When Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks to international audiences, the message is clear. Japan is presented as an open, reliable and technologically advanced partner, committed to economic security, resilient supply chains and deeper cooperation with like-minded democracies. In her recent article in the Financial Times, Takaichi portrayed a country ready to play a leading role in strategic initiatives such as the Global Combat Air Programme, alongside the United Kingdom and Italy, while positioning Japan as a key node in the emerging architecture of economic and technological security in the Indo-Pacific.
Yet the Japan promoted abroad does not always correspond to the Japan encountered by many foreign entrepreneurs, researchers and professionals seeking to establish themselves in the country. Behind the language of openness and international cooperation, a different trend has become increasingly visible. Over the past months, the government has accelerated the implementation of policies linked to economic security, migration control and the protection of sensitive information, creating a regulatory environment that many foreign actors perceive as becoming more restrictive rather than more accessible.
This contradiction is particularly evident in the business sphere. While Tokyo actively seeks foreign investment and promotes itself as a destination for innovation, a growing number of foreign entrepreneurs report administrative and regulatory hurdles that complicate long-term projects. For many small and medium-sized businesses, the main obstacle is no longer language or cultural adaptation, but an increasingly complex framework of compliance requirements, security reviews and bureaucratic procedures that contrast sharply with the image projected overseas.
The same tension can be observed in migration policy. Japan’s demographic decline has reached historic proportions, with the country losing nearly one million Japanese citizens annually and facing severe labour shortages across multiple sectors. Yet rather than framing immigration as a strategic necessity, recent political discourse has increasingly emphasised monitoring, enforcement and social control. Initiatives such as the government’s “Zero Illegal Residents” campaign have reinforced the perception that migrants are viewed primarily through a security lens, even as the economy becomes more dependent on foreign labour.
The issue is not that Japan has no legitimate security concerns. Like many advanced democracies, it faces a more uncertain geopolitical environment, intensifying technological competition and growing concerns over economic resilience. The challenge lies elsewhere. Policies designed to strengthen security can also create barriers that discourage precisely the international talent, investment and entrepreneurship that Japan claims to attract.
This is where the traditional Japanese distinction between tatemae and honne becomes relevant. The tatemae is the public narrative: a globally connected Japan committed to openness, innovation and international cooperation. The honne is more complex: a state increasingly inclined toward precaution, administrative control and risk management. Neither reality is entirely false. The problem is that the distance between them appears to be widening.
Japan’s future prosperity will depend not only on its ability to manage security risks, but also on its capacity to remain attractive to the people and businesses it hopes to welcome. If the gap between rhetoric and reality continues to grow, the country’s greatest challenge may not be external competition, but the credibility of the message it sends to the world.
