At the end of last year a recording of a security video emerged that horrified a lot of Germans. In the video an old man who warned two people about smoking in a nonsmoking subway station is beaten. The attack left the old man with serious injuries from which he has not recovered. Since then, there has been a tense atmosphere in Germany, with many people worried that they could be attacked anywhere and at any time.

The senselessness of the attack and the age of the assailants — 17 and 20 years old — were not the only factors that have worried the population of this country. The attackers were a Turk and a Greek, two of the around 6.5 million immigrants who live across Germany. Most of the immigrants in Germany come from either Turkey, Poland or Greece. Since the attack, there has been a lot of controversy concerning how Germany should handle the immigration issue and how the number of foreigners arriving in the country, which is still increasing, can be controlled. It is very likely that in the coming months the German government will demand more stringent immigration controls for the nation.

The latest wave of immigrants to enter Germany started arriving in the 1970s, mainly from Turkey. Today there are 1.7 million Turkish people living in Germany. While Japan also has immigrant populations such as Korean-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese, the number of immigrants is miniscule in comparison to Germany.

The number of foreigners in Germany has been increasing for the last 30 years, as economic development and a decreasing population have made immigration essential to sustain the nation's workforce. Germany has a positive relationship with immigrants compared to other European countries like Britain or the Netherlands, where events like the London terrorist attacks and the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gough remain in the collective memory.

Until recently, liberal Germans were very tolerant and accepting of other cultures, but now the government is putting in place measures to limit the number of foreigners who are moving to Germany by testing things like linguistic ability and awareness of German culture. The criteria for entering Germany are likely to get a lot stricter in an effort to reduce the amount of crime committed by foreigners. Roland Koch, the governor of Hesse, recently commented, "too many young criminals are foreigners."

As a foreigner living in Germany I found the comment insulting — foreigners may commit a portion of the crimes, but it is insensitive to imply that being an immigrant increases the likelihood that a person will be a criminal. Hopefully, comments like Koch's will not lead Germans to have a negative image of people who are born outside of their nation. Many of my friends from home have asked me about discrimination against Japanese in Germany. So far, I have not experienced any prejudice because of my nationality.

In Japan, a country with few immigrants and little multiculturalism, discimination is much more of a concern. As Japan considers itself a homogeneous nation, any uncomfortable situation Japanese experience overseas can be considered misconstrued as being the result of discrimination.

In Germany the average person does not care about a person's ethnic origins. When I consider the situation of my foreign friends in Japan, I feel they must have a much more difficult time than I have in Germany. Japan's lack of immigrant culture and multiculturalism must make life difficult for foreigners. Even Japanese-Koreans struggle to find their identities. However, with the working population continuing to shrink it is essential for Japan to embrace a larger immigrant community in order to ensure economic stability.

In the near future, Japan will have to accept many immigrants. It will be impossible for the country to develop further without workers from other nations. It is clear that the workforce will shrink in the near future so industries will have to find a solution to this problem. Japan can learn lots from Germany, where many immigrants have been accepted to bolster the nation's workforce. If Japan can develop a muticultural society, the notion of foreigners being outsiders will diminish along with other prejudices.