Why This Topic Landed in Japan

An X post skewering the contradiction between "calling in foreigners because of a labor shortage" and "then supporting them with welfare" drew 99,000 likes, and onto that landed a report that a crime-ring boss had entered on a "highly skilled professional" visa, plus a permanent resident's social-media post. While acknowledging the need to secure labor amid an aging, shrinking population, netizens erupted with demands to "revoke residency and deport" in cases of lax screening, improper welfare receipt, or involvement in crime.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Criticism of the system's cracks — Anger at "government incompetence" over the lax "highly skilled professional" screening that let a crime boss through, and over how welfare is run.
  • Clash over the "necessary evil" argument — Tension between accepting immigration to address the aging population and the view that "just calling in foreigners and handing them welfare is worse than idiotic."
  • Permanent "permission," not a right — The claim that permanent residency is a permit, not a right, and should be revoked when work history or tax obligations aren't met.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Foreign welfare and the "necessary evil" immigration argument

A debate fusing doubts about "calling in foreigners for a labor shortage while supporting them on welfare" with the question of whether immigration is a "necessary evil" for an aging society.

Source: 2ch

Comments:

  • "This basically means we're being looked down on — they figure the people living in Japan won't run off abroad anyway, so they don't need protection."
  • "There isn't a single country that has accepted immigrants and gotten anything but idiotic results."
  • "Foreigners are people too, so it's only natural that working for low wages starts to feel pointless and they conclude it's better to go on welfare."
  • "By the way, combined with the government's policy of shutting out the ice-age generation, the approval rate for welfare applications is already foreigners > ice-age generation."
  • "They just raise the hiring bar for citizens to stage a labor shortage. Raise wages, government, stop coddling employers."
  • "The labor shortage is a lie; if anything Japan has too many people. People don't come not because of the falling birthrate, but because the job is crap, lol."
  • "This isn't what you'd call a necessary evil."
  • "There are vices that society won't function unless it tolerates; immigration is that kind of gray area you can't paint black or white — necessary for society, but with downsides too."
  • "If it's purely immigration to address the aging population and labor shortage, fine. But if it's just calling in foreigners and handing them welfare, that's worse than idiotic."
  • "Since the inflow grows, illegal immigration growing too is unavoidable given the limits of administrative capacity — I'd call it a necessary evil."

Lax "highly skilled professional" screening lets a crime-ring boss through

A suspected boss of a major Asian crime ring, of Chinese origin, reportedly entered on a "highly skilled professional" residency status, drawing a flood of criticism at the screening system.

産経ニュース
産経ニュース
@Sankei_news
·

日本在留資格は「高度専門職」　警視庁逮捕のアジア最大級の国際詐欺組織幹部は中国出身 sankei.com/article/202606… 米・英政府がアジア最大級の犯罪集団として経済制裁を科した中国系組織「プリンス・グループ」幹部とみられ、警視庁に逮捕された男の在留資格が「高度専門職」だったことが分かった。

Reply
Read 550 replies

Comments:

  • "The Japanese government is too stupid."
  • "Thanks, LDP."
  • "Shouldn't the people who created this system and the people using it be investigated once? Maybe this kind of abuse was anticipated from the moment the 'highly skilled professional' status was created, so it's better to suspect everything — because the people living honestly are the ones who suffer."
  • "A collaboration between fools who dodge responsibility by assuming people are inherently good and fools raking it in on vested interests — wonderful. Truly, the thinking of dim people who only studied to rack up credentials is on another level."
  • "Does no one take responsibility?"
  • "Thanks, Liberal Immigration Party."
  • "So it was a backdoor policy after all."
  • "Places like China and Vietnam produce a lot of domestic criminals, so put it on hold for now — protect the safety of the citizens."

Backlash against permanent-residency holders and calls to revoke it

A Chinese permanent resident reportedly posted that he "lost the will to work," prompting the response that "permanent residency is a permit, not a right — revoke it."

Sources: Record China, 2ch

Comments:

  • "It'd be the same anywhere, not just Japan. Go back to your country."
  • "Revoke the permit."
  • "Why not give back the permanent residency and start over from scratch? That'll get your motivation going."
  • "Revoke permanent residency for those on welfare long-term beyond a certain period, or for unpaid taxes and health insurance."
  • "Frankly, foreigners receiving welfare at all is out of the question."
  • "Revoke the permit for anyone without continuous economic activity and a residence record."
  • "It's a permit, not a right — it can easily be revoked."
  • "Half a year with no income should be grounds for revoking the permit, right?"
  • "It's not permanent residency 'rights' but permanent residency 'permission' — even with a family, if something happens it can simply be revoked, so keep that in mind."
  • "It's not a right, so they just revoke the permission. And they'll never let you enter again."