Poll: 81% welcome foreigners of Japanese descent

Kyodo

More than 80 percent of respondents in a new poll said they are open to foreign nationals of Japanese descent living in the nation, the Cabinet Office reported.

The office’s first survey of its kind, released Thursday, found 80.9 percent of respondents expressed openness to living alongside those with Japanese ancestry, including Brazilian and Peruvian descendents of Japanese immigrants. Only 12.9 percent opposed the idea.

Of the 3,000 citizens canvassed in January for the poll, 59.7 percent were also in favor of the central government and municipalities assisting non-Japanese residents to a greater extent, for instance by providing Japanese-language classes for unemployed young people and recruiting interpreters at Hello Work job-placement offices.

“With more opportunities to interact with foreigners, (Japanese people) are eventually no longer rejecting” the idea of accepting non-Japanese nationals in society, a Cabinet Office official remarked.

As of the end of 2011, there were fewer than 300,000 foreigners of Japanese descent living in the country, of whom 210,000 were Brazilians and another 50,000 Peruvians, the Cabinet Office said.

  • ChrisM

    Foreigners of Japanese descent are technically (and more than that) Japanese. And, not surprisingly, they are discriminated when in Japan. Xenophobia should have no place in the aging stubborn society of Japan, but unfortunately it does.

  • Hafubreed

    Unsurprising. I’m a “hafu” or half Japanese, half foreign resident who has lived in Tokyo the last 8 years. The racism is very well hidden, and sometimes unintentional, but it’s always there…

    • rogerthat1945

      I don`t mind the small amount of racism, which I barely see, I have lived here for five years in middle Japan and nobody really bothers us.

      I wish my own country was as sensible as Japan in regards to mass immigration.

      In case you were wondering, I only agree with immigration via marriage and a 3% limit per generation, as being the least offensive and the most practical.

      Some people fail to realise that only an acceptable level of integration in an international world will be able to stop (for instance) extinction events (via international team efforts); and uber-nationalists will never know enough to make sense of that.

      ???
      Japan times have flagged me for comment awaiting moderation.

  • Kunta Biddinika

    Then we’ll see the extinction of Japanese becoming sooner than previously predicted … @katakatakunta

  • Andrew Engwirda

    Although I won’t deny it exists, I’d say that 99% of “racism” is paranoia on the part of foreigners who can’t or won’t fit in. I enjoy my life here and I’m always thankful for the kindness shown to me by the Japanese people.

    Suck it up weaklings.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Arashi-Stormlover-Arashistormlover/100001314863402 Arashi Stormlover Arashistorml

    Japan has either solved or avoided social problems the US and much of Europe has been unable to resolve for decades: unsafe streets, poor public schools, inner city decline, high unemployment, chronic poverty, gangs, hard drugs, etc. I am not saying large scale immigration would create all these problems, but I have to wonder.

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