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Anti-foreigner sentiments are on the rise as Japan faces a population crisis (abcnews.go.com)

submitted 1 day ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/world@lemmy.world

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Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.

As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense.

Sanseito, while still a minor party, made big gains in July’s parliamentary election, and Kamiya's “Japanese First” platform of anti-globalism, anti-immigration and anti-liberalism is gaining broader traction ahead of a ruling party vote Saturday that will choose the likely next prime minister.

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[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 1 points 24 minutes ago

Aww cmon Japan, I love you guys.. I was thinking about escaping there.

[-] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 16 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Is anyone making a list of those anti-foreigner countries, so we know where not to shop, where not to visit, and where not to invest in?

[-] BCBoy911@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

A better question is if you can name a country that isn't "anti-foreigner" or don't have a significant % of the population that's anti-foreigner. This is a widespread problem everywhere you go, even supposedly "woke" European countries (especially those countries, really).

[-] possumparty 5 points 4 hours ago

Sweden is becoming pretty bad in that regard too, they recently cracked down on immigration because old white people don't like people of color.

[-] Tilgare@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

What in the fuck is happening. I'm disgusted that we have this plague of racism in 2025.

[-] aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 7 hours ago

A better question would be is anyone making a list of the people financing these candidates. Id bet anything if you follow the money trail, there's a common denominator.

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 8 points 8 hours ago

My list so far:

United States of America
Hungary
Russia
Japan

But... I expect there are a lot more.

[-] answersplease77@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Wait... wait Your list is mild.. let me add these and feel free to look up each on youtube and wikipedia:

Canada : against Indians , Africans, Arabs + others

Germany : against Romania , Turkish + everyone thats not white

Norway & Sweden : against Romania and Syrian and Iraqi regufees.

Netherland & Italy: againat Gypsies, Romania & Africans

France : against Moroccons & Lybia & Africans

Australia : againat Indians and nonwhite

Irland & UK : against Indians, Pakistan, Arabs and others who are nonwhites

... And here more are some unexpected ones: Developing and 3rd world countries:

Thailand : against Mynamar & Lao + others

India : against Bangladesh and Nepal.

Bangladish : against Myanmar (Rohingya).

Pakistan : against Afghans

South Africa : against migrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique + others

Kenya : againat Somalis and Nairobi.

Nigeria : against Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

Lebanon: against Syria and Palestine

Kuwait: against Eygptions and Syria, Lebanese + others

Ethiopia : against Somalia and Eritrea

Honduras : against El Salvador and Guatemala.

Venzula : against Columbia

And... that's why xenophobia and socio-economy leave me speechless because I'm pretty sure I have not listed all. It's really just worldwide , and they all cry about forigners hiking up housings and rents, and taking our jobs.

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 1 points 3 hours ago

I was hoping to get some additions, thank you.

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[-] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 20 points 11 hours ago

It's actually scary how quick they're rising. I live in Japan, and I once heard them at a intersection nearby on a car giving a speech. I hated how they speak. They sounded like they were heavily appealing to the emotion and used a lot of sentence final particles like ne, in a tone that sounded half-aggressive and also... very conservative in a way. They were talking some shit about how Japanese people should come first and that we should "protect Japan", as if there was some sort of foreign force trying to tear Japan down to pieces. What's worse was that there were actually people cheering for them. I actually wanted to go downstairs to shout at them but I restrained myself from doing that. I still sort of regret not going there to shout at them.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 8 points 9 hours ago

They're scared. If you believe the info out there, population collapse is imminent. Someone shouting out patriotism, rallying the people, is probably a comforting thought to them. They need someone to blame, the outsiders are easiest.

When people don't feel they can afford the time and money to have kids, populations break and noone is addressing it. The world could probably stand to have some population regulation back down from 8bil, but this isn't the way :(

[-] olbaidiablo@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 hours ago

Their society will collapse from this racism in a generation or so. No point in correcting people who can't see the writing on the wall. As much as the current regime tries to deny it, immigrants have been the strength of the US.

[-] fodor@lemmy.zip 1 points 38 minutes ago

That party is minority. So yeah, fuck them. But what about the rest of the people in the country? There are many well intentioned folks in Japan, some of them have some xenophobic beliefs, but that doesn't mean they'll all never learn.

[-] fin@sh.itjust.works 7 points 9 hours ago

He's supported by the most exceptionally ignorant among the right-wing (whom we call 'netto-uyoku'—Internet right-wings). Many people in Japan use Xitter as their primary source of information and are being brainwashed by the xenophobic conspiracies flooding the platform. This country is over; it's actually worse than America, IMHO.

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 8 points 9 hours ago

I'm a fairly open borders guy, but if you want to have near-zero immigration to avoid foreigners, the country HAS to improve the life of persons, particularly women, so that having children and raising them to adulthood is a activity that is more joy than stress. Otherwise, you'll go the way of South Korea.

Of course, the "correct" behavior is to not treat foreigners as other, but as "merely" different aspects of self. Then seek to integrate all tolerant persons that want to immigrate; likely through multiculturalism.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 7 hours ago

The populist surge comes as Japan, a traditionally insular nation that values conformity and uniformity, sees a record surge of foreigners needed to bolster its shrinking workforce.

Here's your short reminder that there is no such thing as a "too small workforce".

Anti-immigrant policies, which allow populists to vent their dissatisfaction on easy targets, are appealing to more Japanese as they struggle with dwindling salaries, rising prices and bleak future outlooks.

A smaller supply of labor on the labor market means that higher prices will be paid for said labor, which means higher salaries. The decline of japanese population is a good thing for the people. Trying to "fill up" that population with foreigners is the most wrong thing anybody could do in that situation.

I fully, 100% support the japanese people with trying to uphold their own culture, their own way of life, and deal with their problems themselves. If you rely on foreigners to solve your problems, then you have already lost. In fact, you never even tried. If you have dwindling salaries and you try to fix the problem by giving away more jobs to other people, then you're stupid and shouldn't hold a ruling position. That's economics 101, not a conspiracy theory.

I mean, America has traditionally been an immigration country. 97% of people in the US today are the descendants from immigrants, so at least there i can understand that immigration seems like a historically continuous process. But japan always had little migration, both in and out. It's pissing me off that newspapers say we need to "fix" our declining birthrates. We don't need to "fix" it because it's not a problem. It's just people giving the planet a break and creating some more space for themselves. Fewer people in a country means more resources per person. That increases the resource supply and decreases the Cost of Living; which probably increases the Quality of Life.

[-] Shard@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

This is the longest piece of horseshit I've seen all week.

There is absolutely such a thing as too small a workforce. Higher prices for labor eventually means higher prices for goods. Until it all breaks down because you don't have enough working people for a functional society.

Who takes care of the elderly or works essential jobs like healthcare? There are maximum ratios for emergency care nurses to patients. Even if you tripled their pay its not going to budge that ratio one bit.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 hours ago

What you're forgetting is that the demand for human labor is going to decrease due to automation. You may or may not believe this, but i certainly do.

[-] fantasyocean@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

Right, so how does xenophobia solve automation? The robot takes the job from the immigrant who allegedly took the job, meanwhile, the robber baron is laughing all the way to the bank he's about to own.

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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025

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