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Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#51

Post by moretai »

foota wrote: post #48
burtonator wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also taboo for white people to call some non-white people racist but then we can't actually have a discussion about racism.

My two cents here: non white people can certainly be racist, but racism is a structural thing, so it doesn't make sense to talk about racism by people that are not white, in the United States, since the structure isn't there. But I think it makes perfect sense to talk about it in other places.

So what is a dislike for another race called?

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#52

Post by echelon »

carapace wrote: post #38
hikarudo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A first world country that short of some tech and Toyota/Honda produce little to nothing for trade. Everything is imported Japan does not export "some tech and Toyota/Honda". It exports a LOTS of vehicles, vehicle parts, integrated circuits, machines, etc. Japan is the 4th largest exporter in the world. Also, a country that doesn't export much cannot import much, or else how could the country afford it? edit: typo

Not mention Japan's massive cultural exports, e.g. Godzilla, Nintendo, anime, samurai and ninjas, you could go on and on.

If you look at the list of most valuable media franchises, Japan is king.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_med...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_vid...

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#53

Post by whytaka »

debatem1 wrote: post #19
Causality1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a valid choice for a country to decide that the economic boon from foreign entrepreneurs isn't worth it if those people can't speak your language. I'd certainly be irritated if someone opened a business in my town and couldn't speak English, and the US is a lot less homogeneous than Japan.

So, I don't understand this perspective at all. Help me get it. It seems to me that speaking a language is a skill. I know from my own experience trying to learn a second language that it isn't an easy skill for many people to acquire. Why should I be more irritated that someone doesn't speak English than that they, say, can't make a cabinet or can't write Java, or any other mildly demanding skill? I get the argument…

> Why should I be more irritated that someone doesn't speak English than that they, say, can't make a cabinet or can't write Java, or any other mildly demanding skill?

Because conversation is how relationships form.

2. I'm still not sure why I should be upset about that.

Because if the foreigner has success, they may draw in other people who don't speak your language to do the same, and now the dominance of your culture is contested.

Not that I agree but that's what people would say.

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#54

Post by whyaduck »

moretai wrote: post #51
foota wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My two cents here: non white people can certainly be racist, but racism is a structural thing, so it doesn't make sense to talk about racism by people that are not white, in the United States, since the structure isn't there. But I think it makes perfect sense to talk about it in other places.

So what is a dislike for another race called?

Bigotry.

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#55

Post by simias »

debatem1 wrote: post #30
clay_the_ripper wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making cabinets and speaking the language of a culture that is necessary to succeed are not the same thing at all. Yes they are both skills but the similarity ends there. Do you think a Japanese person who doesn’t speak English could build a successful company in the US without the help of someone who speaks English? It would be impossible.

I'm not sure why you believe the similarity ends there. The Japanese person would likely do the same thing I do if I need a cabinet made-- hire someone with that skill to do the job. Eventually that might stop making economic sense and they might decide to cut out the middleman, but again-- I'm not sure why I should be irritated either way.

It's probably not what's going to happen though, instead that person is going to work preferentially with people who speak their language because even if hiring a translator to work full-time was an option (and it generally wouldn't be because hiring a good translator full time would be ridiculously expensive for most companies) it would be a major pain in the ass to have to translate everything all the time.

A few years ago I worked with a Taiwanese company and we had to use translators because some of their engineers didn't speak English (and I don't speak Chinese). The person translating was also an engineer which helped massively as she understood what we were talking about and could sometimes anticipate our questions and "fluidify" the discussion but it was still a huge annoyance, it made every interaction more painful than it needed to be, you often wondered if they really understood what you meant etc... I can't really imagine myself working full time in such an arrangement.

I now live in Portugal and there's a massive American and French community in Lisbon. Many of them don't bother learning Portuguese and just interact with everybody in English. As such Portuguese people looking to work in Lisbon pretty much have to speak English. Actually you can now find restaurants where the waiter speaks English but not Portuguese (or at least not fluently). You can encounter similar situations all around the world where there's a huge foreign community. That can be fairly irritating for locals who end up feeling that they're the ones living in a foreign country...

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#57

Post by clarry »

moretai wrote: post #51
foota wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My two cents here: non white people can certainly be racist, but racism is a structural thing, so it doesn't make sense to talk about racism by people that are not white, in the United States, since the structure isn't there. But I think it makes perfect sense to talk about it in other places.

So what is a dislike for another race called?

In the context of disliking people from other countries, xenophobia.

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#58

Post by _0ffh »

namirez wrote: post #47
rb808 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan has virtually identical GDP/capita to the UK, the numbers are a little out of date as GBP has fallen in last few years. Maybe UK could try to emulate Japan to try to catch up with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)...

Your claim is correct only between 1985 and 1995. Since 1995, Japan's economy has stagnated but UK's has grown significantly. source: https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

Looking at these numbers, UK has also been stagnating since ca 2005. Comparing between 1980 and 2015, both had about the same growth in GDP per capita, and about the same absolute numbers. Only Japan did the bulk of it's growing earlier in that time span, and the UK later.

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#59

Post by claudeganon »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #40
debatem1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I don't understand this perspective at all. Help me get it. It seems to me that speaking a language is a skill. I know from my own experience trying to learn a second language that it isn't an easy skill for many people to acquire. Why should I be more irritated that someone doesn't speak English than that they, say, can't make a cabinet or can't write Java, or any other mildly demanding skill? I get the argument…

> I get the argument that someone who doesn't speak your language doesn't participate fully in your culture either, but I guess I'm still not sure why I should be upset about that. Societal harmony matters. It's why universal healthcare exists. It's why welfare exists. It's why affirmative action exists. Why countries spend money integrating immigrants. Everything that helps out poorer people is done with societal ha…

> Countries exist that have dozens of languages and tribes. They usually have endless social problems, unrest, civil wars and often break up.

Oh yeah, the history of the Swiss in the context of Europe is just non-stop insanity and violence. If only they could aspire to be more monocultural and peaceful, like their neighbors, the Germans...

Re: Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?

#60

Post by wnevets »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #33
seiko988 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet China is a global superpower and shut off from immigration

china has a billion people. they don't need immigration. japan's population is declining

Not just a billion people but millions who are just now entering the workforce
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