Foreigners

Worth pondering: only about 1.5% of Japan's 125 million people are foreigners. The percentage is tiny; foreigner make up a larger share of Iceland's population. But the actual percentage in Japan is even lower, since many people born in the country are classed as foreign. Still, their small numbers don't translate in the Japanese mind into a small threat. Consider the Japanese treatment of their Korean minority, who number no more than 650,000. Koreans can't expect to attend a major university or work at a leading corporation. They pay taxes but they reap few social benefits - public housing, for example. They can't vote or stand for public office or support a political party. Even a fourth generation Korean is not allowed to carry a Japanese passport. They travel on Korean documents.

Hence the director's fascination with alienness and with interesting questions. For example, what does the failure to cope with foreignness portend for Japan? What kind of a future can it be expected to have in a world in which hybridity and diversity has become a source of creativity and competitive advantage?