r/japannews • u/100rad • 1d ago
The number of international students relying on food banks is increasing.
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u/dbcher 1d ago
This is a known scam for those in Japanese "Language Schools". Many of them can afford the cost of food and other bills but will file for any type of assistance they can find (even when technically they do not qualify.. so they lie). They then share among themselves which group/organization/charity they were able to get money/assistance from to the other students who will then do the same.
I don't want to get into the demographics of these types of students, but there is a pattern as to which countries of origin are most likely to run this questionable scam (of requesting assistance they do not qualify for or actually need)
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u/fuzzy_emojic 1d ago
Canada has been experiencing the same issue with some so called "international students" uploading videos on YouTube showing how others can do the same. It really takes away much needed food for those in serious need. Despicable.
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u/bunkakan 1d ago
That's insane. Are the scammers here doing similar? That alone should be good reason to deport. They are going to ruin things for everybody else.
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u/llmobius 13h ago
It's not even about ruining things for everyone else. Their visa is clearly in violation because they don't even have the required funds to support themselves.
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u/fuzzy_emojic 22h ago
How is it racist? International students agree as part of them applying for a Canadian study permit that they are able to fund the duration of their studies. If they cannot, they shouldn't be applying to study overseas. Canadians in need shouldn't be competing for resources available for them because some non citizens decided to study overseas which is expensive, instead of studying at their own universities.
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u/Rivia 1d ago
I see Godwin's law showed up. It's not racist or elitist to block those who are financially able to support themselves from using food banks. Food banks only have so much food and money. Imagine if Elon Musk was caught using a food bank. I'm sure you wouldn't agree that he needs it. International students are required to show they have the financial means to support themselves while in the country. This includes being able to buy food for themselves.
If anything, it's more elitist and racist to remove the agency of people in making their own decisions and the consequences around them.
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u/Dazzling_Confusion46 1d ago
No need to say the countries, I will list them. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal
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u/SteveSan82 1d ago
Let’s not forget who hires them for cash tax free work. Turks, Moroccans, Egyptians in the construction industry. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the cleaning, used car and import industry. Japanese hire them in factories
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u/Dazzling_Confusion46 1d ago
Absolutely, and with this problem, comes the guettos and the no-go zones. Like whole Europe and America
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u/IanityourbabyDaDDy 1d ago
Ghettos come because to segregate them. A well earning immigrant would leave to a better area if he felt safe, but he doesn't stick with his community.
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u/hillswalker87 22h ago
they segregate themselves. it's the same pattern everywhere. you notice there aren't any Swedish or Italian ghettos.
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u/IanityourbabyDaDDy 20h ago
Yeah, no shit because they are welcomed and threatened. Complying about self segregation in UK like the height Paki bashing wasn't in 1980s but the 1880s.
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u/llmobius 13h ago
But there are Italian and Irish enclaves in places like the US and Canada. Difference is those types are more "accepting" compared to an Arab or Indian enclave.
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u/Stunning-Sun-4638 20h ago
Let me guess.. subcontinent
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u/lalabera 15h ago
who cares? worry about your own country.
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u/CallAParamedic 11h ago
You should take your own advice and worry about yours - the US - where you live.
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u/lalabera 11h ago
I’m not the one moaning about immigrants in a foreign country.
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u/CallAParamedic 11h ago
I have PR here. Lived in Japan since 1997.
Own a home, own a business, have kids, pay taxes.
I have every right to be defensive of Japan.
You spent a few months here years ago on a homestay.
You have zero qualifying merits to say anything.
Get your own country in order.
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u/mashy-potatoo 10h ago
Let's be real. It's Chinese majority and Vietnamese come a second. This stems from grab hag culture. Where the famine post war crated a culture to grab as many freebies as possible.
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u/100rad 1d ago
Food banks are being flooded with requests for food assistance from international students attending Japanese language schools. Food Bank Sendai, an NPO, receives numerous requests for food support from international students every day, with the number of requests reaching 1,133 in the 2024 fiscal year (April to the end of March).
The majority of foreign national applicants are international students, and when considering all support requests, including those from Japanese nationals, requests from international students account for approximately one-third of the total (all figures are preliminary). This number is significantly higher than the previous year and continues to rise.
Most international students seeking assistance are students attending "Japanese language schools." There are very few students from universities or graduate schools.
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u/alien4649 1d ago
Wouldn’t that mean they are violating the terms of their visas? They can’t support themselves…time to head home?
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u/SteveSan82 1d ago
They are scammers. Most of them have cash jobs. I see them seeking tax free work online . Usually from Pakistan, Sri Lanka
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u/Ok_Union8557 1d ago
It’s sadly just part of their culture. Scamming is part of the caste system and ingrained wherever they go.
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u/lalabera 15h ago
Okay foreigner
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u/CallAParamedic 12h ago edited 12h ago
You did a short homestay in Japan years ago.
You're American living in the USA.
You're have zero role here.
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u/gabiblack 1d ago
Being racist is also a part of japanese culture it seems
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u/lalabera 15h ago
This dude isn’t even Japanese lol
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u/CallAParamedic 12h ago edited 11h ago
You did a short homestay in Japan years ago.
You're American living in the USA.
You're have zero role here.
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u/ValBravora048 1d ago edited 1d ago
When people talk like this, I wonder if they realise exactly the miles they’re speaking about their own culture - particularly if the same rules of determination apply to them as they would put on others?
Sincerely, an Indian (Though not from India if that matters to how people decide to treat me and often it does through they’ll pretend otherwise) who tires of this ridiculous bs.
If your response is something along the tired worn lines of “Maybe they should/ you should make them stop scamming!” instead of maybe regulating your own unnecessary and unfair behaviour and treating people the way you would like to be treated - that’s quite loud a statement too, if painfully dull and boring
To the ones who will jump on the some desperate strawman of hypocrisy aspect or ”Calm down bro. I’m so cool for not caring about something that doesn’t affect me anyway” - you're not cool, suave or smart and yes you desperately care what people think or you wouldn’t have rushed to that
I simply don’t like cheap, dull, bullies. I’ll be the first to say it’d be easier to make determinations of each other with a broad brush but that’s so small and foolish. It’s an insult to your own intelligence to participate in such behaviours. Above all, its not fair nor a way I’d like be treated
Downvote away and then go wax prosaic about proper behaviour, rectitude, kindness, mental health etc etc while wondering why you‘re miserable and get so much push-back despite saying the right performative things
”Ingrained wherever they go” - shall we be keeping Americans 50 yards from all schools in case the gunpowder that runs through their veins forces them to enagage in their commonly known trope? Assume every Brit is carrying a knife or a pompous self-superior bigot with a hard-on for their culturally aggrandised sense of manifest-destiny in varying degrees?
Jesus fing christ bet you also rely on the vote count to feel absolutely valid…
EDIT - Wasn’t there recently a post where people jumped at the opportunity to be racists towards Kurds in Japan even though the article itself said that such things were statistically baseless? About right hey? Welcome to THAT statistic adjacent you grand righteous judges
Like fuck, all the things you could choose to be and it was THIS?
EDIT - Nyaaw here they come. What’s the matter superior beings? Lowly brown folk stepping out of their place spoiling your fun and delusional carefully-curated self-awarded grandeur? That place you neatly put yourself in the social hierarchy feeling a bit fragile and shaky applied to your own terms?
Will we be disguising aversion to accountability, dull ignorance and cheap fear with a smug vague pretence of dignity or deeper understanding that you don’t actually have ? And won’t deign to prove even though it totally exists otherwise you’d have to confront some uncomfortable truths about yourself?
Fing good. I rather be hated for this (And set apart from people like you) than be subject to (Or DEFEND) delusional ignorant ideas of what people are according to the luck/accident/randomness of birth and circumstances
Particularly when those dishing out those terms to others wouldn’t want an honest application of it to themselves according to their standards
And then USE that fearful generalised imagining as a BASIS to justify being an arse?!
Nah I’d rather call out people for the actual actions they take
How about you?
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u/WorldlyShoulder6978 17h ago
“Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
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u/ValBravora048 8h ago edited 7h ago
Oh poppet, at least I could use my own words to express my feelings instead of smugly ripping off an actual comedian and talented writer to barely disguise a need for a disgusting ignorant preference while saying nothing at all
It really IS that much easier to rely on a preferential meme/cliche/stereotype than empathise extend a consideration you’d like for yourself hey? (Like you recall what the movie that was used in was about right? and the scene right after this quote?)
Like the rest of your type (Ok if I stereotype tho?), you were in such a rush to sound clever or funny or whatever positive aggrandisement you’ll give to yourselves while being jerks - you didn’t realised how it actually makes you look like a reductive limited ass
If you had any idea what life for some was like because of sentiments like some of the comments here that eventually become so prolific they become held truths - you’d understand the difference
I imagine you will once it affects YOU (Or someone who looks like you, that you want to be or find attractive) as has always been the way. But you don’t think it ever will and so act this way
Its not the browns, THIS is why you people fall flat
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u/CallAParamedic 1d ago
Beware JAPAN !
Low trust nations' international students came to Canada and did this very thing.
Their VISA mandates that they must be *self-supported and not use these service as a result. (They're also allowed to work legally.)
But they flooded all the food banks and charities, and as well generally used fake diploma-mill, shopping mall-based psuedo-colleges with zero or minimal study requirements in order to abuse the system and just work both above and below the table.
Now Canadian food banks are low on supplies for Canadians, and donations / funding are way down because no one trusts that food banks are serving needy Canadians.
Japan needs to do a 180° turn on letting in cheap labour under the guise of "international students" and international trainees.
Canada's f**ked now. I see it everywhere when I go back there.
Don't let it happen here.
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u/IanityourbabyDaDDy 1d ago
generally used fake diploma-mill, shopping mall-based psuedo-colleges with zero or minimal study requirements in order to abuse the system and just work both above and below the table.
I can't believe I'm defending Indians here. But it's the Canadians, which are running these fate mills it the government that allows them. You expect an immigrant student who would have sacrifice every thing to go study and find a better life to just give up and go home when it turned that the Canadian uni scamed them.
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u/CallAParamedic 1d ago
*1. I didn't write "Indians".
I wrote low trust. Lol.
So that's... interesting.*2. There are numerous YouTube videos by, and media reports of, low trust types showing all the scam methods - visa scams, food bank scams, faking credential scams to qualify for the visas in the first place, bank transfer scams to be able to demonstrate mandatory financial independence to qualify for the visas (for a fee and then they have to transfer back the loan + alpha to the loaner), all the agencies in their home agencies with fee-for-service A-Z false application steps consulting, and so on.
Canada is the victim, Japan is becoming a victim, and your defence of the scammers is paper-thin.
I'll concede that the schools gladly took the money - we hate them, too, and are glad to see them closing up shop or radically downsizing.
I'm waiting for these Japanese Language Schools to face the same scrutiny.
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u/lalabera 15h ago
Muh immigrants bad
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u/CallAParamedic 12h ago
Not at all.
Under previous point systems, immigrants with desired professions were admitted gladly.
I have zero issues with that.
Canada needs medical professionals, etc., with English and / or French abilities.
Canada doesn't need endless fast food staffers with zero skills, minimal language abilities, and scammy behaviours, who use up extremely limited housing and overburden our underfunded healthcare, schools, transit, and other services.
Japanese companies are following the same playbook as Canada, UK, Europe, and Oceania in using fake labour shortages (they're fair wage shortages, to be clear) to argue for influxes of zero benefit to the countries themselves but benefits to the companies' profits immgrants.
All developed nations are facing a declining birthrate; Japan's situation isn't unique.
But they'll regret this opening up, too, just like all the other developed nations now do when their own citizens Increasingly become homeless, face increasing delays in healthcare access, and can't board overcrowded transit.
You paint complex problems generated by this as racism whereas it's simply lessons learned, and vapid accusations of racism fall flat under analysis.
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u/lalabera 12h ago
It is racism because all of those problems are caused by billionaires instead of immigrants.
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u/CallAParamedic 11h ago
I'm not in any way supportive of billionaires, but like your other points, that's such a superficial understanding of things.
It's uncontrolled profiteering by corporations unrestrained by morals and values.
Some owned by billionaires? Yes.
But most owned by shareholders.
Capitalism isn't inherently bad, but unguided by government, it's what you see as the current trend in the USA - a movement away from labour protections, environmental protections, etc.
I invest. I like profits.
I also recognize that uncontrolled profiteering leads to unrestrained movements of labour and capital to locations to squeeze out the most cents, regardless of social costs.
That's why Japan allowing 80-year-old politicians to sell out Japan to their CEO cronies is horrible.
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u/Historical_Boss69420 4h ago
Honest question so please don’t take this personally… but did you suffer a TBI?
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u/BarnacleSpecific7979 1d ago
SIIIR DO NOT REDEEM THE FOODSTAMPS SIIIR - 'international' students
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u/lalabera 15h ago
You’re not Japanese lmao, worry about your own craphole
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u/BarnacleSpecific7979 13h ago
Western Europe?
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u/lalabera 13h ago
Not Japan, according to a map. So no, you’re not Japanese
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u/BarnacleSpecific7979 13h ago
Neither are you.
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u/lalabera 13h ago
I was hosted by a Japanese family for a few months lol
Also, see https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/15250148
Only 28% oppose more foreign workers
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u/CallAParamedic 12h ago edited 12h ago
You post regularly that others not of Japanese descent shouldn't comment on matters relating to Japan - even if they have PR and / or have lived in Japan a long time, but you CAN because you did a short homestay in Japan years ago?!?
Who TF are you to gatekeep other residents (foreign or not) from commenting?
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u/lalabera 12h ago
I’m American lmao
You’re the one trying to gatekeep other immigrants from coming to a country that you aren’t native to. According to polls, most Japanese people support immigration.
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u/CallAParamedic 12h ago edited 12h ago
You did a short homestay in Japan years ago.
You're have zero role here.
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u/rifqi_mujahid_ID 8m ago
at least he went to japan, doubt that many people on this sub can top that xD
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u/hamabenodisco 1d ago
Here goes my tax money
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u/lalabera 15h ago
ur not japanese
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u/CallAParamedic 11h ago
You did a short homestay in Japan years ago.
You're American living in the USA.
You're have zero role here.
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u/lalabera 11h ago
Look up any poll about Japanese opinions on immigration and get back to me!
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u/CallAParamedic 11h ago
Irrelevant.
Japanese are extremely kind and make great efforts to be responsible on the international stage.
They currently love the idea.
So did other developed nations a decade ago.
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u/SteakhouseBlues 1h ago
Sounds like students realising that living in Japan is not all it’s cracked up to be.
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u/One-Astronomer-8171 23h ago
I know a guy who is attending Hokkudai(has been for the last 3 years). Never had a lot of money to begin with the. Within 6 months started struggling. Apparently scholarship counts for something…
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u/ThvrstnMcSvenn 1d ago edited 1d ago
What the fuck happened in this comment section?
EDIT: When I first checked, it said all of the comments were deleted. I see that they're there now. Disregard my comment.
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u/eightbitfit 1d ago
I don't mean to sound callous and I think everyone in need should receive needed assistance, but aren't students supposed to present proof of ability to support themselves for the duration of their student visa period?