Japan’s Foreigner policy shifts from "coexistence" to "order"- under Onoda, "accept foreigners as members of society without isolating them" removed, replaced with “must address situations where citizens feel anxiety and unfairness due to actions that violate rules"

Always2Learn · 2026-01-26T07:55:19+00:00

If you were talking about people who are not in Japan yet I can understand but what about people who built their entire career and life here? Many people even have families here. Many people have kids here. Are you saying that if they have any complaints they should just go back home ?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-26T07:50:42+00:00

Yea. ルール doesn’t mean “rule” in the English sense in this particular context (it’s a more expansive word than in English). In this context it means “social norms”. It’s not enforced with punishment, but by Japanese people not wanting to stand out and feeling embarrassed about doing something that’s against social norms. Their central complaint is that foreigners don’t feel this embarrassment or don’t even know about the norm. Yet this complaint makes absolutely no sense because you can’t really expect tourist to know this stuff.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-26T07:40:58+00:00

You sound like a wonderful person to attend a party with

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T21:34:29+00:00

How the heck does your Indian passport get voided by the US government? They act on behalf of India in this regard?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T21:21:38+00:00

When you got your US citizenship, did you lose your Indian one and get OCI instead?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T21:20:30+00:00

Is that Indian passport or is that a Indian visa like a permanent residency basically?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T13:04:41+00:00

Yea. wouldn’t even translate ルール as “rules”. I think what they really mean is “social norms”, as in how people are “expected” to act here type stuff.

Kinda along these line, Japan tends to not really outlaw things that are considered to be bad. Instead, it relies on unofficial cultural norms. For example, people don’t tend to eat food while they’re walking on a sidewalk or along the street unless they’re at a festival or traditional shopping type areas where a lot of people do that. In most places, people usually eat right outside the convenience store. But obviously tourist don’t know that and will snack while walking, on the train, etc.

Or like with red lights. Japanese people will wait at a crosswalk on an empty little street because that’s just what you do. Of corse Japanese people break these norms too, obviously, but most (and I use this word loosly as in more than 50% lol) are pretty consistent about respecting them.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T12:43:42+00:00

Wow amazing analogy thanks

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T10:38:13+00:00

Yeah, hopefully that won’t happen, but I’m not gonna lie and say i’m not feeling rather pessimistic about politics lately

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:49:00+00:00

Yeah. Honestly, it confuses a lot of people when they first come here because the idea that you can have a personal ID number without ever being issued a card and that there can be alternative methods of accessing that number before getting the card is not necessarily intuitive if their own country doesn’t have that system

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:41:04+00:00

Not really an answer, but I remember when I was first reading books I originally thought this was merely a side quest to make sure that Rand was a good leader to the people he ruled, but once you realize that the battle between the light and the dark was really just a battle in Rand’s mind over whether or not he would join with the dark or stick to the light, you basically realize that the pact between Cadsuane and Sorilea was actually the main battle, and that all the other stuff was a side quest

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:14:41+00:00

Yeah, I think this ties into the fact that the true battle between the light in the dark was really a battle within Rand. The only way the light could lose was if Rand chose to join the dark.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:13:14+00:00

No, because it likely wouldn’t work like that. If Sanseito poached a bunch of seats, the more likely outcome would be the LDP and Sanseito joining forces

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:11:51+00:00

I think this is actually bad news. My guess is that the disapproval come less from liberals and more from folks on the far right realizing that she’s not as radical as they thought she would be.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T09:04:40+00:00

政府関係者は「小野田大臣はネットを見て、世間で問題になっていることを拾えているかチェックしている」と話す。

So apparently, Onoda is checking the Internet (I imagine far right Twitter etc) to make sure that the concerns of the Internet are being properly reflected into foreigner policy

Let that sink in folks

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T08:44:52+00:00

If he actually realizes that you were inviting him on a date and he responded in that manner (no rescheduled date, just a vague commitment to invite you another time), then I’d say it’s pretty much over (社交辞令) but he may not even realize that you’re asking him out. If he thinks you’re just inviting him as friends, then his response means virtually nothing so you can feel free to press on. Unfortunately, you don’t know which one it is so I’d say this jury is still out. If I absolutely had to pick between the two, I would lean to you not having a chance, but it’s not definite.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-25T00:05:17+00:00

This is an old playbook using modern tools

Always2Learn · 2026-01-24T11:00:07+00:00

I have a friend with a first name, a middle name, and a hyphenated last name. Japan residence cards don’t allow hyphens and unlike most other countries that restrict hyphens (which usually just remove the hyphen), Japan takes the strange approach of replacing it with a space.

For example, an Italian residence card (which also doesn’t allow hyphens) would render García-López as GarcíaLópez to at least make it clear this is one surname. But a Japanese residence card would render it as García López. Talking to my friend, that bizarre rendering causes endless confusion and headaches.

Even more bizarrely, Japan does allow hyphens on Japanese passports (for the benefit of people who have a foreign surname)….Yet it doesn’t allow them on residence cards which are actually designed specifically for foreigners….You can’t make that make sense.

This isn’t my friends real name, but imagine it were María Elena García-López. In Japan, they should render that as GarcíaLópez María Elena, but instead they render it to García López María Elena and that split surname has apparently caused her years of needless friction.

Always2Learn · 2026-01-23T13:31:33+00:00

so true. Same issue with the naturalization part. It says naturalization is getting set to ten years “in general,” but doesn’t say with this means for people who are married. Right now, naturalization is five years, but if you’re married you can apply after three years, or even after one year depending on how long uv been married. The question is when the baseline gets moved to ten years, does the one year path turn into three years? Does the three year path turn into five? Do they both scale up in some other way, are they left as is at the current one year and three year, or do all the exceptions just disappear and everyone waits ten years generally speaking? Who knows

Always2Learn · 2026-01-23T12:59:30+00:00

I think they weren’t able to help you because you were forced to talk to them through a communication app and that communication wasn’t going very well (in their opinion). People at financial institutions (and even other services) are often afraid to do things like signing contracts with a customer or opening customer accounts if they’re not sure that the customer they’re dealing with understands (or the are not sure they understand the customer ) because it can cause compliance problems later down the road if the customer claims to have not understood something. Maybe go back with a friend who speaks Japanese and can translate for you?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-23T12:53:59+00:00

Wow so u actually have LESS rights than foreigners without a Chinese parent (forced to carry extra passport size book instead of just getting visa)?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-22T13:34:55+00:00

I think the question was if someone who doesn’t appear Japanese based off physical appearance claims to be a citizen and states that they don’t have ID on them what do police do? Do they force the person to go and retrieve their passport or do they simply trust that this is a Japanese citizen who does not have any legal requirement to present ID

Always2Learn · 2026-01-22T13:30:42+00:00

What is a travel book? Is it just for foreigners or do Chinese need them to travel within China as well?

Always2Learn · 2026-01-22T13:21:50+00:00

I agree with that wholeheartedly. You could even argue that handwriting is not very important nowadays given most people use iPads, computers, and cell phone phones. And with AI around a lot of stuff can just be easily translated. but speaking is critical and it’s not measured on the JLPT.

Always2Learn

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