Hot hot hot
Welcome to the new normal: masks and record-breaking temperatures. I hope everyone had a good obon week.
Here are this week’s links
- Dirty deeds indeed: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
- I really need to get around to reading this book: Learning from Rory Sutherland
- This is good news: Japan’s male smoking rate drops below 30% for 1st time
- More public awareness and pressure needed: Japan’s climate change efforts hindered by biased business lobby: study
- Completely off-topic, but I found this interesting and it contradicted a lot of what I ‘know’: Israel Versus Anyone: A Military Net Assessment of the Middle East
- Japan needs to invest in green energy, buildings, transport, power grid, agriculture, etc. Those are the export markets of the future. This is just like Toyota’s misguided push to sell hydrogen cars: Japan’s maglev project derailed by pandemic and environmental fears
- I wonder if the rules are different in Japanese: My guide to conversational copywriting
- I found this interesting, and my conclusion is that if you are planning to stay for ever, might be best to naturalize: Citizen or not? A conditional love story
Short and sweet this week! Anything good in there? I enjoye#5, and #8 confirmed a lot of thinking I’ve been doing recently.
Another great list.
Thank you,
Scott
Fujisawa
Didn’t know the maglev project has been going on since the 70s. How is the Japanese gov’t going to create this megapolis they envision here? The local population is declining and there’s little incentive for mass foreign immigration. Reading the article, this sounds like one of those “Emperor has no clothes on” projects and no one has the political capital to kill it.
Does that mean you’re thinking of naturalising?
Recent events have given me some pause to think about it myself, but here nationality is so entwined with ethnicity that I think it would feel a bit weird. Like I would only be technically Japanese. I can imagine having to carry my passport around with me just to actually prove I was Japanese. Still, I guess it makes complete sense if you’re here for the long haul.
Been thinking about it since 2008!
I actually have all the paperwork in a drawer (since 2010).
I’m not too bothered about being ‘Japanese’, but I would without doubt have Japanese nationality, along with all the rights that come along with it.
I think I might consider it. One of the things that has been bothering me recently is not being able to vote. I’ve been out of the UK for too long and I can’t vote here either.
By the way, would a change of citizenship affect your eligibility to continue paying NI contributions?
Oh, there’s a thought. Don’t want to give up my Class2 contributions!
I need to look into that 🙂
* found this interesting, and my conclusion is that if you are planning to stay for ever, might be best to naturalize* 8
Hmm not sure if I would ever make that commitment, if it entails losing my home country passport. Also would like to keep my EU passport in case my daughter decides not to stay here… or if I need to bail out of here at some stage in the future..
My EU passport was the main thing stopping me so far, but it’s been taken away by a bunch of nationalistic, easily manipulated idiots so I think it’s just a matter of time 😉
Everything I have is here, and I have no intention of living in the UK again. I’m frankly slightly embarrassed by the connection now.
Ah ok, understand you wanting to do this then
I’ve thought about naturalising but there seems to be a ridiculous amount of paperwork involved which is putting me off. The current situation regarding reentry is a mess but I’ve been trying to consider things locally based on the opinions of Japanese family and friends. Most think it’s ridiculous and that the government have messed things up. The Japan Times had a recent podcast about this.
I guess the main thing holding me back is having the option of returning to the U.K. in the future permanently if I ever needed to, even though I’ll probably stay in Japan. Yes, the U.K. is an embarrassment at the moment but there are some good people there too. And if I keep my British passport I can also get an Irish passport and remain in the E.U. if I ever needed too. If I naturalised I’d lose that option as well. And by remaining British my family will also have the same options eventually.
In article #8 the author suggests that if you stay in Japan you’ve probably got little to worry about, it’s only when you go abroad that the problems could start. To mitigate against the reentry fiasco I think I’ll keep more cash reserves in the U.K. and also Australia as I usually visit both every year for family and work.
I wasn’t able to get an Irish passport sadly (my great-grandmother was Irish, as is my aunt, so most of my family were able to). No German one either even though I was born there. I only have stepkids so my decision won’t affect anyone else (in fact two of them already live abroad in Sweden and Canada!).
I personally think Japan is going to be one of the best places to go through the decades ahead.
We’ll see though. I’ve been um-ing and ah-ing about this for over ten years now!
Ben,
Why do you think that Japan will be one of the best places to be in the decades ahead?
Mainly because of what I fear is coming in terms of climate change, and based on my experience of 3-11 here in Sendai, and the Covid situation now. For all my moaning, Japan is an organised and mostly sensible society, resilient to disasters.
We’ve got plenty of water, we’re less likely to be affected by large numbers of refugees, the climate is not too extreme.
I think Europe and to some extent the Americas will have a much worse time, as will much of Asia.
New Zealand would be another good choice, but Australia wouldn’t.
We’ll see. I might be worrying too much. Or not enough.
Interesting rational. I’m putting words in your mouth but it sounds as if you feel Japan has the most capacity to adapt to future global changes.
I’d venture to guess that Japan has it’s share of “nationalistic, easily manipulated idiots” as well (see current rules for foreigners to come into the country). In my experience, EMEA and US policies swing and politics change over the decades as they are always pressing forward for social change. I’ve not studied JP politics or policies enough to draw any parallels.
Sadly I don’t think it is a case of adapting to future global change (I’m not that optimistic), but instead just dealing with a steadily worsening situation interspersed with disasters/crises. Hopefully it won’t get too terrible in my lifetime.
I think the environment here (particularly in Tohoku), the social structure, and the geography are going to make for a relatively safe place for the next few decades. I think Europe is going to be demolished by extreme weather and refugees (look at the trouble they had coping with a couple of million Syrians, and then imagine a few hundred million people on the move). There are probably parts of the US that will do okay, but there is a lot of potential for them to fragment into ‘everyone and their gun for themselves’.
New Zealand is probably one of the safest countries, but I don’t have the right to live there 😉
And at the same time I continue working and saving for retirement. So my actions show that I believe that a range of outcomes is possible, I just fear that the worse ones are getting increasingly likely.
“For all my moaning, Japan is an organised and mostly sensible society, resilient to disasters.”
Any links or recaps on your moaning about Japan?
Ha, ha, just the usual politics, unthinking application of rules, lack of innovation, lack of progress on the environment, dynastic inbred politicians, corruption, etc.
Probably less to moan about here than in other places I’ve lived 😉
#8 – Ben,
Did you get a chance to read the comments before they were removed? If you did, any thoughts?
What was the gist?
Does anyone (else) remember when you had to be fingerprinted?
Of course that was physically done, before the new digital capture of those, and facial recognition.
I was fingerprinted at a city hall to get my gaijin card back in 1981. Must have been procedure well before then. But I don’t remember how many digits were printed at that time.