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Japan eyes adding Japanese proficiency to permanent residency requirements (mainichi.jp)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/world
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[–] [S] 43 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I am honestly surprised it isn't already. That's probably the one reasonable thing Japan could do that most people wouldn't have an issue with.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I feel people should be able to speak the language of a country they're migrating to. Not refugees and stuff but for regular migration.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I mean, even refugees and people on other exceptional visas should, after a certain point. Obviously, they'll have more immediately pressing matters than language classes, but unless you wind up in some sort of ethnic enclave that permits you to be self-sufficient with just your native language, it's ultimately in your best interests to learn the local language.

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    • [–] 40 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Oh man, I was totally hoping to move there! I have heard nothing but positive things about their work culture and immigrants...

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Duolingo time

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    lol my wife would hate me if I learned japanese before spanish.

    She's black and when she was in japan years before she met me... oh boy she had a bad experience lol.

    My tall, fit, skinny white ex girlfriend however was chased by an old japanese guy who saw her, called her gaijin several times, and gave her a giant container of milk as a gift. She had absolutely nothing bad to say about the experience and she was there for a few months, they loved her.

    Unlike my first comment, this is serious and a true story. It's anecdotal.. but something that basically plays out everywhere in the world unfortunately.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I've heard in the past that most Asian countries are weirdly racist, like practically white supremacist. I guess that is true for Japan as well. That's a shame.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    It's practically every country man. There's always weird othering (racism is just one category) and a belief that xyz is better than abc. There's tons of pockets everywhere. Some cultures are just harsher than others at how they effect the "others" they believe they are superior to.

    It doesn't seem like it matters which side of the political spectrum they're on either... deep down there's always a belief even on an individual level that we're better than others in some way because of some bullshit rationale probably driven by evolutionary instinct that drives competition and propagation of genes one might consider "similar" to their own. At least that's a rough idea of how I think of it, because like everything it's complicated.

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    • [+] 24 points 10 months ago (12 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 32 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    You might need to prove your knowledge of the English language if you’re 18 or over and applying for citizenship or to settle in the UK (known as ‘indefinite leave to remain’).

    You can prove it by having either:

    • an English qualification at B1, B2, C1 or C2 level
    • a degree taught or researched in English

    https://www.gov.uk/english-language

    A. Educational Requirements

    An officer administers a naturalization test to determine whether an alien meets the English and civics requirements.[1] > The naturalization test consists of two components:

    • English language proficiency, which is determined by the alien’s ability to read, write, speak and understand English; and

    https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-e-chapter-2

    They already do it, there is no double standard here.

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  • [+] 25 points 10 months ago (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    While this is generally a pretty reasonable ask in most situations, it seems like now is the worst possible time for them to make immigration more difficult. The coming demographic collapse is not a question of "if," but "how bad," at this point. Even if their birth rate proportionally climbs to the highest in the world magically over night, they are still looking at severe issues, and now many of those new births will still be dependants when it happens. They should really be incentivising immigration as hard as they can to take the edge off of what is coming at this point.

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Japan's in general is quite xenophobic, and I'm actually surprised it wasn't a requirement already.

    The US doesn't have an official language, so it would be weird to enforce English (for example). US is also full of immigrant/colonizers, so xenophobia is a bit weird there -- it's pulling up the ladder.

    I agree the double standard is funny, these were just some related thoughts.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    The US doesn't have an official language, it also doesn't have an official national casserole.

    English proficiency is required by law in a lot of places for various things; you'll find it in just about every subpart of FAR parts 61 and 65, for example.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    the US doesn't have an official language, so it'd technically be hard to enforce. It never had one because they knew there was always a chance that the language used could change at a given point.

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    • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    reminder that the PM is FAR right, russian backed that has no interest in fixing thier population problems.

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    • [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    That's surely going to help with their population decline problem.

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    [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    They wanted to add a test to confirm you're a Japanese supremacist, but realized this test was easier to administer.

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    [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I really hope not. If my wife gets deported, I'd rather be able to get a permanent residency in Japan with her and the kids but my Japanese is... わるい、to say the least.

    Not for lack of trying, I'm pretty sure that part of the brain just sucks.

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