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- Hacker News
- This is not news anymore in that it has been going on for several months already. The first time I really noticed this was on Paolo from Tokyo, where he suddenly praised japanese cops on becoming tougher. Since then I noticed more and more complaints from non-japanese upon moving to Japan. Recently it was a guy from Germany who lives in Japan for like +10 years already and was denied being granted Japanese citizenship basically because ... he is gaijin.
Something really fundamental has been changing in Japan in the last few years, kind of an anti-globalisation movement tied to more nationalism - and I have a SLIGHT suspicion that this will become ultra-nationalism. In turn, a second prediction I make is that Japan will become militarily more aggressive and invest more in that. We can already see the writing on the wall here that more conflict will be brewing in the area.
It's a bit unfortunate in that if a country does not really want people to visit it, well - one does not have to go there. There are many other countries in the asian area that aren't as hostile to foreigners now. (Also interesting to see how an aging society suddenly changes to offset immigration. Hopefully we won't hear a single japanese complain about lack of people in Japan. Ironically Paolo is, or rather was, also kind of a gaijin, even though he speaks perfect Japanese of course.)
by shevy-java - Unrelated but sad and maybe slightly angry observation from someone who lived half their life in Asia.
In Asian countries if you're white (or God forbid, black), you're always a laowai, gweilo, gaijin, farang, angmo. You can speak the most fluent language and bow the most formal saikeirei - it helps nothing.
In NA countries if you're Asian, you're American / Canadian.
by mstaoru - Requiring proficiency in the language is reasonable, but requiring everyone to be richer than the average member of the population and have enough money banked to live off of for 30 years seems insane. That goes well beyond simply making sure that people are able to care for themselves.by autoexec
- > 56.3 percent of Japanese people said they opposed accepting more foreigners, up from 35.6 percent in 2024
that's a huge jump in 1 year. What happened?
by thatslast - I acknowledge and sympathize with the pain this will cause, but in regards to Japan itself: Good for them. Not because it is a rightward shift, but because it is a shift toward pragmatism in the face of the inherent tension between respect for all people and respect for one's own people and culture.
In my humble opinion, an ideal world is a liberal one with cherry-picked, tightly controlled, practical conservative elements that boldly take on the intimidating job of maintaining the balance between love and reason.
- It's really unfortunate that they have approved these changes. I know at least 7 people that have decided to leave Japan because of it. They were making enough money to support themselves, but under the rule they basically gave no chance of ever reaching that new income requirement. Some jobs just don't have that much upward financial mobility. Which is fine if you live outside the city without a large family, but these rules are harsh to anyone that isn't working a high pay job. Permanent recidency would have allowed them to work outside their visa category, easily start a business, and utilize their Japanese language skills in a larger market.
Its quite a shock since historically the government has moved extremely slow when implementing policies that have a large impact. But the last 6 months have been extremely anxiety inducing with a new immigration change being announced and approved every month.
by famahar - This is certainly going to conflict with their moves to make it easier to attract aged care workers to the country. Perhaps all the elderly people are expected to patriotically look after themselves?
https://unseen-japan.com/foreign-elderly-care-workers-japan/
by lazyasciiart - > By some estimates, Japan’s foreign-born population could reach the OECD average of 10 percent by 2070.
Ignoring whether the new rules are reasonable, the most baffling part of all this is how small the foreign population in Japan is.
Things are undoubtedly harder for the average Japanese citizen these days, but foreigners make up just 3% of the population. Targeting this cohort, I can't imagine a single policy change that would positively impact the lives of non-foreigners. Even if you snapped your fingers and deported every foreigner out of Japan, the only noticeable impact would be a shortage of low-wage workers/convenience store staff, who are predominantly from SE and South Asian countries.
The foreign population growing from 3% today to 10% in 45 years should be a consideration for sure, but the amount of attention and media play immigration issues get in Japan is astonishing. I don't think the politicians are acting in bad faith, so my conclusion is that they simply don't know what else to do to improve things.