Right back at you, asshole! (Update 2006/07/05: That link is hosed. I'm pasting a copy of the article below.)

A Justice Ministry panel studying an overhaul of Japan's immigration administration is set to propose that the proportion of foreign residents to the nation's population should be kept at 3 pct or below, Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro Kono said Tuesday.

The proposal will be included in a draft package of immigration policy reform measures to be drawn up shortly, Kono, who heads the panel, told a press conference.

According to the ministry, foreign residents accounted for 1.2 pct of Japan's population at the end of 2005.

By contrast, the proportion stood at 8.9 pct in Germany in 2001, at 11.1 pct in the United States in the same year and at 5.6 pct in France in 1999.

The panel is also considering requiring foreign nationals of Japanese ancestry to be fluent in Japanese and have regular jobs as conditions for their residency in Japan, Kono said.

Such people are currently allowed to live in Japan if they have relatives in the country.

The panel now believes it necessary to toughen the criteria because the number of problems caused by such residents has been increasing.

Look, if there's one thing I learned while doing basically every menial job available (short of washing corpses, which I wanted to do for the high pay but couldn't because of the dirty foreigner thing) in this country, it's that there are some jobs that Japanese people simply will not do. They simply are not HUNGRY enough to have to do these jobs - on loading docks, factories, piers, junkyards, resorts, roadsides, etc., and I'm not even including illegal shit, just jobs that ARE NOT NICE TO DO. Well guess what? Tens (hundreds?) of thousands of South Americans with Japanese ancestry are willing to do those jobs - and many of them already are. Hell, many people are doing these jobs WITHOUT visas, and Immigration as well as the police are fully aware of the situation - up to and including exactly which room of what shitty little hovel many of these illegals sleep in! This is a societal problem that will NOT be improved BY EFFECTIVELY MAKING CURRENTLY LEGAL WORKERS ILLEGAL.

Isn't it better to at least have these people paying taxes/soc security and checked on periodically by immigration (during visa applications/extensions) than to have them arrive on tourist visas, work for five or ten years illegally for employers who are cheating the system, and eventually get caught and deported ON OUR DIME?

One thing bugs me about the article though:

The panel is also considering requiring foreign nationals of Japanese ancestry to be fluent in Japanese and have regular jobs as conditions for their residency in Japan, Kono said.

This is referring to the Nikkei (Japanese Ancestral) visa. That's the one I'm on. I would qualify under these proposed terms now, but I sure wouldn't have twelve years ago.

Such people are currently allowed to live in Japan if they have relatives in the country.

Uh, no. It's called the Japanese Ancestral visa because the qualifier is your ancestry, not where you "have relatives."

What-eva. I'm outta here.

This is a huge joke, because 99.9% of Asians do not know how to drink whiskey. I have no doubt that 1,000,000 yen buys you a damn smooth mixer for your glass of ice water, but it's still an awfully sissy way to drink (although Americans aren't much better pouring expensive single malts over ice). If it tastes too strong just stick to vodka tonics, you pansies.

I have to admit, Mitsuoka makes some real works of art; they stand out from everything else on the street. Take a look at their lineup.

My favorite, of course is the Le-Seyde, which is built on the body of a 180SX (the sister model of my beloved Silvia S-13). I used to see these driving around once a year or so (they were always white), but I haven't seen one for quite a while.

In some cities in Japan, they use the TX-II or the viewt as actual taxi cabs - and riding around in one is a welcome break from the ubiquitous old Crown cabs.