Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Three unrelated stories about foreign residents surfaced on the same day and were discussed as one theme. First, Toda city assembly member Yusuke Kawai announced on X (Aug 6) that he intends to run in next year's Saitama gubernatorial election, making the abolition of welfare for foreigners and action on Kurdish-community issues his central pledges. Second, two Vietnamese nationals — both 24, of no fixed address and unemployed — were arrested on suspicion of stealing roughly 2.2 tons of copper power cable (worth about 3.3 million yen) from a solar plant in Himi, Toyama; it was the prefecture's first arrest under the new metal-theft-countermeasures law. Third, a ranking (attributed to Toyo Keizai) of municipalities where the Japanese population is falling and the foreign population rising — led by Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Kawaguchi — spread widely.

Longstanding frustrations over illegal residency and infrastructure-targeting metal theft became visible at once through three different lenses: politics, crime, and demographics. That fused into a burst of irritation with immigration policy — though a notable minority pushed back, distrusting the candidate himself, warning against xenophobic overheating, or pointing to low wages and a shrinking population as the real drivers.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Demands for harsher penalties and deportation — Infrastructure-targeting theft was equated with terrorism, with calls for maximum penalties or removal.
  • Split verdict on the candidate and politics — Some welcomed Kawai's stance while others dismissed him as a long shot, said they couldn't trust him, or worried about his safety.
  • Cooler, structural takes — A minority pointed to companies' appetite for cheap labor and framed multi-ethnic coexistence as an unavoidable next stage.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Kawai's declared bid for Saitama governor

Reactions to the Toda assembly member's announcement on X of a run for Saitama governor and pledges including abolishing welfare for foreigners.

河合ゆうすけ【戸田市議選で歴代最多得票トップ当選】1st
河合ゆうすけ【戸田市議選で歴代最多得票トップ当選】1st
@migikatakawai
·

【ご報告】 来年8月に行われる埼玉県知事選に立候補致します。 現職の大野知事は左翼思想であるため外国人問題が全く解決しないと多くの埼玉県民が怒りの声を上げています。 2023年クルド人が川口市立医療センターで大人数で暴動事件を起こしました。 Show more

Image
Reply
Read 1.9K replies

Comments:

  • "High hopes for this! Saitama of all places has to handle foreigners the right way before it's too late."
  • "Here's your chance to clear your bad name, people of Saitama!"
  • "I genuinely don't get the point of welfare for foreigners — send them back and make their home countries pay the repatriation costs."
  • "I dislike immigration, but I can't trust this guy either."
  • "Is he going to be okay? Won't he end up like that mayor in Ibaraki?"
  • "I'm starting to think handing it to a long-shot candidate like this once might be an option — the ruling and opposition parties that are supposed to be sane keep getting less sane."
  • "The trash media will surely make up nonsense and smear him nonstop."
  • "Just get him personal security, please!"

Vietnamese nationals arrested over a solar-plant cable theft

Reactions to the arrest of two Vietnamese men suspected of stealing about 2.2 tons of copper power cable.

Sources: KNB

Comments:

  • "Infrastructure crimes should carry the death penalty."
  • "Treat infrastructure destruction as terrorism and impose the maximum penalty."
  • "Nguyen again, of course."
  • "Well, they get off without charges, so of course they keep stealing."
  • "At this point they're doing enough damage to Japanese society to cancel out any economic benefit of accepting them."
  • "Like I keep saying, deport the unemployed foreigners the way Dubai does — politics has been turned into a racket and gets nothing done."
  • "Seriously infuriating — just make the stuff impossible to sell off."
  • "The net-right are all worked up, lol — are you lot really even Japanese?"

The ranking of municipalities with rising foreign populations

Reactions to the spread of a ranking of municipalities where the Japanese population is falling and the foreign population rising, led by Osaka.

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "The mono-ethnic Japan of the past is gone — from here it's the age of multi-ethnic coexistence, and you'll need to speak English as a matter of course."
  • "At bottom, companies just want cheap labor — there's not a single benefit for Japanese people. Only brain-dead fools take the 'we need immigrants' line at face value."
  • "Osaka gets talked about, but Tokyo surely has more foreigners."
  • "My gut says central Tokyo has the most, but maybe it's just how they tally it."
  • "It can't be held back anymore."
  • "The root of all evil is Keidanren, the business lobby."
  • "If GDP shrinks the yen weakens faster; in international competition, population is power."
  • "I really want the malicious Kurds to leave! Though some are 'good people, which makes it a shame.'"