4 ms·

They are still closed for 99% of people who would like to immmigrate there. They only need highly skilled profesionals, not masses for cheap. Best part is Jap

They are still closed for 99% of people who would like to immmigrate there. They only need highly skilled profesionals, not masses for cheap. Best part is Japan just doesn't care if other countries see it as racist nation - they still get going strong. And im 100% sure if anyone if going to find a solution to ever growing needs of capitalism without immigration it would be them.

jpatokal 8y ago
Well, Japan's spiral of depopulation means they actually do need masses of people, and they're importing them too via all sorts of dodgy trainee visas etc to staff convenience stores, hotel front desks, construction sites, lettuce farms etc. It's just politically impossible to support permanent immigration for anybody but the 1%.
- jacobush 8y ago
  Are they heavily banking on robots making up for demographics?
  - hh3k0 8y ago
    Yup: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/japan-robots-will-care-for-80-of-elderly-by-2020 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/japan-robots-w...
- burfog 8y ago
  They don't need people. The GDP of Japan might benefit, but that doesn't mean benefit for typical Japanese people. Wages would be pushed down. There would be cultural conflict. Japan's unique culture would die. Japan is not in a permanent spiral of depopulation. There exist families who have plenty of children. These children will tend to do as their parents did. After a few generations of decline, the population will rebound.
  - distances 8y ago
    > Japan's unique culture would die. Not commenting on your other points, but think you're misguided with this. Culture is not something that stays the same and needs to be preserved; it lives and changes with people. UK today isn't the same it was 30 years ago, and neither is Japan. Trying to set a culture in stone will lead to some quite undesirable undertones.
  - jpatokal 8y ago
    The tricky thing about depopulation is that it's uneven and has a major time lag. As a simple example, the average Japanese farmer is 67 (!), young Japanese won't do their jobs at any price, and no, you can't just replace them with robots. How do you fix this without immigration or importing all your produce from China?
  - pavlov 8y ago
    Japanese culture in 2018 is completely different from the one in 1918, which was again completely different from the one in 1818. Is the culture currently in an ideal state that needs to be frozen in time? Is immigration a greater threat to Japan than the past experiences of colonialism and nuclear war? If anything, immigration seems ridiculously manageable compared to those.
hkmurakami 8y ago
At least for labor supply they have a huge untapped resource - women.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
  Based on what I read a while ago women are already adding to the workforce at a faster rate. I hope that doesn't become a trend though, the last thing we need is Western accepted norm of 2 working adults and nobody to take care of children.
baybal2 8y ago
Half of Russian workforce have higher education, and uninterrupted employment history from high school to crematorium chamber. Most had advanced degrees is what West calls STEM. With most highschoolers having better math skills than first year math major students in the West. According to economic theorists, Russia must be steamrolling every other high-tech economy out there, but you see the reality is different. Fixation on "skilled professionals" is a biggest blunder of the West. Western higher education borders being worthless in its majority, yet all and every takes such pride in it as to deny immigration based on this "class attribute" which is higher education. A guy who can till fields, and have few grams of grey matter to know how to dose fertilizers is freaking valuable for any economy.

jpatokal 8y ago

Well, Japan's spiral of depopulation means they actually do need masses of people, and they're importing them too via all sorts of dodgy trainee visas etc to staff convenience stores, hotel front desks, construction sites, lettuce farms etc. It's just politically impossible to support permanent immigration for anybody but the 1%.

jacobush 8y ago
Are they heavily banking on robots making up for demographics?
- hh3k0 8y ago
  Yup: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/japan-robots-will-care-for-80-of-elderly-by-2020 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/06/japan-robots-w...
burfog 8y ago
They don't need people. The GDP of Japan might benefit, but that doesn't mean benefit for typical Japanese people. Wages would be pushed down. There would be cultural conflict. Japan's unique culture would die. Japan is not in a permanent spiral of depopulation. There exist families who have plenty of children. These children will tend to do as their parents did. After a few generations of decline, the population will rebound.
- distances 8y ago
  > Japan's unique culture would die. Not commenting on your other points, but think you're misguided with this. Culture is not something that stays the same and needs to be preserved; it lives and changes with people. UK today isn't the same it was 30 years ago, and neither is Japan. Trying to set a culture in stone will lead to some quite undesirable undertones.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  The tricky thing about depopulation is that it's uneven and has a major time lag. As a simple example, the average Japanese farmer is 67 (!), young Japanese won't do their jobs at any price, and no, you can't just replace them with robots. How do you fix this without immigration or importing all your produce from China?
- pavlov 8y ago
  Japanese culture in 2018 is completely different from the one in 1918, which was again completely different from the one in 1818. Is the culture currently in an ideal state that needs to be frozen in time? Is immigration a greater threat to Japan than the past experiences of colonialism and nuclear war? If anything, immigration seems ridiculously manageable compared to those.

hkmurakami 8y ago

At least for labor supply they have a huge untapped resource - women.

mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
Based on what I read a while ago women are already adding to the workforce at a faster rate. I hope that doesn't become a trend though, the last thing we need is Western accepted norm of 2 working adults and nobody to take care of children.

baybal2 8y ago

Half of Russian workforce have higher education, and uninterrupted employment history from high school to crematorium chamber. Most had advanced degrees is what West calls STEM. With most highschoolers having better math skills than first year math major students in the West. According to economic theorists, Russia must be steamrolling every other high-tech economy out there, but you see the reality is different. Fixation on "skilled professionals" is a biggest blunder of the West. Western higher education borders being worthless in its majority, yet all and every takes such pride in it as to deny immigration based on this "class attribute" which is higher education. A guy who can till fields, and have few grams of grey matter to know how to dose fertilizers is freaking valuable for any economy.