Foreigners in Japan are treading carefully as tensions rise

Jessica SierNorth Asia correspondent

Dec 28, 2025 – 12.47pm

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Tokyo | On Tokyo trains and in rural streets, long-term foreign residents are keeping their elbows in and their voices low as they try to avoid disrupting everyday Japanese life. Tensions about immigration, overtourism and rising prices have sharpened over the past year in the country they have long called home.

As a result, residents say they are changing their behaviour in small but deliberate ways. Australians who have lived in Japan for decades told The Australian Financial Review they now feel a heightened need to signal that they belong. They are keen not to be branded tourists or newcomers, as the government’s tough-on-foreigner rhetoric rises and viral images of badly behaved visitors fuel local anger.

Foreigners in Japan are trying to blend in amid rising tensions.

“I really don’t want to be painted with the same brush as an idiot YouTuber drinking warm beer left as an offering in a Japanese graveyard,” says Greg Story, a long-term Tokyo resident and former Austrade commissioner.

“I’ve never really felt uncomfortable as a foreigner until now. But there is a new tension, and I’m making a calculated mental effort to be extra polite and follow the rules.”

That shift comes as foreign nationals have become a central political issue in Japan. The number of foreign residents hit a record 3.9 million this year – about 3 per cent of the population – and all major parties campaigned on tighter immigration rules before recent elections.

Under the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the government is drafting tougher measures, from higher visa fees and restrictions on foreigners buying property to stricter checks on unpaid taxes and medical bills.

Analysts say the move is aimed at blunting pressure from the nationalist Sanseito party, which surged under a “Japanese First” platform at this year’s polls. Members of the party, dressed in distinctive orange uniforms, have been a growing presence on Japan’s streets, calling for furyo gaijin – delinquent foreigners – to go home.

Takaichi has said the public feels “anxiety and a sense of unfairness” over “illegal actions” by some foreigners. Critics warn, however, that an emphasis on enforcement over integration risks deepening social unease and reinforcing the perception among foreign residents that they are viewed as temporary guests rather than members of Japanese society.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against racism and nationalist party Sanseito in Tokyo ahead of upper house elections in July. AP

“I can feel Japanese people bristling,” says Melanie Brock, an executive who has lived in Japan for decades. “The bad behaviour of tourists has been confused with anxiety about real estate prices and the future of Japan. I worry that blanket clustering of a minority ends up having a bigger impact on Japan than on those minorities. And I don’t want to be clustered with the rest.”

Brock says she has consciously altered her behaviour to signal that she is not a clueless tourist. She chooses a black coat over a bright red one to blend in, avoids speaking loudly in public and never jaywalks in rule-following Tokyo.

But she also worries that events like the Bondi Beach attack risk reinforcing fears about diversity and undermining the strengths of multiculturalism, from which countries such as Australia have long benefited.

“Bondi is a reminder to Japan of what can happen when there is multiculturalism in a society,” Brock says. “It heightens the sense of difference, and right now, Japan doesn’t have much experience with that. It would be terrible for Japan to become more closed off.”

The China dispute

Greg Story says he doesn’t want to be painted with the same brush as badly behaving foreign tourists.

Underlying the broader unease is a longer-running sensitivity around Chinese residents in Japan, who number close to 900,000 – the largest foreign nationality in the country. Discussions about “foreigners in Japan” are often a veiled reference to Chinese residents in particular.

Tensions flared recently after Takaichi warned in the National Diet that a conflict in the Taiwan Strait could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Her remarks drew a sharp response from Beijing and were followed by retaliatory measures, including travel warnings and restrictions on group tour packages to Japan.

Chinese authorities also directed major travel agencies to cut Japan visa applications by 40 per cent, while more than 1900 Japan-bound flights were cancelled in December.

The anti-foreigner politics comes despite Japan’s deepening demographic bind. The population has been shrinking for 16 consecutive years, falling from a peak of about 128 million in 2008 to roughly 124 million today, while last year’s fertility rate slid to a record low of around 1.15 births per woman.

By 2070, official projections show Japan’s population dropping below 90 million, with only about half of residents of working age. Foreign residents have helped bolster the workforce, particularly in manufacturing, healthcare and construction, yet remain treated largely as temporary labour rather than future citizens.

“The increase in foreign nationals is occurring to supplement the decreasing Japanese workforce,” says Toshihiro Menju, a visiting professor at Kansai University of International Studies. “If this is suppressed, there is a risk that society will fall into dysfunction.”

As tensions continue, some are responding with hypervigilance.

“I am the best-behaved foreign resident right now because I don’t want to irritate anyone,” says Donna Burke, an Australian who has lived in Japan for years. “I sometimes wonder if that’s why people have dogs, because a dog is a great signal that you’re not a tourist and that you actually live here.”

Miwako Kita, a farm manager at Obubu tea plantations in Wazuka.

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Jessica Sier is the North Asia Correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. She is based in Tokyo, Japan. Jessica has previously written on technology, global capital markets and economics.