This begs the question

[cstaylor]

"The number of foreign students increases every year, but society is not yet ready to accept them," said Fan Bao, vice president of Waseda International Student Support Center (WISS), a nonprofit organization that helps foreign graduates hunt for jobs.

They had better accept them soon-- who will support all of the oldsters?

[kamome]

The rising trend has been partly backed by a government project to have 100,000 foreign students studying in Japan by the beginning of the 21st century -- a deadline it failed to achieve. The long-term project was set up to lift the disproportionately low ratio of non-Japanese students among overall students in Japan to a level on a par with other industrialized nations.

This is typical--government bureaucrats set a numerical target for something to improve Japan's image, but the logic doesn't percolate down to the grass roots level. So you have a conflict between bureaucratic planning and grass roots practicalities/prejudices.

Here, you have the government setting a target for x number of foreign students so that Japan looks like it's on a par with other industrialized nations, but Japanese companies refuse to hire them. When I was teaching English, the same thing occurred: Monbusho wanted to get as many foreign teachers of English into Japanese classrooms to encourage Eikaiwa learning and improve Japan's "internationalization", but the Japanese teachers were unable/unwilling to incorporate them into the curriculum.

[Mr. BIG]

[Crispy]

Is the situation with Asian non-Japanese the same as any other gaijin? I just assumed Japanese firms were racist, sexist, and any other "ist" anyone can think of. Everything I have heard indicates that firms in Japan are run like an ultra-exclusive country club.

[cstaylor]

Is the situation with Asian non-Japanese the same as any other gaijin? I just assumed Japanese firms were racist, sexist, and any other "ist" anyone can think of. Everything I have heard indicates that firms in Japan are run like an ultra-exclusive country club.

Only the big ones with too many managers.