Japan is not a xenophobic country - by Noah Smith

The other day at a fundraiser, Joe Biden made a casual comment that I consider to be the worst gaffe of his entire term as President. He declared that two of America’s most important allies, India and Japan, are “xenophobic”, and placed them in the same category as Russia and China: “You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants. We look to – the reason – look, think about it – why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,” Biden said, according to an official White House transcript released Thursday. From a diplomatic standpoint, this was extremely stupid, since it insults our allies while gaining absolutely nothing. It’s also a little hypocritical, given that Biden just vowed to block a Japanese steel company from acquiring U.S. Steel on incredibly flimsy pretexts — not to mention all the restr

The other day at a fundraiser, Joe Biden made a casual comment that I consider to be the worst gaffe of his entire term as President. He declared that two of America’s most important allies, India and Japan, are “xenophobic”, and placed them in the same category as Russia and China: “You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants. We look to – the reason – look, think about it – why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don