Did you know that Japan has been easing its immigration policies in recent years, and that there has been a growing Muslim population as a result?
I only recently learned that, and for the obvious reason: it has created problems that were easy to predict. There has been a sudden spike in temples burning down, for instance, and cultural clashes enough to keep any decent blogger busy documenting and commenting on.
I was surprised to discover this because Japan has traditionally been one of the most culturally cohesive societies in the developed world, and that has been the key to its success (and also a contributor to its worst failures in the 1930s and 40s, obviously). I never expected it to hop onto the "diversity is our strength" bandwagon, but the labor shortages convinced the powers that be to try.
Well, the experiment with a more liberal immigration policy has resulted in all the expected problems, and the Japanese government is pulling back a bit. As you would guess, the credentialed elite is quite unhappy about it. Japan is regressing!
Japan's harsher permanent residency rules, hiked visa fees begin, sparking xenophobia worries https://t.co/oM1hm4hMnP
— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) October 1, 2026
Notice the framing: the question isn't whether the policy is smart for Japan; it's whether it is too bigoted. Now one might argue that would be a good question to answer in an already multicultural society, and it certainly should be, given Japan's history of tensions with Korean-descended residents, but it's not at all clear why it matters when it comes to actually importing a new population group.
If people weren't there to begin with, it makes sense to ask, "What are we getting when we bring them in?" Resolving pre-existing social tension is a fine goal; avoiding new ones is even more so.
Japan's tougher permanent residency rules prize 'nat'l interest' over human rights: expert https://t.co/pj3MFQS1OK
— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) October 1, 2026
That's not how the best and the brightest see it, though. In fact, quite the opposite. Multiculturalism is a higher good, and should be placed before the well-being of the Japanese and their polity.
Japan revised its guidelines on permanent residence permits for foreigners on Oct. 1, raising standards such as the annual income required for applications to "at or above the average for Japanese households." By tightening the requirements, the path to permanent residency -- which allows unrestricted activities and an indefinite stay -- will narrow.
Eriko Suzuki, a professor of immigration policy at Kokushikan University in Tokyo, criticized the new standards as "emphasizing national interests and setting back human rights." She said they will "make life planning difficult" for foreigners living in Japan. The following is a summary of her comments.
Control over improving conditions
From April 2027, applicants will be unable to apply for permanent residence unless they hold the maximum period of stay, which is five years in principle, meaning the hurdle for permanent residence had already been raised. And an income requirement has now been added. It can be said that the stance of trying to restrict permanent residency has been made even clearer.
The new guidelines more strongly require permanent residents to serve the national interest. They also explicitly state that even spouses of Japanese nationals and others who are exempt from income requirements on humanitarian grounds may be evaluated negatively in the screening process if they are a "public burden." Japan wants foreigners as workers, but does not want foreigners who become a burden -- such an attitude shows through. In accepting foreigners, a balance between human rights and national interests is important, but this revision emphasizes national interests and sets back human rights.
The obvious question to Suzuki is: Why should the Japanese government, which represents the interests of Japanese citizens, care? Obviously, once somebody is in Japan, even as a noncitizen, the government has a duty of care to at least a minimal standard.
But when setting up policies regarding who you bring in with an eye toward permanent residency, the interests of somebody living in Afghanistan or Pakistan shouldn't really be near the top of your list of concerns. Nobody expects Pakistan to ask, "If I do this, will it benefit a Japanese person?" That is absurd. Governments exist to serve their own citizens first, with others a distant second.
That runs counter to the core of the transnationalist ideology, which sees national borders as accidents of history and geography. We are all one big salad that should be tossed together, don't you know?
It's the sort of idea that got us the movement to make everybody learn Esperanto, and that assumes that the United Nations could really be a governing body.
In other words, it's a special combination of stupid and idealistic that we used to call sophomoric, because it has a superficial appeal that collapses on contact with reality.
But there it is; it's the reigning ideology of the people who own the cultural and economic high ground in developed countries.
Luckily, for the sake of the Japanese, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is an adult.
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