This has been true throughout every country in the world in almost every period of human history. There is always a fear of loss of culture, it is a groundless fear because culture doesn't just disappear because a new Chinatown was set up across the street. Take blacks and whites in America, they have been around each other, intermingling for hundred of years, interbreeding, learning each others ways and yet they still have two very separate, distinct cultures. Hundreds of years of interaction have done little to nothing to change that.
Hmm i would say that the culture that blacks have now days is largely modern and most of the culture that blacks had hundreds of years ago has been lost (quite forcibly too because the whites banned the practice of much of the blacks traditional culture in the past). Black people have a distinct culture now days, but i think that has mostly come about after hundreds of years of hardship, they have increasingly found their voice in white society and have part re-invented, invented and part re-found their old culture.
I certainly don't think there was much learning from the whites about the blacks up until relatively recently in history, and that only came about in itself because of changes in politics- until changes were made in politics, intermingling was pretty frowned upon, even as recently as the 50's and 60's black & white marriages were still pretty taboo for a lot of people.
So i certainly don't think that the strong culture of black people came about because of interbreeding and learning each others ways etc, rather i think that todays black culture came about because of an increasingly robust opposition to the inequality of how we treated them in the past.
During the times of the British empire, we had serious self-superiority over other cultures and countries etc.
Certainly now days there's a lot more intermingling and learning on both sides, but this is not entirely the case. While there is less racism on our part towards the blacks, many say that its increasing on the black side towards whites- and there are also certainly still many communities in America which are rather racist and closed towards learning about other cultures etc. But i shan't go too much into this for now as this issue really deserves another thread if its to be discussed about to any serious degree.
The difference between cultural superiority in countries like ours and countries like Japans is that we have all made strides to understand each other cultures and work out our differences, Japan has not and, as far as I can tell, is not even prepared to try, even with the looming workforce and population crisis's they face.
The problems you have named are some that every country with an immigrant population goes through regardless of age or societal structure. Japans only excuse is that they believe themselves to be more complex, more unique and more unable to handle cultural differences than every other modern culture on the planet, which is a lie.
I think education has a very large part to play in all of this. What we learn when we are children and the environment which we are brought up in shapes the sort of person we become when we grow up to a very large degree.
Back in the
Meiji period, the Japanese government convinced an entire young generation of Japanese to learn the Bushido way and worship their emporer as a god. This largely came about because of what was taught in the school text books- about a third of what was taught in the history/culture books was about the emporer and royalty of Japan alone, and only a very small percentage was devoted to the teaching young Japanese about the world outside of Japan etc.
This lead to a generation of Japanese wholeheartedly believing what they had been taught as children, and that what they were taught was important and correct, and this lead to a whole generation of Japanese obsessed with the superiority of their country and culture. And the military/government used this to their full advantage- during the war years, Japanese were taught that Chinese were practically sub-human/animals and that their culture, royalty and government was inferior etc. With this sort of mindset, it only paved the way for atrocities like the Massacre of Nanjing etc.
But my point is, is that the Japanese mind and general opinion is like clay that can be easily shaped by whatever cast it is set in. If the Japanese government could convince their people that the emperor was a living god, then i am sure that if its government is willing then it could teach its people about other cultures and the benefits of immigration, and so convince its people to welcome immigrants with open arms.
But for such changes to happen, the Japanese have to believe that such changes can happen. Its a vicious cycle- because the Japanese believe themselves to be more complex, more unique and more unable to handle cultural differences than every other modern culture on the planet, they actually make this true by believing it (so its not really a lie). But until they change these views towards the world outside of Japan, they will never be able to change.
Flooding the country with immigrants may help boost the population, but it won't change the Japanese mindset, and it could even worsen Japan's opinions of other cultures depending on how the general public receives the immigrants etc. Until the Japanese mindset changes, then increased immigration will not work as successfully as it could do in the country.
Let's face facts, Japan has and is doing more to dilute and mess up their own culture and way of life than a whole hoarde of immigrants. Look at what separatism has got them, a shrinking, overworked population, family structure breaking down, cultural identity in question, rampant suicides, an unhealthy obsession with machines and technology, lack of any progress in gender equality, lack of educational advance, poor inter-cultural relations ect ect ect.
From my point of view I would take immigration over that any day.
Japan is always improving in certain area's but un-improving in others. While the family unit is collapsing, was it ever that great in the first place anyway? While on the plus side, plenty of kids were being born in the olden days, families stood together as strong units, people married for life and invested greatly in their kids etc, there were a lot of bad sides to the old family unit as well. Arranged marriages were the norm in the past, many couple's were unhappy, the man would cheat on his wife but she had no power to stop him and if he got found out by others, she would have to bear a lot of the shame. The woman's purpose in life was to be a baby making machine, if she failed to have children then she failed as a women, she had to make everyone happy in the family yet as a housewife she had little power to change much etc if her elders didn't cooperate etc.
So yes, the family unit has broken down a lot in Japan, but its not an entirely bad thing- women are more empowered than ever in Japanese society, men and women have more power to choose who they want to be with, the elderly no longer control the family unit (for better or for worse).
Its pretty obvious that a lot of Japanese women do not want to have lots of kids, which is why the birthrate is falling. Perhaps the only thing that kept it high in the past was because of the pressures of the old family unit on the women to produce lots of children. Now birthrates are falling, this spells bad news in many area's of Japanese society, but is this change simply part of progress for women?
In troubled times, people have to contemplate what they are doing more. Japan is a stubborn and often rather closed country, perhaps this is the crisis it needs to make it change for the better.
EDIT: I totally agree with that political correctness becoming ridiculous, especially that bit about changing Christmas to Seasons Greetings. I don't see anyone else going out of their way not to offend us...but then again, I have seen absolutely no move to seriously implement this change. Even the mention of it sparked outrage and debate. Hell, the immigrants have even started telling us to lighten up.
That problem is of out own making...last I checked no immigrants were lobbying to change Christmas. You have to admit, we tend to imagine problems where none exist.
Meh, you're probably right, but i also think it boils down a lot to that we try too hard to please, and end up making ourselves look like fools in the process when we use political correctness to try and please others etc.