Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“In Japan, you see native-born East Asians doing menial jobs everywhere you look. You see Japanese janitors, Japanese street-sweepers, Japanese convenience store workers, Japanese crossing guards, Japanese taxi drivers, and Japanese laborers on construction sites. They’re almost always doing a stellar job; indeed, most of them act like they’re striving for perfection. For American tourists, there’s something instantly eerie about the whole situation. … Japanese-Americans virtually never do menial jobs! Indeed, virtually the only East Asians of any kind who do menial jobs in the United States are first-generation immigrants. As long as they speak unaccented English, Japanese-Americans, along with Chinese Americans, Korean-Americans, and Vietnamese Americans, are high-skilled, or at least mid-skilled. What’s going on?” (06/30/25)