February 19, 2009

Japan Does the Impossible

From the Manichi Daily News:

Number of illegal foreigners in Japan reduced by half

The number of illegal foreign residents in Japan has decreased by nearly half over a five-year period from 2004, a government report has revealed.

According to the report released by the Immigration Bureau of the Justice Ministry, about 130,000 foreigners were illegally living in Japan as of the beginning of this year, as compared with roughly 250,000 in 2004. The current figure is close to the 1990 level before a sharp increase in illegal foreign residents occurred.

"We largely succeeded in achieving our target," said an official of the immigration bureau. In 2003, the government approved a plan to halve the number of illegal foreigners from Jan. 1, 2004, to Jan. 1 this year, which calls for revisions to the immigration control system.

Over the period, the number of foreigners who overstayed their visas dropped to 113,072 from 219,418, while the estimated number of those who illegally had entered Japan, including those who were smuggled by boat, has decreased from roughly 30,000 to between 15,000 and 23,000 as of Jan. 1, 2009.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet they must be Chinese or Korean. Anybody else is bound to stick out like a saw thumb.

As far as I know Americans don't bother with illegals from Europe, such as Irish, who generally fit in easily. The only illegal immigration anybody talks about is from Mexico or Asia. So that means the Japs are so up to scratch that they manage to remove illegals who are basically compatible to their society, but of course illegal. That's light-years ahead of European and American immigration enforcement.

Anonymous said...

Steve we have illegals here because part of the White population- a large minority desires their presence. Another large minority accepts this without comment because they don't care. Only a minority of Whites seems to care right now.

Anonymous said...

Mostly Chinese and Iranians. Chinese and Iranians are NOT compatible with Japanese society. Chinese, especially, are very different from Japanese, even though they may seem the same to unsophisticated people.

Anonymous said...

The Japanese government's tough stance on illegals comes an a very high price for non-illegals.

Try being a perfectly-legal immigrant to Japan who doesn't look Japanese. It's no fun serving as a scapegoat when some enterprising police officer decides to impress the racist locals by harassing some foreign-looking passerby. (Remember, big cities in Japan have "police boxes" every few blocks!)

Aside from streetside police harassment, they make people carry around an Alien Registration Card that contains so much personal information (in plaintext) that it's practically a one-stop identity theft invitation for yakuza and other troublemakers. They're trying to get hotels to photocopy the passports of all non-citizen guests (even long-term residents). Plans were even floated to install RFID-based scanners of these cards at places like train stations and museums.

Japan is a nation rapidly fading into irrelevance as China becomes the main power in Asia. Their egregious treatment of legal immigrants is one reason why.

Anonymous said...

Japanese yen is a good currency to put your assets in IMO.

Anonymous said...

Wow, those Japanese are not fooling around. No "moral" pressure from that stupid EU and its acolytes is going to force the Japanese to buy that multicultural crap! Maybe some things are more important than competing to be top dog.

Some years ago, a Japanese official claimed that his country would resort to the use of robots, before they would allow foreign workers to overwhelm their land. They still have not learned that "diversity is strength."
-- Victoria

Anonymous said...

"Japan is a nation rapidly fading into irrelevance as China becomes the main power in Asia. Their egregious treatment of legal immigrants is one reason why."


Highly doubtful.

Anonymous said...

Try being a perfectly-legal immigrant to Japan who doesn't look Japanese. It's no fun serving as a scapegoat when some enterprising police officer decides to impress the racist locals by harassing some foreign-looking passerby

Boo hoo. And who forced non-Japanese people to settle in Japan? You ettle there you make a contract to the effect you accepted that this is how you would be treated. Don't like it,leave, or don't go there in the first place.

So, no, I wont try being a perfectly-legal immigrant to Japan who doesn't look Japanese.

Anonymous said...

While I agree with the Japanese stance on immigration (love the attitude of using robots instead of unskilled labour), it is indeed true that the country will fade into the sunset because of several factors: Low birth rate and no immigration means a shrinking population, and economic stagnation, which is not at all helped by a rapidly aging population.

However, Japan will continue to be the vanguard of Asia for another 10-20 years, until China assumes that role. The Japanese have realized that even if it means losing their status as a major world power, life will not so bad by remaining homogenous.

Anonymous said...

it is indeed true that the country will fade into the sunset because of several factors: Low birth rate and no immigration means a shrinking population, and economic stagnation, which is not at all helped by a rapidly aging population.

In other words, the Japanese would rather their culture go extinct than live on as a hybrid.

That's an interesting but rather extreme choice, but then my impression of the Japanese is that their attitude toward their culture is extreme.

On the other hand, American culture was already a hybrid even before 1965. Furthermore, unlike the Japanese, American culture is not primarily race-based. (It is a European culture, and Europeans are white, but American-ness is not built around being white the way Japanese-ness is apparently built around being ethnically pure Japanese.)

It doesn't seem like they offer a good model for a sensible American approach to immigration in the long term.

Anonymous said...

It is easier to control immigration in Japan for 2 reasons:

1) Japan is a island;
2) Its native population is more ethnically homogeneous.

Anonymous said...

life will not be so bad by remaining homogenous.

Right. In the 17th century the Swedish empire chose to fade into irrelevance, while the Russians chose to conquer and absorb 1/6th of the world's landmass. Today Sweden is a small homogenous country, Russia is an important military power with a diverse population of dozens of nationalities.

Where would you rather live?

Anonymous said...

A lot of white super-nerd losers move to Japan expecting it to be the utopian paradise they have built up in their minds as a replacement for their own society that has rejected them, but are shocked or in denial when most Japanese idea of paradise does not include them.

Anonymous said...

Steve we have illegals here because part of the White population- a large minority desires their presence. Another large minority accepts this without comment because they don't care. Only a minority of Whites seems to care right now.

Yes, we bombed ourselves with decades of propaganda.

Anonymous said...

life will not so bad by remaining homogenous.

Isn't Japan overpopulated?

Anonymous said...

Oh and Steve, don't bother with the "Japan Does the Impossible" bit.

"But they're an island nation, bla."

So the UK can point and laugh, but here traitors have a quick out for the idiots.

Anonymous said...

The Japanese government's tough stance on illegals comes an a very high price for non-illegals.

Anonymous, there is a very simple solution to your problems: move out of Japan. No one forced you to come to Japan. You're their guest, so try to refrain from telling them how to run their country. Whining about how they're treating you there after you've voluntarily come there is boorish. It shows a lack of manners, as well as a mind polluted by modern PC nonsense. You asked them to let you in. They didn't have to allow you to get in. If you know of places where you will be better off, then you should immediately stop whining about Japan and move to one of those places.

I've never been to Japan, but if I ever decide to visit it (God knows it's an interesting place), I will try to remember to behave like a guest, and not like the person quoted above.

Truth said...

"Some years ago, a Japanese official claimed that his country would resort to the use of robots,"

Great, now when they create a robot that pays taxes, buys useless consumer goods to create jobs, and reproduces they will be on to something. Of course, when they do that, why would that robot want to listen to us?

"Today Sweden is a small homogenous country, Russia is an important military power with a diverse population of dozens of nationalities.

Where would you rather live?"

Well Peter, you know there are many more blacks, per capita in Sweden.

Eric said...

Today Sweden is a small homogenous country, Russia is an important military power with a diverse population of dozens of nationalities.

Where would you rather live?


Is that a trick question? Who would choose Russia over Sweden?

Anonymous said...

It's no fun serving as a scapegoat when some enterprising police officer decides to impress the racist locals by harassing some foreign-looking passerby.

I lived legally in Japan for a while. Never experienced cops hassling me, just lots of passive-aggressive behavior or outright rudeness from people on the street, shitty service in bars and restaurants, etc. Japanese racism is annoying, but it's also less dangerous than the racism you might encounter in other parts of the world. Example: while walking through Yokohama with a black person, old women would often point and yell racist epithets at us...but we once accidentally stumbled on some sort of blackshirt "expel all foreigners" rally in Tokyo and were able to walk right through it, as if we were invisible. In any other country in the world, I would have been worried; but in Japan, blackshirts wouldn't attack us, or even notice us, because that would have been rude. Strange place, Japan.

Anonymous said...

I think all WNs should visit Japan to see how a society can be healthy without being isolated. Japan takes what it wants from world technology and culture and makes it its own. I think Japan's low birth rate makes sense at this time so they can reduce their population to what is comfortable on their island. As long as they don't limit the birth rate dysgenically, and don't allow outsiders in, they can exist for many millennia quite nicely.

Anonymous said...

Japan has a nude negro policy. Blacks are regularly strip searched upon leaving stores. Its not really a sexual thing but more often one of curiosity.

Anonymous said...

Irish illegal immigration was a problem in the Northeast, particularly Boston, and if they're illegal they should be booted like anyone else. But they weren't much of a problem to society. Illegal Italians who were imported by the Mafia were a bigger problem.

Jim O said...

What the heck is a saw thumb? I get sore when I read things I don't understand.

Anonymous said...

Today Sweden is a small homogenous country, Russia is an important military power with a diverse population of dozens of nationalities.

Where would you rather live?


This is a really odd comparison. Russia is overwhelmingly ethnic Russian, and is governed for the benefit of ethnic Russians. Do you really think all those darker skinned Muslims along the borders of the -Stans are joining with the ethnic Russian ruling class in a rousing version of Kum Ba Ya? Also, Russia is in very serious economic and demographic trouble. I'm not sure which planet you're posting from.

--Senor Doug

Eric said...

I have a Japanese friend I communicate with almost every day. From what he was telling me they have such a terrible shortage of labor for entry-level type jobs they're on the verge of abandoning the robot strategy and allowing large numbers of immigrants.

In terms of illegal immigration, I wouldn't be surprised if they've succeeded in reducing the illegal population for the same reason we have - the Japanese economy is cratering and poor illegals don't have a reason to stay if there aren't any jobs.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Japan for two years. I liked it a lot, but like any coutnry it has its pluses and minuses. As a white foreigner, I generally didn't have to worry about being treated poorly because I behaved myself. Japanese are prejudiced against foreigners because, on average, foreigners are poorly behaved compared to Japanese.

Anonymous said...

"Low birth rate and no immigration means a shrinking population, and economic stagnation, which is not at all helped by a rapidly aging population."

See, this I don't get. Why is it always taken as a given in these kinds of discussions that a declining population is BAD? If robots will suffice to do the extra work necessary to take care of their aged, I just don't see the downside.
The upside of a declining population in an overcrowded country is more room, more resources, less congestion, more fresh air, etc., for the next generation.

So long as the country stays homogeneous, then an increasingly technological society with a decreasing population sounds to me like heaven.

Anonymous said...

"Today Sweden is a small homogenous country, Russia is an important military power with a diverse population of dozens of nationalities.

Where would you rather live?"

Sweden.

Anonymous said...

As far as I know Americans don't bother with illegals from Europe, such as Irish, who generally fit in easily. The only illegal immigration anybody talks about is from Mexico or Asia.

Bullshit. The Mexican has become the face of illegal immigration because 7 or 8 out of 10 times he (or someone who looks and speaks similarly) is the illegal immigrant. We see pictures of the sneaking across the border, over the fence, crowded in vans, and waving Mexican (not Irish) flags at rallies. Asians comprise most of the rest. If our European illegals were the sole problem then it wouldn't be a very big problem.

If illegal immigration were only about 70,000 or so illegal Irishmen I would probably still be opposed, but it would be too small an issue to rate much concern.

What we see here is yet another way "diversity" makes governing more difficult: once you have a multiracial society, distinguishing between legal and illegal, friend and foe becomes that much more difficult.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Japan overpopulated?

No it isn't. There's actually plenty of room, despite being a small landmass. It's nothing like Hong Kong crowded.

Anonymous said...

Is Hong Kong even capable of growing a sizable portion of its own food? Seems like a high bar for overpopulation, what with being higher than that of any country in the world.

Anonymous said...

Um, I thought it was obvious the answer was Sweden. That was the point - better to choose a homogenous constrained future as Sweden did, or Japan, than try to build a multiethnic empire as Russia did, or the US, or China. And Senor Doug is quite wrong of course - Russia is not overwhelmingly ethnic Russian - barely 50% even now and dropping.

ScotchFiend said...

Several commenters seem to think Sweden is ethnically homogeneous and staying that way. In actuality Sweden has imported many non-Whites and Muslims and given the low native birth rate versus the higher immigrant one, and continued high non-European immigration, native Swedes face medium-term demographic displacement like most Whites.

See: No Longer Just Nordic
LINK

Anonymous said...

Example: while walking through Yokohama with a black person, old women would often point and yell racist epithets at us...

That's too funny. Old Japanese ladies hanging out with the bruthas and harassing the white folks. Are you sure that's what you meant to say?

Anonymous said...

I'm the Anonymous that made the 5th (?) post, regarding Japan's heavy-handed methods of reducing illegal immigration.

As great as it is that Japan is getting rid of illegal immigrants, I'm surprised that Americans would support the way in which they're doing it -- harassment based on what people *look like*, and general disregard for civil liberties. I thought the USA was the land of freedom where Stasi-style "papers, please!" was out of the question. Why would you suppotr another country bahving this way, or want your own contry to?

Ronduck, where is "home"? If America treated immigrants like Japan does, people of mixed ancestry would have no "home" to return to, because authorities in either of their homelands would view them with suspicion based on their looks. In my case, my father is American (stationed in Japan just before the reversion of Okinawa) and mother is Okinawan (with an American father), and I was raised almost entirely in the US; I'm fortunate that I can call the US "home", because America *doesn't* behave like Japan.

I confess to a bit of an emotional letdown to find that the "old country" which I'd wanted to spend more time in since childhood would treat me as something like an "enemy of the state" at the same time that Hillary Clinton is here pontificating about what great allies the US and Japan are.

America became the greatest nation in the world because it attracted hard-working, highly-motivated people from all over the world. They'll stop coming, and their children (if they marry Americans) will deny their American side, if they're treated like potential criminals just because of their ethnicity.

In my case I'll probably settle in Okinawa (where there are lot os people like me, but no high-paying jobs) or the US, and not on the Japanese mainland. The police can have fun harassing the intelligent robot that takes my place.

Xavier

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Isn't Japan overpopulated?

No it isn't. There's actually plenty of room, despite being a small landmass. It's nothing like Hong Kong crowded.


Actually, only about 15% of Japan's land is suitable for building on (and with all the seismic faultlines running through Tokyo and other major cities, not even that, really). There's a constant battle between farmers and developers over what little arable land remains. Overcrowding is a genuine problem in Japan.

Anonymous said...

Low birth rate and no immigration means a shrinking population, and economic stagnation, which is not at all helped by a rapidly aging population.

There is no very strong connection between birth-rate and a countries economic performance. To whatever extent such a connection exists, it's an inverse one.


China has been a poor country for the past thousand years for some very good reasons, reasons which still exist today even if they don't show up on the charts of the IQ fetishists.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Japan overpopulated?

No it isn't. There's actually plenty of room, despite being a small landmass. It's nothing like Hong Kong crowded.

That's quite a standard for comparison.By any sane yardstick Japan is overcrowded, as is much of the world.

The rise of the great cities has been a baleful influence on the entire human race. We should be working towards in world in whch Hong Kongs do not exist.

Anonymous said...

There is no very strong connection between birth-rate and a countries economic performance. To whatever extent such a connection exists, it's an inverse one.

China has been a poor country for the past thousand years for some very good reasons, reasons which still exist today even if they don't show up on the charts of the IQ fetishists.


Wow, so do you just not bother reading any Chinese history at all or what?

Anonymous said...

Japan legalized abortion during the American occupation after the war. If I remember correctly it was done by Truman's civilian governor and not MaCarthur.

But since the legalization of abortion Japan has had the highest abortion rate in the world, hence the aging population and the shortage of new hires for industry.

Anonymous said...

Tax Slave said...
That's too funny. Old Japanese ladies hanging out with the bruthas and harassing the white folks. Are you sure that's what you meant to say?


I wish it had been what I meant to say. It would make for a much funnier story. Goddamn those dangling modifiers.

By the way, how RACIST of you to point that out, Tax Slave!

Anonymous said...

"But since the legalization of abortion Japan has had the highest abortion rate in the world, hence the aging population and the shortage of new hires for industry."

And yet condoms and birth-control pills are comparatively difficult to find. There are two huge stores in Tokyo that sell nothing but condoms, but try finding any in your local pharmacy. Birth control pills were only legalized about a decade ago and there's still a stigma attached to using them. But go to any Japanese cemetery and you'll find little tombstones with little ribbons tied around them, often indicating the tomb of an aborted fetus.

Also, regarding low birth rates in Japan: Several surveys have shown that Japan has the lowest rates of sexual intercourse of any nation in the world. The Japanese much prefer compulsive shopping for Louis Vuitton handbags and masturbating to tentacle porn.

Weird frickin' place.

Anonymous said...

That's quite a standard for comparison.By any sane yardstick Japan is overcrowded, as is much of the world.

I was amazed when I looked into Europe's density. I realized how good we have it here in the states (but don't worry, our masters are working on that problem).

I think the population density of Europe is a big part of why European states are seeing a rise of nationalism, while the U.S. population remains prostrate with much higher relative immigration; Europeans don't have the luxury of white flight. One hopes they'll take the lead for once and show us the way forward.