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Comment by AlchemistCamp | Hacker News Reader

I'm not speaking of people failing to navigate local bureaucracy or "having a harder time coping with the expectations of Japanese society". I'm talking about theft, battery, and homicide (for which the stats are hardest to dispute).

Regardless of your feelings about assigning blame, it's very hard to fault people for choosing to decrease the likelihood of themselves and their fellow citizens from suffering harm from more outsiders.

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Well, prior to the imposition of colonial rule in various parts of the world, were there formal penalties for theft, battery or homicide?

As far as I’m aware, it very much depended on who you know, who your family or tribe is, and the power dynamics between the various groups in the territory.

It’s not as if laws and enforcement banning these actions are universal today, and they absolutely weren’t universal not that long ago.

PS don’t miss where I said… > While at the same time, it is a valid reason to not let them in.

What does the situation prior to "the imposition of colonial rule in various parts of the world" have to do with modern Japan?

Japanese people had similar restrictions on uncontrolled violence back then too, people from some other parts of the world didn’t. People from those other parts may have a harder time complying with restrictions on uncontrolled violence, due to lacking a long familial history with those restrictions. Like, why would someone whose family has had these same kinds of restrictions in place for 1,000 years or more not be better at following them than someone who hasn’t?

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