That raises the question of why Japan’s ruling class didn’t feel the necessity of going down the same mass-immigration path as did so many other advanced countries: Why is Japan such an exception? …From DW.com, the German public broadcaster (in English):Another reason is that Japan is linguistically quite isolated from the growing worldwide dominance of the English language.
If elites unthinkingly think alike, one reason could be because they increasingly share a language: English. …
As a side effect, the prevalence of English spreads American ideological fads.
For example, over the course of my lifetime, the American media, such as movies, has shifted to an assumption of “Our Ancestors, the Immigrants” from “Our Ancestors, the Pioneers.…
But the Japanese are remarkably immune to American verbiage. That may be because the Japanese are terrible at learning English.
Impact of Japan’s shrinking population ‘already palpable’Japan’s birth rate fell to a new record low in 2014, with data showing just over a million new births. Social scientist Fabio Gygi talks to DW about what the decline means for the nation’s economy and society as a whole. …
Moreover, a positive stance towards immigration is still seen by most politicians as the quickest way to lose an election. The government assumes that the Japanese population is staunchly against immigration, without doing anything to tackle this.
Interestingly, attitudes towards immigration in Japan become more positive the more fluent a person is in English, suggesting that boosting English education may help to make the Japanese more accepting of immigration.
