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Comment by Apocryphon | Hacker News Reader

Why assume that Japanese culture is neither venerable nor attractive enough to withstand the phenomenon you’re describing?

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Because culture is not an abstract set of ideas separate from its people. You can only adopt a culture you weren't brought up in to a certain degree, and usually very shallowly.

There have been non-ethnically Yamato people in Japan for at least centuries. However Japanese society or law might have treated them, are you saying the Zainichi are culturally less Japanese than ethnic Japanese?

Seems like a lack of faith in societies to properly integrate new arrivals.

This will likely prove to be a false equivalence.

Seems like a lack of faith in societies to properly integrate new arrivals.

Yes, exactly. I have little faith in that, because it rarely happens.

Why assume modern day East Asian countries will integrate new arrivals the same way as European and North American nations do?

And are you aware that international migration has been happening for millennia? All nations have people who have assimilated and integrated, to different degrees.

And lots of unique cultures were lost along the way.

Most unique cultures are likely to have disappeared by force via conquest and colonization, not through voluntary migration. And in most cases, it is the migrants themselves' cultures that get lost in favor of the host nation's culture.

Mass migration seems to be for economic benefits. A handful of people may immigrate out of appreciation of their new host culture, but millions or tens of millions doing so? Seems unlikely to me. They'll go to earn more money.

It sounds like Japan, with its own unique culture and governance distinct from Western nations, is not pursuing a course of mass migration but something more regulated and careful.

They were, for a while. Isn't the point of this article that they're moving to a much more Western-style policy? Japan was a unique culture, but already feels a lot less so than it used to be.

Perhaps it will be a more open migration policy with Japanese characteristics.

It's not unthinkable their ability to withstand influence is based on monoculturalism. Immigration can dilute that ability. In any way change inherently conflicts with status quo.

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