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I think the first thing to answer is that in fact Japanese culture is changing in certain ways whether there are immigrants or not. Japan in ancient times adopted many Chinese philosophies, fashions and customs and adjusted them slightly for the local cultural environment. This was with relatively few Chinese immigrants entering and staying in Japan in pre-modern times. Often proselytizing Buddhist monks would come from China bringing a new sect of Buddhism and other customs as well. There were much larger numbers of Koreans coming to Japan at all times but it appears that the Japanese and Koreans were already quite close in the ancient period so the cultural impact was not out of keeping with the general trend of Japanese history.A very large number of Portuguese and later Spanish and Dutch came to Japan in the 16th and early 17th century. There was a large foreign community in Nagasaki, and several key warlords in Western Japan adopted Roman Catholicism as their religion, but this all disappeared in an extremely short time when the country was closed to foreigners in the 1630’s. Only a few of the hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of practicing Christians in Kyushu and the west remained in secluded hidden villages on islands off the Nagasaki coast a few short years after that.Japan’s response to foreign influx in 1868 was different and there was a major (though not all-at-once-) shift from Chinese based culture to “western” based culture, again with strong Japanese characteristics underlying what has been adopted.In the post war era, as we know, Japan limited free immigration - for a long time it was a modest foreign business and ministerial community with a much larger (and to a degree isolated) US military component. The size and diversity of the business community has increased, there are also more immigrants for educational purposes and the military presence outside of Okinawa has been considerably reduced.In recent years, the low birth rate has decreased labor availability and increased costs. Although the Japanese government consistently gives the number of foreign residents living in Japan as between 1 and 2 million (someone check me on this) I believe this to be greatly under inflated. A very large number of Chinese and Korean immigrants have obtained Japanese citizenship. I know this is not what they tell you but I remember just after the Fukushima meltdown I went to the Chinese Embassy (I had returned to Japan from the US immediately after the quake and had a couple of days of business in China and needed a visa). The line to obtain a visa to enter China usually fits within the building near the embassy where visa applications are accepted. The day I went it was over a kilometer long winding through the streets of the neighborhood. Many people (not just Chinese but Japanese who fled to Kansai* and other foreigners who fled to their home countries and were rather waggishly nicknamed “fly-jin” ) fled the Earthquake but these were not Chinese nationals who were waiting to get visas at the embassy. Chinese nationals would not need visas. But they were Chinese ethinicity. I could tell from the conversations up and down the line. Thousands of them. And on just one morning. Taking into account that probably only a few percent of the people (probably with small Children) were thinking of an extended return to China - to go back for a long time one loses ones employment of course - one can quickly see that there were a huge number of Chinese who have quietly become Japanese.My Japanese has progressed to the point that although I do not brag about my own perfect pronunciation (nor to be honest could I) I can pretty well tell what part of the country a person came from or whether they are foreign or Japanese . Chinese, though facial features may differ slightly in some cases can if they adopt the dress and mannerisms of the Japanese seem very Japanese much of the time. 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese in Japan (there are 6th and 7th generation Chinese living in Yokohama) are quite impossible for me to distinguish based on speech and mannerisms alone. The Chinese who I guess make up the 2nd largest immigrant group after Koreans are so assimilated most Japanese cannot tell the difference (though invariably they think they can). It is less of an issue now and more people will freely admit that they have part Korean or Chinese heritage. It is interesting that when I try to speak Korean to them (I am studying Korean) most of the Korean Japanese young people in my experience simply do not know it and have no intention to learn it. They are living in a Japanese world effectively as Japanese.One interesting difference is that Koreans and many Chinese who come to Japan tend to be Christian (they may be other religions as well but I do not know of that directly). But there are many Christians in Japan as well (again the government says about 1% and based on my own experience this may be near the mark). Both ethnic Japanese Christians and ethnic Chinese and Korean Christians keep their religion relatively private (as do most other Japanese). I had a very dear colleague I knew for many years and who mentored me in the company. I did not know until he passed away recently that he was Christian. But I was not surprised that I did not know.Recently there are many people from Vietnam, Myanmar(Burma), Thailand and the like in Japan as well. Much of what I said regarding the Chinese and Koreans applies to them as well. I remember when convenience stores were staffed entirely by Japanese. From about 20 years ago many convenience store staff were Chinese. Recently, though Japanese and Chinese are still present, the number of Vietnamese and other Indochinese, South Asians, and even Central Asians working in Convenience stores (the 7–11 in my neighborhood which is quite large and owned by a couple of Chinese women who undoubtedly have become Japanese, has a staff with maybe one or two ethnic Japanese at the most and has people from China, Korea, India, Uzbekistan, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia (I know one or two people from there) and very possibly places I have not inquired about yet.South Asians have a long and successful history in Japan. There were stories that because of the different spices preferred by South Asians in cooking curry that they were not popular with landlords in high rise apartments. I have reason to think that for the most part that has always been a myth. The oldest South Asian families in Tokyo are connected to wealthy trading concerns out of India or Thailand (or Pakistan or Bengladesh?) I have seen Indian jewel traders come to a meeting of raw jewel traders arriving in Tucson Arizona 35 years ago speaking impeccable native Japanese with Japanese spouses in tow. And there are also a great many people in corporate positions from these countries in Tokyo (I first met some at the Indo Suez office in Jimbocho Tokyo and others were working at the Indian (exchange) banks in Marunouchi. As the years have gone by the number of more modest immigrants has increased, people in the service (restaurant) trades and even some laborers in the house building trades. I think the laborers in the construction trades were here on a temporary basis and had neither the time nor the opportunity to try to adjust to life in Japan. On the other hand, I have observed that people from South Asia in Japan on a more permanent basis are now entering into the second and third generations and there are children again growing up speaking native Japanese (going to Japanese schools) and adapting to Japaanese customs. South Asian people do stick more often, particularly in the first generation, to their original modes of dress and so stand out in a crowd a little more but it is much harder to tell with the younger generations.I knew an Indian family who had a son who was rather nice looking and quite popular in school among his female peers. His parents hoped he would marry an Indian woman through arranged marriage but he did not seem at all so inclined (so he told me) so the family picked up stakes one day and returned to Northwest India. Something tells me their children will be back before long however.The Chinese and Korean communities are concentrated in a belt running between Shinokubo station north of Shinjuku, thinning across the northern part of the “inside the Yamanote” region mear Myogadani and north of Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, but picking up on the far side of the Sumida River and intesifying until a out the Katsushika-ku - Edogawa-ku border and then on into Ishikawa, Chiba (not far from “Tora san” shitamachi - I have heard there are many Chinese and Koreans near Shibamata and Kanamachi as well). The center of the Indian, Pakistani, Bengladeshi, Nepalese community seems to start near the border of Katsushika-ku and extend on into Edogawa-ku. This area also hosts several African communities - I once walked in on a meeting about 45 strong of Ethiopians at a local Italian Family Restaurant in the area where they were getting together after church. The Nigerians - which region I am not sure - are the most numberous but there are also Ghanians and Ugandans and (obviously) Ethiopians here as well. The Africans are engaged in a withering variety of economic activities and intermarriage and permanent residence (and probably citizenship) are not uncommon.There used to be many people from the Middle East as well - Arab communities centered around diplomatic missions for the most part, and Iranians, largely from the Tabriz area, together with some Afghans (who tended at that time to wear traditional clothing and traditional beards for the men - one sees that less in the states) who came in large numbers in the early 1990’s. Many went back but I have seen those who managed to survive and stay. One does not see nearly as much traditional clothing, certainly among the men, though one sees it occasionally and that is either because the number may have decreased or, again, people have adapted. Intermarriage is common, sometimes Japanese spouses adopt Islam but here as elsewhere, except for religiously required clothing, there is a significant effort to adapt. There are quite a number of Halal shops in the area. They are sources of food obviously for observant Muslims but also for Japanese who have developed a taste for Middle East or South Asian food. It appears (though I have no representative survey) that they are run to some extent by Indian Muslims. Since much of the South Asian food is probably the same regardless, they also have clientele from other South Asian communities for many products. In addition, chain supermarkets have begun dedicating an aisle to Chinese flavorings and Ingredients, Korean (ditto), South East Asian (ditto) and South Asian (ditto). If an American like me is lucky they also have some Old El Paso or Lowery Mexican food seasonings and ingredients as well.There was a large Latin American migration to Japan in the 1990’s composed of people from Brasil, Peru and other generally South American countries with large populations of Japanese emigrants. People with a certain percentage of Japanese ancestry were permitted to return (Japan was starting to feel the labor shortage so this was seen as serving a double purpose). These people largely spoke Portuguese and Spanish when they arrived and little Japanese (I remember getting to use my Spanish quite often with Peruvians on the train). But as with any such venture, some will have found Japan not what they expected and returned to South America and others liked it here and adapted. We did pick up a new cuisine with the rotisseried cheicken dishes popular among these people and a few such restaurants got enough Japanese clientele to survive. But I think since most of these people were part Japanese, looked a little Japanese and could even find some family ties when they tried, they tended to assimilate and it is less easy to spot them these days. I assume the ones who stayed became Japanese citizens. There were a very few from Mexico and I remember meeting a Japanese woman in a waiting room of the Toranomon hospital about 1994. The woman was born in Japan but spoke beautiful Mexican Spanish (en mi opinion humilde) and was speaking it to her mother. Never one to mind my own business I began to talk with them and found the mother’s parents had been settlers on the Pacific Coast of Mexico not all that far south of my own Arizona. After WWII by which time the mother was already grown herself they had returned to Japan. That day she taught me now in Spanish and now in Japanese how to make tortillas - a lesson I have never forgot.Finally, there are the Eastern and Western Europeans and people from the countries they colonized. Some people have been living here at least three or four generations. There are International Schools held in English for those who preserve their identity (this may be the group that, although being very attuned to Japanese society and fluent in Japanese language and customs at need) has least felt the need to assimilate. Yokohama, Tokyo and Osaka (and other places) all have their communities. They are by this point well intermarried to the Japanese population.Next to them are the recent comers (like me - thirty years is not that recent - and I was born in Japan - after which a stay in the US - but I am hardly 3rd generation) who often intermarry, take jobs, learn the language and make our lives here. We do not usually adapt that much (though like all immigrant groups to Japan we adapt far more than the Japanese realize) because what is most useful about us to the Japanese tends to be some aspect of our foreignness. There may be some of us whose skills in Japanese cultural matters are so impressive that they constitute the reason we are enticed to stay here - as opposed by the way to just being fascinated by the culture - but they are necessarily in a very tiny elite minority. We tend to morph into the preceding group if we make our stay permanent and do not return to Canada, Australia, the US, the UK, Jamaica or wherever. Many of the “gaijin” jobs (in addition to being filled by persons from the preceding groups) are filled by people from this segment.Then there are the expats. Here at company expense, sometimes happy to be here, sometimes less happy, kids invariably in the best International school they can find, drinking with other expats at TAC etc etc. These are important people. Some companies try to hire the preceding group because they are cheaper - you don’t have to train or take care of them - but other times a special skill is wanted and just has to be brought in, or a foreign company needs to have a particular talent on their Japanese subsidiary’s board and so people are dispatched. I think for many expats, because of a limited and very organized stay, they often come away with the best impressions of Japan and there is something to be said for that. And the children (and occasionally parents) do pick up the language and cultural skills and there is something good to be said about that too. Students form a positive, enthusiastic but less well funded group of expats and the positive things that can be said about expats generally can especially be said about students.The Japanese people run very orderly precise lives (lot of people small space, limited facilities) A high degree of cleanliness, patience, awareness of the feelings of others and social cohesion are required in Japan’s urban communities. (We gaijin that learn this tend to survive pretty well). When Japanese people see foreigners (who are clearly foreigners and as I said not all are immediately identifiable) they tend to fear that foreigners not knowing what they need to do will be disruptive which will cause everyone else to make extra effort and lose time to compensate. That is part stereotype and part rational in the sense that foreigners in any society rarely know what to do as easily as natives. It has been my experience that once Japanese in this generation see that a foriegner or group of foreigners know what to do and do it, and especially if they know Japanese, they tend to be accepted. Now every silver lining has its cloud, and for example higher promotion tends to be reserved for “career track” Old boy Japanese types and that is discrimination but it is not only discrimination against foreigners but against most Japanese including many many talented and hard working ones.And if one learns the game, being a foreigner will not always stop promotion and many organizations are fair minded (both to foreigners and Japanese generally) so one should not look at that as an absolute. The ability to write Japanese well, difficult for those foreigners not raised here, is also a legitimate qualification issue (though one can certainly overcome it with the appropriate effort). And there are plenty of foreign workplaces etc where foreigners can find the opportunity for promotion. The only overt discrimination I am aware of (since discrimination in renting housing is greatly on the wane) is that foreigners may be turned away from expensive hostess clubs and sex shops (brothels with advertised services not quite leading to intercourse) though not, I am informed by the book of a former press club president, if accompanied and vouched for by a Japanese, not if known somehow by the owner as a good risk and in any case not all the time. But that is probably not an issue that most of us are going to find to be a problem. There is also a bit of nasty political shouting against Chinese and Korean venues (like the Korean cultural center in Yotsuya Sanchome) whenever there is some controversy between the countries over matters dating back to WWII but most people, immigrants and Japanese, manage to steer clear of such fringe activity.I hope that is of use to you. I am a person whose life has been particularly enriched by the diversity of immigration that has been allowed to Japan and all of the fascinating and friendly people, Japanese and Immigrant that constitute that experience and I am very grateful to all of them. Almost all of the immigrants respect and uphold Japanese culture as best they can and at the same time quietly enhance in Tokyo a very needed and desired cosmopolitan character.