Anti-foreigner views exacerbated by everyday woes and social media lies

Asahi
February 16, 2026

Participants wave signs and flags at an anti-immigrant protest in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture. (Suzuka Tominaga photo

An absence of diverse interactions, falling prey to online misinformation and personal trials are all part of a twisted melting pot that is feeding into the growing misgivings some Japanese harbor toward foreign nationals.

A 30-year-old mother of two living in Kofu in Yamanashi Prefecture last summer saw a drunken non-Japanese woman passed out on a bench at an unmanned train station in the morning. The woman did not appear to be a tourist.

She quickly turned around and grew concerned that an increase in such foreigners would threaten community safety.

The woman did not always hold this view. Many international students attended her university and she later worked at the same company as diligent Vietnamese technical intern trainees.

But she began having a change of heart after giving birth to her first child three years ago.

News reports posted on social media highlighted a gang of Japanese criminals on a robbery spree over a wide area.

These reports added to her increasing concerns about foreigners because she wanted to protect her child from what seemed a more unruly world.

As she had little opportunity to interact with non-Japanese individuals, her questions such as what kind of companies they work for and how long they intended to remain in Japan went unanswered. Those questions turned into worries.

“I am afraid about having this peaceful rural neighborhood change,” she said.

ONLINE SINKHOLE

Some worries can turn to dissatisfaction based on a citizen's difficulties in daily life.

The 61-year-old owner of a cafe in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, has dipped into his savings because of business struggles.

The cafe is located in what was once a factory operated by his father. The man joined the company when he was 25 and at its peak it employed about 100 workers.

But when he turned 30, the manufacturing company that subcontracted work decided to move its production base to China. That led to the factory closing.

Faced with a harder life, the man turned to the internet and was convinced by one argument that it was all the fault of the business world that only wanted cheap labor. He also felt a deterioration in public services even as taxes continued to rise.

“If immigrants are allowed in without change, Japan’s poor state will only accelerate,” he said.

A 40-year-old man who worked at a company as a dispatch employee from a temp staff agency for about three years quit last summer after experiencing pain in both hands.

He read one post on X, formerly Twitter, that said there was an increase in immigrants committing rape.

When criticism increased toward the Japan International Cooperation Agency for its Africa hometown initiative, the man called the Foreign Ministry, which oversees the JICA.

The man asked a ministry official how they intended to take responsibility if Japan turned into a major crime nation.

The response was “We have been unable to confirm that.”

The man felt the official could not properly respond because of feeling guilt over doing something wrong.

His distrust of politicians who he believes were not doing anything about the rising cost of living has amplified into worries and dissatisfaction.

WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?

Yu Korekawa, director of the Department of International Research and Cooperation at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, posits there are two main reasons propagating these sentiments.

Many Japanese develop such concerns because of the spike in overseas tourists and circulation of social media posts about crimes by foreigners.

In Korekawa’s view, news reports and social media posts often emphasize the extreme acts of some non-Japanese. Mixed with speculation and spurious non-factual claims has created a negative spiral where fears balloon into even greater ones.

On the other hand, he said there was greater understanding and acceptance of foreign nationals in areas where many have worked in local plants and been part of a community for years.

“There is less risk of fomenting simplified arguments about foreigners in areas where there is a higher contact with them on a daily basis,” Korekawa said.

Rather than strengthen regulations against non-Japanese, he called for increased clarity over how this demographic is perceived.