Visible Minorities: Japan’s Cult of Miserable Happy shingetsunewsagency.com

This column marks one full year of writing a monthly column for SNA, so let’s take a break. Instead of writing about current events, let’s focus on something more cultural about life in Japan.

These are sobering times for Japan fans. Thanks to the pandemic, even the most starry-eyed and enfranchised foreigners are having their bubbles burst, realizing that their status in Japan, no matter how hard-earned, matters not one whit to Japan’s policymakers.