Twenty years ago, by Jared Taylor: The NEW YORK TIMES Says Japan Needs Immigrants. The Japanese Politely Disagree
Independent scholar Richard Hanania, author of the important 2023 ”Civil Rights” critique The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics, has Evolved since the halcyon days when he wrote for VDARE.com under the pseudonym ”Richard Hoste,” and now seems to be emerging as a species of libertarian. Recently he gloated that Japan is going to be the next victim of mass immigration because it has begun importing some employment-based immigrants. Hanania now claims mass migration is a good thing and seems to be salivating over a Camp Of The Saints–type invasion hitting Japan like a mass of Mongol cavalry. But in fact the Japanese still disagree, and their immigration policy as regards foreign workers is proof, along with their immigration policy in general. Above all, Japan still punishes and deports undesirables.
In December 2023, Hanania claimed Japan will become “an immigration powerhouse” because it admitted 350,000 new employment-based immigrants of an undetermined type in the first half of 2023. That implies that 2024 will be similar.
Japan is about to become an immigration powerhouse.
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) December 26, 2023
350,000 people entered in the first half of 2023 alone, and by 2030, a projected 10% of the workforce could be foreigners. pic.twitter.com/Bgw81trWXA
But that’s misleading, and no one should think immigration to Japan in any way mirrors the U.S. immigration disaster, with its unlimited family-based immigration, badly run employment-based Non-Immigrant Visa programs and treasonously opened southern border. Hanania doesn’t link to a source, but I found it—and it’s not authoritative: the Open Borders American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Here it is:
Japan will become an immigration powerhouse. Before the pandemic, the country was on track to accept about 150,000 new non-Japanese employees per year. This more than doubled to almost 350,000 in the first half of 2023. There are now approximately 3.2 million non-Japanese residents of Japan, up from barely half a million 30 years ago. Visa and permanent-residency requirements continue to ease. Most importantly, the biggest obstacle to employing non-Japanese talent—seniority-based rather than merit-based compensation—is beginning to change. All said, it is now perfectly reasonable to expect that about 10 percent of employees will be non-Japanese by 2030. That’s more than double the current rate of just below four percent [A Matter of Demographics: Connecting four megatrends that will shape Japan’s future, by Jesper Koll, ACCJ Journal, December 23, 2023].
It is hard to take seriously anyone who uses the term “megatrends,” one of those meaningless buzzwords that is even more meaningless in this context, where the major claim is that Japan will permit employment-based immigration of undefined type. We aren’t told whether the immigrant employees will be temporary or permanent or low-skilled or high-skilled. That, of course, suggests that writer Koll is more interested in a policy he wants than in reporting what is occurring.
The truth is quite a bit more nuanced. Yes, Japan is increasing employment-based immigration, but not with open borders. Rather, it is systematically recruiting foreign workers with specific skills for specific jobs:
The number of foreign residents in Japan at the end of 2022 rose 11.4% from a year before to hit a record high of 3,075,213, the Immigration Services Agency has said.
The number of foreign students and technical trainees rose sharply following the easing of COVID-19 border measures, the agency said Friday.
The total included 761,563 people from China, the largest group by nationality, 489,312 from Vietnam and 411,312 from South Korea. The figures all increased from a year earlier.
By status of residence, the number of foreign students increased by 92,808, technical trainees by 48,817 and specialists in engineering, humanities and international services by 37,221.
Foreign Residents In Japan Hit Record 3 Million At End Of 2022, Japan Times, March 25, 2023 [Emphases added]
Note that the three source countries for immigrants are within Japan and China’s ancient cultural orbit. The women below are Vietnamese, for example:
The number of foreign residents in Japan at the end of 2022 rose 11.4% from a year before to hit a record high of 3,075,213, according to the Immigration Services Agency. https://t.co/Xzu5YQ966Y
— The Japan Times (@japantimes) March 25, 2023
All have social and cultural policies based on Confucian government and philosophy, and all at one time used or still use Chinese ideographs for writing.
It is as if Germany solved its labor shortages not with Turks, Arabs, and Afghans, but with Danes, Dutch, and Walloons.
In other words, the Japanese attitude to immigration is very like WASP America’s, as manifested in the 1924 Immigration Act.
Even with the bad side of immigration—refugee resettlement, for instance—the number of refugees and other types of immigrants remains insignificant compared to those who were chosen to enter the country because they have skills.
The Japan Times goes on:
The number of foreigners granted refugee status under the immigration control and refugee recognition law increased by 128[!] to 202[!!], while the number of those who were not granted refugee status but were allowed to stay in Japan on humanitarian grounds increased by 1,180 to 1,760[!!!]. Both totals were the highest on record since Japan established a refugee recognition system in 1982.
Of the refugee total, 147 people were from Afghanistan, where the situation has worsened following the return of the Taliban regime. It also included 26 from Myanmar, where a military coup took place, and nine from China.
While 147 asylees from Afghanistan is 147 too many, nine from China and 26 from Myanmar is insignificant as well as completely avoidable. Obviously, Japan could do better.
Some refugees, such as Ukrainians, might even be net contributors. While racially and culturally nonconforming, they are likely to be intelligent, well-educated and productive in Japan.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year highlighted some of the shortcomings of the current system. Japan has accepted some 2,400 people, mostly Ukrainians, as “evacuees,” temporarily granting them resident status. The amendment would allow quasi-refugees to qualify for resident status, to work and to receive national pensions. Quasi-refugees would also face fewer hurdles to obtaining permanent residence status.
Japan Passes Immigration Reform Bill: 4 Things To Know, by Sayumi Taki, Nikkei Asia, June 9, 2023]
My view: The Ukrainians won’t likely stay long in Japan unless they are YouTubers, hot models, or academics.
Most will emigrate, because they will otherwise live in a ghetto of foreigners who don’t fit in. Unless one is a Nipponophile or weebo, living in Japan is difficult for outsiders. Japanese is a difficult language, and the Japanese have a complex culture centered around family, employer, community, and the horizontal and vertical web of obligations that this entails. Outsiders are always seen as outsiders:
Unlike the United States, which makes almost no effort to import immigrants who benefit America or will assimilate and adopt American beliefs, Japan selects immigrants, permanent or temporary, who will fit in:
Mongolian-born Erdenetogtokh Tuvshinbat is a former foreign student who has stayed on by founding a startup.
He came to Japan in 2010 through a government program and studied international relations at Hitotsubashi University. He worked in data analysis at a major corporation before launching Tab Solution in 2019. The business develops and provides apps for foreign job seekers and employment management systems.
“I want to expand services around the world from my base in Japan, which is a comfortable place to live,” he said. About half his 20 employees are former international students. …
Those who are on specialist visas, unlike those on technical interns, face no limit on the duration of stay and can renew their visas as many times as they want.
As of June 2022, about 300,000 people were working under this status, many of whom had stayed on after graduating from Japanese schools.
About 29,000 people changed status from student to work visas in 2021, 3.4 times more than 10 years ago. The specialist status accounted for 80%.
“Since about 10 years ago, demand for foreign labor has increased in areas such as IT, sales to visitors to Japan and overseas sales, making it easier for international students to find a job,” said Kouichi Takeuchi, president of job site Global Power, which caters to foreign job seekers.
Home Sweet Home: More Foreigners Settling In Japan Long Term, Over 40% Have Stayed For At Least 3 Years As Students Find Jobs, by Eugene Lang, Nikkei Asia, March 18, 2023
Obviously, educating immigrants and then testing them to see if they are learning or have learned Japanese and can abide by Japanese culture is better than simply permitting wave after wave to simply pour into the country, which is what the United States is doing.
Note also that the “permanent” visas must be renewed regularly, which not only gives Japan an opportunity to deny renewal if an alien causes problems, but also encourages aliens to behave or self-select for good behavior. The United States does not do this. Almost all of American employment-based NIVs are renewed without any serious review and lawful permanent residency is given out like candy, with no insistence on a record of good behavior and employment.
Americans should want trained professionals and entrepreneurs as immigrants, not penniless illiterates, or worse, lunatics and criminals released from asylums and prisons.
Indeed, the Japanese know what kind of immigrants they want, and do something about it when the immigrants aren’t the right kind. Japan cracks down on and arrests and deports undesirable aliens.
Example: Johnny Somali, the Ethiopian-Yemeni black immigrant to the United States who was living in Japan and live streaming on social media his egregious insulting and criminal behavior.
A Kick streamer who is notorious for harassing Japanese people with racist remarks and trespassing on private property has been sentenced to a five-year prison term in Japan.
Johnny Somali, who has been arrested several times in Japan for his actions, which have sparked outrage and condemnation from both locals and online communities, was found guilty of forcible obstruction of business after he disrupted the operations of several restaurants in Osaka by streaming inside their premises without permission.
He also faces deportation and a lifetime ban from entering Japan after he serves his sentence. The Japanese government is making an example of him to deter other streamers from engaging in similar behavior.
Kick Streamer Jailed for Five Years in Japan for Racist Harassment, by Mia Lee, MSN, December 25, 2023
YouTuber Johnny Somali was knocked out in Japan after taunting a couple in public🚨
— Forberge (@ForbergeNews) September 12, 2023
This is the full video of what had happened before getting punched by a foreigner 🤷♂️
Harassing a couple and accusing them of racism when clearly you are the one being racist 🫡 pic.twitter.com/KT98A06qoR
Richard Hanania apparently wants to think the floodgates are opening. He certainly claims immigrants are a net good, despite all the evidence that mass immigration is disastrous for the receiving country. Such people often want racially and culturally homogenous nations such as Japan to be destroyed by the type of uncontrolled immigration that is wrecking the United States and Western Europe.
Well, that still isn’t happening in Japan, despite what Globalist elites want. Japan’s immigration policy is rational, essentially because the Japanese elites, unlike ours, still love their people and their nation.
This is not to say all is well and good in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese must watch their politicians and guard their borders, language, and culture, or the alien, as Donald Trump warned about our nation, will poison their blood.
The blogger Federale (Email him), a 4th generation Californian now a refugee in Florida, is a veteran of federal law enforcement, including service in the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal law enforcement agencies. He has made many visits to the Land of The Rising Sun.
