Immigration has been spotlighted in the United Kingdom and the United States through uproars about grooming gangs and the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
However, the need to balance economic benefit against cultural preservation is also playing out in the unfolding story of Vietnamese immigration to Japan. These are the two competing poles at the core of every immigration debate.
Japan’s nursing care training facilities report that about half of the students are international, including many Vietnamese students. (Photo provided by training facility via Sankei)
Economic Growth, Social Friction
Japan and Vietnam have heightened their economic ties. Recently, the two countries pledged free trade with one another to offset the consequences of Trump’s tariffs. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, between May 2024 and May 2025, exports from Vietnam to Japan increased by ¥17.3 billion JPY ($117 million USD, 5.58%), from ¥310 billion ($2.10 billion) to ¥328 billion ($2.22 billion). Imports also increased by ¥8.68 billion ($58.75 million, 4.49%), from ¥193 billion ($1.31 billion) to ¥202 billion ($1.37 billion).
However, anecdotes from the streets of Japan also tell a less flattering story. The Vietnamese Consulate in Fukuoka sent condolences to their Japanese counterpart after a tragic incident involving a Vietnamese national. A 24-year-old technical intern from Vietnam had robbed and attacked a Japanese language teacher and her mother, killing the teacher and severely wounding the mother.
In another case, a Vietnamese shoplifting ring was caught targeting Japanese drug stores to ship products back to Vietnam.
Rice on display in a store in April 2025. Three Vietnamese men were arrested for allegedly stealing 19 bags (105 kg) of rice, which had skyrocketed in price, for reselling. (©Sankei/file photo)
Beyond individual anecdotes, there are also official worries. The Japanese government expressed concern about Vietnam’s delays in implementing key projects related to transportation and environmental sustainability.
Cultural Mismanagement and the Lessons of Australia
Negative portrayals of Vietnamese immigrants in Japan do not bode well for interracial harmony. If not better managed, a model of the grim future that awaits can be found in the unsuccessful management of immigration’s cultural effects in Australia, where racial tensions have unfolded. In 1996, Australia’s One Nation party founder Pauline Hanson made a controversial remark in her maiden speech that Asian immigrants “form ghettos and do not assimilate.”
Many left and center-left media do not view Hanson as a serious political figure. They cite antics such as her wearing a burqa to Parliament House while demanding a ban on the garment.
Despite Hanson’s clownish status, her inflammatory remarks about Asian immigration continue to resurface in left-leaning media. In 2016, ABC News revisited her question of whether Australia had been “swamped by Asians.” In May 2025, Hanson’s One Nation Party showed signs of growing support among disaffected center-right voters.
The Southport Riots
The United Kingdom has witnessed a similar rise in more openly nationalist parties such as Reform UK, which promised to deport 600,000 illegal migrants if it gained power.
This pledge followed 13 years of Tory rule, a period that saw a sharp rise in illegal migration despite the execution of Brexit.
Failures to tackle concerns resulted in the Southport riots. Those were a series of violent anti-immigration protests that erupted after the stabbing of young girls at a dance class. However, the perpetrator was not an illegal immigrant, as initial misinformation claimed.
Nevertheless, the fact that protestors reacted so quickly to the false information shows the bubbling anger against migrants. Some people feel these migrants have flooded into the country, wreaked havoc, and enjoyed more benefits than UK citizens themselves.
A Troubling Mirror
Perhaps Hanson’s remarks still strike Australian progressive media’s nerve because they hold a sliver of truth. The 1990s in Australia saw organized crime under the Vietnamese 5T gang. These organized networks still seem to be alive as New South Wales police investigate the death of a 45-year-old Vietnamese woman in southwest Sydney, the city’s most culturally diverse region.
Vietnamese communities in Australia have since been able to clean their reputation. In particular, Vietnamese-Australians have risen to become well-known businesspeople, lawyers, and fashion designers. Also, Lunar New Year, or Tết, is a well-attended event by people of all kinds in Australia.
However, the successful integration of minorities cannot be left to chance. On facial features alone, Vietnamese people may not stand out in Japan as much as they do in a white majority country.
Yet, the emergence of Vietnamese criminal networks in Japan is a troubling mirror to that seen in Sydney. Without properly integrating arrivals, Japanese people may develop Hanson’s sentiment towards the Vietnamese.
Avoiding Chaos and Lawlessness
Before embracing the economic benefits of Vietnamese immigration to Japan, there are key cultural differences that Japanese society must wrestle with.
First, Vietnamese nationals accounted for the largest group by nationality among foreigners represented in criminal offenses in 2022. (Out of 9548 foreign offenders, 3432 were Vietnamese). One potential explanation for Vietnamese nationals’ relatively high crime rate is the rifeness of corruption within their country’s government. Trust in the state and media is low. This was also demonstrated during COVID, when the government failed to acquire vaccinations, despite pledges, and lost public cooperation. The criminologist Edwin Sutherland wrote in his book White Collar Crime that the presence of misconduct among authorities corrodes the moral climate of society as a whole.
A second factor is that Vietnam’s one-party state is notoriously opaque and designed to favor the ruling party. In particular, labor rights laws are harsh, and so-called unions are often merely arms of the Party. Vietnam maintains cautious ties with China and sympathies with North Korea, two of Japan’s noted threats. These bonds with authoritarian actors make economic ties with Vietnam risky.
They also cast doubt on the Vietnamese government’s commitment to any level of transparency that democratic governments at least pretend to embody.
Vietnamese technical intern trainees work at a water pipe construction company, in Ota Ward, Tokyo. (©Sankei by Miyazaki Mizuho)
Japan’s Coming Integration Test
An attempt to overcome the issue of lawlessness involved a quiz event testing Vietnamese people on visa and work laws in Japan. While this is a good effort at improving knowledge of the legal system, it does not necessarily guarantee respect for the adoptive country’s laws.
One way to reduce the feeling of marginalization may be integration programs. In the UK context, integration has involved community mentorship programs, cultural exchange programs, language and civics classes and workplace integration initiatives.
Pavisla (far left), a Sri Lankan staff member at a resort in Onna Village, Okinawa, works alongside colleagues from Nepal, Indonesia, and Vietnam on Aug. 9. (©Sankei by Naoki Otake)
Systematic review of integration programs in Frontiers found that they were effective in decreasing loneliness and increasing migrants’ perception of social support and self-esteem. Specifically, forming mentorship connections between new migrants and long-term residents was one of the most effective strategies. The purpose of these services is to instill respect for rule of law, democracy, tolerance, liberty, and equality.
Increased immigration may be an unavoidable reality for Japan, as it faces a crisis in declining births, a worker shortage, and an aging population. It may produce short-term economic benefits that can be mapped into neat pie charts and line graphs. Social decline often only begins with isolated anecdotes and takes longer to acknowledge on a broad scale.
These Vietnamese team members share how much they enjoy dancing the traditional Japanese Yosakoi. (©JAPAN Forward by Mika Sugiura)
However, racial disharmony and resentment can lead to violence and be difficult to undo. Japan must address questions about cultural integration to avoid making the same mistakes as Western countries regarding immigration.
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Author: Theodore Pham
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