> Mass immigration to Japan remains dominated by people from poorer Asian countries, especially Vietnam and the Philippines. But a 2020 survey by the global money transfer service Remitly found that Japan topped the rankings of countries that Americans and Canadians would like to move to.

It is surprising to see Japan top these rankings still. Japan is famously hostile to immigrants and foreigners. There is a lot of low level discrimination in public places (like restaurants). And it’s very hard to make friends or integrate as a foreigner.

More recently there has been a huge backlash against foreigners in general and immigration specifically, as seen with the rise of a far right wing party called Sanseito, which became popular largely on anti foreigner positions. This party’s founder is a fan of Hitler (his words) and the party president thinks vaccines are “murder weapons”. They also want to toss out the constitution to write new one. And with that they want to significantly reduce the rights of foreigners and those who aren’t ethnically Japanese.

I mention all this because while people may love one form of Japanese culture - the technology, the food, the anime, etc - there is another side entirely that is also there. This article doesn’t cover it sufficiently, and is even falsely claiming the opposite with lines like this:

> Third tourism is rapidly dispelling the previously common stereotype of Japan as a closed-off, xenophobic country. Foreigners can now see for themselves how open, free, friendly, and welcoming of a country Japan actually is.