No Foreigners Please.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Don't rush to expand immigration policy

I am opposed to the idea of bringing foreigners to Japan to supposedly sustain the nation's economic strength, whether it is done through policies that treat such people as ``immigrants'' or as ``foreign workers.''

This is because, as things stand in Japan today, such policy would be doomed to trigger harsh racial discrimination. In my view, no such immigration plan should be embarked upon without an environment supportive of equitable treatment for those who enter the country in its wake.

At present, for example, there is still troublesome discrimination against ethnic Korean residents in Japan. While conducting a survey of Brazilians of Japanese descent working in Japan, meanwhile, I encountered a worker who said he suffered a ruptured eardrum during a beating at the hands of his Japanese employer.

If Japan is unable to properly assimilate foreigners even when they are ethnic Japanese, what will occur upon the arrival of people who clearly differ in visual appearance and other fundamental ways?

In my own case, I was the target of discrimination when I lived in the United States as an elementary school student. Based on this personal experience, it is my judgment that discrimination grows more acute when a resident moves beyond the status as a "guest'' in the country, and attempts to learn the language and truly blend into local society.

...There is also the argument that foreign blood will help invigorate Japanese society. To that theory, I can only say that we Japanese owe it to ourselves to energize our own society without relying heavily on support from foreigners.

...Before our leaders rush down the road to a new and expanded immigration policy, we all need to take a good hard look at exactly where we stand as a nation and a people.

[gomichild]

Sounds like Takuro Morinaga could do with getting out and talking to some real people.

We all have tales of discrimination - but many of us have more tales of acceptance here. Conversely I've seen racial discrimination in Australia against friends who were 2nd or 3rd generation of a different race - but as Australian as I.

The point being is that you won't solve the issue by not confronting it. Racial discrimination is based on fear and ignorance.

Maybe we need to take this bloke out for a beer.

[Big Booger]

In my own case, I was the target of discrimination when I lived in the United States as an elementary school student. Based on this personal experience, it is my judgment that discrimination grows more acute when a resident moves beyond the status as a ``guest'' in the country, and attempts to learn the language and truly blend into local society.

I'd love to hear more about his discrimination in the US while working at an elementary school.

I think his scope is rather limited if he is using this singular experience as a precursor to developing his idea that immigration should be put off in Japan...

I think without foreign people, Japan will never learn to cope. So indeed an influx should begin ASAP. It will change the face of Japan forever and alter views that are currently pressed in the mind stone.

There is also the argument that foreign blood will help invigorate Japanese society. To that theory, I can only say that we Japanese owe it to ourselves to energize our own society without relying heavily on support from foreigners.

It's this superiority complex that makes Japan weak and which, I humbly believe will cause the downfall of Japanese society in the Asian hemisphere.

What is he saying? Japan should never accept foreigners, or that Japan should try to change before the foreigners come? Or that Japan doesn't need foreigners so why should we care???

I don't quite get where he stands on this issue, but obviously he is convoluted if he thinks Japan will survive without foreign immigration. Grasshopper says, too many old people, not enough young people, society will crumble. I hope he has a nest egg, because he can kiss his pension good bye.

If Japan is unable to properly assimilate foreigners even when they are ethnic Japanese, what will occur upon the arrival of people who clearly differ in visual appearance and other fundamental ways?

I don't think the author has visited fucked gaijin lately???

What he is saying is that Japanese are racist, so before bringing in the foreigners, they need to change society?? I still don't get it???

[gomichild]

Maybe they need to do lots of "mental training" first?

Big Booger - sweetie none of us get it - the man is talking out of his botty.

[cstaylor]

The solution is before us, but no one speaks of it.

"The soba.... it's made of people! Soylent Midori is made of people!"

[Samurai_Jerk]

I totally agree. The only way to avoid discrimination and racism is to live separately.

For more info: http://www.resist.com/positions/AmericaFirst.html

[Samurai_Jerk]

double post

[nrky]

when i was in highschool, i seemed to be the only white dude for miles at my school (glen waverley secondary college). i used to hate 'those g***s' with a vengeance, as i had felt that i was being alienated by them.
but now, i am obsessed with japan, and love asians (but i still think that they are some of the most racist people on the planet, next to the rednecks/hillbillies)
racism/discrimination comes out of fear of the unknown. no matter where you go, if you are different to the norm, people will fear and loathe you, for changing their lives... what people need to begin to do, is EMBRACE any change in their lives, and ENJOY multiculturalism... without it, we would all be stuck up our own arses in our own little single-minded communities without any change, ever, whatsoever.... hell, even the AMISH allow their youths' the chance to experience the rest of the world as a different way of life to being amish.

[Crambo]

As unfortunate as it may be this boils down to the following, and rather quickly too; those that resist change are architects of destruction.

[Buraku]

There is racism in many places, in the states if you look hard you might find a weird KKK gathering or in France you'll find some anti-Muslim groups and in South America the people of native heritage often have a hard life


However issues of race, discrimination and so forth are openly discussed in the Western world


Looking at Japan from the outside everything looks Genki !
However if you look deeper, see how those of Korean blood never get that Job in a Nippon bank, how those of African ancestry are sterotyped and discriminated against, how the Tokyo governor sometimes uses the term 'animals' to refer to the Chinese, or how the whites ( most repected & often get the least racism in Japan ) can be denied entry into restaurants and prevented from renting places.
....and then there are those black trucks with pure-symbols & the Emperors logo on the side

Opening up this can of worms might cause a little internal conflict

And there are some who have the idea that living with these issues undebated is best for Japan other wise it might disrupt the union and Inner Harmony of the Japanese
and some have the idea that disturbing the 'wonderful' Japanese system and perfect harmony is a terrible thing

we must also keep in mind through history
that Japan has had little contact with outside nations and ethnic groups, so some multi-cultural ideas are not something known to a nation
that has been isolated for some time

[Captain Japan]

I just read this yesterday. This part is hilarious...

There are plenty of Europeans who, although not earning as much money as the Japanese, delight in kicking back to read books poolside and savoring other simple joys.

Now we just need to start building swimming pools in this country.

[Mulboyne]

Japan must open door to foreign workers, panel head says

The government needs to look at the broader picture and actively work to open the domestic labor market to unskilled workers so Japan is not alienated from the global community.

That is according to Kazuo Kumagai, who headed a Foreign Ministry panel that last week compiled a report urging the government to create a national consensus on accepting more unskilled labor from abroad amid the rapid graying of society.

"Opening our doors to more foreign labor will lead to Japan's revitalization," Kumagai said. "Despite voices of opposition, we need to resolve the issue so as not to isolate ourselves from international society."

Kumagai expressed concern over various problems that foreigners such as Chinese, Brazilians, Filipinos and Peruvians face in their daily lives. The panel report calls these foreigners "newcomers," as opposed to ethnic Koreans in Japan, who while making up the largest group are gradually shrinking in number.

These "newcomers" are often exploited, suffering from poor working conditions and unpaid wages, and are usually excluded from the nationwide health care or pension systems.

The Korean-Japanese population is shrinking? I'm guessing that the reporter really means it is just growing more slowly but the phrase "shrinking in number" is pretty unequivocal.

[cstaylor]

Well, the children of Koreans living in Japan can always take Japanese citizenship by creating a Japanese name for themselves and registering with the government. That could explain the decreasing number of that minority group (Koreans living in Japan without Japanese citizenship).

[Captain Japan]

Here is a different perspective...
Japan must open door to foreign workers, panel head says
Japan Times

The government needs to look at the broader picture and actively work to open the domestic labor market to unskilled workers so Japan is not alienated from the global community.

That is according to Kazuo Kumagai, who headed a Foreign Ministry panel that last week compiled a report urging the government to create a national consensus on accepting more unskilled labor from abroad amid the rapid graying of society.

[Taro Toporific]

Here is a different perspective...
Japan must open door to foreign workers, panel head says
Japan Times
.... a report urging the government to create a national consensus on accepting more unskilled labor from abroad amid the rapid graying of society.

[/quote]

Sheeeeeeeeee-it. Whatabunch of liars.
I've been here more than 20 years, married, have post-grad degrees, work in major Japanese company and I am a bucho. The Government does everything possible to deport me...and for good reason.

[dimwit]

Sheeeeeeeeee-it. Whatabunch of liars.
I've been here more than 20 years, married, have post-grad degrees, work in major Japanese company and I am a bucho. The Government does everything possible to deport me...and for good reason.

You are missing the code word "broader picture" which in this case means "althought the policy debate is being dominated by a bunch of drunken perverted xenophobes, those of us who have thought the matter through think..."

[Captain Japan]

Japan mulls multicultural dawn
BBC

The name Sony summons visions of all things Japanese. Yet its board chairman, Iwao Nakatani, recently called for mass immigration, opening Japan to different faces and influences.

Mr Nakatani is worried because Japanese are living longer, yet having fewer children. The result is a shrinking workforce which threatens economic growth.

This part is great...

Yoko Nakamura, a 52-year-old woman in Tokyo, said that living in Europe and Australia had shown her the advantages of Japan's uniformity.

"Everyone has the same hair colour and the same eye colour. You feel maybe the guy next to you is feeling the same way, so it's a good feeling to be homogenous," she said.

And the BEEB even tracked down the FG Darling...

And they are just the kind of people Japan needs most as its population ages, according to Tony Laszlo, director of an anti-discrimination organisation in Tokyo.

"In 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, you have to ask yourself who is going to be finding the holes in the tunnel and patching them up so people don't die, who is going to be climbing the buildings to wash the windows, who is going to be building bridges and fixing bridges, and the answer is you don't have these people," he said.

Man, this reporter got some great quotes.