Japan faces headwinds in drawing foreign workers despite visa change

There is one simple way to resolve this problem.

Pay the foreigners the same wage you are paying to the Japanese, and give them bonuses and other benefits as well.

Currently, they get minimum or above minimum wage pay with no benefits.

Also, stop this selection nonsense with renting apartments. It is so difficult to rent an apartment for a foreigner that for sure it will be difficult to come to Japan.

There are many Chinese individuals in my local volunteer ward's Japanese class, providing me with an opportunity to engage in conversations about work conditions in Japan. During one such interaction, I had the chance to speak with a Chinese individual who works as a manager at a restaurant in Tokyo. He expressed great pride in his role and mentioned that his monthly salary amounts to approximately 250,000 yen. However, when I inquired about bonuses, he appeared puzzled and informed me that there are no such additional benefits provided.

The only perks he mentioned were makanai (free meals) and the company covering his commuting expenses. It is hardly surprising that foreign workers are becoming increasingly reluctant to come to Japan. How can one possibly survive under such conditions? With no bonuses and a monthly salary of 250,000 yen, it is difficult to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in Tokyo, where a minimum of 600,000 yen is required.

"The time when Japan dominated has ended, "At this rate, we will be left behind."

This describes Japan story perfectly. 20 years ago, OK...now? forget Japan , much better off going elsewhere.

Let me guess yen weak, treated like a slave, zero health and safety or fair work considerations and will always be a second class Citizen regardless of how long you’ve been in the country. Hmmmmm wonder why..ll

"The time when Japan dominated has ended," said one Japanese employee who works for an organization that assists Vietnamese people in working abroad. "At this rate, we will be left behind."

Finally one Japanese person become touch with reality better than with most Japanese leader.

obtained the Specified Skilled Worker No. 2 visa in April last year as the first person in Japan to do so.

Congratulation finally he got it, in exchange several things, he couldn't with his family all those times.

allows holders to bring in family members and has no limit on the number of times they can renew their visa, the 36-year-old has been reunited with his wife

Prior of this he couldn't change his company, lucky for him looks that he got a nice company.

This article doesn't mentioned at all about actual wage he received. Despite Japan is facing talent shortage so need to compete with other countries like South Korea and Taiwan.

Taiwan is also becoming a popular destination for work. Between January and March, the number of Vietnamese who went to the island exceeded 18,000, surpassing those who came to Japan in the same period.

decided to go to South Korea instead of Japan, remaining there for about five years before returning home last year. She noted the abundance of support networks and free Korean language classes.

he helped Weng acquire qualifications in addition to picking up and dropping off Weng's family members to Japanese classes."It requires time and patience," he added.

Not so many Japanese companies has this kind of patience they just interested to get worker with lower wages, nothing else.

There are many Chinese individuals in my local volunteer ward's Japanese class, providing me with an opportunity to engage in conversations about work conditions in Japan. During one such interaction, I had the chance to speak with a Chinese individual who works as a manager at a restaurant in Tokyo. He expressed great pride in his role and mentioned that his monthly salary amounts to approximately 250,000 yen. However, when I inquired about bonuses, he appeared puzzled and informed me that there are no such additional benefits provided.

Most of "agent" that provide convinient for those people being relocated to Japan only emphazises comparisson between average salaries in their home country without knowing how much they can really earn in Japan, like bonus, housing allowance, salary increase every one or two year for example

I have been shaking my head for 30+years now watching Japan continually getting it horribly WRONG wrt allowing foreigners here to actually stay & set up a life, possibly get permanent residency etc.....and we continue to see insipid little "improvements"....sigh!

"The time when Japan dominated has ended," said one Japanese employee who works for an organization that assists Vietnamese people in working abroad. "At this rate, we will be left behind."

Japan's time as a leader was already very noticeably disappearing when I arrived here back in 1991 and has only gathered steam over time & will sadly continue unabated.

And as I predicted a few decades ago foreigners will be less & less inclined to consider Japan for so so many reasons, and it continues to get much worse for Japanese as well, its insane the decline I have witnessed here, it could be so MUCH better but now too much water has passed under the bridge in my opinion.

I DONT recommend young people to come to Japan unless they only stay say a max of 2years otherwise you will seriously jeopardize your furture potential......

These ‘headwinds’ they mention have very little to do with visa status.

"The time when Japan dominated has ended," said one Japanese employee who works for an organization that assists Vietnamese people in working abroad. "At this rate, we will be left behind."

"Be left behind?" Like it or not, it already IS!

Japan faces headwinds in drawing foreign workers despite visa change

What a joke. The visa change will do little to nothing in changing the fact that Japan is no longer a destination for workers from 1st world countries. The pay in Japan is crap, and working conditions and the chance for advancement are crap as well.

Japan is finishing. Time to move to Vietnam or Thailand.

Maybe you didn't read the article, leo T. Or all the other articles that go by suggesting sleepy ol' Japan would do well to wake up to reality, by people not brought up on a diet of Nippon, sugoi ne.

I am a foreigner that moved from Florida after 25 years, I was making good money over there I had my own limo company but after evaluating my age 52 and the health system in USA me and my wife decided to move to oita where she got family. I do not currently work but I agree on what you had being saying about working conditions and pay. I am moving my work in the digital work where I can be in control of my time, money and benefits ( not to have a boss and never get an upgrade in my position) Japan it is a great country with great food and health service. I am not complaining and I leave a better and healthy life then 25 years in the USA.

@leo T - your claim that plenty of people from 3rd world countries would love to move to Japan is completely false, in too many ways. As an experience world traveller and frequent long-time (and long-term) visitor to Japan from Canada, with many Japanese friends, I'll mention two problems regarding the subject that have been obvious to me, and I'm not talking about comments on JT: First, 3rd world people don't speak Japanese, in fact most of them don't speak any language other than their indigenous one; second, 3rd world people are generally 'of colour', which, admit it or not, is a no-no in racist Japan.

You missed your Reality 101 class, I'm afraid.

NEWS spreads super fast these days , unlike in the old days were abuse and mistreatment of the so called " Technical Trainees " was covered up and shoved under the rugs. People want to be treated fairly and with dignity no matter were they are, I hope that this report will improve the treatment of these workers so they feel welcomed.

They want to come to Japan for the money. They ain't coming for the green tea and onsens. That's the reality son.

Paying ¥950 an hour isn't exactly a great a great draw !!

it is difficult to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in Tokyo, where a minimum of 600,000 yen is required

600k per month is a requirement? That's just plain rediculous mate. That's 7M a year after tax, so 10+M before tax. Most Japanese don't make that kind of money. I don't know how you define a comfortable lifestyle, but I have lived on about 300K~350K a month in the past and I was fine.

I have family from two marriages in the country for over a decades’ worth of life and can’t get Residency….but my daughter lives in North America :|

Japan only wants guest workers, and takes as much knowledge as possible.

Japan's time as a leader was already very noticeably disappearing when I arrived here back in 1991 and has only gathered steam over time & will sadly continue unabated.

Japan's time as a leader was diminishing before 1991. I think it was around 1987.

Lower the taxes your charging to the foreigners who have good businesses here who employ local people!

I am considering moving my business to another country at the loss of job for a number of Japanese people as I am paying a total in all taxes added together of 62%!

I can move my operation elsewhere and pay 40%

Not just foreign workers are leaving, Japanese nationals are also leaving to work elsewhere for higher salaries. Return to the old days of Meiji, Taisho to work in foreign lands to earn currencies for Japan!

The depressed yen is the number #1 reason - can make more money in USD as a remote worker for an American-based enterprise from anywhere in the world.

Digital Nomads and remote workers are not going to choose Tokyo over Bali sunsets

The sun has set on Japan and that is obvious.

About the only thing left for the Japanese to do is to sell their accumulated wealth.

Sales of heavy machinery, jewelry, designer bags, watches, real estate etc are thriving-the buyers are foreigners!

Pretty much everything to be said has been said by most of the posters here.

Yes Japan has had its day. It's over now. And yes- S. Korea and Taiwan are definitely drawing workers from other countries there. Even many English teachers that I used to know have left and are working in these 2 countries. The ones living here still are those like myself with Japanese families.

Japan screwed itself. The problem is, since we are here and our families are Japanese, we're getting screwed too.

Japan faces headwinds in drawing foreign workers despite visa change

Funny thing is that's exactly what I and many posters above said on Saturday on the bottom article..

Japan to expand skilled worker visa system to address labor shortage - Japan Today

and no mention of the rampant abuse and extreme under pay of foreign workers, surely that has no bearing on whether people want to work in this country...

oh but let's make a special new visa for rich foreigners who want to come here. nice classism Japan

Japan's cultural closure at once gives disadvantage when at the same time it attracts people because of its distinctiveness. It has to balance the two. Lower-skilled migrants are treated bad anywhere. Low yen cuts both ways for Japan. So while Japan needs a lot of reform and is under-performing, but we need a balanced view too.

@Larr Flint wrote: "Pay the foreigners the same wage you are paying to the Japanese, and give them bonuses and other benefits as well."

What do you suppose Japanese employees make for level entry positions in agriculture, factory work etc.?

The same as foreign workers. That's what.

The issue with most foreign workers in Japan is they are illiterate. Imagine expecting to be promoted in the US or Canada when you can't read or write...Those foreigners who become functionally literate in the workplace advance. I was able to more than double my salary once I obtained a teaching license from a Japanese university. My Canadian friend is the national marketing manager for Epson. He started out in an entry level position, but was able to advance due to the fact that he could read and write at a native speaker adult level.

It's a lack of "human capital" that is holding foreign workers back in Japan...nothing else

@Aly Rustom

This from a Japan Times article in 2019:

"The number of foreigners working in Japan on the specified skills visa increased nearly six-fold over the past year to reach 22,567, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

The agency on May 25 released the figure for the number of foreign workers as of the end of March, which marked two years since the program was introduced. The number represented a significant rise from the 3,987 recorded a year ago."

How much has changes since 2019 when the same arguments were being made as to why foreigners don't want to come to Japan?

The economy has been stagnant for 30 years, so it's not that.

*has changed (oh for an edit function)

The way I see it...is the perception of Japan as a welcoming and inclusive society. Some potential foreign workers may still perceive Japan as relatively closed off to outsiders, leading to concerns about discrimination or difficulties in social integration. Improving efforts to promote inclusivity and cultural understanding could help address this perception.

"Paying ¥950 an hour isn't exactly a great a great draw !!"

That depends on where you are from and what human capital you have to offer. If you are unskilled from a country in which ￥950 can buy a week's worth of groceries, then that ￥950 would be a draw. If you are skilled then you'd be making more than ￥950 per hour. I believe the article is referring to an increase in "blue-collar skilled worker visas"...Yes, their it is...in the article

@xin-xin

wrote:  "Lower-skilled migrants are treated bad anywhere"

Actually, lower-skilled workers are treated badly whether they're migrants or not.

@ Moonraker

FYI: The number of foreign residents in Japan at the end of 2022 rose 11.4% from a year before to hit a record high of 3,075,213,

In other news: "Japan's foreign worker population hits record 1.82 million"

"The number of foreigners working in Japan on the specified skills visa increased nearly six-fold over the past year to reach 22,567, according to the Immigration Services Agency.

The agency on May 25 released the figure for the number of foreign workers as of the end of March, which marked two years since the program was introduced. The number represented a significant rise from the 3,987 recorded a year ago."

Of course because they were practically NON EXISTANT before. I mean, around 4000? In a country nearly half the population of the US?

How much has changes since 2019 when the same arguments were being made as to why foreigners don't want to come to Japan?

Um...ALOT! Covid happened

The economy has been stagnant for 30 years, so it's not that.

But the stagnation is ALOT worse now.

@Aly Ruston

This from The Japan Times, dated Jan 27, 2023:

"Japan's foreign worker population hits record 1.82 million despite COVID impact"

...DESPITE COVID...

@Aly Ruston wrote: "Of course because they were practically NON EXISTANT before. I mean, around 4000? In a country nearly half the population of the US?"

4000 high skilled positions is a lot among a foreign population largely made up of non-skilled workers (not among the entire Japanese population). An increase from 4,000 to 22.567 in a single year is remarkable...especially, considering MOST foreign workers in Japan are unskilled. Even those in education, most of whom are functionally illiterate.

"But the stagnation is ALOT worse now." Is it?

"Japan's foreign worker population hits record 1.82 million despite COVID impact"

Yes Geeter- Remember they are counting the special permanent residents AS WELL.

People born and raised here and practically are Japanese. They account for around half that population

 An increase from 4,000 to 22.567 in a single year is remarkable...

I'm surprised you find that remarkable. Canada can and does that in less than half that time. And Canada doesn't even have half the population of Japan. Sorry, not remarkable at all.

especially, considering MOST foreign workers in Japan are unskilled. Even those in education, most of whom are functionally illiterate.

How do you know that? Like I said before, at least HALF of the foreign workers here are SPR born and raised here. Their Japanese is as good as any Japanese's.

And don't forget that the Chinese are the Kings of Kanji. Those that sit for it, get JLPT 1 in a year or 2.

When I worked in the blue collar industry, I dealt with Pakistanis, Arabs, Iranians, Chinese, South East Asians and ALL of them wrote and read Japanese perfectly.

You're being a bit patronizing. You'd be surprised as to how much of the foreign population here is literate.

But the stagnation is ALOT worse now." Is it?

Absolutely.

@Aly Rustom

Those with native speaker literacy tend to advance in the workplace. As it was with my friend Ian Cameron, who is the national marketing manager for Epson. He began as an English instructor at an entry level salary. "Most" foreigners in Japan are functionally illiterate. Those who aren't tend to do much better in terms of advancement in the workplace.

@Aly Rustom

"Yes Geeter- Remember they are counting the special permanent residents AS WELL."

OK...those people were also accounted for in the years prior to...this: "Japan's foreign worker population hits record 1.82 million despite COVID impact"

Those with native speaker literacy tend to advance in the workplace.

Not always Geeter.

As it was with my friend Ian Cameron, who is the national marketing manager for Epson. He began as an English instructor at an entry level salary.

I'm very happy for your friend. I really am. But he is one case.

"Most" foreigners in Japan are functionally illiterate.

Again, as I have explained to you in my previous post, that is incorrect. Where are you getting that information?

Those who aren't tend to do much better in terms of advancement in the workplace.

Geeter, you are making a tremendous amount of assumptions based on one anecdotal case of your friend.

And you know what they say about assumptions.

OK...those people were also accounted for in the years prior to...this: "Japan's foreign worker population hits record 1.82 million despite COVID impact"

Geeter, again. Japan's foreign worker population always include the SPR who make up the lion's share of the population and were born here.

@Aly Rustom

wrote: "Geeter, again. Japan's foreign worker population always include the SPR who make up the lion's share of the population and were born here."

Again, the increase in foreign population always included SPRs...so the increase is AN increase.

"Again, as I have explained to you in my previous post, that is incorrect. Where are you getting that information?"

From every foreigner I've ever met in my 30 years here who has claimed to be "literate", but has failed miserably when asked to read any section of a newspaper.

Do you have a database that records foreign literacy rates in Japan? I suggest Googling "foreign illiteracy in Japan" to find articles that highlight issues such as the dropout rate among foreign children (who drop out of school because they can't read or write...and can't get help from parents who can't read or write). It's a real problem...not an anecdotal one

Aly Rustom

Affixed are the results of a survey done by the Government of Japan vis a vis literacy among foreign residents in Japan. 600 people over the age of 16 were questioned. 28% said "yes" to 仕事書類を読む, in other words 70% are functionally illiterate in the workplace.

The survey: https://www.bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/nihongokyoiku_jittai/zaiju_gaikokujin.html

Aly Rustom

wrote: "I'm very happy for your friend. I really am. But he is one case."

He is one of 5 foreigners I know personally in Japan. 3 of whom have advanced in the workplace in Japan. The other 2 are functionally illiterate. I came here as an ALT not knowing a word of Japanese. After 15 years of diligent study, my school gave me a year's hiatus and an interest free loan to obtain my teaching license, upon which I was promoted to full-time status. My salary more than doubled as a result. I also have a full benefit package including bi-annual bonuses and a severance package of approximately $150,000 upon retirement. Advancement in the workplace is largely due to human capital, the skills one has that employers pay for. This is true for both the Japanese and foreigners in Japan.

Foreigners who want to work in the country where government themselves don't value human rights and human rights violations are repeated socially will not increase.

From every foreigner I've ever met in my 30 years here who has claimed to be "literate", but has failed miserably when asked to read any section of a newspaper. 

Well I don’t know what kind of foreigners you’re hanging out with but I can introduce you to foreigners who are every bit as literate as you and I are

Do you have a database that records foreign literacy rates in Japan? I suggest Googling "foreign illiteracy in Japan" to find articles that highlight issues such as the dropout rate among foreign children (who drop out of school because they can't read or write...and can't get help from parents who can't read or write). It's a real problem...not an anecdotal one

The only way that they can actually test and see if someone is literate or not is through the JLPT-N2. But what happens with those foreigners many of whom that I know are completely literate and run their own businesses in Japanese but I’ve never taken a test to prove the Japanese ability because they don’t need it? Have you ever thought about that?

He is one of 5 foreigners I know personally in Japan. 3 of whom have advanced in the workplace in Japan. The other 2 are functionally illiterate. I came here as an ALT not knowing a word of Japanese. After 15 years of diligent study, my school gave me a year's hiatus and an interest free loan to obtain my teaching license, upon which I was promoted to full-time status. My salary more than doubled as a result. I also have a full benefit package including bi-annual bonuses and a severance package of approximately $150,000 upon retirement. Advancement in the workplace is largely due to human capital, the skills one has that employers pay for. This is true for both the Japanese and foreigners in Japan.

Well that’s nice. They claim the corporate ladder for many reasons not only their Japanese ability. I know plenty of foreigners with level one of the jlPT And he still couldn’t advance. There are many things you have to do when you advance such as working extremely long hours of overtime. Being able to suck up to your boss is another. Getting good at Japanese and being fluent on paper it’s not the gold key to the crapper as you might think. And you may know 5 to 7 foreigners who climbed up the corporate ladder but I can introduce you to for more than that who did even better: they started their own business as and employ Japanese people.

They don’t work for Japanese people. Japanese people work for them. And they run their business completely in Japanese. One of them even employed my wife many years back. He was from Pakistan.

Affixed are the results of a survey done by the Government of Japan vis a vis literacy among foreign residents in Japan. 600 people over the age of 16 were questioned. 28% said "yes" to 仕事書類を読む, in other words 70% are functionally illiterate in the workplace

600 people is not a representative of Almost 2,000,000 people who live here. Bearing in mind that I have explained to you before that half of the foreign population in Japan are native Japanese speakers.

"Well I don’t know what kind of foreigners you’re hanging out with but I can introduce you to foreigners who are every bit as literate as you and I are"

They are among the 28% who can read...and not the 72% who cant

"The only way that they can actually test and see if someone is literate or not is through the JLPT-N2"

There is no writing component on those tests. They're multiple choice. Literacy includes the ability to write

They are among the 28% who can read...and not the 72% who cant

You obviously have no clue about the foreign population in this country. Half of them are every bit as fluent as the Japanese if not more. Because the overwhelming majority of our special permanent residence were born and raised here. Another group or the Chinese who can pass the JLPT with no trouble

There is no writing component on those tests. They're multiple choice. Literacy includes the ability to write

I am very well aware of that. But I’m trying to explain to you that there are tons of foreigners we never bothered to take the test because they didn’t need to. Because it wasn’t going to affect their work at all. Those people might be considered illiterate on paper but the in many cases are more literate than the Japanese themselves.

Again like I told you, I can introduce you to foreigners who run their businesses in Japanese completely. They read and write the language fluently. Worked with many of them. Not to mention the ones who make up the lion share of the foreign population the special permanent residents. Those guys are native Japanese speakers.

"You obviously have no clue about the foreign population in this country. Half of them are every bit as fluent as the Japanese if not more."

We both have anecdotal examples. The study I cited found that out of 600 foreign residents in Japan 72% couldn't read the material related to their workplace. Do you have another study you'd like to direct me to?

We both have anecdotal examples. The study I cited found that out of 600 foreign residents in Japan 72% couldn't read the material related to their workplace. Do you have another study you'd like to direct me to?

And if I found you a study that prove that most of the foreign residents were in fact fluent what would that prove? You have a study and I would have a study that confirms what I want to say. . The fact of the matter is half the foreign population in Japan is born and raised in Japan. The special permanent residents Make up half the foreign population and the first language is Japanese. There’s no way around that. For you to say that 72% of the population is a little bit based on a study Of 600 people is ludicrous. And let’s not forget that studies can be tweaked to show bias

I’m actually curious as to where they got the 600 people And how they were chosen.

I’m sorry but I’m not gonna take a study of 600 people as a representative of the foreign population in Japan. That just is very silly

I’ve probably met more than that number of foreigners who are fluent in the language throughout my decades here in this country

"I’m sorry but I’m not gonna take a study of 600 people as a representative of the foreign population in Japan. That just is very silly"

No, you're going to use "the people I hang out with" which isn't silly at all

Geeter Mckluskie

Today 05:53 pm JST

Aly Rustom

> wrote: "I'm very happy for your friend. I really am. But he is one case."

> He is one of 5 foreigners I know personally in Japan. 3 of whom have advanced in the workplace in Japan.

OK now for reality.

In 2003 I was working in the IT department as a contracted worker (outsource company) in a large Japanese company, the entire department was staffed by one Japanese head and everyone else were mostly from western countries through an "haken" company, the "possibility" of being hired directly was dangled constantly, but not one person ever was, then everyone was replaced by lower paid Indians also through a "Haken" company with the same fake possibility of permanent direct hire, they were replaced by cheaper Filipinos also through a "Haken" company.

Today nothing has changed and to my knowledge only one person was ever actually hired and he was an American ethnic Japanese!

Now if this was just one company I could put it down of an anomaly but sadly I know at least 10 such situations.

So why would anyone want to come here with such uncertainty and especially why would they want to bring their family when at anytime they would have to suddenly pack up and leave the country!?

"The fact of the matter is half the foreign population in Japan is born and raised in Japan. The special permanent residents Make up half the foreign population and the first language is Japanese."

The FACT of the matter is there are 3 million foreign residents in Japan...and 296,416 of them are classified as Special Permanent Residents.

I don't know where you came up with "half" of 3 million is 300,000. That's 1/10 by standard math.

"I’m sorry but I’m not gonna take a study of 600 people as a representative of the foreign population in Japan. That just is very silly"

No, you're going to use "the people I hang out with" which isn't silly at all

First of all, not the people I hang out with their people I’ve worked with. considering doing that number is more people than the people in your whole study I think it makes better sense

Geeter Mckluskie

Today 05:39 pm JST

Aly Rustom

> Affixed are the results of a survey done by the Government of Japan vis a vis literacy among foreign residents in Japan. 600 people over the age of 16 were questioned. 28% said "yes" to 仕事書類を読む, in other words 70% are functionally illiterate in the workplace

Here again is reality.

My children were born in Japan, their mother Japanese, their first language Japanese, my daughter in primary school could read more Kanji than most of her teacher as she was taught by her grandfather a former university professor and engineer who even taught her older Kanji that are no longer used so she could read vintage books he had.

Regardless, every year we got the same stupidity of my being told by teachers, school directors, " that is may be better for the children to go to international school because they may not understand Japanese ways and language well enough"

After they both graduated Japanese universities, in job interviews the company's would ask if they would take a Japanese language test of proficiency.

Now remember they are Japanese citizens they were born in Japan, raised in Japan, public school, graduated from two very good Japanese universities but still the Japanese mindset is "father is a Gaijin so no way are they fluent in Japanese".

Now think the attitude a non Japanese faces.

"First of all, not the people I hang out with their people I’ve worked with. considering doing that number is more people than the people in your whole study I think it makes better sense"

I've also worked with foreign people in my 30 plus years in Japan...none of whom were literate. Again, your anecdotal evidence vs my anecdotal evidence...vs and actual study

*an actual study

Geeter Mckluskie

Today 07:33 pm JST

I think my favorite example of the Japanese attitude towards foreigners and anyone different was My son's entrance ceremony/first day of public highschool.

He was directed to a different room from all the other Japanese students found himself in a room with other mixed students and non Japanese.

Without asking they had separated all non Japanese and non pure Japanese, created different school IDs with Romaji names in his case put my surname despite it not being his surname (he has is Japanese mother's surname).

The claim of doing this was to make it more "welcoming" for mixed and non Japanese, yeah sure by separating them from the rest

Every student in that room passed the same entrance exam as the "pure" Japanese everyone was fully fluent in Japanese.

The yelling by upset parents was deafening and protest by the students themselves.

The staff looked clueless as to why everyone was upset.

Again this is how those in charge here see mixed and foreigners that for the most part are raised in Japan, so it doesn't matter how fluent a foreigner is the perception is the same, Gaijin= not capable of doing things Japanese or really understanding Japanese.

They could train these people to a level 10 times that of a Japanese national and the perception wouldn't change.

I've also worked with foreign people in my 30 plus years in Japan...none of whom were literate. Again, your anecdotal evidence vs my anecdotal evidence...vs and actual study

Natural study of 600 people? Which actually need to question why they would only question 600 people in the It’s in of itself suspicious