Also it’s very easy for anyone to buy property.
Japan has some pretty high bars and the number of naturalized people is quite small -- about 10,000 per year, and these are primarily Koreans of Japanese descent. The high bar is not the "good moral character" bit (which is also required but that is common) but rather financial stability. So if you are from a wealthy nation and a high earner you will be fine, but that is not the typical immigrant profile, and so for this reason there are very few naturalized immigrants in Japan compared to US or other nations that do not have financial stability as a criteria for naturalization.
do they? I always thought it referred to long term residency.
E.g. I consider myself an immigrant even tho I do not have the citizenship of the country I live in.
e.g. Merriam-Webster: "a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence"
OED online: "a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country."
Especially since this can clash with legal reality. Undocumented migrants sometimes intend to stay permanently, but as soon as immigration laws are enforced, they will leave. And many foreign workers who intend to return to their home country never do so, rendering the distinction moot.
It depends on how the country defines it, but to "immigrate" doesn't generally mean naturalization.
Immigration means to obtain permanent residency (in the U.S., a green card or LPR status; in Canada, Australia, NZ, landed immigrant or permanent resident status; in the UK, indefinitely leave to remain). Permanent residency generally confers most rights of citizenship, apart from a few like the right to hold a passport of that country, to vote (exceptions exist), etc.
Naturalization means to obtain full citizenship. It's the step that comes after immigration, and it is optional. Not all immigrants elect to naturalize for various reasons (e.g. wanting to keep original citizenship in cases where dual citizenship is prohibited, tax rules, military service, etc.). Some choose to remain permanent residents forever, and they can. It's their choice.
And you're right -- if someone has a temporary status like a foreign worker status (even if it's infinitely renewable), that would be considered neither immigration nor naturalization.
I'm not sure how things work in Japan, but it is possible for a country to be easy to immigrate into, but hard to naturalize in. These two things can be simultaneously true.
(in other words, easy to get permanent resident status, but hard to get citizenship)
There is a widespread idea to count permanent migrants only, but in practice, that's impossible to determine in the first place, and has no tangible consequences either.
Think about undocumented migrants, who do not have the right to abode, permanent or otherwise. Think about nations that don't offer permanent residency to newly arriving immigrants, or at all. Think about people who already have the right to abode (e.g. a citizen of Ireland in the UK) - are they immigrants without setting foot in the country?
Tying migration to a permanent status just doesn't make sense. Indeed, the UN Migration Agency (IOM) defines a migrant as:
> any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of
(1) the person’s legal status;
(2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary;
(3) what the causes for the movement are; or
(4) what the length of the stay is.
I believe you're confusing immigration[0] and migration[1]. The former aims for permanent residency or naturalization, the latter is temporary.
Please note that general dictionaries are always a poor source when discussing word definitions. Their aim is to clarify word usage, not to define terms.
Wiktionary is also sadly of garbage quality, and I say that as a former very active wiktionary editor.
Looking at some sources the issue seems to be fairly complex, however it does indeed seem fairly easy relative to other countries like Canada to gain Japanese citizenship (though very few apply).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Japan#Immigrant...
Looking at this and other citizenship guides, the main requirements seem to be that:
1. You live and work in Japan for 5 years (not counting student visas)
2. Are the age of majority in your country and over 20
3. Have not broken any laws while in Japan
4. Are able to support yourself financially and are willing to renounce other citizenships
It seems that about 90% of people that apply for naturalization are accepted. Yet less than ~10,000 are accepted every year, so applying for citizenship seems unpopular relative to other G7 countries.
Neat. I wonder why I was so certain that immigration was next to impossible and only visas were granted?
In a country like japan where it's more by the book, I'm not sure although. To get PR it takes 10 years to 1 year, so that might be a barrier, or maybe it's just a place that doesn't pay well + language barriers and thus wasn't that much of a draw to immigrate to?
That puts a lot of permanent residents off - why go through that when they can already stay indefinitely anyway?
Preventing immigration (both permanent and temporary) has been a political priority in Japan for centuries. Are you saying this has changed recently? The US is a bit special because even with the hurdles it has it still receives a lot of immigrants. Japan, to my knowledge, would never accept being in such a position.
I would hazard a guess this is because of their population crisis, maybe? They have one of the oldest populations in the world and their birth rate is still less than 1.5. That's a recipe for social and economic disorder, with current levels of automation.
Implying that the very immigration friendly modern Japanese government is the same as Tokugawa Ieyasu is almost as absurd as implying that Britain is a divorce crazy country due to Henry VIII.