AHC: Heterogeneous Japan

JoeMulk

Banned
How could you get a POD for a timeline where Japan becomes a popular immigration destination and is diversified as a result?
 
First, Japan isn't as homogenous as is generally believed: there are about 2 million foreigners living in Japan, including large numbers of Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos, Americans, Europeans, Iranians, and Africans.

Secondly, given Japan's birthrate and high dependency ratio, it's probably bound to become more diverse in the next 20-30 years as immigration starts to pick up.
 

Cook

Banned
First, Japan isn't as homogenous as is generally believed: there are about 2 million foreigners living in Japan...
2 Million out of 127 million, making them 98.5% ethnic Japanese; that’s about as homogeneous as you get.
 
First, Japan isn't as homogenous as is generally believed: there are about 2 million foreigners living in Japan, including large numbers of Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos, Americans, Europeans, Iranians, and Africans.

Secondly, given Japan's birthrate and high dependency ratio, it's probably bound to become more diverse in the next 20-30 years as immigration starts to pick up.

2 million out of 127 million. That's still rather homogeneous.

I suggest some sort of major refugee crisis in the aftermath of WWII on the mainland; millions flee to Japan seeking refuge from oppressive governments, and they stay. A North Korean victory in the Korean War could achieve this, maybe if you prevent the US intervention somehow. A Chinese landing on Taiwan could see more Chinese fleeing to Japan. The US might force Japan to take them, as payment of some sort for WWII. Maybe Japan could become a center for ex-Soviet expatriates?

Not sure how much sense this makes.
 
Japan takes the Philippines and holds onto Korea and Manchuria.


Holding Korea MIGHT be done with a lot of luck and excessive amounts of force.

Holding Manchuria or the Phillipines is outright impossible, with Manchuria you are dealing with a resentful native populace that will significantly outnumber any Japanese forces or settlers on the ground in Manchuria. The Philippines is perfect-made guerrilla country, even the Filipinos have trouble keeping a hold on things, the Japanese are certainly not going to be able to do it.
 
As a note on Japan's immigrant population, I have read that naturalized citizens, of which there are a fair number (Thousands of Zainichi Koreans naturalize every year, and intermarriage means a lot of Japanese probably have recent Korean and Taiwanese ancestors) are counted by most sources as ethnically Japanese, as the Japanese census only records nationality, not ancestry/ethnicity (Although they have their slightly overwrought family registration system, which I records naturalized citizens), so Japan is to some degree more multi-ethnic than can be accurately enumerated. An unknown number of Japanese have Ainu ancestry as well, and technically the Okinawans could be considered a separate ethnic group (Or multiple ethnic groups), so if you somehow boost Ainu and Okinawan national consciousness (Most likely requiring a pre-1900 POD) you could make Japan more diverse.

And as has been stated, if they keep ties to their former empire alive stronger, we could see more immigration from the former colonies, and they could, with no World War II or a somehow different settlement, keep Taiwan as an integral part of the home islands, automatically making the country more diverse with several million Chinese and nearly half a million aborigines. Aboriginal culture and identity may be stronger today if Japan still ruled Taiwan, as the RoC repressed them and they have a fairly fond view of the Japanese today, although this may be due to viewing the period through rose colored glasses.

During the post war economic boom, what was Japan's labor situation like? A lot of the diversity of Western Europe began due to the settlement of guest workers in the 1950s and 1960s to work jobs in the burgeoning industrial sector.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
One cruel idea is instead of the nuclear option or Downfall, we have the blockage starvation where millions of people in the Home Islands die. Then, most likely Koreans would immigrate in the 1950's after the Korean War.


During the post war economic boom, what was Japan's labor situation like? A lot of the diversity of Western Europe began due to the settlement of guest workers in the 1950s and 1960s to work jobs in the burgeoning industrial sector.
Unlike Germany which had a labor shortage, Japan did have enough hands to keep the machine running without resorting to immigrants.
 

NothingNow

Banned
One of the few things coming to my mind in terms of 20th century PODs is besides the Korean and Taiwanese immigration over the century is allowing some percentage of the Refugees that ended up in Hong Kong, or some of the Jews initially encouraged to settle in Manchuria into the Home Islands, followed up by more intermixing between American troops and the civilian population.
 
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