Is Japanese immigration policy "anti-immigration", "xenophobic", or "racist"?

From the time this site started until half a million page views later, general knowledge of Japan's naturalization has improved greatly. Thank you everyone! The amount of sites, comments, and forums that say "It is impossible to become Japanese. Japanese only let people with Japanese race/blood" be Japanese has dropped over 40% since I started tracking it, via web searches, in 2010. They don't always mention that they're reading this site, but some do. For example, another commenter will point out to someone that there information is not true and they should look at our site.

When people say it's impossible to become Japanese, they often point to the data point of how there are hundreds of thousands of Koreans who have lived for generations without obtaining Japanese nationality to support their claim. Take this comment about the Koreans in Japan — known colloquially as 在日 {zainichi} (literally "Japan resident") — made by a Slashdot commenter as recently as last week (2013-Oct-28):

"… ethnic Koreans born in Japan, raised in Japan, and who live their whole life in Japan while may never be considered Japanese citizens."

While that claim is true, this is a case of "correlation does not imply causation": due to complicated matters of World War Ⅱ history and identity and the Korean War dividing the country that they knew, most of these "Special Permanent Residents" (特別永住者 {tokubetsu eijūsha}) / SPRs intentionally choose not to become legally Japanese. As the Imperial Japanese Government that existed during and prior to World War Ⅱ essentially forced these Koreans and others to become Japanese nationals, assigning them Japanese nationality again automatically/involuntarily — either at birth through jus soli or doing a mass naturalization — could be viewed as repeating the same sin that the abolished Japanese Imperial Government & Military committed: forcing them to be Japanese nationals not by their own choice.

As for this:

"I'm talking about the government policy to restrict the immigration on racial grounds. Have you tried to settle permanently in Japan and get the citizenship? It is almost impossible unless you have Japanese roots. It's no coincidence that Japan is one of the most racially pure countries on Earth (99% Japanese) as it is a deliberate policy."

... there is no "deliberate policy" or "government policy". Many overseas bloggers and even journalists from major publications such as National Geographic, however, have referred to Japan as being "anti-immigrant":

• http://raaw.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/anti-immigration-the-death-knell-for-japan/
  Anti-immigration the death knell for Japan

  "…they don’t want to admit foreign labor…"

• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130630-immigration-reform-world-refugees-asylum-canada-japan-australia-sweden-denmark-united-kingdom-undocumented-immigrants/

  "Japan's strict immigration—or, rather, anti-immigration—policies have drawn heavy criticism."

So is there an "anti-immigration" policy?

There are no racial barriers or quotas or racial purity policies within Japan's immigration system. The primary difference between the U.S. (Which has a high level of immigration) and Japan's immigration system is that the U.S. immigration policy allows for two (2) primary paths to legally immigrate:

1. By high skilled work: getting a job that is not considered manual/low-skill labor.
2. By "family reunion": having a family member (brother, sister, mother, father, etc.) already in the country.

Japan only has one path:

1. By high skilled work. How this is defined is complicated, but in a nutshell it's anything that requires a formal education above high school level.

In the United States, at least 50% and up to 70% (depending on the year, since 1965) of legal immigration comes from Path #2. In Japan, you can bring your immediate family (your spouse and your direct non-adult children), but you can't bring your mother, father, brother, sister, etc. If they want to come, they need to qualify via path #1. There are some special rules for a visa called 定住者 {teijūsha} (Long Term [foreign] Resident) that allow entry into Japan based on family connections to other Japanese. This is proven if the foreigner can show a relationship with a Japanese national within a three (3) generations or less.

The reason some Americans call Japan "anti-immigrant" or "restrictive" may be because Japan lacks an easier Path #2 as part of its formal immigration policy, not because of race/ethnicity exclusion/quota policies. Path #2 is how the bulk of most legal immigration in the U.S. occurs.

Because Japan is surrounded by seas and oceans with no land border neighbors, it is geographically very difficult for potential immigrants to enter illegally. This also makes travel airfare expensive compared to land/car border crossings. Natural geographic distance and properties is not the only reason, but it does keep the whole immigrant (legal & illegal) population relatively lower than most countries that share borders with other countries.

Most importantly, the national language (国語 {kokugo}) of the land is Japanese. In order to qualify for Path #1 (high skilled labor), you usually have to speak/read/write it for the vast majority of white collar jobs that require communication. Yes, there are IT jobs and other STEM jobs where you can use English (and there's the ever popular EFL), as well as elite overseas corporation jobs like executives, investment bankers and import/export specialists, but when comparing the number of these jobs that allow all-day or most-of-the-day majority use of a foreign language like English, they amount to a tiny portion of the available jobs inside Japan needing fluent Japanese for both internal communication and external communication with clients and customers. This is a higher barrier than some other countries, where the availability of high-skilled jobs in "popular" languages, like English, is more plentiful.