he is, maintaining that there *is* an issue with foreigners that are not addressed in japan hence why people vote sanseito 🤷🏻‍♀️ the comments are a bit of a right wing shit fest tbh even though dogen isn't exactly right leaning.

giving dogen the benefit of the doubt, he's trying to be grounded and neutral. unfortunately just one look at this comment section right now reveals how exactly this just further invites nationalist and far right positions. ironically, there's even comments written in Japanese that say how incorrect

aren't people like him - it's marginalised communities like chinese and vietnamese and kurds who are being scrutinised the most. his take is the most "we need to understand both sides" argument ive seen and i just think it's misplaced and fails to address genuine issues in far right extremism here

in general his commentary simply confirms something ive known for awhile from his videos: his perspective is incredibly privileged, and in his attempt to humanise japan and japanese people, he coddles the realities of japanese politics so much. the people most affected by anti-foreign sentiment

repeatedly he implicitly frames the ideal immigrant: the person who moves to japan out of love for the country and who are willing to learn the language. the "ideal" immigrant in this case is someone who unquestionably accepts nationalism of their chosen country. there's so many issues with this

he also says that not all people who voted for Sanseito did so because they are "racist" but are genuinely afraid of foreign influence in the aftermath of the Unification Party and its ties to the LDP. fine, but why is it framed like a legitimate excuse to vote for a party that is inspired by Trump?

he explains that while the relative rise of the far right party Sanseito is high, their actual seat numbers in government are low. unfortunately, branding a far-right party as a fringe party is exactly how many issues started in germany and the U.S.

i've very purposefully avoided vietnam war movies for most of my life. as to why - i think author viet thanh nguyen puts it well. source: www.hup.harvard.edu/features/vie...

😆 it iiirks me when out of everything the typo is in the title of the movie adiueiud

god dammit not the typo!!

im used to bureaucratic stuff being born and raised in germany and all but at least they have like a 20-page book detailing everything you need whereas here it's more like im under some authoritarian whim which makes it no easier 🫣

shoulda asked chatgpt i guess. 😔