[Nyororin]

The topic of immigration pops up a LOT in the Kanji discussion... But why? Is Kanji REALLY stopping people from coming to Japan? Does the difficulty of English stop people from immigrating to the US or the UK?

It`s policy, NOT language that governs this. The examples of Basic English and Simplified English are fine examples, but I don`t see them in any type of usage that would actually influence immigration. And if they are good examples of making a language more accessible - then the NHK programming for foreigners using a set of so many simple grammatical patterns and a limited vocabulary should also be considered.

The thing is, there tend to be two sets of foreigner groups in Japan. Those who want to and do learn the language, and those that don`t care to and do not. Those who don`t care to and don`t feel the desire to are not going to benefit from any immigrant aimed simplification - and those that want to and do learn the language will only get a small advantage in the very early stages of learning. Natives aren`t going to make the switch, so any desire to do business with the rest of the country will necessitate proficiency in "native Japanese".