Seeing Japanese Kudzu Cover America Made Me Think About Invasive Species and Immigration

The other day, I saw a TV program about invasive species.

One of the species it featured was kudzu.

Yes, the vine-like plant that we also eat in Japan.

In Japan, it doesn’t seem particularly frightening. But in the United States, where it is known as “kudzu,” it has become a nuisance, spreading at a furious pace and covering trees, utility poles, and even buildings.

The footage really was striking.

From a distance, the blanket of green looked beautiful. Look closer, though, and the kudzu had swallowed the trees, the utility poles, everything.

It was originally brought over from places including Japan and other parts of East Asia, and was used as animal feed and to prevent soil erosion. Then it adapted a little too well to its new environment and spread wildly.

From Japan, the scene made me want to say:

“Sorry about our kudzu.”

When people in Japan talk about invasive species, largemouth bass often comes up. But of course Japan isn’t only on the receiving end. Species from Japan have gone abroad and caused trouble too.

Wakame seaweed is treated as a troublesome invasive species in some parts of the world.

Something you are happy to find in your miso soup becomes a target for removal when it turns up somewhere else.

Living things are complicated.

But Some Introduced Species Are Welcome

On the other hand, being an introduced species doesn’t mean everyone hates you.

Take the hard clam known in Japan as honbinosugai.

Native to North America, it is an introduced species that has become established in places such as Tokyo Bay.

But it tastes good.

It is large and satisfying to eat, and it is harvested and sold commercially.

At that point, people’s attitudes change quite a bit.

Instead of “An invasive species in Japan’s waters!”

it becomes “It’s good grilled, isn’t it?”

People really are opportunistic.

We suddenly become more tolerant of an introduced species when it is useful to us.

Even the Plum Came from Somewhere Else

Stretch the timeline further, and the word “foreign” itself starts to look questionable.

The plum tree came to Japan from China.

Yet no Japanese person today looks at a plum tree and cries:

“An invasive species!”

We eat pickled plums, drink plum wine, and go to see plum blossoms.

The tree is thoroughly part of Japanese culture.

Perhaps that is because there is little point in calling something that has been here for more than a thousand years “something from elsewhere.”

In the end, being “foreign” isn’t determined by place of origin alone.

Whether something can become part of a society or environment over time matters a great deal too.

Thinking About That, I Saw a Parallel with Immigration

As I thought about this, I realized that there is a somewhat similar story in human society.

Immigration.

Of course, I am not equating human beings with introduced species.

But there is a resemblance in the question of how a society accepts those who arrive from elsewhere.

Many people came to Japan from the Asian continent and the Korean Peninsula long ago.

There are no statistics from that era, so we don’t know the actual number. But records suggest that nearly 30 percent of the powerful clans around the capital at the time had roots among those arrivals.

These ancient immigrants brought writing, technology, crafts, religion, and many other things to Japan, and eventually became part of Japanese society.

It would make no sense to seek out their descendants today and say:

“Your ancestors came from elsewhere, so you aren’t Japanese.”

For that matter, even the Imperial family, with perhaps the strongest claim to a Japanese pedigree, apparently has Korean ancestry on its maternal side.

The Question Isn’t Simply Whether Someone Is a Foreigner

When we look at today’s immigration debate, those for and against quickly reduce it to a binary choice:

“Do we accept foreigners or exclude them?”

But I don’t think that is the real question.

What matters is how people enter a society, how quickly their numbers grow, and how well they can coexist with the society already there.

They work, pay taxes, take part in their communities, learn Japanese, and send the next generation to school.

After living that way for decades, the sense that they are “people from another country” gradually fades.

Conversely, if their numbers rise sharply in a short time, friction can emerge around housing, schools, healthcare, public safety, language, and more.

This is also a question of the receiving society’s capacity to cope, rather than simply whether foreigners are “good” or “bad.”

Kudzu or Plum?

The kudzu I saw on TV covering America wasn’t disliked because it came from Japan.

At first, people actively put it to use. It became a nuisance called “kudzu” only when it spread beyond expectations and began to cover the existing environment.

The hard clam is an introduced species, but it tastes good, so it ends up on the dinner table.

As for the plum, its foreign origins have all but been forgotten. It has become a face of Japanese culture, and we even admire its blossoms.

Every day, people fiercely debate immigration in terms of “coexistence,” “exclusion,” and “multicultural society.”

But judging by the history of the plum, human society’s ultimate solution is rather rough and ready.

If a thousand years pass and nobody remembers, the problem is more or less solved.