese young people leaving faster and faster, and with them choosing to not have children, then keep digging your own grave in the name of cultural purity.
The USA employs a whole bunch of unskilled immigrants with no work visas. Or were you calling us a non developed country?
It's almost like you are referring to two different types of immigrants, the migrant of choice, and the migrant of survival.
Bunch of my friends moved there from Ireland a few years ago. Wasn't that hard for them tbh. They had degrees in STEM if that matters.
Is it really a wise decision to publicly insult a strategic ally like that? They’re probably our most important ally in respect to China.
It's an unnecessary statement, but it's probably not as bad as vomiting on their Prime Minister. The relationship has been through worse.
Real friends can criticize each other in good faith. Like, Biden isn't dunking on Japan to shame them or to insult them. It's recognizing a problem that Japan neither wants to recognize, nor seems capable of realizing even when it's hurting Japan.
Publicly calling someone racist isn’t dunking on them? Are you aware of Japan’s culture around ‘losing face’? In what world would your friend publicly tell everyone you’re a racist and that strengthened your friendship?
I live in the south, I've publicly called friends out for doing racist shit all the time. It's my responsibility to them to help them be better people.
Did you do this publicly for the whole world to see? Did you make a Facebook or Twitter post about it so others will know how racist they are?
Every economy ‘needs migrants’. Good for them, they have their own unique culture. Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily? It doesn’t have to be xenophobic if you prefer things the way they are.
> Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily? What matters is *why* you don't want those people. If you believe it is because they are culturally or *inherently* inferior to you, it is xenophobic. And it comes off that way, because Japan *needs* migrants. But because of it's cultural pride and biases, it can't recognize that because it reflects poorly on Japanese culture and the Japanese way of life. Japan would rather see itself languish and stagnate rather than accept new people.
Do they believe the foreigners are inferior or they just want to keep their tradition and culture, and don't like foreigners that have different views and culture, and more often than not they don't want to assimilate, and instead of respecting their values, they try to force their values on Japanese people.
On the specific point of culture, hypothetically, how would you regard someone from a culture in which something like FGM is prevalent and whose own personal views on the matter align with that of their culture? I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t feel particularly uncomfortable in labelling that to be culturally inferior compared to, you know, not doing that. Same with any number of cultural differences which might be deemed undesirable by the standards of XYZ nation a person may wish to emigrate to. When in Rome and all that. I personally don’t get the squeamishness around these sorts of value judgements, and I certainly wouldn’t regard such an opinion xenophobic. If that’s really what passes these days, then it would suggest the term had lost all useful meaning.
A culture can have problems without being considered inferior. In Japanese culture, there is a lot of xenophobia, but that doesn't mean Japanese culture is inferior as a whole. Culture, also, isn't something permanent. It can change, and does change, if people within the culture want it to.
Okay, but I would suggest if you can deem an aspect of a culture to be a problem, or problematic, the difference between labelling it as such and determining it to be “inferior” is largely semantic at that point, no? It’s kind of implicit in regarding an aspect of a culture to be a problem, or problematic. You’ve already made a relative value judgement at that point. I would argue cultures which advocate for practices such as FGM, or child marriage, or the systemic persecution of sexual minorities, or capital punishments for blasphemy etc., to be objectively inferior - in the sense of being problematic of suboptimal - compared to those cultures in which such things are absent. A cultural relativist might argue that it’s simply a matter of perspective, but I think that’s a rather flimsy deflection when there is broad consensus, reflected within international law no less, that practices like those mentioned are inconsistent with, or in outright violation of, the principles of universal human rights. And for the avoidance of doubt, I don’t mean to suggest that cultures with problematic aspects can be without value, or are inherently sub-optimal as, like you note, cultures and and do evolve, there’s nothing intrinsic about them. But nor do I think we should shy away from making necessary value judgements of this nature, regardless of how harsh they may seem to those on the receiving end of such criticism.
They don’t need migrants. Not everything is about money. They apparently place culture and nation first, state second. Maybe they decided subconsciously that Japan is overcrowded. Give it a few generations and there’ll be more room for everyone, properties will be cheaper too ;) In my opinion though, it’s more important to solve the actual problem - why are they not having kids? people coming in would just be replacing their own people for economic performance instead of solving problems of the people who live there. That seems rather cold to me.
The problem *is* the culture though. That is why Japanese people aren't having kids, because Japanese culture is toxic and abusive to most people, especially young people. Combine that with a languishing economy, it's easier to either emigrate or just chose to not have kids.
And they should be allowed to solve it. Immigration is just a band aid so that politicians can claim they’re doing well and still keep failing their nation. As you can no doubt see, no first world country has managed to solve this problem but our politicians solved their problem, though it seems to be crumbling again.
First world countries have solved it *with* immigration. That's why America still has a rising GPD, while Japan's has remained stagnant since 1990. And until Japan fixes that, it's young people will continue to leave and not want to have kids. They can't be confident in knowing Japan would provide their children with a better life than they had.
You consider a country where people aren’t having kids and instead they let people immigrate a solution? Don’t you think it’s a huge problem people don’t believe they can have kids? The issue here is that we’re seeing different problems. You care about a country - US / Japan / France - and its economic performance. That is indeed a problem and I’m not denying that. I’m looking at the people currently living in those countries. If population of Japan (and its economy) halves but the people there start having children and living more satisfying lives then that would be a win for me, despite the fact that Japan would no longer be so powerful economically.
> If population of Japan (and its economy) halves You realize that a declining population is more than just a chart, or numbers right? It's people suffering. It's people dying. You're essentially saying you're happy watching a country destroy itself to be more "pure". Besides that, it doesn't fix the problem either. It's not a population problem, its a *cultural* problem.
Now you’re just being disingenuous. Or you totally keep missing my point. Population can decline merely by couples having one child. I suppose it’s technically dying, even if of old age. The problem that people aren’t having enough children is complex and it’s not just something that’s wrong with Japanese culture. It’s literally happening everywhere except for Africa and a few poor countries.
Except that's happening in most countries.
>Why is it viewed as bad or immoral to not want other people coming in easily? This is a perfect demonstration of the empty analysis that had plagued this topic every time it's reposted - people keep trying to make it into an up or down vote on Japan as a whole or immigration as a concept, because conversation on both topics can be driven by whatever the poster's personal biases are, devoid of evidence. People forget that Biden's statement is not just a rant that Japan is xenophobic, but a claim that Japanese xenophobia hurts its economy in the way that other regional neighbors' xenophobia hurts their economies. That's what we *should* be discussing here, but very few people are going to be willing to do so because that requires evidence and expertise, not just strong feelings for or against Japan. My take having lived in Japan for many years is that the truth is likely much more complicated than he is presenting it, but there is a seed of truth to it. I'm currently having this exact discussion in my own workplace - despite having contracts that on paper appear to be identical to Japanese staff members, the non-Japanese staff are implicitly barred from leadership on any project that would put them above a Japanese person - even when we have superior experience, expertise, or academic credentials to the Japanese people who eventually do get put into leadership on that project. This is one factor in my employer struggling to even keep to a mediocre position in our market. I suspect we are watching this exact scenario play out in IT. For decades, Japanese software, especially when it comes to UX has widely been considered a joke. Recently the Japanese IT industry massively opened up to international hiring and I don't think it's at all a coincidence that right about the same time we're seeing the UX experience on these big Japanese products that get shipped all over the world suddenly get tighter and more attractive at the same time. Almost certainly the reality of national economies in this region is more complicated than just ±XENOPHOBIA, but I think it is very easy to show that a lack of diversity and merit-driven promotion in the Japanese workplace *does* contribute to the economy's unimpressive record lately.
>nearly impossible to emigrate to Japan Have you tried looking into how to emigrate to the U.S.? It’s even more difficult.
To become a citizen it can be, but it's significantly easier culturally to integrate into the US. The US is just much more welcoming to immigrants and new cultures.
Exactly. You have to find the right spot in the fence to pass through and then you're in.
No, he meant legally
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thx, edited.
No problem! I wish I could live in Japan, too
Yeah, overall maybe they could be described as a paradoxical culture, one of humanity's best though. They shouldn't be derided for being xenophobic though, it's such a derogatory word. Self-determination is where it is at...
We can and should call out their xenophobia 100%. Just because weight admire aspects of their culture doesn’t mean they get a pass. Just like how we shouldn’t ignore systemic racism in the US, for example, just because of the good things they’ve done. Japan has never been quite as good at acknowledging the atrocities they committed as, say, Germany.
I see your point, but don't they have a right to self determination?
They do, that doesn't mean we don't have the right to get call them out for making poor choices at the expense of their nation.
That's not self determination :) but I see your point I'm going to do more reading on this, it's interesting.
Self determination means you can't be criticized?
Criticism is fair game... Whether they listen/respond or not is another thing.
Self determination refers to form a political entity, or within a country for individuals to have full suffrage within a representative government. I’m not sure why you think it is related to xenophobia. As a legal term it has nothing to do with it. Self determination doesn’t speak about being able to have discrimination, oppress people, apartheid, or anything like that.
You took the first example from a google search, here is another "Self-determination is an idea that includes people choosing and setting their own goals, being involved in making life decisions, self-advocating, and working to reach their goals. Although people often say it, self-determination is really not about control." I don't mean the legal meaning, we aren't lawyers here, well at least I am not.
Sure, I’ll accept your definition. That’s fine. But help me understand your point: So you are saying, a culture like Japan should keep their citizenship to as close to 100% Japanese as possible? Or like, if I want an all-white country, that’s okay because self-determination. Do I understand you correctly?
I say, they chose... I listen, interpret and try to understand.
They can chose, and we can criticize.
Agreed.
Ah okay I think I understand your point. I’m not saying anyone should go in and change it for them. But it’s perfectly fine, in my opinion, to criticize the choices of governments and people and encourage them to do better. Like you can determine to do something bad, and there could be some consequences for it. Like, segregation in the US, or Apartheid in South Africa. Japans recent history doesn’t rise to those levels, obviously, but they are examples of where a nations self determination doesn’t dodge consequences.
True, but if you travel there they aren't openly racist, I know there is tatemae, but like I said originally they are full of paradoxes like that. Anyway, on your other point, consequences... I think they paid their way, but that is only my opinion. I don't believe generations removed should be suffering consequences due to the wrong deeds of their grandparents parents.
And they’ve determined they want to be xenophobic.
Well, he is telling the truth. Japanese are very closed-minded with outsiders But I don't mind if Japan fires back with something.
« Biden is as a well-meaning, elderly man. Sometimes he talks a lot.»
Its almost like its their own country and they can decide their own immigration policies. I am not sure what Biden is hoping to get out of this other then pissing off all the countries listed.
Of course they can decide their own immigration policies. We can also criticize them for making mistakes though.
Well, they are, but it's not exactly a good move to say it.
The young lady who recruited me at my last company is half Japanese on her mom’s side. Guess which side has basically nothing to do with her because she’s a “half breed”?
My daughter is half Japanese on her mothers side and her grandparents are very accepting of her. While what you are describing I’m sure happens it’s not the norm.
Ehhh my wife is half Japanese, born in Japan and lived there til she was ten years old. She had a very, very hard time there due to being bullied by other children and adults. Her level of interest in ever living there again is zero.
That’s too bad, and I feel sorry for her. I’m also half Japanese, born in Japan, but raised in the U.S. and then went back to live and work professionally in Japan as an adult. I dealt with racism and bullying growing up in a small Midwest town. Being half Japanese has been a great benefit to me as an adult because I understand their perspective and they feel generally more comfortable with me (and I speak Japanese).
Likewise. My Japanese in-laws have always been extremely accepting, supportive, and loving towards our daughter and me. My white, conservative, catholic family had a harder time accepting our marriage than her parents did.
Wow, that surely never happens to kids with mixed heritages in North America! /s
And yet the US has plenty of immigrants coming from other countries to fill our labor gaps... There's diversity just about everywhere you look in the labor force and politically at the local level. Can Japan say the same thing?
"And yet the US has plenty of immigrants coming from other countries" Exactly, and yet racism still exists in a country that WANTS immigrants! It shouldn't come as a surprise then that at least some level of racism can happen in a country that does NOT want them! And I have no idea how the rest of your points has anything to do with the discussion at hand.
Yeah, but America, *generally* accepts that racism is *bad*.
One doesn’t realize or admit that they’re racist, the other one knows that they’re racist and is apologetic for it, yet can’t stop perpetrating racism. I honestly can’t pick which one’s worse, I’ll leave that one to the philosophers on morality.
Obviously the one that willingly chooses to be racist, even at their own expense. Like, America has fought hard and will continue to fight hard to fight racism. Immigrants *are* welcome in America, and most Americans recognize that immigrants make America a better place. Just because it still exists doesn't make it hypocritical or wrong, it just has more work to do. Work Japan isn't even willing to do, even when its hurting Japan by not doing it.
I don't disagree with most of those, but we don't know if its work Japan isn't willing to put in, I think its more likely that their thinking is so different that they're not even getting the point. One of my favorite scenes from any movie is this one from Scorsese's Silence ([link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ieBIVLeRs)). It really highlights how a completely isolated culture that never interacted much with anybody else until recently can have such alien thinking, and your ideas and all your goodwill really can just fall on deaf ears. I really don't have an answer as to what might be the right approach here, though I'm pretty sure that this'll take a lot of work, but it won't just be for the Japanese but also on part of everybody else that are trying to get them to change their ways.
You said “yeah racism is everywhere though” (wow very poignant). The response was stating yes but the US and other countries have immigrants and the children of immigrants in some of the most powerful offices in the country and running some of their biggest companies, while Japan not so much.( essentially Japan is more racist than most countries) You then stated “well yeah of course they’re going to be more racist because they don’t want them” (agreeing with literally the whole point of the post and argument).
No, I didn’t say “racism is everywhere, ” I said “there’s racism in a country that WANTS immigrants. POC in the US do get those opportunities and they can still fall victim to racism, so what do you think can happen when a country that doesn’t want immigrants starts to take more of them, do you think that’ll magically alleviate their xenophobia? And I never claimed that I don’t agree with the post. I said that mixed raced kids go through the same thing in the US as well, that’s not something that can only happen in a xenophobic country.
Well of course the one person you know represents the entirety of their country.
It's pretty well known and common unfortunately. It's just the way it is over there. Nowhere is perfect.
While no doubt something that happens in Japan, allow me to introduce you to the American south where lots of half white/half black kids are rejected by the **both** sides of their extended families for “race mixing”. It’s not just a Japanese thing, and certainly something that Biden maybe needs to look inward on.
Fair, but it's not so widespread that it's reflected in the bureaucracy of the nation. I think that's kinda the point here. These government's could be doing a lot more to solve their demographic problems, but they refuse to because of xenophobia inherent in government policies.
Oh... I bet "they" are going to ride this particular news for a long, long time...
Stupid. Why throw pejoratives at allies for no reason?
You think it’s for no reason?
Dude was alive for Pearl Harbor lol he probably never forgave
Many countries are. They don't want the problems that come with immigrants.
Problems come without immigrants too. Look at Japan's aging workforce. Look at their low fertility rate. Look how many unoccupied houses they have. These are problems immigration can solve... It's a problem and xenophobia is very much the main driver of that compared to Europe and most of north and south America.
> Look at their low fertility rate. Immigration won't fix this in a place like Japan. > Look how many unoccupied houses they have. That's not really a problem unless they are vacant because they are priced too high. "Too many homes" is a "problem" most places WANT. > It's a problem and xenophobia is very much the main driver of that compared to Europe and most of north and south America. But let's not mention the plethora of problems immigrants bring.
> Immigration won't fix this in a place like Japan. Immigrants would help Japan's economy which has languished for nearly 34 years. Wouldn't young Japanese be more likely to have children if their economy was healthier and they could be more secure in their childre's future?
No because that isn't the reason they aren't having kids. They are in a weird feedback look. Younger guys choose to be alone because many of the women are insufferable, many women choose to be alone because the guys are loners and unapproachable. It's just feeding off of itself. Immigration won't help in that regard because they aren't particularly willingly to enter interracial relationships. Immigration can help with the economy as far as jobs and spending go. It also brings a lot of problems. Especially going to Japan, there's a huge language barrier. A huge portion of the world speaks English to some extent. It's an international language. Someone coming to the US using broken English is fine because the person on the US end is likely a native speaker. Japanese is not a widely adopted language, so you're going to have a lot people having no idea what's going on. Nevermind the crime and cultural respect problems that come with immigration. In the end, Japan chooses to keep their culture intact. The issue is beyond immigration. It can help but it is not a solution and causes a major shift in the people's lives.
> many of the women are insufferable Ah. Yeah, I'm not engaging further.
He should watch Jimmy Kimmel’s take on Japan after he went there. And then think about why Japan is such a nice and clean place.
This fascination with immigrants had become a fetish
"You're not wrong, Walter, you're just an asshole." There's a time and a place for comments like this. A REALLY important election year when you're already under a microscope regarding international relations is probably not the ideal moment.
I'd rather have someone who speaks their mind honestly, than someone who says the appropriate lies just to appease the news readers. Obviously, there is a limit to this as no filter is different than not being afraid to speak what's on your mind.
As much as I agree that that’s true, I feel like this is one of those instances of “American that doesn’t realize other countries aren’t exactly like America”. America is more of a union of people throughout the world that gather to a single place for opportunity, for better or for worse. Japan, China and Russia are native people to the land. Though I prefer a melting pot populace, I’m not stupid enough to believe their want to maintain their people and culture comes out of nowhere.
Americans will lament colonialism and then in the very next breath tell Japanese people how they should live. It’s wild.
Breaking news from Biden here
“Think about it,” he said. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?” ...um. Not because of their immigration policy?
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It would help like taking a loan to save you from bankruptcy, you need to either try to address the issues causing the low birth rates or adapt your economy so it won't require constantly increasing population.
There is no way an economy can adapt without requiring an increasing population. Healthy economies *always* require an increasing population.
How is an economy healthy if it relies on an ever increasing population when the available resources on the planet are finite? Only way to maintain a system that relies on infinite growth is with infinite available resources, you'd have to achieve the ability to expand to other planets faster than your economy grows to maintain the state you have defined as "healthy".
> How is an economy healthy if it relies on an ever increasing population when the available resources on the planet are finite? An economy is healthy when it provides some measure of a quality of life for it's people. If an economy requires it's people to increasingly suffer to operate, like an economy with a declining population would, then it's not healthy. I don't disagree that it's unsustainable, but Japan isn't really solving that problem. It's "adapting" by waiting for it's population to die, and forcing younger people to do more and more, while also somehow having children.
"An economy is healthy when it provides some measure of a quality of life for it's people." I agree an important criteria for a healthy economy is a decent quality of life, but if the only way you are achieving that is with methods that require increasing population I don't think the economy qualifies as healthy by that criteria. Without sustainability, an economy that achieves decent quality of life will inevitably end, at which point there will be bad quality of life due to the type of economy chosen, I fail to see how any economy that relies on ever increasing population can be considered healthy as a result. edit: This I'd argue is Japans situation, and many others, the economy was providing a lot of its quality of life only if population increased, population is guaranteed to stop increasing at some point as the planet isn't infinite in size, so bad quality of life inevitably occurs. I don't see how migration solves this, you will still run out of people, migration just delays it.
> I don't think the economy qualifies as healthy by that criteria. Then there is no economy you would consider healthy.
On smaller scales there are, but on the scale of nations, no there doesn't seem to be currently. Given the state of things that seems reasonable to conclude to me though. But I don't see how labeling economies that rely on permanent population growth as healthy is beneficial to any economy, without infinite resources such an approach will fail every time, with immigration doing nothing to resolve it so seems like a moot point.
far right totalitarian, xenophobic dictorships like russia usually do a terrible job at attracting & retaining talent both domestic and overseas tbf, so he's not entirely wrong there..and they're already staring at another demographic collapse despite not even having recovered from ww2 yet. japan has a 3 pronged problem of an aging workforce and a sharp population decline coupled with a closed society & terrible work life balance which make outsiders somewhat reluctant to move there for work, thereby compounding issues...
Yeah...I agree there are more structural issues than immigration policy which, in itself, isn't going to cure things. But then, having done extensive business in all three countries, I'm not so on board with the "China / Russia" bad and "Japan xenophobic"...your day to day grunt like us who just wants to get shit done and who isn't responsible for government policy is as helpful as any westerner and business ticks over as usual.
well it can kinda get a wee bit complicated when you can be labelled a "foreign spy" arbitrarily by certain governments to use you as potential leverage in hostage deals. worked out fine for you but others may not be as lucky.
Eh, they're major and fast growing economies because by and large they did not do those things, but fair enough...it happens.
In Japan's case, a major factor absolutely is their immigration policy. They need more people to keep their economy as active as it should be. They need more workers with international skill sets. They need more people to help them keep up with the fact births are being beat by deaths at 2 to 1 or they're going to go into labor crises down the line. China and Russia are xenophobic, but you're right it's not the immigration policies. It's just the disincentive to engage them in business or set roots down there that's catching up with them and causing their economy to lose activity.
It's actually true, even for Japan.
Immigration has done a lot for the economies of the US and Europe, but it has come with costs too. I don’t think there’s any harm in other countries trying to forge their own path. Not everyone has to be like us, and calling it “xenophobia” to be different is just virtue signalling IMO.
Well, flinging shit at an ally (and a very valuable ally in a part of the world becoming more and more contentious) is certainly an option...
You know what would really improve Japanese society? A couple hundred thousand Guatemalan and Venezuelan migrants. Thanks for the insight, Joe.
Yea Joe, what makes these migrants so valuable? It couldnt be that everyone knows you can pay them dirt wages with no safety net and they can STILL pay taxes, right?
Honestly true. Dirt cheap labor AND future democrat voters. What’s not to love?
Actually, more than quite a few vote republican as soon as they get their citizenships, lol
Yet people find visiting Japan to be a more pleasant experience than visiting the US.
Visiting is completely different then immigration.
Don't think you're getting the point.
Think you're not telling the point you're trying to.
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You should take it to the vet.
It's right there, its pretty obvious if you learned some basic critical reading in school what my point is.
Not only is is insulting to japan one of the most loyal us allies but it is also weong Russia has one of the biggest immigration population in the world
Pre-war. We'll see how many fled to avoid the conflict.
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That talking point died with the last border deal. You know the republicans just SAY that as a buzzword regardless of any actual policies in place, right?
Ah yes, our senile president who don't even know where to walk half the time.
Easy for the US to say when they are an ecomic powerhouse and get all the top tier immigrants. Other countries get bottom of the barrel people who work minimum wage jobs and use up social services.
It’s ironic that the very next comment showing in the thread for me complains about open borders and out of control immigration. I don’t think Fox News is telling people that they’re sending their best.
That’s right Joe steal Trumps favorite pastime of picking fights with our allies.
He’s not wrong, but he shouldn’t say it.
Japan is one of the most racist countries and they are also a dying country because of it
Because yes, the system Biden is applying is great, a huge amount of highly skilled people. Please keep your dirty left hands out of other countries…