“The Immigration Issue in Japan”
Yuhei Miyauchi
Since the immigration issue is one of the foremost issues in the US, Americans would be surprised to hear that people seldom discuss this issue in Japan – my home country. Of course, it is discussed in politics or academics in terms of the labor deficit – a result of the abrupt decrease in the number of children, but in their daily life the issue is something far way from the Japanese. One major reason is because there are very few immigrants in Japan.
Japan is known as one of the most difficult countries to immigrate to. The policy concerning immigration in Japan is as follows: there is a legal system which regulates entry and departure. However, in reality, it doesn’t so much as accept immigrants, as deny them. For example, Japan doesn’t accept immigrants the first time they enter Japan. Not until they stay there for a certain period, and qualify for many requirements that are extremely hard to achieve, are they granted permanent residency.
The problem is not only in the legal system. Since Japan does not have a history of high immigration, Japan has kept incredibly high ethnic purity. Low immigration makes the Japanese think conservatively and resist accepting immigrants willingly. The point is this: Japanese people are unaware that they think in this way. They think they are open to immigrants, but the reality is, they see immigrants as something different from themselves.
This makes some immigrants feel uncomfortable about living in Japan. This is different from discrimination. They are just reluctant to be friendly to outsiders of their community. This happens also among the Japanese. They are very friendly to people who are in the same community, such as student clubs, but not friendly to outsiders of their community.
This tendency, however, could be the solution to the immigration issue in Japan. This tendency of the Japanese demonstrates that once they recognize immigrants as members of their community, they will willingly accept immigrants. The only problem is that the degree of their ethnic purity is so high that if they see someone whose appearance is different from the, they regard him or her as an outsider. This would change as the number of immigrants increases and become more prevalent in Japan.
Then the problem is only in the legal system. The Japanese policy on immigration is notoriously strict. In fact, it is too out-of-date in the current trend of globalization. It doesn’t even reflect the current Japanese characteristics, because as previously stated, the Japanese have a potential to accept immigrants as part of their society.
Once the door is opened, the Japanese immigration issue should surely be resolved. Problems might ensue due to open immigration in Japan. For the human rights of immigrants, for the international community, and more than anything else for themselves, the Japanese must make the first step toward their immigration issue.
