Most of you guys know what's going on in Japan with the population crisis. Long story short, middle aged people are getting older, younger aged people are not having babies.

So Japan's trying to solve this problem. Who here has seen this article?

The Japanese government wants 10% of the Japanese population to be foreigners by the year 2050.

In my honest opinion, this is never ever going to happen in our lifetime. (And most of us are like, 12-18!) For the exact reason that most foreigners can't take the idea of being treated like a foreigner. All. The. Time. Because that's basically what life is like in Japan. You + Living In Japan = Foreigner. Foreigner + 20 Years = NOTHING. If you ask most people who've lived a long time in Japan (that were foreigners) most of them have gone nearly insane while in Japan because of the fact that they were, indeed, foreigners.

And another big reason that I believe this is never going to happen is because the culture and ideas in Japan are just so incredibly, woah. I mean, I just read an article about a hostage apologizing to the government for causing 'a great deal of trouble'. Nobody I know would do that. Only the Japanese would, who have grown up on this idea that "Anything you do, you can apologize for it in someway and somehow. Regardless if it's not your fault, ESPECIALLY if it is not your fault, you should apologize."

And the amount of racisim in Japan doesn't help. I mean, you have millions (Or close to that) of Korean and Chinese immigrants in Japan, but they aren't granted citizenship. Do you know why? Because they're Chinese or Korean. There are tiny children, (like 3 or 4) who are not citizens. These are 3rd generation children. Their parents were born in Japan. They were born in Japan. All they've ever known is Japan. But they aren't citizens because of their nationality.

To me, it sounds like the officals and the government want these foreigners, but none of the citizens want to accept them. It's wishful thinking of the government, but it's just not going to happen.

In my opinion, what Japan's biggest problem is their general act towards long-term foreigners. Japan is known for by possible immigrants is its xenophobia. They're going to have to change that (and fast) if they want that 10% by 2050.

Now look, I'm not saying that "You all shouldn't move to Japan ever in your entire life at all. Ever." Because hell, just about 5 minutes ago I was still set on moving to Japan. I'm still thinking about it because there's a possiblity that the Japanese people will try to change, but there's the very strong possibility that they won't. Because most of the people here are fairly young, there's lot of time to change.

I'm also not saying that EVERY SINGLE Japanese person thinks this way. There are TONS of Japanese who are completely accepting and that love foreigners completely. I'm just saying that as a whole nation, their reputation with long-term foreigners isn't that great.

So what do you guys think about this whole crazy thing about foreigners in Japan idea?

1) Move to japan
2) Raise all hell
3) ???
4) PROFIT!

GOGOGO

GO AARON GO!!!

Well From what if heard life in japan is a career based. There is simply no time fore a personal life Ive seen a TV show called Emm what was it again???

Well anyway... it is pretty crazy thing to do And It could trigger some unpleasant things with in.

Oh there's time for a personal life. It's just a very limited personal life. :]

I've been planning on moving to Japan for a long time anyway...I just want to open a bar in Ireland first...after I retire from my job...

i heard the same thing as u did

Wow. I don't think I'll ever move to Japan. Not because of this though..well, unless I get a job and it requires me to go there for a while.

It sounds like a nice place to live and while yeah there's a lot of xenophobia or whatever, I don't think that would hold me back from wanting to go there. But those are quite a few things that are wrong.

If things keep going the way they are, then I agree with you. Things aren't going to go anywhere.

I'm glad you said that. ^^

Anyways, this problem has been talked about on the news for the past couple of weeks.
In reality, like you said - Many of the Japanese residents could care less of the many foreigners here. In truth, it's us younger generation that are willing to accept foreigners. And that's not a big help, when none of us are running Nihon Government.

As for younger people not having children, yup that is true because if you have a well paying job and you have a child, well you just commited financial suicide.
Or that is how most of the Japanese see it.

My eldest brother's wife is what you would consider a foreigner. Though her parents were Japanese, she wasn't born in Japan. She had been living in the US for completely her whole life. But when she decided to move to Japan, she said it was hard for her to get a job because of her non-citizenship. She said she was jobless for the first whole year she lived there because of the fact the government at first would not grant her a citizenship.

(That might not have much to do with anything though.)

That's just a small example of the way they treat foreigners, and if they, and those who have some odd thing against foreigners, don't change tactics soon...well they indeed won't reach the goal (of foreigners) they have set for 2050.

Hey, don't look at this as a bad thing. It's my country, and I have nothing to do with what goes on right now, but I'm not telling you "Stay the hell away from Japan."

I think a sudden increase in foreigners will shake and rattle alot of empty skulls here.

(Yep, if I didn't make sense, blame my lack of sleep. :[ )

That's exactly it. If it was hard for HER to get a job because she was a 'foreigner' but still full Japanese, imagine how hard it would be for somebody who is a complete 'foreigner'.

The idea that the goverment has is that if you live in Japan for a full year (Or something like that, it's been a few days since I last read the article) then you automatically gain citizenship. This applies to anybody, so even if you were a foreign exchange student, you could easily gain citizenship.

I don't like this idea. What I don't like is that they're trying to make it seem like it's easy to be a citizen and stuff. While I do believe that becoming a citizen is too hard right now, that proposal will be too easy.

And about the Japanese mothers, its nearly impossible for it to work. My friend who lives in Japan as an English teacher said this when we were talking about it on LiveJournal.

I've been wanting to live in Japan for about six years now. I've never thought about how the citizens would treat me. I mean it really never crossed my mind. I always thought that it'd be easy to go once I had the money. but I guess not now. And I mean I've met some older Japanese people but I guess those were the kind ones. I had a pretty closed mind. So I guess I'm reconsidering if it's going to take me a year to get a job or I won't be a citizen. I want to help the problem but if so many people don't want me there I'll feel pretty bad .___.

About two years ago I wanted to live in Japan for the sake of meeting my favourite manga artists and hope to get a job there.

But ever since I found out about the way things are, especially career related; I have not wanted to live there.

Not only that but now I know why suicide rates are so high over there; mostly because of stress. Now I'm not saying every Japanese citizen is stressed all the time but seriously. Stress due to work most of the time.

I'm just speaking all I know about their society.

My friend's dad went over to Japan to build some houses and he said that they were flocking all around him and other Canadian builders just to ask questions about Canada and its open space.

These problems about stress come from millions of different factors. Like the fact that work and being successful is such an important factor. Japanese teenagers spend HOURS UPON HOURS studying for tests and doing homework for school. Not only this, but most go to cram school so that they can do even better still.

Another thing for foreigners is the culture shock. I mean, if you go to some place like England, you'll have a culture shock, but it won't be nearly as extreme as one to Japan. From previous foreign exchange students, I've heard that Japanese people in general have this mind set that if they can do it, everybody can do it, and if you can't, they're shock and amazed. And not in the good way.

I just don't think that foreigners in general can adapt to the culture as quickly and in the way that the Japanese civilians want. So the foreigners and the Japanese will be stressed out to the max.

"The nail that sticks out gets hit down." - Old Japanese proverb.