Hello Kitty seems an unlikely trigger for an immigration debate.
But that¡¯s what happened in Japan this week when Megumi Hayashibara, a prominent voice actress behind icons from Kitty to the long-running anime franchise ¡°Evangelion¡¯s¡± Rei Ayanami, took to her blog to discuss the growing population of outsiders.
She called for a crackdown on rule-breaking foreigners and criticized overseas students on free scholarships while locals pay for their education. The thrust of her post was a call for readers to vote. But her most cutting remark was a fear that local habits and Japaneseness itself might be lost if current trends continue, like the native crayfish endangered by an ¡°invasive species¡± of crustacean threatening its natural habitat. (After online outrage, Hayashibara deleted the reference to crayfish.)
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