I think they are also missing the fact that there are sections of Japan's society that would rather see it shrink (collapse) and retain its Nihon-ness than be diluted by outside influences.

I think by "wrestling" they mean the general attitude towards foreigners, not the policy.

Japan is totally fine with foreigners ... if you're western. Otherwise you can GTFO.

Decades of government backed protectionism paired with an ageing population will do that. people were widely propagandised into xenophobia and that sort of thing tends to stick in the psyche of the community for generations.

That said, the older generations are the ones still holding onto those views and they will be forced to change eventually.

You can still find signs on restaurants or shops across Asia that say "no tourists" or things like that, but they are becoming less common, even in rural areas. there is still the language barrier with the older generations, which is part of the reason those signs existed, but the majority of younger people across most of east Asia have some level of English from their mandatory school curriculums. They learn more western history, more western customs, exposed to more western media, western style homes are popular to those who can afford them (the Japanese housing market is it's own deep, deeeep topic), etc. etc. so those people naturally become more open and accepting of immigration

I expect to see japan keep crashing for another 10 years or so though sadly, and while Korea has been fairly stable they are rolling towards the same sort of downturn themselves.

China has been slowing economically for some years now for the same reasons, but their situation is a little different as their government will do whatever is necessary to protect their image, above their actual economy, so it is hard to know what is really happening there. For example, the whole giving gold to home buyers to avoid crashing the housing market thing.

Oh, and they all share work cultures to which people are usually expected to devote their whole lives to work.

Yes but these countries also have extremely low birth rates - 1.3, 0.8, and 1.2, respectively in 2021. Japan is finally feeling the effects and has an actively shrinking population. In 2022 it lost 556,000 people. To remedy this with immigration, they'd have to do quite the about face. There also isn't an endless source of immigrants - eventually the countries that people are emigrating from will economically develop and have lower population growth. Sub-replacement fertility rates is an issue in any somewhat developed economy nowadays. It's just the worst in East Asia. Countries need to figure out how to create a quality of life that will encourage stable population.

SK immigration is hell. But there are an increasing number of foreign nationals in Korea. Tons of people from South and West Asia especially. And of course the ESL teachers lol

Maybe this will push them to 1) make certain visas easier to obtain and 2) publicly fund Korean foreign language education so dumbass Americans stop speaking English everywhere and then whining about how they can't work anywhere except in English. like no shit you can't work for a Korean company you dont speak Korean and never tried to learn. korean government should make more visas for people who actually want to live in korea and contribute rather than forcing every foreigner to keep the E2 visa and relegating their stay to being tied to their employer. where the fuck you gonna learn to become a hospice nurse if you can't even quit your job without leaving the country

Japan's depiction in anime has as much to do with reality as the USA does to it's action films.

Bugger all to none.

I’m pretty sure you could have a socialist state that is as xenophobic as modern day Japan.

Not defending capitalism but just drawing a distinction that xenophobia isn’t solved necessarily by the destruction of capitalism.

Personally I support a no growth mindset. No more population growth, at worst a population stagnation but at best a population decline

The problem is that you still need a productive group of people to fund and care for retirees. Japan has the ability to absorb millions in its rural towns. It just doesn't.