Are immigration and crime related in Japan? – UCA News

3 comments

1. Loose immigration comes with higher crime rates, isn’t this common knowledge? Choose wisely.

2. Lots of small crimes increasing with the immigration being relaxed… Where I live, have a lot of South Americans moving in and already the Police been at my door asking me where I been on certain nights of small crimes that took place, never mind I been here since 1995.

3. Yewww first two comments making this feel like Australia all over again

   Former Australian lawyer who worked on immigration and citizenship issues and former immigrant so some bias. Though I continue to ugly laugh at those who put out words like loose and relaxed about immigration in general – yeah like a ticked off rattlesnake working for airport Border Security…

   The conversation is complicated and a number of factors are involved but I’ll put up these two things because they’re often not considered at all

   Yes studies have shown that generally crime does increase with immigration. Where studies show that it doesn’t is where there’s

   1) adequate support for immigrants to integrate into society to work

   I actually think Japan (And Sweden) does this well however the bigger the difference in culture, the more is likely to be needed to be invested in this. Japan’s isolation, isolation inclined policies (Think their approach to covid or the Olympics just locally) and extreme cultural distinction unfortunately make this the situation here

   The basic I think is language – if people don’t have it coming in then the opportunity should be available to them AT QUALITY (My answer to most things is education and enough food tho :))

   There’s of course others like helping people find housing and work which again I’m a bit impressed by Japan with in that regard

   This is vital towards not isolating people into hegemonic groups (The destruction of prejudice is exposure) because:

   2)the attitude towards migrants in a community as a whole matters.

   This can be individual sentiment but can also be driven by opportunistic media and politics – nothing sells airtime or your party like a bit of scaremongering about a cartoonish version of the other (Again, check out Japan (Pah-EN spreading COVID…) and Sweden and Australia etc).

   Why should we pay our taxes to help people integrate? Ermm maybe because I’d rather pay for better social care for people in my community than corporate subsidies, political salaries and initiatives that tempt me but won’t ever happen? (Remember Brexit= better NHS?)

   Check it out – one of the first comments here already uses “common knowledge” (Often deeply subjective and bias ) to give it validity (Must be common then it must be true) to condemn. Gee, why would people choose anger and disruptive behaviours when put on the back foot especially with no reason about them in particular?

   If you use a personal anecdote to condemn a whole then don’t expect anything but shitty behaviour – I have more than enough personal experiences to LOATHE all Americans in Japan but that’s not fair (and I was treated that way and didn’t like it, made me angry bloke to be around too) so I don’t

   At this point someone likes to stroke themselves with something like “toughen up princess” “my experience is valid” (Sure but is it really indicative of fact? And what exactly is it contributing to to yourself and others when you present it like it is?) or “don’t expect handouts”.

   You know what people should expect? To be treated fairly instead of letting preconceived and generalised sentiment take away from work, life and general opportunities because of generalisations. I’ve had work and life opportunities tell me I’d be perfect if I wasn’t indian (“Sorry it’s the facts/how I feel” – nooopeeee not ok)

   Old mate above about south Americans? I’m from the south pacific so a bit to the left but faced with the same thing. I also have a bunch of degrees and qualifications, haven’t robbed lately but I’ll admit I often thought about breaking societal norms and rules largely because I was angry at the way I was being unnecessarily and unfairly treated when I first started out. And that’s proven normal human behaviour of disadvantaged and disenfranchised people everywhere (Don’t be facetious in asking for proof that you can easily look up or remember from high school history or the last 10 years if you used the internet)

   I will be the first to admit that it sucks and it’s hard but people need to be taken on a case by case basis if the intention is to live in a stable and safe community. You start putting bad qualities collectively on them because of stuff they have zero control over, yes – expect integration to be more difficult including a rise in crime and antisocial

   So the questions are these – is there a support system in place? Are the community welcoming (And if not, why?)? This will, among many many other factors, determine the rate of crime. CERTAINLY having more impact than race or place of origin

   Disadvantaged communities and maligned communities ENGAGE in associated behaviours so some of the simplest and best things we can do in the interest of living together is cut out the unnecessary BS and think about where our “common knowledge” is coming from.

   And maybe have a think why – Australia is having a shriek about migrants taking all the homes (Depending on what constitutes “migrant” it’s only around 3-14%) at the same time corporations (including the church, banks and media entities) and older generations have been revealed as being the clear reason why the housing market is out of reach for people.

   Last thing – downvote away but in general there’s a greater chance that you’ll become an immigrant yourself than the fantasy community (Japanese citizen, homeowner (in Australia at least), forever employed or 6 figure club etc). What would you think would happen if you were subject to questions, sentiment, articles and comments like the above on an almost daily basis?

   Check out the inevitable disproportion here when it happens. Something dismissive like you made a spelling mistake so you can’t be trusted unlike the other two, TLDR hurr hurr, touch grass, you’re RANTING so I don’t need to listen because talking more about something means that you’re WRONG, etc – which is an expectation/sentiment I’ve developed because of the way I’ve been treated in regards to this (Point in case)

   There are cases I’ve worked on, migrants and citizens, influenced by this that I’m still trying to drown out of my head a decade later

   EDIT: How many people do you think will read the piece before making a sweeping judgement based on a personal experience or preference?

   1) Article states stats aren’t actually known but then generally suggests foreigners are responsible for most crimes in Japan. Writer says he analysed the stats but not what stats he was given/found or why nor how he looked at them

   2) Does not mention at all the behaviour of Japanese police towards investigating crime in general (Especially the difference in approach to Japanese and foreign folk) nor the the deeply flawed incentive system regarding prefectures and cops that report (or don’t) crime