Kirk here. The article I introduced about the anti-immigration demonstration that occurred here in Kumamoto included the following statement from an organizer: “While Japanese people are struggling, it is wrong to spend large sums of tax money bringing in foreigners.” In fact, however, the majority of economists that responded to a survey (image) answered that an increase in foreigners in Japan tended to improve living standards for Japanese nationals. These survey results were originally published in Japanese. I’ll put links to both the English-language and Japanese-language articles in a comment.
The journalist who wrote the article about the demonstration in Kumamoto didn’t endorse their argument – he merely reported it. Nonetheless, it would have been nice if he had fact checked it for the benefit of his readers.