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Comment by svachalek | Hacker News Reader

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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