Hello Kitty seems an unlikely trigger for an immigration debate.
But that’s what happened in Japan this week when Megumi Hayashibara, a prominent voice actress behind icons from Kitty to the long-running anime franchise "Evangelion’s" Rei Ayanami, took to her blog to discuss the growing population of outsiders.
She called for a crackdown on rule-breaking foreigners and criticized overseas students on free scholarships while locals pay for their education. The thrust of her post was a call for readers to vote. But her most cutting remark was a fear that local habits and Japaneseness itself might be lost if current trends continue, like the native crayfish endangered by an "invasive species” of crustacean threatening its natural habitat. (After online outrage, Hayashibara deleted the reference to crayfish.)
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