Ethnic issues in Japan

According to census statistics in 2018, 97.8% of the population of Japan are Japanese, with the remainder being foreign nationals residing in Japan. The number of foreign workers has increased dramatically in recent years, due to the aging population and the lack of labor forces. A news article in 2018 suggests that approximately 1 out of 10 young population residing in Tokyo are foreign nationals.

• Japan is a relatively-free, well-educated, and extremely prosperous society–and, in many ways, to be admired. But it is also a deeply racist society, although so far non-violent. For example, in 2017 a story broke regarding a Japanese cosmetics shop posting a sign in its window announcing that no Chinese were allowed to enter. An author who is an advisor to the government on education wrote that she favors an apartheid-type system in Japan that keeps the races separate. The Japanese Defense Minister received donations from an anti-Korean group; she was also pictured in a meeting with the head of the Japanese Nazi Party. Immigration is kept to a minimum and there is a strong sentiment among both the government and the majority of the population to maintain a mono-culture by retaining a single race in Japan.
  • Andrew Bernstein, "America: A Racist Nation?" (11 June 2020), Capitalism Magazine

• Encyclopedic article on Ethnic issues in Japan on Wikipedia