As someone who lived on a military base in Japan when I was a kid, the country does feel like it's changing in places. But other places that are more out of the way still feel like "home", almost unchanged from that time a couple decades ago. (sometimes literally: I visited the area around that base last year and found billboards that were exactly the same as a couple decades ago)
It's true that once we went into the countryside there were a lot fewer foreign workers, but that is also how it is in western countries.
I have no idea about stats of "illegal immigrants" in Japan, because that could mean working outside of your permitted work, having no or an expired residence status, etc.
The emotions he tries to express in his blog are no doubt mildly to very positive, in contrast to the stridently critical (uncooperative+nonconstructive) undertones
I'll admit, tho, rationalistic disses of Japan always get me. If you visit Tokyo often you'll notice that fashion trends are subject to hyperintense Darwinian competition (>> NYC). American trends failing to show up in Japan immediately is very much not evidence of their evolutionary fitness
>So the Sanseito backlash is still among a minority of Japanese people
Premise seems not quite right
In my humble opinion, any constructive blabber about JP need to mention Switzerland. They should be the ISO standard in handling both skilled and underskilled "assimilation", for a uh post-growth economy. (Norway if things are any healthier) We don't even know if immigration is all we need to stave off inflation here ;)
techpineapple•6mo ago
mytailorisrich•6mo ago