Where else they gonna get their cheap slaves from?

  • PresterJohnBrown [any]
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    4 years ago

    AKSHUALY, this year, after the Olympics, Japan was set to announce sweeping new immigration rules to encourage (wealthy, white, highly educated) foreign people to live in Japan. If you're American or from a UK Commonwealth country, and if you have a Masters Degree, you would have qualified for a 5 year residency visa with valid employment that can be endlessly renewed as long as you remain in good legal standing. If you have a PhD then it's even better, I think maybe 10 year residency or something, but I'm forgetting the specifics.

    Without saying too much, pre-covid I used to go on diplomatic trips to Japan every year to spend 2 weeks with regional Japanese government figures. Last year they let me in on this announcement before it was official, they were really excited to tell us about it. It was going to be related to the Olympics, kind of like Japan opening up more to the world in the spirit of international cooperation or something, but they've been planning it for a while as a means to pad both their stagnant economy and declining birthrates.

    It's not that groundbreaking of an immigration policy to accept PhDs from Australia for resident visas, but for Japan it was a big move. I'm not sure what the status of the plan is now since our delegation was cancelled this year.

    • ItGoesItGoes [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      So now Japan is open to hordes of white colonizers with saviour complexes and racial fetishes for Asians, great! /s

      Edit: fucking white Anglos, most pampered and entitled people on earth, I swear. Also, most disgusting, imperialistic, arrogant and ignorant.

      Fuck Anglos and their nations. Colonizers out of Asia

    • throwawaylemmy [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      I dunno about the Masters degree requirement, but them allowing immigrants in (bar the whole "gaijin"/xenophobia-that-isn't-xenophobia... not sure of the word: Immigration fears?) to help rural Japan would've been a good boon for them. They have a lot of un-lived-in homes that would benefit from weebs and others that want to move to Japan to live the life (even if temporary) and try something new.

      I dunno if it'd help the birth rate. And honestly: Do we REALLY need to help the birth-rate? Shit is going bad in the world right now, that needs to be fixed more than a slowing birth rate.

      • PresterJohnBrown [any]
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        4 years ago

        That's actually what's happening, I've heard tons of stories of foreign English teachers who think the Japanese countryside is romantic and bought old countryside manors that otherwise would just get demolished since those rural populations are rapidly dwindling and houses in these towns are cheap. They fix them up and keep them traditional since that's the whole point of moving to the countryside and buying an old Japanese house. Edit: I googled and found a story about another couple doing this: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/japanese-country-real-estate/index.html

        It's not as much about increasing the birthrate, but increasing the number of specialized workers within Japan who pay taxes that support things like National Health Insurance, which will be increasingly burdened by Japan's aging population.

        Although, even in Japan's worst case scenario where rates had to hike up to support all the old people with the smaller younger working generation, I can't imagine that their healthcare taxes would be even close to America's regular healthcare costs. I paid $9/month for my first year in Japan since it's based on your previous year's salary, which was $0 in Japan before I moved there. The 2nd year, after pulling in about $30k in a year, was about $90 per month, still pretty affordable considering rent prices were also cheaper than what I was used to in the US.

        • throwawaylemmy [none/use name]
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          4 years ago

          Interesting.

          They also spent a lot more money than they could have -- roughly 250 thousand US dollars -- but their 130-year-old home came with about three-quarters of an acre of land, a fully mature garden with a giant Japanese cherry tree, and ancillary buildings such as a "kura," a type of earthen-walled storehouse.

          I dunno if that's good or bad relative to American and 2-9 Acre's in a city and like 50+ in a rural area.

          Interesting article. I dunno if I'd be able to do rural Japan life (I'd need internet or go insane), but the article makes it sound "romantic." I just worry those rural folks might not be so into "gaijin"'s showing up.