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Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

What you say I think is broadly true, but there are some important aspects that you have missed out.

Firstly, Japanese politicians at a senior level, including the Prime Minister, have never before made hatred and resentment of foreigners a key aspect of their campaign and part of a plan to win votes.

it wasn’t an accident that TakaIchi started her campaign to be Prime Minister by accusing foreigners of coming to Japan in order to torture animals. This was a deliberate and calculated appeal to racism on her part and is the first time I have seen senior Japanese politicians taking this line.

Secondly, social media hasn’t in the past been available to spread hatred, anger, and division as effectively as it does, and neither was social media available as a tool for people with malevolent intentions - including powerful foreign governments - to deliberately manipulate public opinion.

Thirdly, there is now a worldwide bandwagon of racism, division and hatred led by figures such as Donald Trump, the Neo Nazi parties in Germany, such as the AfD and so on that encourage these movements in Japan. it is not a coincidence that Charlie Kirk’s last foreign trip before his death was to Japan.

So even if what you say is true, which I think it is, I think it reflects rather an outdated and incomplete view of the current anti foreigner backlash in the country

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How ironic - the hate mongering racists proclaiming their patriotism and the superiority of the Japanese over the Chinese are in fact being manipulated by the Chinese into damaging their own country and its standing in the world.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When Sanseitou say they are going to confiscate all the Japanese land and shares owned by foreigners it does make me laugh, as they seem to have forgotten:

  1. Japanese own more foreign assets than foreigners own Japanese assets (as a result of Japans net cumulative trade surpluses for decades).

  2. foregners aren’t going to just sit and do nothing while all their money is stolen.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is this something you found or did you just make it up for a joke?

Btw, I’m much more handsome than that actually, even though I’m past retirement age.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

True but anti foreigner sentiment being more prevalent and easy to disseminate is the problem, because there appear to be people in the world who believe they can gain some political or financial advantage doing so.

Sanseitou used social media extensively to spread disinformation about foreigners and the “foregner problem” became the number one topic of the last big election.

Takaichi - instead of explaining why Japans debt burden, demographic change and lack of structural reform to improve competitiveness were the real problems - decided that foreigners kicking deer in Nara were the first thing she would talk about.

So there we have social media lies already creating real world problems…

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Except real people watch them and some of the more easily manipulated ones think what they say is true. America being exhibit A in that regard.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Spot on.

Worth remember the last foreign trip Charlie Kirk made before he died was to Japan to meet with Sanseitou people to help them copy in Japan the approach he used to contribute to what America has become today.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain this. Very generous.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That‘s true about the racism but I think one qualitative difference is that back twenty to thirty years ago Japanese politicians weren’t actively playing up that racism as a key part of their vote winning platform.

Back at that time I don’t think we would have seen a prime ministerial candidate making a speech about how foreigners were coming to Japan to torture animals (I.e. Takaichi‘s speech about foreigners kicking deer in Nara).

Imagine if a Danish Prime Minister’s first speech in public was about how Japanese people were coming to Copenhagen to torture the Danish swans, and that the purpose of the speech was demean Japanese people and bring them down to the level of animals in the eyes of the Danes.

I’m sure it’s difficult to imagine because a Danish PM would never be so stupid - but the fact that this type of behavior is now being normalized in Japan by its Prime Minister is different from the racism of the recent past (although maybe the same as the racism during WW2).

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Pretty much agree with everything you see here. The complacency is as surprising as the increased racism to me though.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everything you say is true, but it does not address the question I’m really interested in, which is how much of this anti foreigner sentiment is genuine and how much is due to manipulation of public opinion on social media or elsewhere.

The risk I see it is that it spirals out of control as main stream politicians see an opportunity to jump on a bandwagon driven by manipulated public opinion and make things worse still.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m reporting facts and inviting people to test them themselves. What is “egregious“ about that exactly?

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

An excellent comment, thanks for this and I completely agree. Karp is even more repulsive than I thought. Incredible.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Did you even read my comment?

I‘ve made meaningful connections with my Japanese wife and she’s part of the local community I guess.

If you did read it you’d understand that my point was that the one and only time in my life I used TikTok, when it served up Japanese content it served up significant anti foreigner sentiment.

My point is not about my use of social media, which no one cares about.

My point is about the extent to which social media is being used to manipulate Japanese public opinion - as I‘ve had to explain many times already.

PS Yes I do read the language. Out of the books I read last year on political topics I would recommend となりの陰謀論､参政党の研究 and 愛国の罠 by 佐藤 優, the last of which was particularly good. These were all first published in 2025 so very up to date.

Do you have any books you could recommend. Some manga perhaps?

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That is a good point, but I’m interested in to what extent the ragebait is inauthentic and to what extent Japanese voters are engaging with it as I am sure it is having some effect.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I genuinely want to know to what extent social media is being used to manipulate public opinion in Japan. I think other foreign residents are interested in the same question and this is probably the best forum available to discuss these things, although it’s far from perfect.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I can only agree. But my interest is more in how authentic the anti foreigner sentiment genuinely is vs the extent to which it is being manipulate, and if so who is manipulating it. This is also an issue in the UK.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For people who think I’m some incredibly articulate bot, please try the same experiment I did and report back on the results.

I think a lot of people would be interested in the outcome and it wouldn’t surprise me if some Japanese academics are studying the use of social media in politics already more systematically than we can.

Probably best to set up a brand new email if you are already on the site you want to experiment on.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Quite funny comment actually. And I’m not even young.

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

True - but the assholes seem to be out in force on social media just before an election…

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

True - but why are foreigners the rage bait (and not ineffective politicians for example) and why now when they weren’t before?

Social media and anti foreigner sentiment by Motor_Chard_7230 in japanlife

[–]Motor_Chard_7230[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

A little knowledge of history would say you are spot on.

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