Historians believe Koreans first settled the Japanese archipelago around the 11th century. Also, after Japan began annexing territory in the late 19th century, starting with Okinawa and Hokkaido, its contact with foreign nations and the appearance of foreigners in Japan accelerated rapidly. That said, Lie notes that in the post-war period Japan has been slower accepting immigrants than other developed nations. Many commentators take that as evidence of Japanese insularity, at best, and at worst of Japanese racism. To the Japanese right, the idea of monoethnicity harks back to pre-war ideas of Japanese racial superiority.
Lie says ethnic groups in Japan are partly to blame.
Moreover, Lie insists the myth of monoethnicity persists because most Westerners writing about Japan suffer from ignorance. In a very narrow sense, many Westerners writing about Japan simply do not know about Japanese language, history or culture. If the bold and the beautiful who populate Xu Xi's The Unwalled City are any indication, the residents of Hong Kong in the years before the 1997 handover were lonely strivers searching for love, money and a better life. They're all in a state of transition, you see, menopausal, vocational or relational, and a bit fearful of what's coming next. Turn the pages as the momentous day approaches.