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1. Who was the first non-Japanese born person you can remember in your life having a conversation with? How old were you? How did you meet that person?
2. How many non-Japanese people do you know socially or work with today?
3. People from abroad come to Japan everyday as tourists, students, short term workers or to become permanent residents. Tell us about a tourist attraction, university, college, factory or business in your area that attracts many non-Japanese people. What impact does this have on the economy?
4. Tell us about a town or area in the prefecture/county/state either (i) where you live now or (ii) where you grew up that has suffered from depopulation*, underpopulation** or aging population***? What happens when there are not enough people to fill jobs? What did the local government do to attract people from elsewhere?
5. Have you ever seen a shop, hotel, bar or hot spring hang up a "Japanese Only" sign or explain to a non-Japanese that "foreigners are not allowed"? If yes, how did you react? If no, how would you react?
6. What benefits will the 5 to 10 million non-Japanese who will settle in Japan over the next 10 years bring to the economy and to society? Will an internationalized Japan be better off than an aging and isolated one?

depopulation*=過疎問題, underpopulation**=過疎化現象 aging population***=老齢［老人・老年・高齢化する］人口

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Question 1

I remember talking with an American police officer when my family went to the US for vacation. I was only around 7 years old then. I was flying my kite along the beach in New Jersey and my kite sank into the water and I thought I'd lost it forever. A police man on a bicycle saw me crying and I told him what was wrong, he was really nice. My dad was able to reel the kite back in one piece, so everything turned out okay in the end.

Question 2

My husband isn't Filipino, he's American. His entire family is American as well. I also have two American uncles married to my aunts and 2 American friends in Japan. In total I know around 10 Americans. I have a friend from Lebanon, another from Morocco and another from Greece, we used to play online games together and still keep in touch. I work with someone from England, another from Australia, one more from America and another from New Zealand. I have many Japanese colleagues and a few Japanese friends.

Question 3

Many tourists love to go to Boracay. It's such a popular tourist destination that it became over developed and had to be shut down for over 6 months back in 2018 so that the goverment can remove buildings that were no longer in the legal build zone. When they reopenned it was cleaner and buildings were built further back, exposing more shoreline. They now limit the number of tourists that can go there at any time. It was good for the economoy but bad for the environment but now it's more sustainable.

Question 4

Up in the very northern areas of the Philippines where we still have our indigenous people from ancient tribes, a lot of the younger people have moved out of their villages and gone into the city to get better work. The local government doesn't really do anything, the tribes either die out, move to another place or get work locally in agriculture or tourism.

Question 5

In Cebu they would have signs that give higher rates to people who are specifically from Manila or Foreigners. The signs literally say Manila/Foreigners. I'm from Manila and it has made me really angry, which is why I don't like going to Cebu, despite it being so popular for tourists, specially the Japanese. They're nicer to tourists from other countries than to people from Manila. Manila is the capital and usually get the focus when it comes to the news and government funds. Cebu is a budding metropolis and they think they should get the same level of attention as Manila, but they don't, and that isn't done on purpose, but I think this makes them angry. I think this isn't fair because people from Manila don't single out people from Cebu, you won't see signs with more expensive rates for people from Cebu in Manila. We're all from the Philippines and we shouldn't be treating our countrymen this way.

Question 6

I think it would be good for Japan and would be the only way they'll survive economically when the aging population crisis reaches its peak. I think the Japanese are very good at maintaining their important traditions, as long as they do that while adjusting to becoming more internationalized, I think they should be okay with regards to keeping their unique culture. Becoming internationalized will help them economically and possibly culturally, civilizations are usually more successful when they share knowledge with others.

Tough Vocabulary