- Joined
- Jun 17, 2020
- Messages
- 17,045
- Points
- 113
Yusaku Maezaw used the word "slavery" to describe Japan's foreign worker system.
And he refused to walk it back.
The ZOZO founder — the billionaire who flew to the International Space Station — was called xenophobic for questioning mass immigration on X.
His response was devastating.
"The whole national mindset — 'we don't have enough workers, so let's just rely on cheap foreign labor we can pay the bare minimum' — that's what's creepy to me."
Then he kept going.
"'X people are cheap so let's hire them in bulk!' — that feels slave-like to me, and I don't like it."
He asked why Japan can't solve the problem through effort and ingenuity instead.
Why not suppress unproductive industries and redirect the workforce?
Why not let machines and AI do what cheap foreign labor is doing now?
The original post was already explosive:
"Do we really need to maintain our 'economic scale' even by accepting immigrants?"
His answer: a country that is "smart, efficient, sophisticated, affluent, and beautiful — just with Japanese people."
Quality over quantity.
In the West, saying this ends a career.
In Japan, a billionair said it and the country thanked him.
And he refused to walk it back.
The ZOZO founder — the billionaire who flew to the International Space Station — was called xenophobic for questioning mass immigration on X.
His response was devastating.
"The whole national mindset — 'we don't have enough workers, so let's just rely on cheap foreign labor we can pay the bare minimum' — that's what's creepy to me."
Then he kept going.
"'X people are cheap so let's hire them in bulk!' — that feels slave-like to me, and I don't like it."
He asked why Japan can't solve the problem through effort and ingenuity instead.
Why not suppress unproductive industries and redirect the workforce?
Why not let machines and AI do what cheap foreign labor is doing now?
The original post was already explosive:
"Do we really need to maintain our 'economic scale' even by accepting immigrants?"
His answer: a country that is "smart, efficient, sophisticated, affluent, and beautiful — just with Japanese people."
Quality over quantity.
In the West, saying this ends a career.
In Japan, a billionair said it and the country thanked him.
