Takaichi says law-abiding foreign nationals should not worry | The Asahi Shimbun

26 comments

1. Sounds to me like the goal isn’t to burden ordinary people, but to ensure that those who try to take advantage of loopholes or exploit the system (and lord knows there are more than a few out there) are held accountable. Stronger rules protect everyone who plays by them IMO. That seems reasonable to me.

2. That’s how it starts.

3. Sounds good to me. It is just a reality that too many foreigners misbehave here. But there are also a ton who behave perfectly well and they will and should not have any reason to worry.

4. So the ‘no true Japanese’ argument

5. My problem with the statement is that “law-abiding foreigner”‘s can be widely different if they decide to make foreigner specific laws.

   In some cases it make sense of course (overstaying etc… which is, well, foreigner specific) but why would foreigners be subject to more scrutiny for tax fraud for example instead of just putting more resources in enforcing existing laws (It’s an example, not saying they said they were) ?

6. [deleted]

7. It’s a dead cat. Look there! not here

8. Problem here is that the assertion of what a ‘law-abiding foreign national’ is doesn’t have to be at all tethered to reality.

   We are seeing it in the US right now: politicians will go on the news and tell millions that they’re only targeting ‘illegals’ and then deploy ICE to wrestle and american-born person outside their own store because their skin is a little darker.

   Best case scenario this is all lip service to placate the voters who want ‘something done’ but worst case scenario is that this is how it starts.

   Anyone thinking ‘Phew! Thank God she clarified that she didn’t mean ME!’ needs to get some anti-face-eating-leopard spray and apply it liberally to themselves.

9. Sounds very much similar to the Trump administration ICE rhetoric.

   Trump: “We are only after the hardened criminals”

   Latino for Trump: “yeah go gettem Trump!”

   3 days later

   Latino for Trump: “they kidnapped my dad”

10. what we’re worried about is not the changing laws, we abide by the rules anyway. What we worry about is the changing perception of Japanese people on foreigners. They’ll look at what Takaichi does the first thing she takes the office and will think “Oh, so it’s always been the foreigners’ fault”

11. Every other far right party around the world are currently fanning xenophobia for cheap votes or to scapegoat failed policies. However, the law already exists – If foreigners break the law arrest them, if nationals break the law arrest them – the law doesn’t (or shouldn’t) distinguish the nationality or status of the perp and in Japan like elsewhere there are no statistics suggesting foreign nationals are more prone to commit crimes. Continuing to hype that is a political strategy more than a meaningful conversation. It’s a fallacy though.

    https://www.dijtokyo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dij-jb16_yamamoto.pdf

12. It’s more about what they see as law-abiding foreign nationals. A speeding ticket? a late nenkin/tax payment? Speeding tickets for example, no one goes the speed limit here, some roads are basically 30kph or more over the limit by default, so speeding tickets are more about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The difference is that Japanese can laugh it off if it happens, but do we get deported?

13. Yeah. They always say like that, and then they choose who is following the rules and who is not. It always starts like that

14. Again the problem is the language they use.

    I’m sorry but seeing 外国人問題 24/7 does not help law abiding citizens. They can’t even make the difference between a resident and a tourist.

15. if they want tighter rules then they need to be more transparent on the process. Logic for visa status, length, processing is a blackbox.

16. Trump said this too

17. Seems they want to go after people that don’t pay their bills. So we’re talking about people that don’t have much money or else they’d probably pay. Or work for a black company that won’t pay the ins and pension.

    These are the people that have come over here to fill in all the jobs that need workers,.most of them low pay and low skill.

    And these people don’t get visas renewed, they tell their friends don’t bother to come, etc. suddenly the slave labor pool dries up. 

    And the govt still won’t have their taxes.

    Do I have this right?
    Then what?

18. This is what they call “lip service” kids. The anti immigrant tone of this cabinet is clear enough to everyone.

19. I’m not particularly worried about the government coming after me right now, I’m worried about the changing perceptions of the Japanese population when its government uses broad terms to refer to crime and issues involving foreigners, which in turn can lead to future governments that might come after me without reason.

20. I want to see what the changes actually are before I buy into everyone accusing her of being the Japanese Trump and a fascist. I know America is having a crazy time, but it’s not the only country in the world and it’s not the only country in the world that has swung to the right recently. It’s a narrow world view I’m seeing often, Americans see something vaguely similar to Trump so they extrapolate that Japan is heading down the same road. 

    My hunch is that it won’t be anywhere near what you have in America. The LDP knows that immigrants are vital in this era and they aren’t going to risk anything to stop the inflow.

21. Whenever someone has felt the need to explicitly tell me not to worry about something, it has almost always meant I should be worried about it.

22. Don’t worry. She’s only going after the bad hombres.

23. Tighter rules are fine. They’re are literally masked crazy people deploying tier gas on people in America. They’re literally arresting citizens and dragging people out of cars. Smashing windows and invading apartment buildings.

    A few new rules are fine. Maybe they can look into why my low ass pay hasn’t updated in 10 years.

24. I love how most of Japan gaijin Reddit are left leaning snowflakes are all bent out of shape realizing the Japanese are really xenophobic even more conservative than the western right.

25. Why, thank you!

26. It’s the interpretation and application of those laws that should worry people. Not the laws themselves.

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