So sad. Another ancient unique culture to be blended and homogenized into the global mass of undifferentiated Starbucks society.
At least the megacorporations will get the cheap labor and undifferentiated consumers they want.
At least the megacorporations will get the cheap labor and undifferentiated consumers they want.
Nor have I done anything related to a "flame war". I insulted no individuals and I attacked no groups.
Nor has a "flame war" arisen from my comment. There have been many responses and there's no "flame war", just reasonable disagreement.
I simply expressed a sense of loss at the potential dissolution of a culture. My concerns are central to the whole topic; they are shared by most Japanese people. This is not some fringe view, it is at the center of the entire issue and is entirely mainstream.
Your accusations don't connect. This rebuke makes it seem like you're using biased enforcement of facially-neutral rules to advantage one side of the discussion, and suppress mainstream views on the other side. What you're doing here is harmful to the health of the HN community, and wider discourse. Please reconsider how you've approached this issue, and be more circumspect before making such accusations. Ask yourself - How would someone with the opposite mainstream view, or a Japanese person, consider the comment? How would I moderate this if I agreed with the underlying worldview and values?
Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture. If you perceive your cultural environment as homogenized, it's your own damned fault for being a passive consumer rather than an active participant.
There's a difference between gradual assimilation of cultural elements over hundreds of years, and flooding a country with change on the scale of a generation. It's perfectly reasonable to want to preserve what amounts to a cultural identity by limiting cultural influx.
>Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture
Nonsense. The fact that a given culture contains elements from others does not mean that it is not itself pure. Culture is simply information - in the form of practices, foods, clothing, ideals - and while there may be a great deal of overlap among the basis vectors that could be combined to represent the world's cultures, purity could be approximately gauged by a principle component analysis, which would most certainly show distinct, tight groupings for more homogenous, isolated cultures like that of Japan, and a more diffuse, homogenized cluster among westernized cultures.
> does not mean that it is not itself pure
By what metric is a culture pure? How can information be pure? How far back in the timeline do you want to gauge purity? And at what point is it relevant to policy?
The Japanese have always wanted to protect their culture, identity, and economy, going back to where n Perry shot off a cannon to get them to open up the West's plans.
As a foreigner who loves Japan, I think there is a stretch between letting particularly interested individuals enjoy to the country--which is already possible--and opening itself up economic migration--which is what Western countries now experience.
Look at Singapore. It's such a god damn hell compared to Japan even though on paper they should be doing better.
There is really no other place like Japan on earth, it will be sad to see it homogenize with the rest of it.
I fail to see your point. There are only so many ways to do set immigration policy and currently Japanese policy is different from ones used by Western countries. Much to the chagrin of the Western countries criticizing it as their own policies are breaking down and giving rise to nationalism and increasing social and racial tensions.
While not free of problems, Canada's immigration situation seems to not have attracted the same amount of problems as seen in other Western nations. Strange that Japan isn't adopting a similar points-based system. But it seems like the sort of Japanese innovation that could arise. One would presume a Japanese immigration policy and pathway of citizenship would mandate learning the language and other ways to facilitate assimilation, different from the policies of most Western nations.
They do use a points-based system for highly-skilled workers: http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/en/evaluate/index.htm...
>One would presume a Japanese immigration policy and pathway of citizenship would mandate learning the language and other ways to facilitate assimilation
It strongly does and is incredibly difficult otherwise. When applying for citizenship if you struggle at all when asked questions in Japanese you will likely, if not certainly, be rejected. There are countless anecdotal stories out there confirming the difficulties in attaining citizenship from people who already have permanent resident status.
By the degree to which it has uniquely evolved in relative isolation.
>How can information be pure?
By the degree to which the combination of information that defines a particular culture is unique. Again, if we model culture as a linear combination of cultural traits, purity may be measured as, for example, euclidean distance between clusters, reflecting unique developments that occur as a function of isolation. As an extreme case, compare an undiscovered tribe in the Amazon, or the Amish, to a cosmopolitan population like residents of New York City.
Seems like a lack of faith in societies to properly integrate new arrivals.
Yes, exactly. I have little faith in that, because it rarely happens.
And are you aware that international migration has been happening for millennia? All nations have people who have assimilated and integrated, to different degrees.
All of the “developed” nations need immigration to prevent the social systems from completely falling apart. Our entire financial system is based on increasing population growth and the young paying to support the old. There aren’t enough young people. Without immigration, pensions, healthcare, social safety nets, property values… it all implodes. We go back to 1930 where old people just die in the street.
Having kids. Having a sustainable culture rather than some weird human shredder reliant on constant stream of new souls from abroad.
The older generation doesn’t want immigrants. The older generation votes against tax increases. The older generation does everything they can to keep home prices high. Then they demand no one cut their entitlements. All take, no give. It’s not surprising people aren’t having as many kids.
People aren't even dating in Japan, though. Marriage rates are way down, people aren't having sex, etc. Even the non-sexual aspects of relationships have been commoditized, with host/hostess bars where you pay to have conversations with people like you would while out on a date, cuddle bars where you pay just to cuddle, etc. Dating video games are huge.
Women being able to more readily progress into senior positions in white collar jobs is a relatively recent occurrence, and getting married/having kids is a good way to end your career, so they're less likely to want to date seriously.
Also, isn’t immigration a negation of 1)? The kids are already born, they’re just not in the same country.
Sarcasm aside, there are two systemic problems at play. 1) is ecological, and 2) is economic. The second may be physically easier to solve- but it still requires us to figure out a way to move beyond our capitalist system that a) prioritizes relentless growth and consumption, and b) has countries with large welfare programs that requires new workers and taxpayers to keep the elderly and the ill off the streets.
The primary reason as I understand it for the lack of kids is simply because it's a trap for women as it is now.
Maternity- and child care leave are too short. There are extreme shortage of daycare for infants and pre-school children, forcing women to stay home and even give up on their career until the child is old enough to go to/from school themselves.
And having 2-3 children pretty much kills any career.
This is not the case in Sweden and it has not had any great effects on fertility, which is within spitting distance of its neighbours. If you can’t afford childcare in Sweden the state will pay. Childcare is heavily subsidised and available 24/7 if you have shift work. Tiny effects on fertility.
> Cohort Fertility Patterns in the Nordic Countries
> Country differences in fertility outcome are generally rather low. Childlessness is highest in Finland and lowest in Norway, and the educational differentials are largest in Norway. Despite such differences, the cohort analyses in many ways support the notion of a common Nordic fertility regime.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23525308_Cohort_Fer...
It's definitely not a one-sided issue.
But yes, infrastructure is definitely a massive issue. I wonder what would happen if resources that Western europe countries pour into migration would be put for fixing birth rate. Push propaganda on all fronts, put shit ton of money into infrastructure, install new cultural norms...
It may be better to pass a law that would link pension of old people to tax paid by young people who have chosen them. This will make having many successful children profitable again. And will restore the role of a family, which is artificially lowered by social services.
Alternatively, you can keep going with exponential growth, if you can find a few more planets to put people on.
At some point it is going to implode anyway. The UK in the last 25 years has completely changed due to immigration and our health system is basically about to fall over, there are massive cultural tensions between natives and immigrant populations that are on the verge of exploding in poorer areas (North of England) on almost a daily basis. None of this gets covered in the news but there are plenty of videos on Facebook, Youtube etc of clashes.
I suggest you read the "Strange Death of Europe".