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God forbid they try to maintain their cultural distinctness... This insistence that they need to open the gates strikes me as a sort of weird form of outsource

by wyager 9y ago

God forbid they try to maintain their cultural distinctness... This insistence that they need to open the gates strikes me as a sort of weird form of outsourced imperialism. It’s the same rhetoric it’s always been, where their primitive ways are morally repugnant and they’re in dire need of civilizing. The proposed mechanism of “civilization” is just very different.

girvo 9y ago
What’s better: being culturally distinct and having a failing society (it’s certainly failing for some people), or allowing some more immigration and adapting? I find your comment curious considering the context of this article
- richardknop 9y ago
  But they are not a failing society. Japan is one of the most popular and desirable places, it has very high standard of living, almost no violent crime. It’s their country and they are not obliged to open the gates to immigration if they don’t want to. It’s one of basic principles of a nation state, that you can control your borders and not let foreign people in if you don’t want to.
- titanix2 9y ago
  It could be better because the "failing" you described is a very different set of problems than those coming with large immigration. Just look at Western Europe, Sweden or Paris to see how bad things could go in only a few decades. I would totally prefer living in a more dire economic state rather than "adapting" my lifestyle to the immigrants (which is sadly already the case in my country and that includes extensive airport-like checking at a lot of place because of terror attacks, amongst other things).
- nostalgeek 9y ago
  > What’s better: being culturally distinct and having a failing society (it’s certainly failing for some people), or allowing some more immigration and adapting? I find your comment curious considering the context of this article Japan will be fine. it's already an overpopulated Archipelago so they do not need immigration. There is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve one's culture and way of life. Japan isn't a failing society by any standards, and certainly not the american one.
- scottlocklin 9y ago
  Your comment seems even more curious: allowing more immigration will prevent old Japanese ladies from going to jail because they're lonely? Citations needed.
krapp 9y ago
That's a new one. Immigration is "outsourced imperialism?" I don't see anyone, anywhere, espousing the rhetoric that Japan is primitive and morally repugnant and in dire need of civilizing through the import of foreign labor. You do realize most immigrants to Japan are from the other Asian countries that it's been importing and exporting culture with for millennia, right? And that their "cultural distinctness" is the result of a great deal of Western influence already? I suspect this is a proxy argument about European immigration because it always seems to be that when the issue of immigration into Japan comes up, the issue of "cultural distinctiveness" or ethnic purity is used to steer the conversation in that direction. But Japan is under a far greater threat of becoming too "Chinese" than it will ever be of becoming too "European."

by wyager 9y ago

girvo 9y ago

What’s better: being culturally distinct and having a failing society (it’s certainly failing for some people), or allowing some more immigration and adapting? I find your comment curious considering the context of this article

richardknop 9y ago
But they are not a failing society. Japan is one of the most popular and desirable places, it has very high standard of living, almost no violent crime. It’s their country and they are not obliged to open the gates to immigration if they don’t want to. It’s one of basic principles of a nation state, that you can control your borders and not let foreign people in if you don’t want to.
titanix2 9y ago
It could be better because the "failing" you described is a very different set of problems than those coming with large immigration. Just look at Western Europe, Sweden or Paris to see how bad things could go in only a few decades. I would totally prefer living in a more dire economic state rather than "adapting" my lifestyle to the immigrants (which is sadly already the case in my country and that includes extensive airport-like checking at a lot of place because of terror attacks, amongst other things).
nostalgeek 9y ago
> What’s better: being culturally distinct and having a failing society (it’s certainly failing for some people), or allowing some more immigration and adapting? I find your comment curious considering the context of this article Japan will be fine. it's already an overpopulated Archipelago so they do not need immigration. There is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve one's culture and way of life. Japan isn't a failing society by any standards, and certainly not the american one.
scottlocklin 9y ago
Your comment seems even more curious: allowing more immigration will prevent old Japanese ladies from going to jail because they're lonely? Citations needed.

krapp 9y ago

That's a new one. Immigration is "outsourced imperialism?" I don't see anyone, anywhere, espousing the rhetoric that Japan is primitive and morally repugnant and in dire need of civilizing through the import of foreign labor. You do realize most immigrants to Japan are from the other Asian countries that it's been importing and exporting culture with for millennia, right? And that their "cultural distinctness" is the result of a great deal of Western influence already? I suspect this is a proxy argument about European immigration because it always seems to be that when the issue of immigration into Japan comes up, the issue of "cultural distinctiveness" or ethnic purity is used to steer the conversation in that direction. But Japan is under a far greater threat of becoming too "Chinese" than it will ever be of becoming too "European."