Did I claim it was? As I said, do your own googling:
scholar.google.com
Perhaps whale-meat consumption affects their birth rate. I have absolutely no data supporting that, but let’s make the argument anyway and see what happens. Can’t hurt.
1 Like
Exactly. This is probably the same concept as what the rich Arab countries do. They bring in whatever skilled, unskilled, or “slave” labor they need to work in Dubai, but NONE of them will ever get citizenship or permanent residence or any of the rights enjoyed by citizens, and they will all be put on the next flight out as soon as they are unneeded or unwanted. Japan also does not have birthright citizenship so if any of these workers have babies while in Japan, their children also have no claims to citizenship or residence.
This is better than the approach the US is taking, which is letting unknown people walk in and work illegally and stay without clear futures and without adequate legal protections and without being selected for jobs in advance. At least Japan knows who is coming in, knows that they have already been selected for jobs, the jobs will be legal and taxed, and the workers will have to exit according to the terms of their visas. It may seem unfair or exploitative to the workers, but the terms of the deal are clear to everyone.
And most of these workers are coming from countries that also wouldn’t grant citizenship to foreigners also. I’m guessing that most of the workers would be coming from China, and China doesn’t grant citizenship to (naturalize) anyone who isn’t ethnically Chinese, so it’s hard to say that this is unfair, because it’s the same policy for both sides.
Also I’m pretty sure that Japan is going to pick and choose which countries can send workers, and some, like China, will get it, and others will have no chance.
So this headline about “doors wide to immigration” isn’t true in any sense. It’s not a wide door, it’s a very narrow and selective door, and it’s not immigration, it’s guest workers.
Weird how the world works. Currently in Tokyo on the last week of my holiday, primarily because I saw the Ukiyo-e Heroes documentary on my flight out the other week. Just catching up on BB and spotted this discussion.
Had seen David on some NHK World documentaries, and had not been aware of the Heroes series, and I need ‘Rickshaw Cart’ in my life. Then found you could do a ‘print party’ at his Asakusa shop - it was excellent:
In the Ukiyo-e Heroes documentary, there are Japanese artisans who acknowledge David Bull as being by far their superior - he came to Japan in the '80s and found it difficult to find a ‘sensei’ to apprentice to, so independently developed wood carving methods that duplicated, matched, and then exceeded the standards of some their greats.
As to the whole guest workers vs actual immigration - it is a tricky one. I don’t feel that the majority in Japan oppose necessary immigration, nor do I feel the much bandied about xenophobic attitude is as prevalent as some like to make out. In the course of 5 holidays in 4 years here (purposefully avoiding most tourist traps and trying to journey around the real Japan) I can’t say I’ve ever felt anything but welcomed. I’m trying to figure out if I can live and work here for a longer time - but I’m not sure that 50 year olds are in demand as English language teachers… 
. now I just need to crack on with my Japanese language learning.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
