Technology,Immigration, and Politics in Japan

   

      This week's blog did not find me venturing out anywhere, I was able to find a person to interview and photograph in the comfort of my home stay near Kisaichi station. My host father is in his 50's and is old enough to remember doing math on an abacus. 

For those of you who don't know or can't remember what they look like.

     When I asked him what the biggest change in Japan was from his childhood until now he told me emergence of technology and the role computers and other new high tech gadgets have played in the way everyday life is carried on. When I asked him what was the biggest challenge his generation faced he laughed and told me he couldn't remember and we moved on to current times and challenges facing Japan now during his daughter's life (she is 23).

     

     We discussed politics and it seemed that currently the Prime Minister is the main concern because of the position changing hands almost annually in recent years: http://infocus.asiaportal.info/2011/09/06/six-prime-ministers-in-5-years-why-japanese-prime-ministers-are-so-short-lived/. His opinion was that the splits in political parties and disapproval of Prime Ministers by the public has led to a lack of faith due to perceived inabilities to take action to better Japan. People are concerned, and their concern is showing through people buying less and a declining birthrate due to the difficulty of finding a "good" job.

      

     One of the main "bad" jobs my host father was concerned (a job he currently works himself) was the lack of Japanese willing to accept the salary and conditions that come along with caring for the elderly. A position that is increasingly being filled by foreigners and is multiplied by the declining birth rate that also fuels Japan's increasing need of foreign laborers to fill manpower gaps in the workforce. Even these workers do not have an easy time getting into Japan because of the entrance exam. Foreign workers was something my host father told me he is ok with and he thinks will be fine "...like America," but even the U.S. is having an identity crisis as always seems to be the case in hard economic times. I was told that a majority of the older generation of Japanese are the ones who don't want foreigners in Japan, but the younger generation is more open and he believes things will change in their lifetime.