Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Why There Aren't Many Illegal Immigrants In Japan

Japan has low levels of legal immigration and almost non-existent levels of illegal immigration, despite being, like Britain, a northerly, rainy trading island with global connections and excellent international transport links. It's a lot closer to a large number of poor people than the UK is, too. I bet there are more illegal Chinese immigrants in the UK than just over the water in Japan.

There's an interesting post on Japanese culture by Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker - an answer to Ed West's question "why is there no looting in Japan?" (about 3,400 comments and still rising - must be some sort of record). The author, who has lived in Japan, is not writing a piece about immigration, but this passage struck me :

"There is little urban anonymity. When I first lived in Japan on a work visa and had my own apartment in a residential neighborhood of Tokyo, in 1971, I was paid a friendly visit by a local policeman. It was a completely routine matter: police are required to keep track of every resident of their beats, and they want to know the basics, such as your work, your age, and your living circumstances. In my circumstances, immigration papers were also of concern, but for Japanese, it would be the koseki, a mandatory official family record kept on a household basis, reporting births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces. Every Japanese is not just an individual, he or she is officially is a member of a household (ie), and the state keeps track."
First of all, imagine the police in London, Bradford or Birmingham doing this ? I can't, either. They'd need backup.

Secondly, imagine keeping this kind of household record for the UK underclass, with the serial partners and fathers. Imagine the Copper or Inspector Gadget doing the interview and getting the whole tale of who did what to whom.

Not that I want to live in a society like that, mind. But the beauty of antediluvian Britain was that we didn't need the officer's clipboard to police ourselves. But "the fewer internal controls, the more external control there will be". Britain's internal, unspoken controls aren't what they were.

"Following the gathering of my information, the policeman no doubt returned to his local substation (koban), which are found every few blocks in urban areas, to record the information for his colleagues. To an American it seemed quite extraordinary, a violation of privacy. But in Japan a lack of anonymity is the norm.

Soon after the beat cop's visit to me, local merchants began nodding to me as I walked to and from the train station, as if they knew me and acknowledged me. I was fairly certain the word had gone out via omawari san (literally, the honorable gentleman who walks around, a polite colloquial euphemism for the police) that I was a Japanese-speaking American in Japan on legitimate, respectable grounds. For a year or so, I was a member of the community."
Remember, this is a huge capital city, a financial and industrial hub, not a small town. Another anecdote :

"... most contemporary Japanese have internalized a deep respect for private property, that is manifested in a ritual of modern life for children, one which we might do well to emulate. When a child finds a small item belonging to another person, even a one yen coin, a parent takes the child to the local koban and reports lost property. As chronicled by T.R. Reid in his wonderful book about living in Tokyo, Confucius Lives Next Door, the police do not resent this as a waste of time but rather see it as part of moral education, solemnly filling out the appropriate forms, thanking the child and telling him or her if the owner does not appear to claim the item, it will revert to the finder after a certain period of time."
Again, you could imagine that in the low-crime Golden Age That Never Was. But now ? The police would never have the time and would probably think you were taking the mick.

We had, once, the happy state where internal social controls (conscience, shame, self-esteem - 'we just don't do that') were so strong that external controls were not terribly visible or terribly intrusive. Japan make assurance doubly sure with strong internal AND external controls.

"Perhaps more successfully than any other people of the world, the Japanese have evolved a social system capable of ensuring order and good behaviour."

16 comments:

Paul E. said...

B.... but Britain - under ZaNuLieBore - became teh evil police state didn't it?

As least that's the troof that I read on teh blogz?

Pavlov's Cat said...

Why There Aren't Many Illegal Immigrants In Japan

Because they are an island and their border controls are as tight as a thing that is very tight. Also it's pretty homogeneous, so it's pretty easy to to tell that Ubenge Uwesaken was not born there.

Pavlov's Cat said...

oh and they tell asylum seekers to 'fuck off' they don't get out of the airport and are shipped back on what ever airline they arrived on.

And they are not a member of some federal state that insists we have to take in every waif and stray that might be having a hard time time elsewhere and give them the 'benefit of doubt' until can be proved otherwise in 10 or 12 years' Then we might ask them to leave unless they have knocked up some slapper a couple of times

Anonymous said...

but also the reason they don't have large numbers of illegal immigrants is because they don't have a large number of legal immigrants, which would create advocacy groups to agitate in favour of more of their kin folk entering the country, legally or illegally. Providing illegals with places to hide and help them to exploit the system as well.

Laban said...

Paulie - Labour were Pelagians ...

"Augustinian governments believe in Original Sin, that man is naturally given to vices which need to be checked. Tend to be hierarchical and militaristic.

Pelagian governments believe in Man’s perfectibility and innate goodness. As this fails to produce the perfect society, so do initially liberal Pelagians tend to turn towards coercion, more laws and greater police powers. Remind you of anything ?"

dearieme said...

My understanding is that the British understanding of the expression "police state" didn't originally refer to Nazi- or Commie-like behaviour, but merely to the bureaucratic supervision of the population by the police. So, to the British, the idea that one must have an official address,and carry identity papers with one, was practically the definition of a police state.

Ed West said...

Fascinating. I like the ritual with the young children visiting the policemen. Alas British children's first experience of authority is the social worker.

Sgt Troy 11th Dragoons said...

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Aboaoba said he moved from Yemen to Britain in 2005 and travelled to Libya late last year.

He claimed he had been granted asylum in the UK and lives with his family in Manchester, where he raised funds for his jihadist group.

‘I do indeed have British nationality,’ he said. ‘I was not involved in any terrorist activity against Britain, apart from my funding involvement with the LIFG.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366665/Rebel-Al-Qaeda-fighter-Britain-paraded-Libyan-TV.html

We must be grateful for small mercies I suppose, he's got a self-imposed Covenant of Security with the infidel

One lives in hope that he won't be coming back, a passingly small prospect one fears

It really is a grotesque joke

Sgt Troy 11th Dragoons said...

"Grant said: ''For what reason would anyone want to rape old women?''

Mr Laidlaw, staring at Grant as he appeared in the witness box, agreed, saying ''that is, as you say, a very good question''.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8388291/Night-Stalker-suspect-fabricated-laughable-defence.html

Is it cos they's white?

Anonymous said...

Not just old women, Sgt Troy, he attacked old men too.

And yes, the one thread running through the attacks is never mentioned.

Anonymous said...

It might be a possibility that why the Japanese are so cohesive is that racism has many advantages
Viz China , Russia etc.

Laban said...

anon - not sure what you mean. Cohesiveness and racism don't have to be linked.

Sgt Troy 11th Dragoons said...

"anon - not sure what you mean. Cohesiveness and racism don't have to be linked."

Clearly cohesiveness has in large part a racial base laban

"It is an uncomfortable conclusion from happiness research data perhaps - but multicultural communities tend to be less trusting and less happy."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/5012478.stm

Meanwhile Mr Max Rosen has declared that it is written that we shall perish, nice - obviously any self-defence measures would be racist. Bit of a loaded game all things considered

"MaxRosen
18 March 2011 12:32PM
Thus is all irrelevant.

As August Comte said a long time ago:


Demography is destiny

And in the case of Germany all the demographic indicators point downwards. In blunt terms Germans are not replacing themselves. They will be extinct before this century is out.

I do not know who will occupy the territory known today as Germany in the year 2100 but it won't be ethnic Germans and they probably won't be speaking German. Germany will be "one with Nineveh and Tyre"

This is the kind of fate the befalls a country and culture that defines itself ethnically."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/18/thilo-sarrazin-multiculturalism-germany

Foreigner living in japan said...

I'm a foreigner in Japan, but there's no policeman that come visits me...????

Gaijn in Japan said...

Nonsense! I have lived in Japan for over 2 years and never once been visited by the police. I have walked by the Koban every day to work and never been stopped or questioned.

Anonymous said...

i dont know if this is still of interest but german society is very similar. every person is registered at a certain adress and records of births, divorces etc are kept. police might not visit you at home but they might stop you in the street and check if your record is kept. if that's not the case, you are paying a fine.

germany still has hundred-thousands of illegals...