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Xenophobia Now
This comes via Debito's blog. From an article on the pervasive racism and xenophobia in Japan:
Junko Nakayama, 56, refuses to believe that the number of foreigners arrested for crimes is decreasing as per statistics released by the National Policy Agency.
''There are an increasing number of foreigners, mostly Asian, in the area where I live and they look menacing. I am now very nervous when I walk back home from the train station in the evening,'' she says.
Nakayama, who works in an international company, is not alone. Surveys indicate that more Japanese -- over 70 percent in a poll -- believe that the influx of foreigners into Japan is posing a threat to the country's famed domestic peace. The notion is fuelled, say activists, by sensationalism in the media over crimes committed by overseas workers.
Good God, and she works at an international company? I suppose some foreigners are less evil than others. In this case, I'm not so much interested in the legal aspect of rights for foreigners in Japan as I am in the final paragraph of the article:
Japan needs immigrant workers because its own population is both aging and declining. In 2005, deaths outnumbered births by 10,000. From 2006 onwards, the population was projected to dwindle steadily with some projections saying that Japan's population, currently standing at 127 million, could dwindle to around 100 million by 2050.
If we assume Junko Nakayama is typical of Japan, how do we reconcile the fact that Japan's population, and its labour force, is shrinking and that Japan will have to start importing a lot of labor in the near future? A United Nations report on replacement migration in 2000 came up with several migration scenarios all of which get gradually more unpalatable for a Japan not keen on accepting a lot of foreigners (emphasis mine).
- The 1998 United Nations population projection assumes no net immigration to Japan from 1995 through 2050. According to the medium variant projection, the population of Japan would increase from 125.5 million in 1995 and reach its peak in 2005 at 127.5 million. Then the population would decline to 104.9 million by 2050. The working age population (15-64 years old) of Japan is projected to decline continuously, from 87.2 million in 1995 to 57.1 million in 2050. The population aged 65 or older would increase from 18.3 million in 1995 to 34.0 million in 2045 and then decrease slightly to 33.3 million in 2050. As a result, the percentage of population aged 65 or older in the total population would more than double, from 14.6 per cent in 1995 to 31.8 per cent in 2050. The ratio of the working-age population to the retired-age population would continue declining, from 4.8 in 1995 to 2.2 in 2025 and 1.7 in 2050.
- According to the medium variant projection of the United Nations 1998 Revision, the population of Japan would reach a maximum of 127.5 million in 2005. If Japan wishes to keep the size of its population at the level attained in the year 2005, the country would need 17 million net immigrants up to the year 2050, or an average of 381,000 immigrants per year between 2005 and 2050. By 2050, the immigrants and their descendants would total 22.5 million and comprise 17.7 per cent of the total population of the country.
- In order to keep the size of the working-age population constant at the 1995 level of 87.2 million, Japan would need 33.5 million immigrants from 1995 through 2050. This means an average of 609,000 immigrants are needed per year during this period. Under this scenario, the population of the country is projected to be 150.7 million by 2050. The number of post-1995 immigrants and their descendants would be 46 million, accounting for 30 per cent of the total population in 2050.
- Scenario V does not allow the potential support ratio to decrease below the value of 3.0. In order to achieve this, no immigrants would be needed until 2005, and 94.8 million immigrants would be needed between 2005 and 2050, an average of 2.1 million per year during that period. By 2050, out of a total population of 229 million, 124 million, or 54 per cent, would be post-1995 immigrants or their descendants.
- This scenario keeps the ratio of the working-age population to the retired-age population at its 1995 level of 4.8. In order to keep this level of potential support ratio, the country would need 553 million immigrants during 1995 through 2050, or an average of 10 million immigrants per year. Under this scenario, the population of Japan is projected to be 818 million in 2050, and 87 per cent of them would be the post-1995 immigrants and their descendants.
So what is Japan going to do? Try and limit the number of foreigners in Japan to 3% of the population? Or are they going to take the advice of the EU and adopt a real immigration policy?
This may sound stupid, but I would not put it past Japan if they ended up perfecting an army of robots to serve them. See here, here, and here for what I'm talking about.
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Comments
Immigration to Japan
The Japanese are free to do whatever they want - after all, it's their country. And racially discriminatory attitudes and policies or not, are there really that many people around the world queuing up to migrate to Japan?
Immigration
It's about time I replied to this. You are absolutely right the Japanese can do as they please when it comes to immigration. My point wasn't to say. "Open the gates and let a bunch a of foreigners in. This article from Kyodo News shows why Japan needs a rational immigration policy--they are running out of people to make their social system work.
When you combine a rapidly aging population with , you have to wonder what the hell are they thinking?
1. I can't see a lot people taking government-approved tests for a chance at a job.
2. The 3-year-visa-and-never-come-back again is just the old foreign trainee scam by another name.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
-Albert Einstein
Shawn
Who cares if the population dwindles...
The concern about Japan's population decline is crazy. Japan already has too many people and that shows in cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. Property value is through the roof mainly due to shortage of land and too many people. Japanese should live on property that is larger than the average 18 tsubo's in Tokyo and 50 tsubo's in Okinawa. The price may not get cheaper but it would be better for peple to live on 100 tsubo of land in Tokyo than 18 tsubos. Less people, more space.
Also, the idea that the population will decline by xx% by 2050 is stupid. Duh, I will be 81 years old by that time. Do I really expect and immigrant to come from another country and take care of me???
Gee, what happend when there were only 30 million people living in Japan in past history? Do you think they survived?
Japanese are free to do whatever they want
Yeah! The Japanese are free to do whatever they want!
They can discriminate, spread wild xenophobia, and harras foreigners at will.
Who can blame them! I mean them scary looking foreigners are everywhere.
Whoa is the former racit, imperial power. Helpless victim.
Hey! Foreigners...leave those poor Japanese alone in their paranoi!
The UN doesn't know what its talking about when it says Japan is still one of the most racist countries on the planet. Damn Anan! Stay out!
Or better yet..come here and join them and see what its like. Live here among the poor Japanese. Just be sure to change your name to "Tanaka" and undergo plastic surgery before you come! You may be in for a rude awakening.
Although Japan is one of the
Although Japan is one of the richest countries in the world, the government now has a very big problem about their population rate. The birthrates across the world's richer nations are falling, and Japan's is headed for disaster according to some, as the rate of births per couple has fallen below the break-even point, and it will start causing damage, just like an expense can cause damage unless treated with a payday loan. Some companies have even taken to letting employees off early a day or two a week to create future employees. The government should do their best to solve this problem because if this dilemma would not be resolve as soon as possible, this could be a big problem to the Japanese regime in the coming years. Read more about payday loans and other things at the Money Blog.
Although Japan? You whiner !!!!!!!
Right now, people in Japan are worried about keeping their jobs, and/or being fired. What you say was relevant before the economic crisis, but it is not on people's minds at all right now - keeping one's job, and feeding one's family, are first and foremost on people's minds. Haven't you noticed the new tent city forming in Shibuya?
Human Geography
Remember those things called Population Pyramids, which you studied in your high school geography class? It's called Demography. When Japan only had 30 million people, the shape of the pyramid was different than now. At that time there were lots of young people to support the economy and the elders in society. The problem with the pyramid now is that it is top heavy. There are not enough young people to keep the economy strong. Nor are there enough tax payers to support the social security system needed for all of the dead-weight seniors.
What to do with all those Old People in Japan
Back in the good old days in Japan, when the old folk became too much of a burden, they used to take them to the side of the mountain, in the middle of winter, and leave them there, to die of exposure.
It was common practice throughout Japan. An ancient tradition, in fact.
Since Japan is so anxious to hang on to its unsavoury ancient traditions, despite world protests, like harpooning whales and their calves in Antarctic Wildlife Sanctuaries, then perhaps they should reinstate that glorious Japanese tradition as well.
It’s a good idea, to take those “burden on the Japanese tax payers hip pocket old people” to the edge of the mountains in the middle of winter, and let them die, or better still, harpoon them (for scientific research purposes).
Kara
But, if we get rid of the old people....
...Once upon a time there was a country which had the very peculiar custom of abandoning its aged people in remote and inaccessible mountains.
A certain minister of the State found it too difficult to follow this custom in the case of his own aged father, and so he built a secret underground cave where he hid his father and cared for him.
One day a god appeared before the king of that country and gave him a puzzling problem, saying that if he could not solve it satisfactorily, his country would be destroyed.
The problem was: "Here are two serpents; tell me the sex of each." Neither the king nor anyone in the palace was able to solve the problem; so the king offered a great reward to anyone in his kingdom who could. The minister went to his father's hiding place and asked him for the answer to that problem. The old man said: "It is an easy solution. Place the two snakes on a soft carpet; the one that moves about is the male, and the other that keeps quiet is the female." The minister carried the answer to the king and the problem was successfully solved.
Then the god asked other difficult questions which the king and his retainers were unable to answer, but which the minister, after consulting his aged father, could always solve. Here are some of the questions and their answers:
"Who is the one who, being asleep, is called the awakened one, and, being awake, is called the sleeping one?" The answer is: It is the one who is under training for Enlightenment. He is awake when compared with those who are not interested in Enlightenment; he is asleep when compared with those who already attained Enlightenment.
"How can you weigh a large elephant?" "Load it on a boat and draw a line to mark how deep the boat sinks into the water. Then take out the elephant and load the boat with stones until it sinks to the same depth, and then weigh the stones."
"What is the meaning of the saying, "A cupful of water is more than the water of an ocean?" This is the answer: "A cupful of water given in a pure and compassionate spirit to one's parents or to a sick person has an eternal merit, but the water of an ocean will some day come to an end."
Next the god made a starving man, reduced to skin and bones, complain, "Is there anyone in this world more hungry than I?" "The man who is so selfish and greedy that he does not believe in the Three Treasures of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, and who does not make offerings to his parents and teachers, is not only more hungry, but he will fall into the world of hungry demons and there he will suffer from hunger forever."
"Here is a plank of Chandana wood; which end was the bottom of the tree?" "Float the plank in water; the end that sinks a little deeper was the end nearest the root."
"Here are two horses apparently of the same size and form; how can you tell the mother from the son?" "Feed them some hay; the mother horse will push the hay toward the son."
Every answer to these difficult questions pleased the god as well as the king. The king was grateful to find out that the answers had come from the aged father whom the minister had hidden in the cave, and he withdrew the law of abandoning aged people in the mountains and ordered that they were to be treated kindly.
But if we.......ok, ok, ok, I get your point
Ok, ok, ok I get your point. It if is too much for the world to stomach, abandoning all the old Japanese people at the side of a mountain in the middle of winter, lets abandon them, out of the public eye, in a cave instead. 10 points for using your brain.
But one step better still, let's lead them all into a giant cave, and harpoon them as well. Much less suffering. Much more humane.
Kara
Buddhist Views of Suicide and Euthanasia
The website below has reasonable detail on those harpooning Japanese people's views on euthenasia, and death in general.
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/becker.htm
Speaking of suicide, has Saruhashi done the necessary yet?
Kara
Japan - Racism and discrimination
I very very sorry but, its really long. Please take your time to read and understand the way I feel. Thank You.
I'm a black person and I still don't know from the article that I've sceemed through is just someone's opinion or a fact. When I'm older I would LOOOOOVE to go and live in Japan. This is because I am Jap Crazy (Japanese Crazy). I looooove everything about Japan. However, I keep getting told by different people, Japanese people are RACIST, especially to black people. They think that the colour black is dirty or something to do with black magic. Another Person told me that, Chinee people think black people are black because they don't wwash or wash enough to get the dirt off (I meant the colour of their skin). I don't think so. This is because I've never met lots of Japnese people, apart from my mother's one Japanese friend. She's extremely genorous. Please report back or give me an answer. Sorry about my spelling. Thank You for reading this, even though it was very long.
Yep. It's true. I'm a 6'2"
Yep. It's true. I'm a 6'2" blond haired, blue eyed "gaijin" living in downtown Tokyo. Even here, the xenophobia and racism is obvious. When you get out into the countryside, woah Nelly! I get what I like to call the "eat $#!% and die, gaijin" look three or four times a day. It doesn't matter how good my Japanese is, how respectful I am, or how money I make, I will always be a dirty gaijin here. I have some Indian and African friends for whom it is much worse. I regularly travel to Hong Kong and Seoul where I have no problems whatsoever.
I feel very sorry when I read
I feel very sorry when I read your comment. But it happens everywhere around the world. not only you. I used to travel to Seoul often (more or less 10 times) and every time I met people shouted me "Dok-do (Dok island) is ours!" and also met friendly, respectful people. This kind of problem is really difficult to solve, as for me, I envy your hight, blond hair and blue eyes.
You are missing the point
You are missing the point about population decline by a mile - the issue is not about density - its about a decline in the labour force which has got implications about living standards - few people contributing to tax revenue, and more people seeking social services because they are old
You're in for a shock
Hi there... It's been about 7 months since you made your post, so I'm not sure if this reply will get to you, but I was just reading all this and saw your inquiry about what Japanese people think of black people, citing your mother's Japanese friend.
Everyone has to make up their own mind about this stuff. There are some non-Japanese who find a way to manage the degraded social status here, but it's something akin to being black in the southern states back in the seventies. There are plenty of kind people, and you will probably be treated alright in most official places like stores, etc. However, the dirty looks and perpetual nervousness and fear of you in public places may weigh heavily on you. I don't know what things are like where you come from, so - being black - you may already be used to ill treatment by some racist jerks. But it came as a traumatic shock to me. I'm white, and had never experienced real racism until coming to Japan. And my non-white friends here in Japan say it's a lot worse. So if it's bad for me I can only imagine what it's like for them. One friend of mine, who is Philipino gets stopped frequently by police for no reason and humiliated -- made to look like a criminal -- stopped there while his foreigner ID card is checked.
Most of us have a very ideal image of Japan before we come here. Even after having a vacation, we are such happy little Japan-o-files with our anime and polite Japanese friends in our home country where we're nice and comfy that we get extremely positive feelings about Japan. However, once you're on their turf, and you're with Japanese who aren't international types like the ones who move to your home country, you're in for a real shock... Just a warning :-P
By the way, a little heads up... I know that in Europe using the word "Jap" is just a harmless abbreviation. However, in America it's a racial slur, so you may want to be careful when using that on a public website.
Actually, with a first-world
Actually, with a first-world economy and one of the highest PCIs in Asia, yes, there are. And I am one of them.
Please continue searching for more current info on Japan
Keep looking around for info. IT's easy to feel positive vibes about Japan while in another country. They have a great PR campaign: corporate, governmental and NPO. But look deeper... There is a reality behind all the cuteness which is really quite, um, evil.
A slur in the US, OK in Europe
How about in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and Antarctica?
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