The new Prime Minster of Japan is a female. Previously, she was a drummer in a Heavy Metal Band. You gotta kind of love that.
 
Apparently, from what I’ve heard on the news, she is very conservative and highly anti-immigration.
 
I don’t know if you pay attention to such stuff, but Japan has been overrun with tourism since the end of the pandemic. Why? I don’t really know. But, it seems that everyone is going there. Even a lot of people I have come into contact with. …Going for the first time. And, I get it, Japan is a great and very beautiful country. I have spent a large portion of my adult life retuning to Japan. …I’ve spent a lot of time there. In fact, I had the plan to make it my homebase forever. But, that did not work out. At least not yet.
 
Now, when I go there, I too see the overwhelming nature of tourists. For example, my lady is really into Hello Kitty. Because of this fact, we periodically go to Sanrio Puroland. When we went just before the pandemic, we were the only non-Japanese people there. The last time we went, a couple of months ago, it was overwhelmed by non-Japanese. It was crazy!
 
One funny thing that happened while we were there was this one very large and overweight female American of Hispanic descent was there with her teenage daughter. You could tell, the mother was way into Hello Kitty. But, you know how teenagers are, anything your parents are into, you probably hate. The daughter was obviously not into it. The mother, almost yelling at her, “You will have fun here!” Kind of like a drill sergeant. To witness it, it was pretty funny…
 
The thing is, there has been talk of this advanced rate of tourism in Japan for a while now. They even started charging a travel fee for foreigners to enter the country last month, (I think it was). When you think of this kind of stuff, you, (meaning me), always imagine it’s the Americans causing the problem. But, as it turns out, that is not wholly true. Well, they are, at least in part. But, it is actually, and more so, the Chinese that are the big issue of tourism in Japan.
 
Like, I was walking in this park in Osaka, the last time I was there, and surrounding me, literally everywhere, were people of Chinese origin sitting and picnicking, and all of that kind of stuff. To the average Westerner, they might not even notice the difference, as the Chinese are also Asian. But, to the Japanese, there is a very big difference.
 
I think to Hong Kong. It’s really a sight. Every Sunday, swarms of all of the Filipinos and Filipinas, who work in Hong Kong, congregate in Central, grab a spot on the ground, hang out, talk, eat, dance, sing, you name it. It’s really very cool. At least I think so. But, I too am not a Hong Kong National. So, how do the true locals feel about this?
 
By nature, the Japanese have always been understood to be an ethnocentric race. Just look to the annals of history to confirm this fact. And, this is not a criticism or an insult in any way. So, I get it, too many foreigners are coming in and probably overstaying their tourist visa and all of that kind of stuff and messing with their culture and the country. I know that’s big problem here in the States, as well. That too has been all over the news, with President Trump instigating a major crackdown.
 
It was kind of interesting, I thought… Here in the L.A. area, there had long been a certain amount of tourism from China. You would see the tourist buses delivering the crew and the like. Then came the pandemic, and China went into a major lockdown. A lockdown that lasted longer than much of the rest of the world. Once that finally broke open, there was a noticeable deluge of people speaking Mandarin and other China-based dialects all over the place here in the great Los Angeles region. It was and is a noticeable tidal wave.
 
But, what does all this mean? What does it mean to Japan? What does it mean to the world society as a whole? And, what does it mean that the people in power wish to stop the flow of various groups of people crossing a country’s boarders?
 
I mean, I too am a fault. Like I say, I’ve spent a lot of my Life Time in Japan. I wish I could have spent more. Back in the 1980s and into the ‘90s, a white guy with long blonde hair was seen as cool and a welcomed traveler, promising promises. Now??? It seems there has been a shift in the way outsiders are viewed.
 
There has always been this sentiment in the States, as well. It happened with all of the various new introduction of ethnic groups and races that came here. And certainly, this is nothing limited to Japan or the States. It has gone on across the world forever. There is racism everywhere. I, most certainly, have experienced it.  
 
Like I have long understood, eventually, if humanity lasts that long, there will only be one race. But, until then, there will undoubtedly always be discrimination due to race—particularly a person’s race in another land.
 
The thing is, it is a very low level of consciousness to judge a person by their race or their ethnic or cultural origin. But, it goes on all the time. Listen and you will hear, “That person is a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, a Black, a White,” and all of the much more derogatory terms that are used to define the various groups and races. But, should that be the end-all definition of a person? Where they come from or the color of their skin?
 
Certainly, I’m not saying anything new here. It has all been said before. But, what all this drives us to is the question, who are you? How do you define another person? Do you define them by where they come from and not what they do, how they treat other people, and/or the good that they give verses the bad that they unleash?
 
Think of any place/any country in the world. How many people in that country do good things verses how many of them do bad things. Now, take this down to the more personal level, how does that one specific individual, from that different far-off place, treat you and treat others? Do they do good things for you? Or, do they do bad things?
 
Let’s take this one step deeper… How do you behave? How do you behave when you are in your home country, your home city, in your home? And, perhaps even more importantly—at least in terms of this discussion, how do you behave when you are somewhere else? Do you respect the culture and contribute only good to it? Or, do you hold onto your customs and do things that might be found offensive by the traditions and understandings of this Other Place?  
 
Like I always say, the entire world begins with you. It begins with what you think, what you say, and what you do. What you do spreads out from you and onto the All and the Everything. Thus, what you do causes others to judge not only you but your entire culture. Again, what do you do?
 
Most people never think of this. Most people never think about anyone but themselves. They do not care what impact they may have on anyone or anything else, as long as they are okay. But, is that the way anyone should behave? Is that the impact you wish to feel by someone from some far-off land?
 
Near or far, people are people. What you do sets an entire chain reaction into motion everywhere around you. This chain reaction may be small, it may be large. It may be helpful, or it may be hurtful. It may cause others to love or to hate you and your peoples.
 
Ultimately, all you can do/all you should do is to be respectful of all human life and never do anything that changes the natural order of things. In fact, you should never do anything that breaks the flow of a culture or a tradition or even a single person. Because, when that occurs, all that it does is make you the source point for a lot of negative karma which can branch out from you and affect the greater world as a whole. Do you wish to be sourcepoint for that?
 
Think before you do.