How much knowledge of foreign residents' cultures should Japan have? How much English proficiency should Japanese people acquire to support migrants in their workplaces?
These questions are essential when considering growing immigration to Japan — with the Indian diaspora, in particular, experiencing a surge.
When I first moved to Japan in 2007, there were 20,589 Indians. Six years later, as I began my academic research into that community, the ranks had grown by a mere 2,000 or so people. However, by December 2022, the number had ballooned to close to 44,000.