{"id":67495,"date":"2026-08-02T00:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T00:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67495\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T00:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T00:12:11","slug":"insider-takaichi-wants-japan-to-coexist-with-foreigners-japans-hard-right-hates-her-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67495\/","title":{"rendered":"[Insider] Takaichi Wants Japan to “Coexist” With Foreigners. Japan’s Hard Right HATES Her for It"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Japan\u2019s government announced that the country\u2019s Japanese population had fallen below 120 million for the first time in over four decades. It marks the 17th straight year of decline, and the steepest drop on record, in both raw numbers and as a rate. The only reason Japan\u2019s overall population isn\u2019t shrinking even faster is the very foreign residents the right wants gone. <\/p>\n

At the same time, Japan\u2019s foreign population rose above 4 million for the first time ever. That\u2019s not a coincidence. As the country\u2019s population both shrinks and ages, industries such as transportation and care<\/a> are becoming essential components of Japan\u2019s economy. In some cities, foreign students working part-time comprise over 50 percent of convenience store staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This might seem like a strange time to demonize the foreign laborers your country needs to keep its economy moving. But, hey, no one ever said racists were smart. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ve documented how Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae\u2019s government continues to crack down on law-abiding foreigners for no good reason whatsoever. The latest proposed change would set income requirements for permanent residency higher than the average Japanese salary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite these moves, however, Takaichi\u2019s government insists it\u2019s still seeking \u201ccoexistence\u201d (\u5171\u751f; ky\u014dsei) with foreigners. It\u2019s a line she\u2019s touted since arriving in office. <\/p>\n

And it has Japan\u2019s online far right fuming.<\/p>\n

This is nothing new in Japan. The country\u2019s far right has often gone past the limits of even the most extreme imperialistic policies of the ruling power. The difference is that today\u2019s far right could eventually get its way. And if it does, it\u2019ll doom the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

Did Takaichi betray her \u201czero base\u201d?<\/p>\n

A recent X post by Sankei Shimbun<\/a>, a major right-leaning newspaper, shows what Japan\u2019s first female prime minister is up against. The story quoted Takaichi as saying, despite the recent visa and PR changes, she doesn\u2019t want Japan to look \u201cunfriendly to foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"@Sankei_news<\/p>\n

Right-wingers instantly lit into her. They said that Takaichi was betraying her promise to re-examine policies towards foreigners \u201cfrom zero base\u201d (\u30bc\u30ed\u30d9\u30fc\u30b9), meaning that every law and provision would be revisited. <\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019s since gone on to enact most of her promises, her one-time supporters aren\u2019t happy about all this \u201ccoexistence\u201d nonsense. They expected a halt and a reduction, not the continuation of the status quo that her words imply.<\/p>\n

But this wasn\u2019t the first time Takaichi drew the xenophobic right\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n

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\t\tKeep reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, Japan\u2019s government announced that the country\u2019s Japanese population had fallen below 120 million for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43815,1578,8,236,11635,2352,1441,28326],"class_list":["post-67495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-far-right","tag-immigration","tag-japan","tag-ldp","tag-refugees","tag-sanseito","tag-takaichi-sanae","tag-xenophobia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}