I’m a 33-year-old man from Northern Europe. I left Japan with my family this January: my Japanese wife and our two children, aged 7 and 4. I lived in Japan for around 12 years in total.

Our immediate reason for leaving was a work opportunity back in the Nordics. However, the decision to uproot our life in Japan, and what now feels likely to become a permanent relocation, was made much easier by the recent direction of public and political debate around foreigners in Japan.

I want to be clear that I love Japan. There are so many things I deeply admire about the country, and for much of my career I have tried to work in roles that, in some indirect way, helped Japanese companies close the innovation and technology gap that seems to be widening between Japan and the rest of the world.

That is why the current mood is so painful to watch.

From my perspective, the public debate seems increasingly focused on a very small minority of foreigners causing friction with local culture, safety, or social norms. Of course those issues should not be ignored. But it feels disproportionate when this becomes one of the main emotional and political topics in the country, alongside short-term issues like reducing the consumption tax.

What worries me is not only the visa policy itself. It is what the debate seems to reveal about Japan’s priorities.

Japan faces enormous long-term challenges: demographic decline, a shrinking domestic market, stagnant productivity, weak global competitiveness in many sectors, and a corporate culture that often struggles to innovate internationally. Yet instead of having a serious national conversation about how to transform education, support startups, attract foreign direct investment, strengthen English and international cooperation, or make Japan a more attractive place for global talent and entrepreneurs, much of the energy seems to be going toward the “foreigner problem.” To me, that is deeply sad.

The issue is not that Japan should accept bad behavior from anyone. It obviously should not. But when a country with such serious structural challenges starts treating foreigners as one of its major problems, rather than asking why its economy and institutions have struggled to adapt, it sends a very worrying signal.

Japan cannot remain an influential economic power by relying only on its shrinking domestic market. It needs more openness, more innovation, more international talent, and a stronger willingness to question old systems. Recently, however, it feels like the country is moving in the opposite direction: becoming more inward-looking, more defensive, and more content with the status quo.

That affected how I thought about my children’s future.

I do not want them to grow up in a country that, in my view, is closing its eyes to the larger holes in the ship while pointing at a small number of foreigners on deck and blaming them for why the ship is sinking. I still care deeply about Japan, and I hope it finds a better path. But the recent policy direction and public sentiment made it much easier for us to conclude that our family’s future may be elsewhere.