This essay examines Japan’s immigration and foreign student policies amid demographic decline and globalization. It argues that beyond ideology or sentimental cosmopolitanism, the state’s foremost responsibility is to protect national sovereignty, social systems, and the lives and property of its citizens.

2019-02-19
It is a line that transcends ideology and takes precedence over the sentimental rhetoric of “global citizenship” and emotional cosmopolitanism. It is a line that cannot be conceded by even one millimeter.

The following continues from the previous chapter.
Amid declining domestic demand due to a rapidly aging population, I do not entirely reject the government’s policy of aiming to attract 40 million foreign tourists by 2020 and to accept 300,000 foreign students.
However, when the government and ruling parties loudly proclaim numerical targets and ministries scramble to secure budgets and adjust figures to meet them, the approach appears excessively short-sighted and driven by bureaucratic self-interest.
To say, “We have invited them; the rest is not our concern,” would only burden the younger generations who must sustain this country.
The problems now emerging are essentially the same immigration issues that Western nations are struggling to address, and the Japanese government must explain this honestly to the public without evasion.
Immigration policy, which fundamentally questions the nature of this nation, has been left to proceed without sufficient public participation.
What I have come to realize through visiting various sites is the fact that immigration has effectively been liberalized without the public even being aware of it.
The immigration controversy that stirred debate under President Trump in the United States is not someone else’s problem for the Japanese people.
Borders are not only visible lines on a map.
Healthcare systems, education systems, legal frameworks related to public order, and countless other institutional “soft” structures of this country are beginning to show strain under the pressure of foreign immigration.
I hope that the Abe administration will confront these issues head-on.
There is also constitutional revision to consider.
While numerous domestic and international challenges remain, the priority of immigration issues directly connected to citizens’ lives cannot be considered low.
Criticism of the administration is acceptable.
However, opposition parties should also engage in serious parliamentary debate on fundamental national issues such as immigration, rather than merely searching for scandals involving ministers, bureaucrats, or ruling party lawmakers.
“Population is a weapon.”
At a time when depopulated rural towns and aging suburban complexes in metropolitan areas are becoming targets, the words of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong resonate ominously.
Even within the past two centuries alone, fifty nations and regions have disappeared from the map.
Tibet, Uyghur (East Turkestan), and Southern Mongolia (Inner Mongolia)—these nearby regions continue to face the threat of ethnic erasure under the Chinese Communist regime.
A speculative map circulating on Chinese internet forums depicts a near future in 2050 in which western Japan is incorporated into a “Chinese East Sea Province” and eastern Japan into a “Japanese Autonomous Region.”
It may still be a fantasy, yet the fact remains that such dangerous dreams are entertained by a neighboring power.
If President Xi Jinping’s “China Dream,” under the Belt and Road Initiative, implies a restoration of the vast territorial reach once held by the Yuan and Qing dynasties across Eurasia, then this represents a highly dangerous vision.
For example, during a 1995 visit to Australia, Chinese Premier Li Peng reportedly told Australian Prime Minister Keating that “Japan is a trivial country; in 30 or 40 years, it will disappear.”
It was likely an expression of jealousy and strategic caution toward a nation that achieved remarkable postwar economic recovery and contributed to the international community as a technological and peaceful state.
If Japan were to follow the expectations of a military superpower like China by weakening its own capabilities under the banner of pacifism and aligning itself accordingly, then by around 2050 Japan might indeed disappear from the world map and become part of China, treated as second-class citizens.
The most important duty of a nation is to protect the lives and property of its citizens.
This is a line that transcends ideology and must take precedence over sentimental notions of “global citizenship” and emotional cosmopolitanism. It is a line that cannot be conceded by even one millimeter.
To be continued.