Why This Topic Landed in Japan

A Sankei survey found that 20 prefectures had signed their own "cooperation memoranda" with overseas government bodies to secure foreign workers, with four more considering it and Vietnam the most common partner — which many read as recruitment expanding by stealth. That landed alongside a Tokyo robbery case in which a Chinese national was indicted and a suspected accomplice had already left the country, and the arrest of a Chinese-national candidate for the Atami mayoral race who then called Japan the most exclusionary, discriminatory country he had ever seen. The pile-up hardened distrust of admission policy and of how well the courts and border controls actually work. The crimes and the recruitment pacts are separate stories, and no link between them has been established.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Broad distrust of expanding foreign-worker admission itself — that it is proceeding by stealth and leaning on cheap labor, with demands that any intake come with a Japanese-language requirement and strict rules for those who commit crimes.
  • The loudest layer in the crime threads generalized about Chinese people, or foreigners as a whole — from calls to bar entry outright to blanket claims about the group.
  • Frustration at the reach of the courts and border control — that fleeing the country right after a crime lets someone "get away with it," and that re-entry bans and deportation should be enforced.
  • A counter-position of acceptance and pragmatism — that rural areas really are short of working-age people, and that with so few children being born, services and infrastructure can't hold up without foreign labor.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

20 prefectures sign "cooperation memoranda" with overseas governments for foreign workers

A Sankei survey finds 20 prefectures have signed their own memoranda with overseas government bodies to secure foreign workers, with four more considering it (Vietnam the most common partner).

Sources: Yahoo! news

Comments:

  • "Thanks a lot, Liberal Immigration Party."
  • "I don't particularly mind bringing in foreigners, but first set a middle-school-level Japanese test and stricter rules for when they commit crimes."
  • "It's the 'training-employment' system — the real heart of immigration policy that Takaichi's fans will never touch, a new scheme that just swapped the signboard on the old trainee system. This one runs five years and has expanded the eligible countries, so public safety will get even worse."
  • "As a result, Japanese people get turned down for jobs, or their hours get cut and wages fall."
  • "Well, rural areas really are short of working-age people."
  • "Anyone complaining about accepting immigrants should just have kids. It's because we don't have kids that we end up with foreign workers coming — without them we can't keep existing services and infrastructure running."
  • "They're using tax money to bring in foreigners, aren't they?"

A roughly ¥8 million robbery in Ikebukuro: a Chinese national indicted, one accomplice already gone

In a robbery of about ¥8 million in Ikebukuro, a Chinese national was indicted and a suspected accomplice had already left the country after the crime (per Kyodo).

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "Don't come commit crimes in Japan just because the sentences are lighter than back home in China."
  • "Once you go home you won't be able to leave the country again, lol. My condolences."
  • "The crime-then-flee-home-country combo really is unbeatable, huh."
  • "I'd want it to come with a re-entry ban, not a non-prosecution."

Atami mayoral hopeful Xu Haoyu arrested for defamation, calls Japan exclusionary

Xu Haoyu, a Chinese-national candidate who had declared for the Atami mayoral race, was arrested on suspicion of defamation and posted that Japan is the most exclusionary, discriminatory country he had ever seen.

Sources: 2ch

Comments:

  • "A criminal's excuses are an ugly sight."
  • "Does China have any foreign-born mayors? That's the whole answer."
  • "Was he arrested just for being Chinese?"
  • "Then please move to that discrimination-free country you speak of."
  • "China doesn't even have elections in the first place."