By virtue of a more rapidly increasing population, maybe.
The interesting thing about Japan is the poverty level is estimated to be relatively high. In general we see that crime scales with poverty, but not as much there. That should be subject to more research.
Well that’s a stupid article. The operative words: “Defined by the percentage of the population earning less than half of the median national income”. In an absolute sense, Japan has no poverty.
History will ultimately be the judge, but I truly worry about the sustainability of many things in the US.
I grew up in a rural area of New York, which is basically rotting away. I worked on a farm as a kid that was continuously operated since the 1680s that is suddenly not viable.
Life is great for my family, thanks to good education, luck, and good decisions, but I worry about my kids’ future.
If your kids going to be a farmer and only a farmer, I think it's quite right to worry about it. Innovation is not constrained in one country - whatever happens elsewhere will be felt, the only difference is where the benefits end up.
I don't know if that's completely true. Aren't many (most?) of the organized crime groups historically immigration-based in the US? The American Mafia was started by Italian immigrants in NYC, MS-13 by El Salvadorian immigrants in Los Angeles, etc.? I mean, we have MS-13 problems even here in Washington DC due to the large El Salvadorian population.
I would wager if Japan allowed as many El Salvadorians into Japan as made it into the US, they would start having MS-13 problems too (but maybe not; Japan authorities pretty much decimated the Yakuza last I read).
The yakuza is still alive and well.[1] They keep a lower profile now than during Japan's boom times, much like the mafia in the US today. I dunno about MS-13 per se, but I've definitely run into an outsized share of sketchy central and south American immigrants in nightclubs in Osaka. A Canadian DJ friend of mine (long-time Osaka resident, like 10+ years) cautioned me to avoid them. They had a reputation for violence, stabbings, etc...
[1]NSFW Google search: "site:tokyoreporter.com yakuza". TokyoReporter is my favorite English-language Japan news source; they cover all the seedy shit like ex-porn stars getting busted for drugs.
I wouldn't rush to dismiss tribalism as a bad thing for society. Homogeneity is like any tradeoff: upsides and downsides. Japan is as homogenous as they come.
