Japan wrestles with its views on ‘outside people’ amid population crisis
Japan wrestles with its views on ‘outside people’ amid population crisis
Low birthrate and ageing population pose ‘an urgent risk to society’, but can opening its borders to skilled overseas workers fix the problem?
Low birthrate and ageing population pose ‘an urgent risk to society’, but can opening its borders to skilled overseas workers fix the problem?
The amount of xenophobia in those countries, they would def have a population collapse. But hey happy earth!
Japan is totally fine with foreigners ... if you're western. Otherwise you can GTFO.
Even white guys would never be able to assimilate with them. You are never Japanese even if you are half, even when you born in Japan move to overseas and come back to Japan — you are treated as an outsider.
Japan is not alone in this.
The three countries that are getting hit with declining population are also the ones with some of the lowest migration rates in the world.
Japan.
Sth Korea.
China.
Decades of government backed protectionism paired with an ageing population will do that. people were widely propagandised into xenophobia and that sort of thing tends to stick in the psyche of the community for generations.
That said, the older generations are the ones still holding onto those views and they will be forced to change eventually.
You can still find signs on restaurants or shops across Asia that say "no tourists" or things like that, but they are becoming less common, even in rural areas. there is still the language barrier with the older generations, which is part of the reason those signs existed, but the majority of younger people across most of east Asia have some level of English from their mandatory school curriculums. They learn more western history, more western customs, exposed to more western media, western style homes are popular to those who can afford them (the Japanese housing market is it's own deep, deeeep topic), etc. etc. so those people naturally become more open and accepting of immigration
I expect to see japan keep crashing for another 10 years or so though sadly, and while Korea has been fairly stable they are rolling towards the same sort of downturn themselves.
China has been slowing economically for some years now for the same reasons, but their situation is a little different as their government will do whatever is necessary to protect their image, above their actual economy, so it is hard to know what is really happening there. For example, the whole giving gold to home buyers to avoid crashing the housing market thing.
Korea has been fairly stable they are rolling towards the same sort of downturn themselves
Korea is actually in a worse position than Japan, far from being fairly stable their reproduction rate has been crashing far quicker and passed Japan years ago.
Oh, and they all share work cultures to which people are usually expected to devote their whole lives to work.
South Korea is running into the same problem. Most advanced economies have low birthrate, but South Korea has the lowest in the entire world. This has created an issue of a looming population crisis.
Typically countries fix this by allowing more immigration, but South Korea is incredibly xenophobic and many would rather attempt to deal with a population collapse than allow non-koreans into the country.
SK immigration is hell. But there are an increasing number of foreign nationals in Korea. Tons of people from South and West Asia especially. And of course the ESL teachers lol
Maybe this will push them to 1) make certain visas easier to obtain and 2) publicly fund Korean foreign language education so dumbass Americans stop speaking English everywhere and then whining about how they can't work anywhere except in English. like no shit you can't work for a Korean company you dont speak Korean and never tried to learn. korean government should make more visas for people who actually want to live in korea and contribute rather than forcing every foreigner to keep the E2 visa and relegating their stay to being tied to their employer. where the fuck you gonna learn to become a hospice nurse if you can't even quit your job without leaving the country
how many economies have to collapse before governments realize capitalism is broken
I’m pretty sure you could have a socialist state that is as xenophobic as modern day Japan.
Not defending capitalism but just drawing a distinction that xenophobia isn’t solved necessarily by the destruction of capitalism.
Since most governments are filled with people who have way more money than they can spend in a lifetime probably never.
I will never understand why people who live in poverty or barely get by look at some rich CEO/billionaire whatever moneybags person go "yeah this person will probably understand my hardships and make it right, let's make him governor or president".
A lot of politicians are completely out of touch and as long as they're doing well everyone must be doing well (or they simply don't care).
Ugh, this is not an "urgent risk to society" this is an example that the whole world should follow
The problem is that you still need a productive group of people to fund and care for retirees. Japan has the ability to absorb millions in its rural towns. It just doesn't.
Immigrants don't want to live in rural towns. I remember when a group of refugees were bussed in Sweden and they revolted that they didn't get to stay in a city.
I mean even LOCAL people don't want to live in rural towns, that's why they're depopulated.
And then we'll need more people to look after those young ones when they retire and then we'll need more people to look after those young ones when they retire and then we'll need more people to look after those young ones when they retire and then we'll need more people to look after those young ones when they retire
No, no more growth. It's going to hurt the current generation but it's for the greater good. It's time to have a population decline
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A certified IT specialist, he arrived in Tokyo from Sri Lanka a year ago, hoping to take advantage of job opportunities that have opened up as part of Japan’s efforts to tackle its population crisis and encourage more immigration.
With the population expected to decline dramatically in the coming decades – leaving a gaping hole in the workforce – Japan is quietly easing restrictions and accepting record numbers of migrants, mostly from Asian countries such as Vietnam, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Data released in July showed a record population fall of nearly 800,000 but it also revealed a jump in overseas-born residents, to an all-time high of around 3 million, almost 50% up on a decade ago.
Bringing skilled workers from overseas is requiring a significant shift in a nation that not so long ago treated foreign labour as something akin to a necessary, if temporary, nuisance.
Despite the demographic challenges, Japan has remained reluctant to accept refugees and the number of applicants it grants asylum to annually rarely exceeds double digits.
Park believes it will be hard for Japan to lure large numbers of skilled workers due to language difficulties, dealing with the complexities of Japanese culture, and uncompetitive wages in many sectors.
The original article contains 1,043 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Japan is a super old civilization and they've been through plenty of challenging times. They may stick out the next 40 years and continue to do what they have been for the next thousand years.
You do you Japan!
Japan is fucked long term
Its a bandaid solution.