A Business Idea: Foreigner-Staffed Cafés as Japan's Frontier for Fostering Ethnic Harmony

Japan is full of foreigners. With COVID letting up, plenty are making their way to the country as tourists eager to see its sometimes exotic culture. Some are even attempting to establish themselves as workers in its economy and members of a growing migrant community. Yet, despite there being so many foreigners, it is very easy for the average Japanese to avoid contact with foreigners. Besides curt interactions with staff members at convenience stores and restaurants, the vast majority of the Japanese population need not meet foreigners to live out their daily lives.

This paradox will become more problematic as the country continues to see an influx of foreigners over time. Instead of accepting foreigners as part of Japanese society, many Japanese may become more inclined to see them as a fundamental other that exists in parallel within the physical space that is Japan. To accommodate the foreigners' presence, many Japanese would find themselves inadvertently retreating from some neighborhoods that have become predominantly occupied by foreign residents. The result may be the formation of ethnic ghettos in Japan akin to those in America and France. 

Such a prospect will not make Japan any more foreigner-friendly. With separate physical spaces for the Japanese and foreign communities in Japan, there will be an emerging belief among the Japanese that some parts of the country will be no-go zones as they turn into crime-ridden areas of cultural incomprehension that are neither accepting nor conducive to the presence of Japanese people. It would not be surprising to see hostility between ethnic groups as some Japanese pin the hopes of a "better" Japan based on the destruction of these foreigners-infested areas.

Avoiding such as prospect will require regular interaction between regular members of the Japanese and foreign communities in Japan, daily, beyond the confines of perfunctory service sector employer-customer interactions. Genuine conversations need to be had that allow people of different cultures to see each other as possible coworkers, neighbors, and collaborators in building one society. In the process, stereotypes of foreigners being unwilling to abide by Japanese customs and posing greater danger to Japanese society through greater criminal activities can be slowly eradicated.

A good way to get this "getting acquainted daily" started is a business idea: launching cafes in Japan where all staff members are Japanese-speaking foreigners. No, not cafes where the staff members just take your orders and leave you alone, but cafes where the main purpose of being there is talking to the staff members. Japan already has a tradition of men paying for women to talk over drinks, through girls' bars and its more high-end cousin, the kyabakura. But none so far has exclusively focused on speaking with foreigners just for entertainment.

Indeed, where foreigners and Japanese interact in watering holes, most of the interaction is for romantic purposes or language exchange. While these events are great for some of the more adventurous Japanese individuals to find foreign friends, the vast majority of locals simply do not have the language skills, the desire to learn, and the tolerance of rowdiness of the youths that make up the bulk of attendees of such events. A quiet cafe staffed with foreigners who are proficient in the Japanese language can open up a new medium for "regular" Japanese folks to meet with regular foreigners in their midst.

Thankfully, with the influx of foreign residents in Japan, securing Japanese-speaking foreign staff for such cafes would be much easier. Tens of thousands of foreign students in Japanese universities would have the financial need, time, and Japanese language ability to man the cafes, at relatively cheap labor costs. Because they will only be students in Japanese universities for a few years, these part-time cafe staff will always change, leading to fresh faces for Japanese customers to interact with, even if they regularly visit the same cafe.  

Of course, as with any business, such an idea will take much risk-taking and cooperation to get off the ground. Japanese customers' excessive expectations of good service will mean any cultural misunderstanding with foreign staff members may quickly damage the reputation of the venue. With so many entertainment options available to an increasingly tight-budgeted populace that rarely travels or works abroad, the value proposition of meeting foreigners for fun, rather than the more practical purpose of learning the language, would be difficult to specify. But with the right people and marketing, such cafes could fill a niche that is currently underserved.