Japan Builds Near $700 Million Fund To Lure Foreign Academic Talent (theregister.com) 27
An anonymous reader shares a report: Japan is the latest nation hoping to tempt disgruntled US researchers alarmed by the Trump administration's hostile attitude to academia to relocate to the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese government aims to create an elite research environment, and has detailed a $693 million package to attract researchers from abroad, including those from America who may have seen their budgets slashed or who fear a clampdown on their academic freedom.
Inviting US academics into Japan? (Score:1)
Re:Inviting US academics into Japan? (Score:5, Interesting)
weeb is the only reason anyone would willingly live in Japan.
the cost of living is rising, and wages are obscenely low compared to the rest of the developed world. It may be attractive for south-east asian nurses and grunt work (of which Japan has plenty, but that's not really something making headlines in the west), but Japan insists in demanding highly skilled professionals (no college degree = no visa) and compensation is ridiculous in comparison. If you're a self-taught software developer, no matter how talented you are, you're not getting a work visa unless a company hires you. But then again, no sane developer is going to work Japanese hours for japanese salaries.
Japan wants American talent, for which an american had to pay $200k, but wants to pay $30-35k/year. Not gonna happen.
Also Japan doesn't provide any real path to permanent residence. All of those work visas are exclusively temporary. There is no exemption. There is no "but i've lived in this country for 30 years, what do you mean go back to my country? i have nothing there" exemption. And this is a very important problem: if you lived in japan and got a normal salary, you CAN'T afford a home back in your home country when japan kicks you out.
of course there are nuances to all of this but in general this is the situation in japan. Are there higher income jobs in japan? Yes, but they are for managers, and as a foreigner you're unlikely to be promoted to those.
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Also Japan doesn't provide any real path to permanent residence. All of those work visas are exclusively temporary. There is no exemption. There is no "but i've lived in this country for 30 years, what do you mean go back to my country? i have nothing there" exemption.
That all sounds substantially worse then going to the U.S., even under the current political climate. Are Japanese people protesting this in the streets?
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weeb is the only reason anyone would willingly live in Japan.
Actually there are a number of Americans (and nationals from other countries) who have settled in Japan, and would find it difficult to go back and live in their country of origin.
The aspects of Japan they like often include the following:
Re: Inviting US academics into Japan? (Score:2)
I myself am a weeb and I've traveled to Japan 3 times so far. I've driven over 2000km there and I'm familiar with the culture. I even speak some Japanese. I considered living in Japan for a while but the long term visa situation is a major problem.
what you say is true, but you completely missed my point.
what you fail to mention is that most of those who "stay in Japan forever" do so on a spouse visa. it's the only "accessible" way to permanent* residence in Japan
Japan immigration laws are very hostile. even
Brainpower, or Breeders? (Score:2)
Japan has been below replacement levels for quite a long time now. Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers for well over a decade there.
While the media might love to spin Japans actions as politically motivated and “anti-Trump”, the reality is they need breeders a hell of a lot more than they need brainpower.
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Japan has been below replacement levels for quite a long time now. Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers for well over a decade there.
While the media might love to spin Japans actions as politically motivated and “anti-Trump”, the reality is they need breeders a hell of a lot more than they need brainpower.
That would be predicated on allowing actual permanent resettlement with a path to citizenship and birthright citizenship for one's offspring.
I could well see researchers that aren't in a having/raising family stage of life being interested in living and working in Japan for some number of years as an interesting and finite life stage, but I don't see those looking to permanently settle somewhere or to raise a family somewhere necessarily being up for it.
To address that, Japan needs to do more than simply pr
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I'd say your question was answered in the summary, or are you suggesting they might want to put intelligent Gaijin out to stud? That would be an enticement!
Smart. (Score:4, Insightful)
The US is in a rush to vilify anybody in STEM that actually knows what they're doing. Other countries should try to capitalize on it. Just as other countries are capturing the export markets the US has historically served, they should also try to capture the intellectual capital.
It's all a mess right now, but there are already glimpses of the future where winners are starting to emerge. The US isn't among them.
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Re: Smart. (Score:3, Interesting)
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Is this a serious question? How many qualified people do you need to see fired and replaced with incompetent ideologues before you acknowledge it? How many times do you need to hear people disparaged specifically because they really are experts in their fields? How many times do you need to hear "scientist" or "expert" as a pejorative?
The U.S. is regressing to an intellectual backwater, and it's going to happen fast.
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Japanese culture shift? (Score:1, Insightful)
As I understand it the Japanese are not kind to immigrants. Especially those from other Asian nations. I recall hearing of Korean families that have lived in Japan for four generations and they still do not have Japanese citizenship. If they expect to attract people to come to Japan for work then they need to allow for people that stay and have children there to have citizenship. Or maybe not citizenship but some guarantee that they have some right to stay and work.
Then is having some reasonable work-li
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Re: Japanese culture shift? (Score:2)
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That self-serving, overly simplistic view paints a monochromatic history. The truth is complicated. If you're suggesting that Japan attacked the U.S. with neither rhyme nor reason, you haven't actually looked into it.
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By the late 1990s WW2 would have been over 50 years prior. That means the "round-eyes" would be over 70 years old or dead from old age, not likely to take a trip to Japan. Maybe it is just a matter of the sign being there so long it was just expected it would stay. Do these signs still exist today? I have my doubts, but I'd also not be surprised if they had 50 years of being "trained" that such signs were the norm. Well, that would be 80 years now. If they want people from Europe and America to come t
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In all fairness, round-eyes did nuke them. Twice.
(Gen Boom) ”Cancel Culture bitches thought they knew how to hold a grudge. Pfft.”
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I remember visiting Japan in 2018 and 2023 and seeing no such signs any more. In fact, the vast majority of public transportation signage is now printed multilingual as they were preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Attitudes are shifting.
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Japan is not even kind to repatriated Japanese, many of whom have left again because of the discrimination they experienced. They're discriminated against abroad for being Japanese, then come home and get discriminated against again for not being sufficiently racially pure.
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As I understand it the Japanese are not kind to immigrants.
Japan has historically been pretty isolated. Nationality is determined Jus sanguinis (by blood) rather than jus soli (by place of birth). Culturally a foreigner that takes Japanese citizenship is not considered the same as a Japanese person with Japanese ancestry.
Foreigners in Japan are, by default, thought of as visitors - who will eventually return.
I don't think it's a lack of kindness as such, it's just a cultural norm that is an outcome from Japanese history.
Open Mind (Score:2)