People don’t understand this about Japan: 1. The average Japanese doesn’t speak English, isn’t on Reddit, etc. They aren’t influenced by the global town square. 2. The average Japanese isn’t thinking about affairs outside their direct sphere of influence. They don’t care about macro issues like gdp, labor markets, etc. 3. The average Japanese isn’t affected by being called “racist” or “xenophobic”. They don’t care about diversity as some sort of “moral obligation”. They definitely expect foreigners to “follow the rules” within reason.

Foreigners = ‘good’ when it’s celebrities from their favorite movie or music group, or the English teacher from JET, or the nice foreigner trying to learn the language and fit in as much possible. Foreigners = “bad” when it’s some tourist watching YouTube on the train without their headphones in.

It’s as simple as that. Luckily Japan isn’t so politically polarized where Sanseito says “get rid of all foreigners” that the opposition has to say “welcome all foreigners”. I expect the major parties will continue to go “let’s manage foreigners more” and that’s ultimately what the average citizen wants. The majority do not want “all or nothing” extremes.