Japan sagt, Bidens Beschreibung der Nation als fremdenfeindlich sei „bedauerlich“

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/05/04/japan/politics/tokyo-biden-xenophobia-response/#Echobox=1714800468

32 comments

  4. Whenever I hear people go off on how xenophobic or racist the West is, I wonder what they’re comparing it to. All forms of racism or xenophobia should be open to discuss.

  6. “we think foreigners are dirty and almost never let any of them live here. Where are these claims of xenophobia coming from”

  7. What’s the expectation here, that Japan can be shamed into doing away with their ways and adopt a similar immigration policy as the US? Don’t see the point in Biden picking a fight with one of the least problematic allies of the US when there are so many other problematic ones that they’re trying to work with.

  9. Obviously you shouldn’t publically say this about your allies but to be fair Japan is very xenophobic. You can literally find places like bathhouses with signs that says no foreigners allowed like its the most normal thing ever.

  10. I honestly think there are interesting questions around these things. Like I like Japan’s culture and stuff a lot and if they let in enough foreigners it probably won’t exist anymore or overtime it may fundamentally change the culture of the nation.

    Like I dislike any nation that doesn’t allow any immigration but I do think it is a nation’s inherent right to decide their own immigration policy.

    Frankly, I think the world needs to ask a question of what kind of world we want honestly. I feel like if we just use immigration to solve various issues then eventually we are probably just eventually going to end up in a world where every nation is identical and the cultures are not distinct anymore which to me would be boring.

    I like nations being unique places where people can go to immerse themselves in other ways of life and so on. I don’t know if over the long term you can have both large scale immigration and distinct and unique nations and peoples. I think multiculturalism is it’s own culture in and of itself and I don’t know if going to an ethnic neighborhood actually allows us to truly understand different cultures. I like a diversity of states with their own distinct culture so people can experience different ways of living and different cultures and so people have more choice in where they live.

    Anyways, I think there are just a lot of interesting questions on immigration that people should discuss because I don’t know if even crime or economic benefits are the most meaningful questions around immigration honestly

    edit: Also Immigration is not a permanent solution to these problems as well. If without immigration your country has serious problems immigration is not a permanent solution. Eventually provided the 3rd world gets better you won’t have mass immigration especially with global birth rates slowing. The truth is that Immigration is in my mind only a stop gap measure at best if seen as the primary means of growth. It is not a catchall solution which is important to consider for reasons I mentioned above. We would be sacrificing national distinctness for a non-solution.

    Eventually if the systems remain reliant on Immigration for continuance the system will collapse regardless because immigration is not an infinite thing and it is always contingent on your nation just being objectively better than the rest of the world. Once nations start becoming more homogenous from Immigration and less distinct the choice to move to Japan or America or Europe will probably be arbitrary since none of these places if they continue to multiculturalise will have their own unique and compelling reasons for immigrants to come. Right now these nations are distinct and draw in immigration from a mix of that distinctness and economic reasons. However logically overtime once those distinctions are gone and the economic benefits are not present nobody is going to immigrate.

  11. Why is Biden poking that nest? What did he expect to get out of that?

  13. Most countries don’t have a lot of immigrants in general. At least compared to the U.S.

  15. “He highlighted only our xenophobia, but neglected to mention our misogyny.”

  16. I mean it’s true, they may not like it but it’s 100% true

  17. >Japan hit back Saturday at U.S. President Joe Biden’s comments about the Asian ally being “xenophobic” like China and Russia, calling the characterization “unfortunate” and misguided.

    >Biden lumped together allies Japan and India with rivals China and Russia at a recent campaign event, arguing the four economic powers were struggling because of their [unwillingness to accept immigrants](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/05/02/japan/politics/biden-china-japan-india-xenophobia/).

    >”Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan in trouble? Why is Russia in trouble? And India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,” the U.S. president said on Wednesday.

    >”One of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” the president added.

    >In response, Tokyo on Saturday said it was “unfortunate that comments not based on an accurate understanding of Japan’s policy were made,” according to a government statement.

    >The Japanese government had already delivered this message to the White House and explained once again about its policies and stances, the statement said.

    >Biden’s remarks came less than a month after he hosted a lavish state dinner for his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in a rare gesture of high-level diplomacy.

    >The 81-year-old Democrat’s unexpected digs at Japan soon prompted the White House to tone them down.

    >The president was merely trying to send a broader message that “the United States is a nation of immigrants,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

    >”It’s in our DNA”, he said.

    >Tokyo, for its part, said this clarification hadn’t been lost.

    >”We’re aware of the U.S. government’s explanation that the comments in question weren’t made for the purpose of harming the importance and perpetuity of the Japan-U.S. relationships”, its statement said.

  20. Japan internally: Well he’s not wrong, but we can’t *say* that

  22. I don’t really want to see Japan say this when their own people are the same against visitors. You are all lumped in the same group even if you were born in Japan while looking like more western.

  23. The US has plenty of people just as “xenophobic” as any Japanese person.

  24. If Trump had said this, most of the comments in here would’ve been “off the charts” disgusted

  25. Who gives a fuck what Japanese people want for Japan? If they don’t want to bring in foreigners to their country so be it, it is THEIR country. This is like getting upset that your neighbour doesn’t want strangers living in their house. Just mind your own fucking business America and stay in your lane.

  26. What, the country that encourages segregation isn’t up in arms when they get called xenophobic? That response to me says “Yeah, so?”. Biden wasn’t speaking some hidden truth, just saying what everyone else knows. Just nobody saw a reason to point it out is all. Case in point, nobody actually gave a shit

  27. China and India are going full Volksgemeinschaft but go on….

  28. They are a country that is over 90% ethnically Japanese and has specific laws in place preventing people who are not of Japanese origin from holding positions of management and jobs in government offices. You could be born in the country, speak fluent Japanese, and be excluded legally from those positions because you’re of Korean origin. They are so absolutely prevent any double citizenship. If you were born with a Japanese parent and an American parent, you have until your 21st birthday to pick a side. You absolutely have to renounce the citizenship of the other nation.

    I have a Swiss friend who moved to Japan to teach English which is pretty much the only job you can get there as a foreigner. Otherwise they make it nearly impossible to get a Visa. He married a Japanese woman so he could heather full long-term residence pass. Worked for a Japanese company for over 10 years. During that time he became completely fluent in Japanese (read and write) and passed all their citizenship tests and written exams. They still denied him citizenship when his wife divorced him, and he had to leave the country within a month.

    I know a Canadian guy who opened up a bar in Kobe. It was nearly impossible for him to do this. It got to a point where he needed one form from one office and a different form from a different office. But he needed the opposite forms to get the other form so there was no way to move forward. He had to lie and say he had the form to actually get to the next stage. He also had to open illegally for 3 months before he was able to legally exist.

    When every country was volunteering to take in Syrian refugees, Japan took in 7. Not 7 thousand, 7. This is a country with 125 million people. The United States, as xenophobic as it was during this time with Trump as president, still took in 15,000 of them. We do have 200 million more people, but proportionally, this is way out of whack still.

    So yeah, xenophobic is a very accurate word to describe Japan.

  30. All these foreigners complaining about Japans practices…. Don’t go there then?

  32. I may have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of weeks but why would the US make these comments against their allies?
    I mean this is like having an awesome neighbour then finding out they don’t like pets and you go bitching to others about them, no?

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