[i5heu]

Not so funny for Japan considering that immigration is the only way they can handle their rapidly aging population.

I hope they can get their decade old humanoid robot research fast enough to production, otherwise i really don't see how they can provide for their population while having to care for 35% to 40% of the population that is over 64.

And since it does not look like it, the realization that migrants are not sub humans and actually quite value will hit hard.

[sanitycheck]

One thing they can do is incentivise women to rejoin the workforce after having kids, another is raise the retirement age to 70+. I think we'll see both in the next 5-10 years. Maybe they can kill two birds with one stone and have OAPs work as childcare providers.

On the topic of this "intern" scheme, I've seen a couple of NHK documentaries on it in the past year or two so it's definitely in the public consciousness now - although I get the impression the response it's got hasn't matched the outrage I would have hoped for. From what I saw a "technical intern" is another name for a farm/factory labourer, which is almost beyond parody.

In February the "technical intern" program was abolished and a new system set up in its place. I'm doubtful it will be much better, but I guess we'll find out eventually.

[alephnerd]

> is incentivise women to rejoin the workforce after having kids

They already did that - it was a core plank of Abenomics.

> raise the retirement age to 70+

Highly unlikely. It would be politically untenable and the LDP is dependent on a coalition with Komeito, which is heavily in favor of the welfare state.

> I'm doubtful it will be much better, but I guess we'll find out eventually

It won't get better. Same abuse but with a different name.

[Workaccount2]

I honestly think one of Americas greatest strengths is the ability to move here from where ever and be able to join society with relatively low friction.

People go on and on about racism in America, but I have generally found that those people have absolutely no fucking idea what racism in a society actually looks like. You wanna see racism? Go be a minority in any country with a 90% majority race/culture.

Edit: Invariably people need to confuse "Racism is a bigger issue in other countries than the US" with "Racism never existed in the US".

[walthamstow]

Racism in the US is less to do with the people who moved there and more to do with the people who were taken there.

The USA was an apartheid country in the Jim Crow era. What could be more racist than segregation?

Jim Crow apartheid was so deeply pervasive that WW2 soldiers blood transfusion packets were segregated, so a stricken white soldier wouldn't be tarnished with black blood. That's quite something when you're fighting against the Nazis.

[Workaccount2]

Yes, America was extremely racist.

But contemporary examples, especially against immigrants, contrasted against immigrants to mono cultural countries, would be much more relevant to the point I am making.

[walthamstow]

Look, your first paragraph was perfectly sensible and, in my view, true. It's one of America's greatest strengths.

Your second paragraph was a car crash of racism denial and you should probably take it back, rather than insisting it's everyone else's fault for reading it wrong

> "You wanna see racism? Go [somewhere else]"

[Workaccount2]

They're not reading it wrong, they are packing an agenda into it. People chronically bring up the American south of 60+ years ago as examples of how contemporary full span America is racist. Just look at all the replies.

The outward shameless and crippling racism of 1940's American south is still in full force in many countries, but they never get attention for it because the minorities there are too minority to even show up on the radar.

Japan is probably going to collapse because giving a foreigner a position of power (commercial or government) is basically unthinkable. Meanwhile America "the most racist country on Earth" just had a black president for 8 years and has a congress composed of 25% minorities.

[walthamstow]

You can point to extreme xenophobia elsewhere without minimising American racism, instead you've decided to do both.

[pedrosorio]

> giving a foreigner a position of power (commercial or government) is basically unthinkable

I mean, not totally unthinkable, thankfully. That's the only reason we have the Carlos Ghosn Hollywood-esque escape story.

[i5heu]

To convey: I think this is a good example, of what Workaccount2 might have meant, we are somewhat sensitized for racism that we perceive the comparison of the situation with another countries as racism denial and i think this is because it suggest that we are perfect in some sense and can stop fighting for more equality, which we can absolutely not, there is still a lot of work in front of us.

I think that in the context of this discourse Workaccount2 has a point in what i believe Workaccount2 has meant, which is that the countries with the lowest amounts of xenophobia and racism will attract the most migrants... because who would like to live in a country in which you are oppressed.

And to come back to Japan: Japan seams to have a horrific problem with xenophobia and racism, at least this is the impression i get when i look at the discourse that happen in Japan from the outside[0] and read through Wikipedia[1]. What, does not mean that the US or EU has no racism, and can stop working, quite the opposite.

[0] This one is especially revealing IMHO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CraWEwbyapQ

[1] > Japan lacks any law which prohibits racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination. The country also has no national human rights institutions. Non-Japanese individuals in Japan often face human rights violations that Japanese citizens may not. In recent years, non-Japanese media has reported that Japanese firms frequently confiscate the passports of guest workers in Japan, particularly unskilled laborers.

> A significant number of apartments, and some motels, night clubs, brothels, sex parlours and public baths in Japan have put up signs stating that foreigners are not allowed, or that they must be accompanied by a Japanese person to enter.

> "Discrimination toward foreign nationals in their searches for homes continues to be one of the biggest problems", said the head of the Ethnic Media Press Centre.

> "Discrimination toward foreign nationals in their searches for homes continues to be one of the biggest problems", said the head of the Ethnic Media Press Centre.

> Some hospitals have been known to turn patients away if they could not confirm their residence status.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Japan

[giraffe_lady]

I don't think that's cause to dismiss the very real experiences of racism that people do have in the US. Racism kills people here too.

[silverquiet]

When my dad was a kid, black Americans couldn't use the same water fountain as whites; it's not exactly ancient history. My grandparents wouldn't share rooms with black people at their nursing homes, and I'm talking about a couple years ago. It didn't all end because LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. At some point I think it might have been better when it was all out in the open, so at least you knew what was going on.

[throwaway743]

Stories of discrimination would come up quite a bit about my father (black).

One time, he and my mother (white) were apartment hunting and this one landlord was excited to show them, when speaking over the phone. Once they showed up to check it out, that asshole slammed the door in their faces.

Discrimination persists through all aspects of life, employment, housing, etc. It's pathetic, really.

[alephnerd]

I literally got into an argument with a couple Germans on HN about this earlier today.

[throwaway743]

> I honestly think one of Americas greatest strengths is the ability to move here from where ever and be able to join society with relatively low friction.

It really depends on where you move to and where youre from.

Also, let's not sweep discrimination under the rug. It's ugly and wrong all around. Some places worse than others, but it's still bullshit and shouldn't be tolerated, especially when it comes to employment.

[maxglute]

>only way they can handle their rapidly aging population

There's always the unspoken option, which is to not handle geriatric care well at all. Old people have been dying neglected and alone in JP for a while. When shit critically hits the fan, geriatric population will be either too senile to vote, or if they can vote, too weak to protest, and thus can be easily ignored as a bloc. Goal of cycling through disposable migrants to do shit jobs locals don't want to do is to keep value positive sectors crunching. IMO different dynamic when it's coming out of pockets of already squeezed tax base to take care of boomers. There'sgoing to be a lot of, you lived a long life, so sad, too bad, because good luck convincing ethnocentric youth to take another L for the team by treating migrants better, the only social prestige pressed these days is knowing outsiders have it worse. Societies have no problem finding a way to be callous to poor, kids, women, minorities etc, they'll find a way to rationalize being incredibly callous to elders.

[alephnerd]

> which is to not handle geriatric care well at all

There is a recent Japanese Sci-Fi movie that came out at Cannes recently called Plan 75 [0] that touches on that option

Ofc, Japan is a democracy and old people vote.

Even if the LDP ruled for much of Japan's democratic history, it's still vulnerable to losing power due to public anger (eg. Kishida's corruption scandal).

Imagine how angrier Japanese voters would be with horrible geriatric care.

[0] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-at2w5ORFfE

[maxglute]

I went to viewing of this during TIFF last year. But unfortunately ZZZ through most of it, no fault of the film which I enjoyed for the parts I was up.

>Japan is a democracy and old people vote

I think when non-working gerontocratic voting block interests confronts with interests of tax paying workforce trying to keep head above water, the elderly are going to lose. When under 50 year olds have to decide between their reduction in their QoL / services vs neglecting the old, including their own kin, they're going to eventually chose to throw their kin under the bus. If problem is just structurally not resolvable (which IMO it's not), LDP will claw their way back from whoever the next DPJ upstart is after they fail. Which is to say, I can imagine JP getting some robots going, and some migrant worker for elderly care, but if neither is enough, I think more likely politics will over promise and underdeliver until elderly accept their lot because you can only push the young so much. It's going to take a few political cycles for people to accept the "normal", but if any "democracy" can rig the system to survive that process, it's LDP/Japan.

[downrightmike]

Dead body cleanup is going to be a booming career

[kstenerud]

> I hope they can get their decade old humanoid robot research fast enough to production, otherwise i really don't see how they can provide for their population while having to care for 35% to 40% of the population that is over 64.

Aaaaaaand cue Roujin Z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEKTFwkuDps