Fed up with multicultural society

Japan is not ethnically homogeneous anymore. Foreigners who are registered as they are in Japan exceeded 2 millions as of 2005, accounting for 1.6% of Japan's total population.

This tendency has been accelerated under the open-door policies by Koizumi, the former Japan's Prime Minister. It is inevitable for us to accept more foreigners to cover up lack of workers because of aging society.

The article today presents the difficulty of this "easy solution" to the lack of workers. There is no doubt about Chinese and Korean are the most largest groups coming into Japan although their government totally hates Japan.

I'll focus my attention on China this time. European or American people tend to think "Asian people share a lot, so they easily merge. Let alone China and Japan since they are from East Asia both." No way! We are currently having such a problem caused by Chinese due to their incomprehensive habits.

The picture above was taken in a street in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. No matter how you know Japan is a crowded country, this street is insane. Plus it's in the morning. The reason is, Chinese people are opening their shops in the street. They say it's a Chinese habit to shop and eat at street restaurants on Sunday morning, and probably they are just doing what they used to do in China. Needless to say, customers are mostly Chinese. They can obtain special groceries or fresh vegitables that are hardly found in normal Japanese supermarkets.

The pic shown left is a scene where a couple of Chinese are selling meat under sky. Not keeping meat in a refrigerator may not sanitary, but it's not my business. But they are doing it on the street, chopping pig heads or chicken legs (Eww...) into pieces. People need to walk through the street, and there's a family living behind the shops. If I had such a situation every Sunday morning, I'd freak out. Of course the households who have been suffering from the shops keep demanding that they leave, but the Chinese have no ears to them. "The morning market has been since 10 years ago, and it's getting bigger and bigger," one of the neighbors is crying over this headache.

The base descipline of Japanese is the "spirit of give-and-take". Yielding is greatly respected in our culture, and sometimes people give in very much until their tolerance is acknowledged. Since Japan used to be a very closed society, outlaws were just repelled by the society. That has been heavy shackles for those who were tempted for crimes from long time ago. On the other hand, this rule doesn't seem to apply to Chinese people. Once you yield to them, they take one step further. Outlaw-ridden society is thus formed due to massive power. Residents should have more courage. It's a crucial flaw of Japanese people; they are too docile until they snap. Japanese tend to avoid argument and keep silence, hoping some day Chinese regret their fault. Keeping silence is a sign of OK to Chinese, ironically.


Selling vegitables or meats is not only their merchandise. One of their special skills is selling pirate products with a lot of nerves. CDs, DVDs, or liquors. In Japan you need a license to sell liquors in the first place. Pirate CDs or DVDs are of course prohibited. There's no license for pirates :-).

All the details of such behaviors were aired only once through a TV program very recently, making us realize it although 10 years already passed until broadcast. But I put credit on this program because it took courage against the taboo that bans anything would give rise to Japanese nationalism. They even secretly filmed a scene, with mosaic, of a Chinese peeing in back street. Now I know why Chinatown in New York smells pretty bad. It smells by all means if you pee in the street.

There's a section, between shops, demanding freedom from dictation by communism (see picture below). Falun-gong members are freely demanding their rights here in Osaka. It is totally understandable that those people had to take refuge into Japan, abandoning their beloved hometown. I concluded that they are such a people who don't have room in their heart thinking about what they have to obey when living in a foreign country because their mind is just occupied with their desire to live and nothing more.

As far as my tiny web-based network, similar invasions of Chinese immigrants can be seen in Greece, Solomon islands, Russia, and Italy. In Italy's case, a town known for textile industry rivived thanks to cheap labor supplied by Chinese immigrants. However, their technology has been stolen at the same time. After Chinese rushing into this town, they retreat as soon as they acquire skills, setting up a new business the way Italian don't welcome. The new Chinese company is of course run by all Chinese with cheap labor, so it's threat to traditional italian industry. This town ended up with raising their rival.

Open agitation against Chinise is not my intention, but the idea of cheap labor popping into companies' head must be accused of. They won't take any responsibility for this conflict any way. As an evidence, I have never seen companies tackling of this issue as their own challenge.

Some of Japanese like me are already fed up with multicultural society due to the said reasons. How about your country? I've heard Netherland is finally got tired of it. But may be it's too late.

A blogger ZERO kindly took up my article here. He is alerted by the threat of Chinese, too. However, he also says that his town is getting along with many Chinese. Well, I agree. In my hometown, which is very small, my friend plays in a soccer team in which several Chinese take part. The entire team is bonded with a very close friendship, regardless of their nationality, due to their effort to learn Japanese and its culture. Just remember most Chinese are pretty good while a little others disgrace the others. Ironically, the minor latter Chinese play a decisive role in determining the reputation of Chinese.

Links: Arudou Debito's homepage. He is living in Japan seeking "foreigners' rights". You'll see the opposite point of view from American. Very interesting.