WI Japan invited immigrants like European countries did

The difficulty would be getting over the vast amounts of casual racism and disdain the immigrants would have to face. As others have pointed out, Koreans who have been in Japan for over a hundred years are still considered foreigners. Japanese racism is far more prevalent and accepted in its wider society than can be said of any other country

This remind me a quote made by some Japanese nationalist which I read today: "It's normal to be proud of one's country. The only ones who hate the Japanese flag are Koreans living in Japan."
 
The Zainichi Korean community is well known in Japan along with a minority supporting North Korea through their so-called embassy Chongryon. There have also been small Turkish and Russian communities in Japan since the early 20th century.
 
This is just a thought, but perhaps the Japanese are scared of Koreans and other East Asians because they could physically pretty much pass as Japanese, yet this contradicts the need to be able to identify them as foreign. Japanese seem to have no problems with a bunch of foreign students and businessmen living in their country, so I don't think it would be such a big stretch to have the culture be accepting of permanent foreign workers as well.

Let's say that postwar Japan gets allied with South Vietnam or something. In the 80s, Japan is doing really well but S. Vietnam is a failed state. Since Japanese support for Vietnam is seen as a patriotic/conservative stance (defense against Communism), immigration from that one country becomes acceptable for the Japanese (including the conservatives who would have otherwise opposed it) and popular for the Vietnamese, seeing that the two countries' gap in wealth and HDI is massive.

By 1990 you have over a million Vietnamese in Japan, a number which begins to stay relatively constant due to stability in Vietnam and a slowdown of the Japanese economic boom. Race relations suffer a bit in the mid and late 90s as the economy tanks, but by this point the immigrants are more or less seen as permanent, and most government officials and bodies accept this. Discrimination continues but the life in Japan is still better than it would be back home. Furthermore, the presence of this large, highly-urbanized minority brings about an increase of awareness among the Japanese majority, and they help push for immigrant rights into the 21st century.

In contrast to OTL, where the presence of foreigners is marginalized, TTL's Japan is forced into national dialogue about the issue and they ultimately move to accept that the immigrants are there to stay. I think this is the inevitable result of the above scenario, though I admit I do not know if the Japanese would ever let in that many immigrants in the first place or how bad race relations would be. I picked Vietnam because it is far away from Japan culturally speaking yet still barely on the other side of the Sinosphere, so there is a still an opportunity potential mutual understanding. I assumed that Japan might let in the immigrants due to Cold War relations (save the Vietnamese from Communism!) and because of the judgement that their booming economy could support it.
 
but i thought japan loves westerners given how.prevalent they are in the manga and anime and otaku world. i mean nearly every manga set in japan has westerners in it.
 

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but i thought japan loves westerners given how.prevalent they are in the manga and anime and otaku world. i mean nearly every manga set in japan has westerners in it.
Well, let's give an analogy. How many World War II timelines are there that involves a more successful German Reich, Soviet Union, or Empire of Japan? Does this mean we'd actually want any Nazis, Stalinist Marxist-Leninists, or Japanese nationalists immigrating to our countries?

That, and Japanese culture doesn't always present foreign cultures very well in the very Otaku world you reference. Most of the villains have the backing of foreign nations, or the villains themselves are westerners. Many of the capitalist greedy individuals are represented as a short, fat, foreigner with a number of mistreated Japanese underlings. Not all of them, mind you, but you can sense a pattern if you look into it. I'm not ingratiated into that culture at all, but from what I've seen I have no illusions about the prevalence of xenophobia there after also hearing from it from people who have been there.
 
It'd be interesting if the Japanese government wasn't very involved in immigration to the islands. That would happen either if Japan is occupied and has a labor shortage, or if the government is too weak and dysfunctional to prevent illegal immigration.

The latter would probably have to be from other parts of East Asia, but the question is, if Japan was in such a bad state, why would people go there?

I see the occupation option as the most likely. US-led occupation lasts into the 60s or even 70s, and the provisional government brings in laborers from places like Turkey, South Vietnam, maybe the poorer parts of the US and Europe. When self-government is restored, the newcomers are too ingratiated to be removed peacefully, and the world community is watching Japan too closely for them to even consider it.
 
But "accepting that they exist" and "treating them as equals" are not the same thing.

Equality is not what the OP is looking for. My view is that if a large population gets stuck living somewhere, it becomes hard to remove them without resorting to violence or deportation, both of which are not options available to postwar Japan. Therefore over time the immigrants and the Japanese will have to get along, even if at first in an unequal societal relationship.
 
Equality is not what the OP is looking for. My view is that if a large population gets stuck living somewhere, it becomes hard to remove them without resorting to violence or deportation, both of which are not options available to postwar Japan. Therefore over time the immigrants and the Japanese will have to get along, even if at first in an unequal societal relationship.

I'm not sure it would be just "at first", but the reason I bring it up is addressing Roberto's comment - you might well get the OP's goal met, but that doesn't mean foreigners would be treated any differently than OTL.
 
I'm not sure it would be just "at first", but the reason I bring it up is addressing Roberto's comment - you might well get the OP's goal met, but that doesn't mean foreigners would be treated any differently than OTL.
I think that while what you say is sadly true, it is also true that some of Japan's aging problems would be partially answered, not to mention the average immigrant would still be better off in Japan than wherever they came from.
 
Well, let's give an analogy. How many World War II timelines are there that involves a more successful German Reich, Soviet Union, or Empire of Japan? Does this mean we'd actually want any Nazis, Stalinist Marxist-Leninists, or Japanese nationalists immigrating to our countries?

That, and Japanese culture doesn't always present foreign cultures very well in the very Otaku world you reference. Most of the villains have the backing of foreign nations, or the villains themselves are westerners. Many of the capitalist greedy individuals are represented as a short, fat, foreigner with a number of mistreated Japanese underlings. Not all of them, mind you, but you can sense a pattern if you look into it. I'm not ingratiated into that culture at all, but from what I've seen I have no illusions about the prevalence of xenophobia there after also hearing from it from people who have been there.

I agree xenophobia is prevalent in Japan. I see what you mean.
 
I think that while what you say is sadly true, it is also true that some of Japan's aging problems would be partially answered, not to mention the average immigrant would still be better off in Japan than wherever they came from.

Not sure about the second - I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not informed enough to be convinced.

Inclined to trust you know of what you speak, though.
 
Well it depends on where they came from. Could they find work there? Could they feed themselves and their families? Was the country peaceful? Racism or no, Japan would be a better choice than a home where none of the above conditions were fulfilled.
 
Japan is perhaps the most culturally and ethnically distinct nation in the world

Which is, of course, why Japanese is written in a Chinese-derived script, many of its people follow a religion originating in India, European technology and military methods were eagerly accepted in the 19th century and gratuitious English is so common in modern Japanese media...
 
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