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Originally Posted by acjama
But anyway, many Japanese "abandoned their posts" just like flyjins. Why is that not an issue?
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Location, for one.
While there were plenty of Japanese leaving the areas that were actually hit, and a number leaving possibly iffy areas like Tokyo and north of it... You didn't have Japanese giving no notice and flying out of Osaka and Fukuoka. Even the most panicked had enough sense to know that places that far away would NOT suffer even in the absolute worst scenario. They would have been laughed at.
But the attitude with the foreigners leaving (the ones I take issue with, not students, etc) was either that the entire country was unsafe, or that even if they knew it was safe where they were everyone else was leaving so it was a great time to leave.
Either way though, I have yet to hear any stories of Japanese abandoning their responsibilities without giving any sort of notice at all... Unless, well, their workplace was destroyed and the people to report to dead or missing.
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It seems extremely unlikely that foreigners could cripple any functionality in Japan by simply going away. Yeah, ok, factories with high number of unskilled foreign labour, yes, I grant that. But majority of Japanese companies do not have significant levels of foreign workers, and rarely in any critical position.
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So, if the position isn't going to have a crippling effect on the country, you should be able to just walk away without even giving notice because it is the "thing to do" at the moment?
Remember, I am not talking about people in areas that were actually affected.
But I do think you are forgetting some important things. For those skilled positions, in order to get a visa you have to be considered vital and difficult to be replaced by a native Japanese worker. J to E translation is a field where it makes quite a difference. My personal direct experience was with companies who lost all means to deal with foreign partners and customers at a time when those partners and customers were concerned and trying to get information. Crippling on a national level it wasn't, but I assure you it was crippling for the companies.
English teachers are easy to replace. Technical translators who have been working for a year on a confidential project as the main route of communication between a company in Japan and a company in Israel are not. Especially not when they just disappear with most of the work they have done so far.
Most of the people who had the money to just run to the airport abandoning everything and hop on a plane home were in high paying skilled positions.