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Comment by ericmay | Hacker News Reader

I think it's hard to compare Japan with the US or UK or other countries because unlike those countries, Japan can't turn on what I'll call an immigration valve and just flat-out import people to grow the economy.

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Don’t forget the high taxes on investments in Japan. Basically, US is good for investors but Japan is good for workers. Japan’s median wealth is higher than US.

Not sure I would call Japan good for workers. There is a reason for japanese having the word "karoushi", which has the meaning of a person that has died due to overwork.

Can't or won't?

Would be much harder even if they wanted to. Lots of countries teach their kids English, only one teaches their kids Japanese.

You don't need to speak the local language to live and work some place. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of migrant workers (temporary or permanent) around the world are unable to speak the local language upon entry.

That works in America and the UK because there are already large immigrant communities for you to arrive into. If you arrive in Japan speaking Spanish or Hindi today, how's that going to go?

It's not impossible, but it would take a lot of time and Japanese culture isn't exactly known for xenophilia.

The xenophobia is the point of the reply I assume. Financial life isn’t that great for most of the world. People will go places for a better life. Language isn’t going to stop that. Xenophobia will.

It’s completely possible. Most people in e.g. Qatar can’t speak much Arabic. The most common languages spoken in the Gulf are Hindi and English.

I doubt that Japan will be going in that direction any time soon, but if they wanted to, they could.

Both really. They can't because they won't, but also because they can't.

only so much space on an island. Japan is pretty crowded as it is, isn't it?

About the size of east coast, from Canada to Florida. It’s fairly large.

Tokyo is crowded, however.

Not at all. It's largely a chain of mountains so most people live down on the coasts.

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