this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 77 points 6 months ago

The president made the remark while arguing that Japan, along with Russia and China, would perform better economically if the countries embraced immigration more.

Oh, well that's true enough. Japan is crazy anti immigration despite that being a solution to their low birth rate.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 71 points 6 months ago (5 children)

I can't speak to Russia or China, but Japan has a history of xenophobia going back CENTURIES. It's not exactly a newsflash.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

True, also: from what I understand, Korea has been historically worse.

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[–] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Even still, it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

[–] danekrae@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

That pot better be careful around police...

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[–] swiftcasty@kbin.social 38 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Why am I seeing multiple news reports today about Joe Biden where they remove context to polarize his comments further? This feels, to me, like a new media trend

[–] Chriszz@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago (5 children)
[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 months ago

It doesn’t need to be propaganda, just maximizing clicks will do that for you organically.

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[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 35 points 6 months ago (8 children)

Japan simply is xenophobic. I lived there for 2 years. That's just a fact.

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[–] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 33 points 6 months ago (3 children)

He's not wrong but also I believe there's a saying in English about stones and glass houses.

[–] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Even the most bigoted parts of the US are nowhere near as xenophobic as Japan. Housing discrimination based on race is still perfectly acceptable over there, many people will refuse to rent to foreigners.

[–] Woozythebear@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Do you think there isn't housing discrimination happening in the US?

Black families often have their homes appraised for less than white family homes.

Housing applications often get denied if the person has a non white last name.

Hell, the last time I was looking around for a room to rent I got asked multiple times over the phone. "You're white right?"

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

perfectly acceptable

At least some governments in Japan appear to disagree:

https://jobsinjapan.com/living-in-japan-guide/housing-discrimination-challenges-faced-by-foreigners-in-japan/

Japan signed the “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)” in 1996

Tokyo Metropolitan Government educates real estate agents on the illegality of nationality-based rental refusals, considering them discriminatory

And the article itself seems to contradict with those statements...

[–] mukt@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Xeno Biden doesn't care.

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean he's not wrong, but where does he expect China to get immigrants from? They're 20% of the world.

[–] livus@kbin.social 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

He's also cherry picking data. It's a weird flex.

The proportion of immigrants in the US isn't exactly high compared to somewhere like Canada.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (10 children)

I mean the US is 15% immigrants, or about 50 million people. I know we like to shit on the US but that's a ridiculously big number.

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[–] cmdr_nova@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago

As neat as Japan sounds and as much as I’d like to be there, I mean, he’s not wrong

I watch YouTubers who moved to and live there talk about how they’re just indefinitely treated like a tourist

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

China xenophobic? I don’t think Biden knows what the word means. The oldest mosque outside of the Middle East is in China of all places built in 627 CE, and still standing.

What happened to the mosques in Spain and Occupied Palestine? Turned into bars and chicken coops.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Okay I hate the West as much as any other guy, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. China 1400 years ago isn't in any way the same as China today. Nowadays it's that most Muslim Chinese groups are accepted as Chinese (the Hui are about as Chinese as the Han, for example) and that's why they can practice Islam in peace; otherwise you're treated like the Uighurs. Also foreigners in China are absolutely treated as outsiders; that's just a fact.

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

dynasties and ideologies came and went in China and the mosques still stand

what happened to mosques in Spain? what is happening to mosques in Occupied Palestine and India right now?

Islam is xeno (foreign) to China and yet you have mosques from the 7th and 8th centuries still standing

otherwise you’re treated like the Uighurs.

here's an interesting fact, they are the only Turkic people who still use their centuries old script, and haven't been secularized and westernized unlike Turks in the former USSR or Turkiye.

The issue for the Uyghurs is separatism, not Islam or culture in particular. No nation will tolerate separatists. https://dkiapcss.edu/college/publications/uyghur-muslim-ethnic-separatism-in-xinjiang-china/ https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/east-turkestan-islamic-movement-etim

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation report on the Uyghur did not find anything concerning, though the OIC has been criticized by Western rights groups. Interestingly, when it comes to Palestine the situation is reversed, where the OIC is speaking up but Western rights groups have been mostly silent. It is confusing seeing Anthony Blinken criticize China for the alleged genocide of Uyghurs, I haven't seen any images or videos that suggest it is real, but unabashedly defend Israel's actions which are clear and evident genocide.

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[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago

Pretty much every country in the world where citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity are the same thing you find xenophobia.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I think "extremely ethnocentric" is a more fair description/criticism of Japan. Close to 98% of their population is ethnically homogeneous, so it kinda makes sense.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 months ago

You'd be wrong

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 6 months ago

Partly true about inviting foreigners. Japan has a trainee visa system that is abusive, as they always are, and is designed so that those employees (victims) never get citizenship. And it's a single citizenship country, because of course it is. But hey, employers are very willing to bring in those laborers, since it's cheaper than paying what the law requires.

And you can't fix demographics with people who only stay for a year or two.

[–] Arelin@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 months ago
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