In a recent blog post, veteran voice actress Megumi Hayashibara spoke out about the issues that Japanese citizens are facing in the wake of increasingly rude tourists, while also giving her opinion about benefits offered to foreigners and immigrants.
The post in question from Hayashibara has been edited multiple times after both Japanese and international readers began to discuss and share it.
Some readers have taken Hayashibara’s statements as reactionary and anti-immigrant. Others believe she’s explicitly referring to certain individuals who exploit Japan’s culture and programs, she explicitly mentions there are foreigners who pay taxes.
You can read a portion of her statement below.
If things continue like this,
Japan’s Japaneseness will disappear,
its manners, attitude, technology, food, and maybe even anime (＞人＜;)Of course, there are many, many people living in Japan who really love Japan.
I have friends! Some have become naturalized!
Among them, there are some people who run private lodgings without manners, foreign tourists who don’t know how to “give in” and people who cut down bamboo in Kyoto.
If we don’t have regulations, if we don’t make them, it will be dangerous.
It will be like Japanese crayfish being eaten by invasive species in an instant.
Hayashibara is considered by some to be a legend of the anime industry, with rules including Rei Ayanami in Neon Genesis Evangelion, female Ranma Saotome in Ranma 1/2, Ai Haibara in Detective Conan, Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop, and those are only some of her iconic roles.
Over the past several years, Japan has experienced increasingly worse problems with tourists. These tourists have been emboldened by a weakened yen and nuisance streamers like Johnny Somali.
