Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
Isn't that almost exactly what xenophobia is? 
One of the big problems in Japan is that the economy has had virtually no growth in over 20 years. Most of the workforce have only had pay decreases over that time and there's been a big move from lifelong full-time employment to more casual and part-time employment. People have less money, companies have less money and there is few ways for people to invest in anything that has growth. Houses and land has pretty much only decreased in value. In many areas house prices are barely half the value they were bought for back before the bubble burst. The Japanese share market has little growth reflecting the stagnant economy. It's very difficult to really get ahead financially here and of course this has been reflected in the declining birth rate. About the only wealth in Japan today is old money and it's slowly but surely running out.
I personally don't believe that there is anything incredibly, intrinsically special about Japanese culture that needs protection from an influx of foreigners but I also don't believe there's anything to gain for Japan by just allowing anyone in. But this country could benefit greatly from an influx of foreign investors. Unlike here many other parts of Asia are continuing to boom and there's a lot of money out there. I think Japan could benefit greatly from having an annual immigration intake of say at least 100,000 well foreigners who meet certain financial criteria. Foreigners who will get here and start businesses and invest. It would help create jobs and stimulate the economy. It would also bring new ideas, something this country appears to be greatly lacking these days. |
Yeah I think you're right there, sorry about that, I think I got it a little confused with racism. I always thought that xenophobia = racism. Woops
I find that countries that embrace mass immigration are generally culture-loss countries. Places like Britain have a few pretty castles, but since mass immigration from much of the world I can't really say Britain has a beaming culture. Language loss is a big problem all over the world too.
It's an interesting idea about bringing in big business people. I can imagine that's it'd most likely be mainly from China. It's also funny because it's usually rich countries that tend to send much of their businesses to poorer countries for the cheap labour etc. This would be the first example I've seen where a relatively poorer country would need to send it's businesses to a richer country! XD