[john_butts]

Am I misreading the Japan thing? Like, it's not hard to imagine that there would be candidates that would be immediately excluded based on surname alone without even getting into race or gender - is this "fair" or "unfair", or is it just the way things are? Is the latter(est) the analogy we're supposed to take from this?

[Cthulhu_]

The Japan analogy is more a reference to people of a completely different culture (like the US) going to Japan and making the Japanese adhere to their culture, instead of the other way around. It may not be a very accurate comparison though, and to extend on the analogy, if Japan was to open up its borders, they would have to adjust themselves.

Compare getting employees from India over to the US; there are some cultural differences that may be hard to work with / around, but both parties (employee/existing co-workers and the new foreign workers) will both have to adjust.