The population decline and feeling to protect their identity are the two composite parts that strongly make Japan's case dire to my eyes. Those are not businesses feelings, and while China mispredicted it's population trends, we haven't seen any other country reversing a declining population other than letting in more people.

Perhaps the US is on the same slope, right now anything US related sounds bonkers on all sides so I have no idea how it will go after next elections.

> those tradeoffs are theirs to make

I'm a lot biased as they're making these tradeoffs for me and my family, and electing a different leadership will be tough short term. More than half of the population is 50+ yo and mostly cares about keeping it safe for their old age.

TBF the current gov does a lot in other aspects, but throwing immigration as a bone to nationalist sentiment has never led to good outcomes IMHO.