Japan’s got a bureaucracy that runs like a man who wants to lose weight, so he burns down the kitchen. Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, which is neither liberal nor democratic, also known as the LDP, has got a wonderful plan to save the economy: chase off the very people bringing money and hustle into the country. Why? Because scaring off foreigners polls well in this town, even when it bankrupts the guy renting them the storefront.
Here’s the deal. Some guy — call him Sato, or Nguyen, or Kowalski, doesn’t matter — comes to Japan with five million yen and the nerve to try something. Runs a little izakaya, maybe a language school, a gaming company, maybe a shop nobody else thought to open. Government…