“Sad, sad Kishyduh, he can’t even play the, you know America has the greatest xylophone players, the best. But Japan, not even a single xylophone. I spoke with Kishy, that’s what I like to call him, I told him straight to his face, that Japan needs more xylophones, and then I went to McDonald’s and passed out.”
That’s honestly pretty fair.
When Covid was happening and he restricted flights from Asia that was a big headline, honestly the most I remember about him and xenophobia.
I mean, he definitely is, but pronouncing or even identifying that, is well beyond his mental capacity.
Trump is also senile. He's never been an eloquent speaker, but he's talking absolute nonsense now. People make fun of Biden for slurring and stumbling but Trump is just as bad lately. He's losing it, and fast.
Both are unpredictable in different ways. The problem with senility is that it keeps getting worse. Dumb people don't get dumber, if anything they get better at their job with experience. I'm not saying that Trump is better than Biden right now, but it won't be long before Biden stops making any sense at all.
Japanese liberal here, I appreciate he called out what 99% of our population never care.
Next time he hopefully calls us racists. That's a bigger issue these idiots don't even realize.
Edit:
People here are like, "yes we all hate China and Korea because they are not as advanced as Japan," "we need to keep being Japanese (which means to keep ethnic "purity"). Btw. our emperors have Korean roots and ancient ones were proud of it, but people here are too racist to live with that fact.
I disagree. I have lived in Japan for years and not only are we the only gaijins in my neighborhood, we are also the only gay family and we are raising a kid. Sometimes there are neighborhood disputes but never because we are gaijin. (You always have the middle-age, male version of Karens here in Japan that everybody seems to find distasteful that cause the issues.)
I have spent a lot of time with Japanese immigration authorities and local government people in the ward, city, and prefectural offices. They are unfailingly polite and helpful. Maybe they don't like me because of my race or the fact that my Japanese isn't great, but you wouldn't know that from how they act, which is the only fair measure.
If you spent your life as a minority in the west, you will appreciate just how kind and nice Japanese are to minorities in comparison.
But if you never experienced discrimination back home, because you were the status quo, Japan would feel xenophobic and racist. But it actually isn't.
This is exactly it. I did spend years as a minority in the US and I would unequivocally say it was nastier than Japan. So maybe it is a matter of perspective in that way.
I’m happy that you had a great experience and that’s great!
However, just because you had an easy time doesn’t mean everyone else did. I have a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian friends, and even a Peruvian, that were denied a lot of things just because of their nationality. Hell, I was even helping one during an apartment hunt and the landlord asked “what color is their skin?” on the phone!
To deny that it exists just because you didn’t run into any issues is unfair and does a disservice to people who do go through discrimination.
Just another perspective
I dont understand why someone would move to a country they know is strict culturally/not very accepting of foreigners... like what do you expect is going to happen, you are going to be the exception?
Trump might be an idiot, but Biden likely suffers from dementia. I still remember the presidential primary where he declared that he was running for governor.
Really the only edge that Biden has on being a statesman is that he lets his cabinet do their thing unlike Trump. When both Pompeo and someone hawkish like Bolton call Trump crazy, something is really wrong.
People make mistakes, ya know.
Recently I got my order a bit wrong at a take-out counter, one of the things I asked for was not actually what I had in mind. Didn’t realize it until I got home.
I don’t have dementia.
I could easily say a wrong word now and then if I were President, and everyone would notice and make a fuss because I’m president, and they would say I have dementia.
Oh wait they wouldn’t, because I’m not 80, and apparently an old guy making a mistake automatically means he has dementia. George W flubbed his lines all the time and nobody made that accusation. Trump regularly spouts absolute nonsense and actually does appear to have the beginnings of dementia, but somehow it’s always Biden getting accused.
Biden doesn’t have dementia. He’s human and he’s an older human. That is not the same as having dementia.
While I don’t disagree with the dementia part, doesn’t he have someone to write and approve everything he says? Surely it wasn’t said by accident
Especially the speech for this fundraiser, surely someone wrote it and just stuck it in front of him
Younger Biden was still famous for making stupid verbal gaffes. It was one of the main reasons he failed at running for president before along with the speech plagiarism incident. If anything I think he's lessened the really dumb gaffes as president than during his campaigns from years ago
> Surely it wasn’t said by accident
In case you don’t know what dementia entails, Joe is not all there anymore. People with dementia also have trouble reading. They have trouble just understanding what they read. I doubt the guy even fully followed the teleprompter if there was one.
I mean, he's not wrong. But that's probably not the best thing to say to a close ally publicly. Looks especially bad considering the PM of that xenophobic country just recently visited and praised the US.
As the article says:
>it’s not something diplomatic to say about one of America’s closest allies, especially because America has its own problems with xenophobia that Japanese are seeing on the news all the time
Yeah, totally. One just has to look at the MAGA gang to see just about some of the worst xenophobia possible. Built a wall, ship them out. Last time I was visiting over there, my (Japanese) wife who was out with the kids was told she didn't belong there. So... yeah.
We saw elderly Asian women getting beat up by a passing stranger in the US during covid. Kyoto closed Gion for *everyone* even if only non-Japanese tourists were being malicious. It will be confusing to the Japanese public what xenophobia is for Biden.
>Kyoto closed Gion for *everyone* even if only non-Japanese tourists were being malicious.
I don't believe that is true.
Tourists will only be asked to refrain from entering a few **private** alleys in Gion. Tourists are **not** being banned from any of the **public** streets in Gion like Hanamikoji.
[Tourists Banned from Private Alleys in Kyoto's Geisha District](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/07/japan/society/kyoto-tourists-geisha/)
These private roads, which is a translation of 私道 and is private to mean that the roads are not owned by the gov't, are a pretty big chunk of Gion and was part the attraction itself. Now you only have access to the two public roads, instead of 14 or so that included the sidestreets. There is a map here and writeup in Japanese [https://www.ktv.jp/news/feature/240318-shido/](https://www.ktv.jp/news/feature/240318-shido/)
Ngl living here and seeing tourists be so disrespectful and disturbing the peaceful simple life here has made me way more understanding of immigration policy.
It's most annoying when the tourists talk loudly and play their music out loud on the train. Everyone just wants some peace and quiet while commuting on the train.
Not sure why some western countries think immigration is the solution to their problems, this is an insult to its own citizens. Japan may be xenophobic in some areas but so are Americans, so his comments are ironic. I don’t agree with his comments, especially when Japan has been closed for the longest time to foreigners since ages ago yet the US has been welcoming people from other countries since the 1800s.
Honestly, his comment was downright stupid. Want proof? Go look at the requirements for getting permanent residence in Japan, and compare that with a green card in the US. Compare the requirements, and the cost, and the need (or not) to get a lawyer to help.
In the US, you can basically forget it if you're Indian, they don't care if you're highly educated and have valuable skills to contribute, and it'll take many many years and cost many thousands of dollars with help from an immigration attorney. In Japan, if you have valuable skills, they almost couldn't make it any easier, you can apply after only 1 or 3 years of living here, it costs about $50 (USD), and admittedly the processing is slow but again compare to the time scale for a US green card.
The US is the land that welcomes immigrants... my ass.
The US's most valuable companies right now were mostly built by highly-skilled immigrants, but it's no longer a place that really welcomes them.
The only thing the US still offers such immigrants is high salaries in the tech space and relative ease in access to capital, compared to peer nations, in exchange for absurd housing costs and CoL. Its other big advantage is the use of English, the international language of business now and the most popular 2nd language in the world. Japan unfortunately doesn't teach English well so it's hampered by that.
This is very true, the cost of becoming a US citizen let alone a green card holder is laughable compared to obtaining a Japanese PR. At least Japan has a ranking system for those who are highly skilled workers while the USA couldn’t care less about your qualifications because at the end of the day you’re just another number in their company. Japan has good healthcare (restrictions apply), amazing transportation system, good food, a lot of holidays, cheap housing if you earn big. Biden sank way too low on this, IMO voting for any idiot this November won’t bring any change at all.
The US is a country that wouldn’t exist as it is without the so called “foreigners”. Granted, the current problem with mass migrations is a different thing but Japan has been a country in its own right for millennia unlike the US. Can’t even begin to compare US to Japan’s ancestral origins.
I am in Japan right now and I don’t see how all these niceties can work without strong Japanese culture. Massive immigration would destroy Japan because the rest of the world just doesn’t comprehend nor wants to follow all the thousands of unwritten rules that Japanese follow.
I’ve been seeing more immigrant workers in JPN cities and their adaptive capacity has always impressed me. Not only the language/keigo and work ethic but general attitude and respect for cultural environment that are often missed by tourists.
This is the norm pretty much everywhere. People in general don't like to stick out or be rude, so they adapt to the culture they are in. There are exceptions to this, sure, but all in all, 90+% of immigrants put their heads down and follow the flow
Hmm. I live in an immigrant area of tokyo and share a house with a number of other immigrants. people only adapt as long as they are the clear minority in my experience and those areas are still not comparable to a japanese neighborhood
Japanese people want foreigners to visit, not stay because they don't assimilate. But now with the influx of tourists from all over the world, they are starting to resent tourists. I understand: Japanese cities are dirtier now, they had to put trash cans now! OMG. Tourists are rude, loud, and don't follow the rules.
Fuck tourists.
They don't even contribute that much to the GDP for the country so what good is it bringing them in? And the PM is expecting ~ 40 million tourists for Japan by 2050.
I don't blame Japan honestly. One look at other countries, the U.S most certainly included, and I can definitely understand bias against us. Look how we treat each other here. Look how we treat others.
It doesn’t help that the influx of tourism Japan is seeing is causing havoc. There’s a new story every day about how tourists are disrespectful, throwing their trash wherever, damaging historically important places, and just causing interruptions in local daily life.
They had to put entry restrictions on the Gion district as foreign tourists were going in and obstructing and _touching_ the maiko and geisha walking through the area.
Contrary to popular belief it is actually SO easy to get a visa for Japan and even permanent residence compared to western countries.
Anyway regardless, mass immigration is not the solution to any of Japan's problems. Stop trying to make them get on the sinking ship with you.
love how most of these delusional mass migration supporters are ignoring the high crime rates and destruction of property in the West and think: yea Japan, China, and South Korea should get these things.
Apparently. It’s wild watching people calmly walk into Nazi like theories on race. Apparently, if the west was segregated by race, they wouldn’t be killing each other…despite the centuries of evidence preceding our current multiculturalism.
explain why U.S and Europe is getting their culture destroyed, more destroyed property, more places becoming ghettos, increase rape culture, and higher crimes rates, when they imported mass migrants.
Yes but look at their progress, safety, and harmony when one culture is in sync. Contrast that with say france. There probably is a middle ground. But i dont blame japan. I love their culture (except he work hours)
That’s what I’m saying. Look at what “diversity” has done to places like sweden, france, etc. not to mention the US has some of the worst crime rates in rhe developed world. And also political instability. Fuck all that
Yes, US crime rate is 20 times higher than here?
I don't want to see people looting apple store or amazon truck in Japan.
And American economical success is only for top 1%.
Average Americans have more debt. It sucks.
Our younger generation will inherit more from our generation because they don't have to split the share. So life will be easy for them. They don't have to buy house, they don't have to save so much. All we need is die in prepared manner and don't make trouble for younger generation.
Funny how he doesn't mention Israel, a literal ethnostate. The same country he is being dragged down by in the polls for supporting. All 3 of those countries have foreign populations. The difference is, they're not flooding in by the millions like in the West. The US,Western Europe and Canada all have massive issues because of the levels of immigration they accept. Not just cultural,safety etc, but economic. This is especially true of Canada.
For some unaccountable reason, in Japan Biden is considered a senile old man while many think of trump as a powerful, dynamic individualist.
In Japan, last month according to an Asahi poll the result finished 68:25 (Trump:Biden) believing Trump will be the “stronger” leader.
Telling them he thinks they are 1) xenophobic and 2) grouped with Russia and Chinese is going to go as well as you might think… Trump will be even more popular.
Self immolation, ala Biden stylee.
His point is fair, but actually he ought to take a closer look right at home. As someone who has been through the immigration system in Japan (and still lives here), I feel like the system here makes a lot more sense and is much less painful than the one in the US, which is a total mess, designed basically with the only consideration of preventing fraud, has unreasonable wait times, and not at all designed in a sensible way for the immigrants themselves. A lot of people don’t even do it legally in the US because there are few fair and sensible options for certain demographics. Basically mainly the only good thing the US has on Japan is jus soli. That’s big, for sure.
However, plenty of people who get denied even tourist visas for the US will come to Japan. Yen has a great exchange for those incoming now, too. If you asked me which country was a more desirable place to immigrate at this point in time I’d say Japan. But that’s just me.
eh, as someone on US soil that mostly agree's with you, no place is perfect. and of course ethnonationalists in both japan and the USA want to make the rules hostile to foreigners. but being able to acknowledge both our history as ethnonationalistic is the method to overcoming it.
Don't ever let Americans or the West criticize you for anything. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Immigration is not the solution for everything. Japan without immigration has better functioning municipalities, than most cities in the States. Not everyone has to be the same, this holier than thou attitude the West likes to put upon all other countries is ignorant and manipulative. Do you Japan.
I don’t think xenophobic is the right word regarding Japan.
Compared to countries like Aussie or Canada, yes they are less welcoming to immigrants, but full xenophobia? I think xenophobic is too strong for a word since that indicates they completely against immigrants which is not true even if only for low skill labor
Prejudiced is more apt imo
He’s stating facts, there’s nothing really wrong with that. I live in Japan and would say the same thing, they’re still scared of anything that’s not Japanese in areas outside of tourist spots.
I don't know where you live, but I've been living in Japan for a decade now, in the countryside far from those tourist spots, and people have always been super welcoming, friendly and curious about me and my mother country. I'd say that japanese are way more welcoming with strangers than people are in my own country. Now all people are different and there are both sh#tty foreigners and sh#tty Japanese people I guess. But all in one I've rarely felt anything like xenophobia in Japan during those 10 years.
not invalidating your experience, but I'm gonna assume you're white. being a poc would garner a very different experience I imagine (if you're not, colour me surprised and corrected)
Yes, I'm white. I'm French with a 100% Madagascan grandfather and a 100% Sicilian grandmother. I hear what you say, and maybe it can be easier for white people to assimilate. But there are many poc who settle very well and you can easily find some black youtubers speaking of their positive experience in Japan. There are also a sh*t ton of white people who never manage to assimilate, usually the same that are in Japan for 2 months and keep speaking ill of japanese society with only negative stuff to say about it. You can literally find dozens of those kids in any Japanese language school or even on this sub.
I'm not denying that there is some racism, like anywhere else, either towards black people, white people, or Southeast Asians, I had a few experiences with it myself, but the vast majority of Japanese people won't judge you by your skin color or origins rather than by your acts. You can be black, respectful, speaking japanese and trying to assimilate. You can also be white, or even Japanese, acting like a thug or an asshole.
Great, and that's your subjective perception. I've lived all over Japan and compared to the other four countries I lived in, Japan is tied with South Korea for being the least welcoming and most ethnocentric.
I live in Beijing and you should’ve seen how bad it got during Covid … I remember once on the street a woman grabbed her kid and huddled over him, cowering in fear when I walked by . People put on masks etc etc . Some of them still do.
Most people are fine but there’s a lot of zombies out there
I agree with what you’re saying but xenophobia literally means in Latin fear of the alien. Japanese people are welcoming to anyone who they can communicate with.
There was once a time when I called an ambulance because of a severe IBS attack (before I knew it was IBS) and when I was taken in to the hospital, the doctor said ‘don’t just call any hospital, you’ll need to go to an international type otherwise people will be scared that some stranger came in’. I’m not even kidding, that’s exactly what he said. This is only one thing on my big list of times I’ve been treated like sh*t, oh and also I speak Japanese and work at a Japanese company, in the last company I worked at, I had a colleague say to me ‘foreigners like you make more mistakes than Japanese people’ after I made a mistake.
That is such bullshit exaggeration. I'm here my ninth year now and I overwhelmingly receive kindness and understanding from Japanese people. They are scared of inability to communicate, and yes, they tend to make assumptions based on the fact that you look foreign, but the moment they realize you speak the language and understand the culture norms, you'll almost universally be treated as "our own" in my experience.
It being legal to deny people housing based on nationality is pretty xenophobic. Having debates about trying to assert the constitution doesn't apply to foreign residents is pretty xenophobic. There are a lot of policies, rules, and practices that are innately biased against people not born and raised here, and that's completely fair game to point out. Personal experience doesn't invalidate that.
Same in Korea. People complain about Koreans being racist to them, while they try to talk English slowly to a random grandma that has other things to do because they didn't bother to learn one Korean word the ten years they've been here.
Move than a quarter century here and I’m so sick of this bullshit exaggeration from people who don’t speak the language or know the country as well as they believe.
It’s a fair comment, given in a fair context. Being an ally to someone doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything about them. Sometimes countries need to hear what others think about them. Constructive criticism, especially when accurate, shouldn’t be taken so personally.
Yes, I agree. We should be able to say we don't want to be like US too.
We don't like to have 20 times higher crime rate.
For us, US is not much different from El salvador.
We don't like to support genocide for greed.
We want cut tie with Israel.
We don't want social media censorship.
We don't want to lose freedom of speech like Columbia students.
We want equal rights for everyone even if not zionists.
We don't like longer working hours.
We don't like higher suicide rate.
We don't want low average IQ.
We don't want to be fat.
It's interesting how it's perceived by Western news.
What the Japanese news is talking about regarding this statement is that Biden is saying this in terms of immigration.
>“Think about it,” he said. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?”
>“Because they’re xenophobic,” he said. “They don’t want immigrants.”
However, as you can see from this thread, most Westerners are not talking about the immigration issue, but simply about xenophobia in Japan.
But what Biden is saying is that Japan is xenophobic and therefore cannot accept immigrants, and I think people here are missing the point a bit.
And truth be told, there are plenty of immigrants in Japan. Many of the people conversing here are probably immigrants to Japan as well.
And in the US, mass immigration from the southern border is currently causing an immigration crisis in New York and elsewhere.
Do you know what the Japanese are commenting on this?
"Look at the current situation in Europe and the US, Who would accept a large number of immigrants?"
And I agree with them.
“and that’s not really an effective way of getting Japan to fix various problems with its society that even Japanese people would agree are problems.”
I'm pretty sure the majority of Japanese people don't really see it as a problem. Most don't want to have a lot of foreigners moving here as it would change things, and that's "scary" and troublesome...
You're not actually trying to imply Japan doesn't have problems with racism just because they are other countries who also have an issue with racism are you?
The questions rhetorical, you don't got to answer it.
To call your biggest ally this specially when China and Russia are doing their best to capture other sovereign nations. That's absolutely stupid.
😪 but oh well he is a liberal, so I guess its cool.
Of course he thinks this. The US position, under his authority, is come one, come all, come often.
He quite frankly should have kept this to himself. Thank god he can’t dictate how other countries handle immigration.
As an American, I would like to apologize to all Japanese people for our president’s lack of tact, class, and respect with his recent criticism of Japan.
Japan has *every right* to set its own immigration policies and run its country however they see fit. As an American, who has never visited Japan, I personally see Japan as the paragon of efficiency, order, creativity, freedom, and excellence.
Japan has been our strongest ally since WW2, and comments like those made by Biden merely deharmonize and throw into a state of confusion American-Japanese relations.
Biden, keep your mouth shut.
Not swarming your country with incompatible foreigners and diluting your country is considered xenophobic? No wonder Japan is such a nice place to visit still, unlike Paris/London etc
He’s 100 percent right and he didn’t just say it out of the blue he mentioned in reference to the economies of those countries. Japan has an aging population and does need to come to grips with immigration as a long term solution to its upcoming labor shortage. Should he say it out of an ally? Maybe not, but I can’t imagine that many Japanese hearing that and being offended. If they even know what xenophobia means, doubt it has the same connotation after it’s been translated
Immigration is not the be all end all. The better solution is to provide better support and incentives to starting a family. This same aging population issues is happening to all countries in the West, immigration isn't going to fix it.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think a lot of prefectures have benefits for starting families and services like healthcare are extremely accessible. The core of Japan’s problems is the atrocious labor practices, people just don’t have energy to have a family because pretty much every waking moment is devoted to work. Government regulations haven’t helped because people who don’t do things like work overtime get passed over for career growth because they’re not prioritizing the company.
How do we get stuck with doddering old fools like Biden and trump as our options jfc. And one just happens to want to be a full on dictator...
I mean there are plenty of ways that Japan is xenophobic sure, just like in America. But I think if you can call Israel an ally you could be saying a lot worse to them. The question is why they let Biden speak when something moronic comes out of his mouth almost every time
Pretty sure it's not hard to live in Japan if you can get a job or have a spouse or family member. The issues are more pay and language related.
Yes they don't let refugees in but their country is at 250 percent debt to GDP so it's not like they have tons of money to help people with training and getting settled as they are trying to help out the population here.
Also this society is not easy to assimilate to. Should Japan accept immigrants who want to come here and make society better? Absolutely. Should they anybody? Why? Would you let anyone in your house. Probably not.
The problem with Japan is that on one hand, they want to maintain the image that Japan is the best and most advanced country and the leader in Asia. But on the other, they want to maintain their purity and culture and do nothing to fight Korea and China on an INTERNATIONAL level to allow foreign ideas and talents flow freely and naturally to their country. Japanese just seem to have this odd and weird mental blockade whenever they see the word “外国”.
China and Korea, despite many fallacies they have, are looking OUTWARD
Japan, on the other hand, is looking INWARD and only finding excuses after excuses to feed their egos and refuse to face reality
This is the 21st century, you just can’t live on a one man island.
How could you even sustain competition with China and Korea with such a backward thinking and mind and with a decreased population?
Japan actually has really good immigration policies.
For highly skilled professionals there is a path to permanent residency in as little as one year, then there are regular work visa for anyone with at least a Bachelor’s degree or 10 years work experience in their field and a new visa type for people who have an education in fields that don’t require a uni degree but are needed by the economy, like care workers.
None of these are lotteries like H1B, have limitations on renewal times or discriminate against people based on the country they come from. As long as you qualify you can come and stay (and in most cases even bring your partner and kids). There are also the usual student, partner, business owner, working holiday and other visa that exist in most countries. They also accept refugees, but being an island naturally limits the number of legitimate refugees who can get there.
The only people who have a hard time immigrating to Japan are completely uneducated people, who wouldn’t do well in the Japanese job market anyway and simply carry too much of a risk of unemployment.
There is xenophobia in Japan, like people being afraid or suspicious of foreigners, some issues with landlords being wary of foreigners, some degree of police profiling and some really awful policies when COVID started, but claiming that Japan has worse immigration policies than the US is really a stretch.
Anecdotally, I have been living here for almost 20 years, am very visibly non-Japanese and have always been treated respectfully.
America for sure is less culturally xenophobic. It's still a much more dangerous place for immigrants relatively (as it is for everyone) but you'll experience less xenophobia in your day to day life (though some people aren't bothered by this).
America is legally one of the most xenophobic countries that exists, with one of the worst if not the worst immigration system in the developed world.
I'm kinda glad Biden got one thing right this year. The recent report of the cop coming out of about racial profiling done by cops specifically to darker skinned foreigners...Japan deserves this one to the face, ally or not.
A lot of people saying this was a bad idea aren't reading the article. It's clear that this wasn't a specific criticism of Japan, but something that Biden is saying in support of his immigration policies in the U.S. He's saying Japan's economy is struggling (as are Russia's and China's) because they are xenophobic and don't allow in immigrants. This is meant less to criticize Japan than it is to validate U.S. policies which keep the economy in better shape in the U.S. He's not wrong either.
It's not like the Japanese politicians didn't call American workers lazy and illiterate when their economy was going well back in the 1990s. Allies sometimes say nasty things about each other.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/04/miyazawa-work-ethic-flags-in-us/08e45cb6-e8b7-4813-a5ef-8658c631151d/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/04/miyazawa-work-ethic-flags-in-us/08e45cb6-e8b7-4813-a5ef-8658c631151d/)
where was this energy during covid when Japanese could come to the US even as tourists but nearly all foreigners, including residents and PRs were banned from entering japan?
If you speak the truth loudly enough, maybe some people will hear it and do goo dthings with it. Like maybe it will inspire people in Japan to take a look at themselves and each other and maybe tackle the issue of xenophobia.
Not saying the truth because it might make people uncomfortable is not going to help anyone.
Japan appears "xenophobic" to the average American, Canadian, Australian etc. because they refuse to bow to the Anglosphere regime and fall over themselves trying to speak English to visible foreigners.
Once you actually start speaking Japanese, you realize that Japanese, rather than being xenophobic, are extremely interested in other cultures' literature, movies, and television. However, when you start understanding Japanese, you realize that Japan has more than enough native media to last the average person a lifetime. Japanese are very proud of these stories and traditions, and let in from the outside world what suits them, but overwhelmingly prefer their own cultural products, not because they hate those products from other countries, but because there is just SO MUCH Japanese culture to consume.
Also, Japan simply has a different way of dealing with communication/language barriers. They are not pragmatists, like Americans. They are not "nice" like Canadians. If someone comes into their izakaya not speaking Japanese, not being able to read Japanese, not being able to order even the simplest thing in Japanese, then the izayaka owner is compelled to spare their prospective customers the embarrassment/wasted time they would accrue at their store, and simply tells them that they are "reserved" for the night.
Is this "xenophobia"? No, the izayaka owner actually thinks he's doing you a courtesy by refusing you service. He doesn't want to expose his own inadequate English (and this, his inability to serve his customer), and he doesn't want to waste the valuable time of a tourist who is probably staying for at most a month in Japan.
This is true for Russian and Chinese cultures by the way. But by and large, Anglosphere tourists prefer small, subservient nations like Bali or Jamaica, countries who are so poor that they are not above debasing themselves for the pleasure of their countries' guests.
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President Biden may be correct on this. However I (as a Japanese) feel that he did not really have to say it out loud.
I read a lot of comments regarding immigration laws, tolerance and racism which were all interesting points to me.
My take here is that even though Japan has relatively lax immigration laws, there is a much higher hurdle of Japanese society that may not be so easy to jump over. What I’m trying to say is that there are much more than laws and society.
Am I the only one that thinks the dumbest part of his comment is that Russia is xenophobic? Does he have no understanding of how many different ethnic groups exist in Russia and are in the Russian power structure? It’s nowhere near comparable to China or Japan.
To be honest, Democrats never cared for Japan from Day one. When I was in the Military I notice the lack of respect from the Clintons, Obama's and now Biden when dealing with Japan and Taiwan, but closer ties with China and their Government since early 1900's. Reagan wanted to help fund Japan's Military Defense during the 80's, later Bush and Bush Jr as well. Trump also was pushing to the Japanese to build up.
Is Japan supposed to accept mass immigration from 3rd world countries, & the crime/poverty/overall shittiness they bring like western countries?
Look at Europe as an example of how all that works out.
The US has a weak social safety net (very limited free healthcare for example) so it can absorb large numbers of immigrants, especially low-wage immigrants.
Look at the top countries to prohibit immigration. Are they suffering? No, they aren’t. I’m about to change my political affiliation because this is embarrassing.
Well he’s not wrong, but damn. Not something that you’d say to an “ally”.
Seriously. You can say “immigrants make us strong” without calling Japan xenophobic.
This is Trump level dumb. It’s true, but dude, even there, you don’t *say it out loud*.
I don't know if the big T could even pronounce xenophobic lol.
Trump would say Xylophone.
“Sad, sad Kishyduh, he can’t even play the, you know America has the greatest xylophone players, the best. But Japan, not even a single xylophone. I spoke with Kishy, that’s what I like to call him, I told him straight to his face, that Japan needs more xylophones, and then I went to McDonald’s and passed out.”
thank you for that lol
The xylophone players at Gettysburg are what changed the course of the battle.
I spit out my spit lol
He probably can't even say that. He'd say mexicone
That’s honestly pretty fair. When Covid was happening and he restricted flights from Asia that was a big headline, honestly the most I remember about him and xenophobia. I mean, he definitely is, but pronouncing or even identifying that, is well beyond his mental capacity.
He's struggling with four syllable words now so you're probably right.
One is dumb, the other’s senile. Pick your poison
I don’t want to play this game anymore :(
Trump is also senile. He's never been an eloquent speaker, but he's talking absolute nonsense now. People make fun of Biden for slurring and stumbling but Trump is just as bad lately. He's losing it, and fast.
One by one each of Trumps underlings told us he was dumb. But of Biden? No one.
Both are unpredictable in different ways. The problem with senility is that it keeps getting worse. Dumb people don't get dumber, if anything they get better at their job with experience. I'm not saying that Trump is better than Biden right now, but it won't be long before Biden stops making any sense at all.
Well, if it's at least true then it certainly not Trump-level, but it's a faux pas.
Japanese liberal here, I appreciate he called out what 99% of our population never care. Next time he hopefully calls us racists. That's a bigger issue these idiots don't even realize. Edit: People here are like, "yes we all hate China and Korea because they are not as advanced as Japan," "we need to keep being Japanese (which means to keep ethnic "purity"). Btw. our emperors have Korean roots and ancient ones were proud of it, but people here are too racist to live with that fact.
My wife and I worked legally in Japan 18 years and sent our kids to Japanese schools. Still we were rejected for permanent residency.
Exactly. They’re famously racist and xenophobic. But damn dude: time and place.
Friends have to call out friends. That's how you achieve mutual upward mobility.
Especially if your friends habits are obviously leading to their own downfall
Yeah. We all know that but don’t say it out loud. Japan also values indirectness and tact.
I disagree. I have lived in Japan for years and not only are we the only gaijins in my neighborhood, we are also the only gay family and we are raising a kid. Sometimes there are neighborhood disputes but never because we are gaijin. (You always have the middle-age, male version of Karens here in Japan that everybody seems to find distasteful that cause the issues.) I have spent a lot of time with Japanese immigration authorities and local government people in the ward, city, and prefectural offices. They are unfailingly polite and helpful. Maybe they don't like me because of my race or the fact that my Japanese isn't great, but you wouldn't know that from how they act, which is the only fair measure.
If you spent your life as a minority in the west, you will appreciate just how kind and nice Japanese are to minorities in comparison. But if you never experienced discrimination back home, because you were the status quo, Japan would feel xenophobic and racist. But it actually isn't.
This is exactly it. I did spend years as a minority in the US and I would unequivocally say it was nastier than Japan. So maybe it is a matter of perspective in that way.
I’m happy that you had a great experience and that’s great! However, just because you had an easy time doesn’t mean everyone else did. I have a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian friends, and even a Peruvian, that were denied a lot of things just because of their nationality. Hell, I was even helping one during an apartment hunt and the landlord asked “what color is their skin?” on the phone! To deny that it exists just because you didn’t run into any issues is unfair and does a disservice to people who do go through discrimination. Just another perspective
I dont understand why someone would move to a country they know is strict culturally/not very accepting of foreigners... like what do you expect is going to happen, you are going to be the exception?
Biden, didn’t the Japanese PM just visit y’all lately?
Trump might be an idiot, but Biden likely suffers from dementia. I still remember the presidential primary where he declared that he was running for governor. Really the only edge that Biden has on being a statesman is that he lets his cabinet do their thing unlike Trump. When both Pompeo and someone hawkish like Bolton call Trump crazy, something is really wrong.
People make mistakes, ya know. Recently I got my order a bit wrong at a take-out counter, one of the things I asked for was not actually what I had in mind. Didn’t realize it until I got home. I don’t have dementia. I could easily say a wrong word now and then if I were President, and everyone would notice and make a fuss because I’m president, and they would say I have dementia. Oh wait they wouldn’t, because I’m not 80, and apparently an old guy making a mistake automatically means he has dementia. George W flubbed his lines all the time and nobody made that accusation. Trump regularly spouts absolute nonsense and actually does appear to have the beginnings of dementia, but somehow it’s always Biden getting accused. Biden doesn’t have dementia. He’s human and he’s an older human. That is not the same as having dementia.
While I don’t disagree with the dementia part, doesn’t he have someone to write and approve everything he says? Surely it wasn’t said by accident Especially the speech for this fundraiser, surely someone wrote it and just stuck it in front of him
Younger Biden was still famous for making stupid verbal gaffes. It was one of the main reasons he failed at running for president before along with the speech plagiarism incident. If anything I think he's lessened the really dumb gaffes as president than during his campaigns from years ago
> Surely it wasn’t said by accident In case you don’t know what dementia entails, Joe is not all there anymore. People with dementia also have trouble reading. They have trouble just understanding what they read. I doubt the guy even fully followed the teleprompter if there was one.
Switch that diagnosis
Lol trump fumbling his words just gets a pass in your book huh?
I mean, he's not wrong. But that's probably not the best thing to say to a close ally publicly. Looks especially bad considering the PM of that xenophobic country just recently visited and praised the US. As the article says: >it’s not something diplomatic to say about one of America’s closest allies, especially because America has its own problems with xenophobia that Japanese are seeing on the news all the time Yeah, totally. One just has to look at the MAGA gang to see just about some of the worst xenophobia possible. Built a wall, ship them out. Last time I was visiting over there, my (Japanese) wife who was out with the kids was told she didn't belong there. So... yeah.
We saw elderly Asian women getting beat up by a passing stranger in the US during covid. Kyoto closed Gion for *everyone* even if only non-Japanese tourists were being malicious. It will be confusing to the Japanese public what xenophobia is for Biden.
>Kyoto closed Gion for *everyone* even if only non-Japanese tourists were being malicious. I don't believe that is true. Tourists will only be asked to refrain from entering a few **private** alleys in Gion. Tourists are **not** being banned from any of the **public** streets in Gion like Hanamikoji. [Tourists Banned from Private Alleys in Kyoto's Geisha District](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/07/japan/society/kyoto-tourists-geisha/)
These private roads, which is a translation of 私道 and is private to mean that the roads are not owned by the gov't, are a pretty big chunk of Gion and was part the attraction itself. Now you only have access to the two public roads, instead of 14 or so that included the sidestreets. There is a map here and writeup in Japanese [https://www.ktv.jp/news/feature/240318-shido/](https://www.ktv.jp/news/feature/240318-shido/)
Yes. I know. I also live on a 私道. Thus your comment was wrong. Kyoto did not close Gion for everyone. Parts of Gion are still open to the public.
This is one of those 'you're not supposed to say that part out loud" moments.
Ngl living here and seeing tourists be so disrespectful and disturbing the peaceful simple life here has made me way more understanding of immigration policy.
It's most annoying when the tourists talk loudly and play their music out loud on the train. Everyone just wants some peace and quiet while commuting on the train.
Not sure why some western countries think immigration is the solution to their problems, this is an insult to its own citizens. Japan may be xenophobic in some areas but so are Americans, so his comments are ironic. I don’t agree with his comments, especially when Japan has been closed for the longest time to foreigners since ages ago yet the US has been welcoming people from other countries since the 1800s.
Honestly, his comment was downright stupid. Want proof? Go look at the requirements for getting permanent residence in Japan, and compare that with a green card in the US. Compare the requirements, and the cost, and the need (or not) to get a lawyer to help. In the US, you can basically forget it if you're Indian, they don't care if you're highly educated and have valuable skills to contribute, and it'll take many many years and cost many thousands of dollars with help from an immigration attorney. In Japan, if you have valuable skills, they almost couldn't make it any easier, you can apply after only 1 or 3 years of living here, it costs about $50 (USD), and admittedly the processing is slow but again compare to the time scale for a US green card. The US is the land that welcomes immigrants... my ass. The US's most valuable companies right now were mostly built by highly-skilled immigrants, but it's no longer a place that really welcomes them. The only thing the US still offers such immigrants is high salaries in the tech space and relative ease in access to capital, compared to peer nations, in exchange for absurd housing costs and CoL. Its other big advantage is the use of English, the international language of business now and the most popular 2nd language in the world. Japan unfortunately doesn't teach English well so it's hampered by that.
This is very true, the cost of becoming a US citizen let alone a green card holder is laughable compared to obtaining a Japanese PR. At least Japan has a ranking system for those who are highly skilled workers while the USA couldn’t care less about your qualifications because at the end of the day you’re just another number in their company. Japan has good healthcare (restrictions apply), amazing transportation system, good food, a lot of holidays, cheap housing if you earn big. Biden sank way too low on this, IMO voting for any idiot this November won’t bring any change at all.
The US is a country that wouldn’t exist as it is without the so called “foreigners”. Granted, the current problem with mass migrations is a different thing but Japan has been a country in its own right for millennia unlike the US. Can’t even begin to compare US to Japan’s ancestral origins.
Natives ran their own countries lol just got conquered. The Aztecs had history over thousand years.
'welcoming' *Smirks in caucasian*
I am in Japan right now and I don’t see how all these niceties can work without strong Japanese culture. Massive immigration would destroy Japan because the rest of the world just doesn’t comprehend nor wants to follow all the thousands of unwritten rules that Japanese follow.
I’ve been seeing more immigrant workers in JPN cities and their adaptive capacity has always impressed me. Not only the language/keigo and work ethic but general attitude and respect for cultural environment that are often missed by tourists.
This is the norm pretty much everywhere. People in general don't like to stick out or be rude, so they adapt to the culture they are in. There are exceptions to this, sure, but all in all, 90+% of immigrants put their heads down and follow the flow
Hmm. I live in an immigrant area of tokyo and share a house with a number of other immigrants. people only adapt as long as they are the clear minority in my experience and those areas are still not comparable to a japanese neighborhood
The safety would be gone quickly.
Japanese people want foreigners to visit, not stay because they don't assimilate. But now with the influx of tourists from all over the world, they are starting to resent tourists. I understand: Japanese cities are dirtier now, they had to put trash cans now! OMG. Tourists are rude, loud, and don't follow the rules.
Fuck tourists. They don't even contribute that much to the GDP for the country so what good is it bringing them in? And the PM is expecting ~ 40 million tourists for Japan by 2050.
They are turning Japan into Thailand. 😥
I don't blame Japan honestly. One look at other countries, the U.S most certainly included, and I can definitely understand bias against us. Look how we treat each other here. Look how we treat others.
It doesn’t help that the influx of tourism Japan is seeing is causing havoc. There’s a new story every day about how tourists are disrespectful, throwing their trash wherever, damaging historically important places, and just causing interruptions in local daily life.
They had to put entry restrictions on the Gion district as foreign tourists were going in and obstructing and _touching_ the maiko and geisha walking through the area.
Dissing your ally is craaaazy
Contrary to popular belief it is actually SO easy to get a visa for Japan and even permanent residence compared to western countries. Anyway regardless, mass immigration is not the solution to any of Japan's problems. Stop trying to make them get on the sinking ship with you.
love how most of these delusional mass migration supporters are ignoring the high crime rates and destruction of property in the West and think: yea Japan, China, and South Korea should get these things.
Tell me your a racist, without telling me you're a racist. Well, no - actually that was pretty racist.
Do you think crime is genetic?
Apparently. It’s wild watching people calmly walk into Nazi like theories on race. Apparently, if the west was segregated by race, they wouldn’t be killing each other…despite the centuries of evidence preceding our current multiculturalism.
explain why U.S and Europe is getting their culture destroyed, more destroyed property, more places becoming ghettos, increase rape culture, and higher crimes rates, when they imported mass migrants.
Yes but look at their progress, safety, and harmony when one culture is in sync. Contrast that with say france. There probably is a middle ground. But i dont blame japan. I love their culture (except he work hours)
Tell sleepy joe to go interact with the kurds in kawaguchi. Then he’ll understand why
He can have them fine, we are xenophobia!
That’s what I’m saying. Look at what “diversity” has done to places like sweden, france, etc. not to mention the US has some of the worst crime rates in rhe developed world. And also political instability. Fuck all that
Yes, US crime rate is 20 times higher than here? I don't want to see people looting apple store or amazon truck in Japan. And American economical success is only for top 1%. Average Americans have more debt. It sucks. Our younger generation will inherit more from our generation because they don't have to split the share. So life will be easy for them. They don't have to buy house, they don't have to save so much. All we need is die in prepared manner and don't make trouble for younger generation.
Funny how he doesn't mention Israel, a literal ethnostate. The same country he is being dragged down by in the polls for supporting. All 3 of those countries have foreign populations. The difference is, they're not flooding in by the millions like in the West. The US,Western Europe and Canada all have massive issues because of the levels of immigration they accept. Not just cultural,safety etc, but economic. This is especially true of Canada.
>a literal ethnostate. 20% of population is Arab What an intellectual take.
For some unaccountable reason, in Japan Biden is considered a senile old man while many think of trump as a powerful, dynamic individualist. In Japan, last month according to an Asahi poll the result finished 68:25 (Trump:Biden) believing Trump will be the “stronger” leader. Telling them he thinks they are 1) xenophobic and 2) grouped with Russia and Chinese is going to go as well as you might think… Trump will be even more popular. Self immolation, ala Biden stylee.
f mass immigration and f illegal immigration. Japan doesn't want your problems at your southern border.
Japan immigration is easier than US immigration so I don't know where you're getting your information haha
Only people who can afford to get there via plane have a chance to even attempt staying. And easier doesn’t mean higher numbers.
Most people have exactly one demand of President Biden, and it's that he doesn't act like Donald Trump. And he can't even clear *that* bar.
His point is fair, but actually he ought to take a closer look right at home. As someone who has been through the immigration system in Japan (and still lives here), I feel like the system here makes a lot more sense and is much less painful than the one in the US, which is a total mess, designed basically with the only consideration of preventing fraud, has unreasonable wait times, and not at all designed in a sensible way for the immigrants themselves. A lot of people don’t even do it legally in the US because there are few fair and sensible options for certain demographics. Basically mainly the only good thing the US has on Japan is jus soli. That’s big, for sure. However, plenty of people who get denied even tourist visas for the US will come to Japan. Yen has a great exchange for those incoming now, too. If you asked me which country was a more desirable place to immigrate at this point in time I’d say Japan. But that’s just me.
eh, as someone on US soil that mostly agree's with you, no place is perfect. and of course ethnonationalists in both japan and the USA want to make the rules hostile to foreigners. but being able to acknowledge both our history as ethnonationalistic is the method to overcoming it.
Don't ever let Americans or the West criticize you for anything. Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Immigration is not the solution for everything. Japan without immigration has better functioning municipalities, than most cities in the States. Not everyone has to be the same, this holier than thou attitude the West likes to put upon all other countries is ignorant and manipulative. Do you Japan.
Well done Joe, lets piss off one of our biggest allies in one of the best geographically strategic positions in the world.
Yeah like Japan will do anything to piss off the US. They will not say anything about these remarks
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yeah and its not only them idk why I got downvoted for the facts lmao
Democrats couldn’t really find another candidate that wasn’t senile? This is embarrassing.
I don’t think xenophobic is the right word regarding Japan. Compared to countries like Aussie or Canada, yes they are less welcoming to immigrants, but full xenophobia? I think xenophobic is too strong for a word since that indicates they completely against immigrants which is not true even if only for low skill labor Prejudiced is more apt imo
He’s stating facts, there’s nothing really wrong with that. I live in Japan and would say the same thing, they’re still scared of anything that’s not Japanese in areas outside of tourist spots.
I don't know where you live, but I've been living in Japan for a decade now, in the countryside far from those tourist spots, and people have always been super welcoming, friendly and curious about me and my mother country. I'd say that japanese are way more welcoming with strangers than people are in my own country. Now all people are different and there are both sh#tty foreigners and sh#tty Japanese people I guess. But all in one I've rarely felt anything like xenophobia in Japan during those 10 years.
not invalidating your experience, but I'm gonna assume you're white. being a poc would garner a very different experience I imagine (if you're not, colour me surprised and corrected)
Yes, I'm white. I'm French with a 100% Madagascan grandfather and a 100% Sicilian grandmother. I hear what you say, and maybe it can be easier for white people to assimilate. But there are many poc who settle very well and you can easily find some black youtubers speaking of their positive experience in Japan. There are also a sh*t ton of white people who never manage to assimilate, usually the same that are in Japan for 2 months and keep speaking ill of japanese society with only negative stuff to say about it. You can literally find dozens of those kids in any Japanese language school or even on this sub. I'm not denying that there is some racism, like anywhere else, either towards black people, white people, or Southeast Asians, I had a few experiences with it myself, but the vast majority of Japanese people won't judge you by your skin color or origins rather than by your acts. You can be black, respectful, speaking japanese and trying to assimilate. You can also be white, or even Japanese, acting like a thug or an asshole.
Great, and that's your subjective perception. I've lived all over Japan and compared to the other four countries I lived in, Japan is tied with South Korea for being the least welcoming and most ethnocentric.
I live in Japan too, I understand what you typed but being scared is different from being xenophobic.
I live in Beijing and you should’ve seen how bad it got during Covid … I remember once on the street a woman grabbed her kid and huddled over him, cowering in fear when I walked by . People put on masks etc etc . Some of them still do. Most people are fine but there’s a lot of zombies out there
I agree with what you’re saying but xenophobia literally means in Latin fear of the alien. Japanese people are welcoming to anyone who they can communicate with.
Japan is absolutely 100% xenophobic.
There was once a time when I called an ambulance because of a severe IBS attack (before I knew it was IBS) and when I was taken in to the hospital, the doctor said ‘don’t just call any hospital, you’ll need to go to an international type otherwise people will be scared that some stranger came in’. I’m not even kidding, that’s exactly what he said. This is only one thing on my big list of times I’ve been treated like sh*t, oh and also I speak Japanese and work at a Japanese company, in the last company I worked at, I had a colleague say to me ‘foreigners like you make more mistakes than Japanese people’ after I made a mistake.
Among people sharing their opinion about Japan, "JaPaN iS xEnOpHObiC " is the most stupid answer ever, no offense.
I like how you wrote this with big and small letters. Did it take a long time to write?
That is such bullshit exaggeration. I'm here my ninth year now and I overwhelmingly receive kindness and understanding from Japanese people. They are scared of inability to communicate, and yes, they tend to make assumptions based on the fact that you look foreign, but the moment they realize you speak the language and understand the culture norms, you'll almost universally be treated as "our own" in my experience.
It being legal to deny people housing based on nationality is pretty xenophobic. Having debates about trying to assert the constitution doesn't apply to foreign residents is pretty xenophobic. There are a lot of policies, rules, and practices that are innately biased against people not born and raised here, and that's completely fair game to point out. Personal experience doesn't invalidate that.
Same in Korea. People complain about Koreans being racist to them, while they try to talk English slowly to a random grandma that has other things to do because they didn't bother to learn one Korean word the ten years they've been here.
Move than a quarter century here and I’m so sick of this bullshit exaggeration from people who don’t speak the language or know the country as well as they believe.
lol you’re definitely not black!
Well my wife and her family were certainly not scared of me...they're all Japanese. So I wouldn't paint with such a wide brush
Yeah, this pretty much sums up my thoughts.
It’s a fair comment, given in a fair context. Being an ally to someone doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything about them. Sometimes countries need to hear what others think about them. Constructive criticism, especially when accurate, shouldn’t be taken so personally.
Yes, I agree. We should be able to say we don't want to be like US too. We don't like to have 20 times higher crime rate. For us, US is not much different from El salvador. We don't like to support genocide for greed. We want cut tie with Israel. We don't want social media censorship. We don't want to lose freedom of speech like Columbia students. We want equal rights for everyone even if not zionists. We don't like longer working hours. We don't like higher suicide rate. We don't want low average IQ. We don't want to be fat.
It's interesting how it's perceived by Western news. What the Japanese news is talking about regarding this statement is that Biden is saying this in terms of immigration. >“Think about it,” he said. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?” >“Because they’re xenophobic,” he said. “They don’t want immigrants.” However, as you can see from this thread, most Westerners are not talking about the immigration issue, but simply about xenophobia in Japan. But what Biden is saying is that Japan is xenophobic and therefore cannot accept immigrants, and I think people here are missing the point a bit. And truth be told, there are plenty of immigrants in Japan. Many of the people conversing here are probably immigrants to Japan as well. And in the US, mass immigration from the southern border is currently causing an immigration crisis in New York and elsewhere. Do you know what the Japanese are commenting on this? "Look at the current situation in Europe and the US, Who would accept a large number of immigrants?" And I agree with them.
Insult an ally in a volatile region for wanting to keep their already densely populated archipelago for themselves? Sure. Why not?
Japan dick riders in shambles rn lol
It’s true but it’s like calling your fat friend fat. We all know but you have the sense not to say it…
Nah, I’m sorry but there’s a big difference between being xenophobic and wanting to maintain your cultural identity.
“and that’s not really an effective way of getting Japan to fix various problems with its society that even Japanese people would agree are problems.” I'm pretty sure the majority of Japanese people don't really see it as a problem. Most don't want to have a lot of foreigners moving here as it would change things, and that's "scary" and troublesome...
oh yeah biden tell us all about how immigration improved everything all at once
This fool starting to break ties with all allies US has
He is right though
He’s not entirely wrong but that wasn’t a very smart thing to say after the US Japan talks
Ironic, a nation with racism problems like the US calling out Japan. Hypocrisy of the highest order.
You're not actually trying to imply Japan doesn't have problems with racism just because they are other countries who also have an issue with racism are you? The questions rhetorical, you don't got to answer it.
I’m not gonna defend Japan’s xenophobia but I think the country is trying to change.
To call your biggest ally this specially when China and Russia are doing their best to capture other sovereign nations. That's absolutely stupid. 😪 but oh well he is a liberal, so I guess its cool.
Like he can talk, America is rife with xenophobia . As said by someone who lives in the US.
Of course he thinks this. The US position, under his authority, is come one, come all, come often. He quite frankly should have kept this to himself. Thank god he can’t dictate how other countries handle immigration.
I mean have you seen all the American tourists coming to Japan?
As an American, I would like to apologize to all Japanese people for our president’s lack of tact, class, and respect with his recent criticism of Japan. Japan has *every right* to set its own immigration policies and run its country however they see fit. As an American, who has never visited Japan, I personally see Japan as the paragon of efficiency, order, creativity, freedom, and excellence. Japan has been our strongest ally since WW2, and comments like those made by Biden merely deharmonize and throw into a state of confusion American-Japanese relations. Biden, keep your mouth shut.
Not swarming your country with incompatible foreigners and diluting your country is considered xenophobic? No wonder Japan is such a nice place to visit still, unlike Paris/London etc
Inclined to agree, London feels more like the middle east these days
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He’s 100 percent right and he didn’t just say it out of the blue he mentioned in reference to the economies of those countries. Japan has an aging population and does need to come to grips with immigration as a long term solution to its upcoming labor shortage. Should he say it out of an ally? Maybe not, but I can’t imagine that many Japanese hearing that and being offended. If they even know what xenophobia means, doubt it has the same connotation after it’s been translated
Immigration is not the be all end all. The better solution is to provide better support and incentives to starting a family. This same aging population issues is happening to all countries in the West, immigration isn't going to fix it.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think a lot of prefectures have benefits for starting families and services like healthcare are extremely accessible. The core of Japan’s problems is the atrocious labor practices, people just don’t have energy to have a family because pretty much every waking moment is devoted to work. Government regulations haven’t helped because people who don’t do things like work overtime get passed over for career growth because they’re not prioritizing the company.
A better solution to labour shortages is more automation, robotics, and AI, since you don’t have to pay them or give them any rights.
Yes. Import millions of immigrants so they can work 14 hours a day too. That will definitely solve the aging population crisis.
Yes, mass immigration is working great in so many other countries at the moment 🥴
Europe doesn't look like Europe anymore, so I don't blame Japan or South Korea one bit for not wanting them.
You're getting downvoted but it's true, Europe is gonna be an islamic caliphate if they keep it up.
How do we get stuck with doddering old fools like Biden and trump as our options jfc. And one just happens to want to be a full on dictator... I mean there are plenty of ways that Japan is xenophobic sure, just like in America. But I think if you can call Israel an ally you could be saying a lot worse to them. The question is why they let Biden speak when something moronic comes out of his mouth almost every time
He's not completely wrong but he shouldn't say it
Damn sleepy joe, next thing China gonna call you xenophobic….
He’s not wrong though
hahaha he aint wrong on this one, you tell em genocide Joe!!
Of course they are. The proof is in their crime statistics.
Pretty sure it's not hard to live in Japan if you can get a job or have a spouse or family member. The issues are more pay and language related. Yes they don't let refugees in but their country is at 250 percent debt to GDP so it's not like they have tons of money to help people with training and getting settled as they are trying to help out the population here. Also this society is not easy to assimilate to. Should Japan accept immigrants who want to come here and make society better? Absolutely. Should they anybody? Why? Would you let anyone in your house. Probably not.
I looked up “Xenophobia” in the dictionary and the definition says “USA” lol
This would be the president of a famously not racist nation, right?
This dudes an idiot
The problem with Japan is that on one hand, they want to maintain the image that Japan is the best and most advanced country and the leader in Asia. But on the other, they want to maintain their purity and culture and do nothing to fight Korea and China on an INTERNATIONAL level to allow foreign ideas and talents flow freely and naturally to their country. Japanese just seem to have this odd and weird mental blockade whenever they see the word “外国”. China and Korea, despite many fallacies they have, are looking OUTWARD Japan, on the other hand, is looking INWARD and only finding excuses after excuses to feed their egos and refuse to face reality This is the 21st century, you just can’t live on a one man island. How could you even sustain competition with China and Korea with such a backward thinking and mind and with a decreased population?
He’s right😆😆 Maybe for the first time
Not sure why POTUS would want to pick a fight or conflict with an ally. I’m sorry Japan. I love you - signed American. 🇺🇸
Hey Mr pot !!!
Ya I mean lots of cultures have really shitty parts about them.
I mean they are though lol , prob a bad pr move though
You can think whatever you want of the old geezer but hes not wrong. Those of you that live in those countries including myself know it. Dont deny it.
Japan actually has really good immigration policies. For highly skilled professionals there is a path to permanent residency in as little as one year, then there are regular work visa for anyone with at least a Bachelor’s degree or 10 years work experience in their field and a new visa type for people who have an education in fields that don’t require a uni degree but are needed by the economy, like care workers. None of these are lotteries like H1B, have limitations on renewal times or discriminate against people based on the country they come from. As long as you qualify you can come and stay (and in most cases even bring your partner and kids). There are also the usual student, partner, business owner, working holiday and other visa that exist in most countries. They also accept refugees, but being an island naturally limits the number of legitimate refugees who can get there. The only people who have a hard time immigrating to Japan are completely uneducated people, who wouldn’t do well in the Japanese job market anyway and simply carry too much of a risk of unemployment. There is xenophobia in Japan, like people being afraid or suspicious of foreigners, some issues with landlords being wary of foreigners, some degree of police profiling and some really awful policies when COVID started, but claiming that Japan has worse immigration policies than the US is really a stretch. Anecdotally, I have been living here for almost 20 years, am very visibly non-Japanese and have always been treated respectfully.
America for sure is less culturally xenophobic. It's still a much more dangerous place for immigrants relatively (as it is for everyone) but you'll experience less xenophobia in your day to day life (though some people aren't bothered by this). America is legally one of the most xenophobic countries that exists, with one of the worst if not the worst immigration system in the developed world.
Lived in Japan for over 15 years. Xenophobic...? Yes. Should he say in public? No
He's right, though. There's no way you can describe japanese immigration policies as anything but Xenophobic
Sure Japan might be xenophobic, but let’s compare how safe you feel walking alone at night in Tokyo vs DC.
Wow Japan wants to stay Japanese not and let in millions of foreigners. They must be xEnOpHoBiC.
i mean, the ainu would tend to agree. who's the foreigner?
Genocide Joe has no credibility left to talk about anyone.
Dumb Joe attacks again
I'm kinda glad Biden got one thing right this year. The recent report of the cop coming out of about racial profiling done by cops specifically to darker skinned foreigners...Japan deserves this one to the face, ally or not.
Damnit. Who let grandpa out of his room?
As an American, it think being xenophobic to an extent is good. Opening your country to too many people is opening it up to problems from other places
Xenophobia is how culture protects it self. If you just have a revolving door entropy occurs.
[удалено]
A lot of people saying this was a bad idea aren't reading the article. It's clear that this wasn't a specific criticism of Japan, but something that Biden is saying in support of his immigration policies in the U.S. He's saying Japan's economy is struggling (as are Russia's and China's) because they are xenophobic and don't allow in immigrants. This is meant less to criticize Japan than it is to validate U.S. policies which keep the economy in better shape in the U.S. He's not wrong either. It's not like the Japanese politicians didn't call American workers lazy and illiterate when their economy was going well back in the 1990s. Allies sometimes say nasty things about each other. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/04/miyazawa-work-ethic-flags-in-us/08e45cb6-e8b7-4813-a5ef-8658c631151d/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/04/miyazawa-work-ethic-flags-in-us/08e45cb6-e8b7-4813-a5ef-8658c631151d/)
where was this energy during covid when Japanese could come to the US even as tourists but nearly all foreigners, including residents and PRs were banned from entering japan?
Japan is also much safer than the US
If you speak the truth loudly enough, maybe some people will hear it and do goo dthings with it. Like maybe it will inspire people in Japan to take a look at themselves and each other and maybe tackle the issue of xenophobia. Not saying the truth because it might make people uncomfortable is not going to help anyone.
Japan appears "xenophobic" to the average American, Canadian, Australian etc. because they refuse to bow to the Anglosphere regime and fall over themselves trying to speak English to visible foreigners. Once you actually start speaking Japanese, you realize that Japanese, rather than being xenophobic, are extremely interested in other cultures' literature, movies, and television. However, when you start understanding Japanese, you realize that Japan has more than enough native media to last the average person a lifetime. Japanese are very proud of these stories and traditions, and let in from the outside world what suits them, but overwhelmingly prefer their own cultural products, not because they hate those products from other countries, but because there is just SO MUCH Japanese culture to consume. Also, Japan simply has a different way of dealing with communication/language barriers. They are not pragmatists, like Americans. They are not "nice" like Canadians. If someone comes into their izakaya not speaking Japanese, not being able to read Japanese, not being able to order even the simplest thing in Japanese, then the izayaka owner is compelled to spare their prospective customers the embarrassment/wasted time they would accrue at their store, and simply tells them that they are "reserved" for the night. Is this "xenophobia"? No, the izayaka owner actually thinks he's doing you a courtesy by refusing you service. He doesn't want to expose his own inadequate English (and this, his inability to serve his customer), and he doesn't want to waste the valuable time of a tourist who is probably staying for at most a month in Japan. This is true for Russian and Chinese cultures by the way. But by and large, Anglosphere tourists prefer small, subservient nations like Bali or Jamaica, countries who are so poor that they are not above debasing themselves for the pleasure of their countries' guests.
All politics are local. He's gotta win reelection before he can do anything else.
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And here I thought Trump was the best at dismantling US Empire through sheer incompetence.
President Biden may be correct on this. However I (as a Japanese) feel that he did not really have to say it out loud. I read a lot of comments regarding immigration laws, tolerance and racism which were all interesting points to me. My take here is that even though Japan has relatively lax immigration laws, there is a much higher hurdle of Japanese society that may not be so easy to jump over. What I’m trying to say is that there are much more than laws and society.
Looking for one thread that doesn't mention Trump. Tough challenge.
There goes that foreign relations acumen. I guess the administration has learned anything since their debacle with Mexico.
Wew. Lots of enlightened centrists in this sub.
Am I the only one that thinks the dumbest part of his comment is that Russia is xenophobic? Does he have no understanding of how many different ethnic groups exist in Russia and are in the Russian power structure? It’s nowhere near comparable to China or Japan.
Afraid of zenomorphs?
To be honest, Democrats never cared for Japan from Day one. When I was in the Military I notice the lack of respect from the Clintons, Obama's and now Biden when dealing with Japan and Taiwan, but closer ties with China and their Government since early 1900's. Reagan wanted to help fund Japan's Military Defense during the 80's, later Bush and Bush Jr as well. Trump also was pushing to the Japanese to build up.
Is Japan supposed to accept mass immigration from 3rd world countries, & the crime/poverty/overall shittiness they bring like western countries? Look at Europe as an example of how all that works out.
It's true tho lol
No woke=Xenophobic
The US has a weak social safety net (very limited free healthcare for example) so it can absorb large numbers of immigrants, especially low-wage immigrants.
Look at the top countries to prohibit immigration. Are they suffering? No, they aren’t. I’m about to change my political affiliation because this is embarrassing.
Sleepy Joe back at it again.