Joe Biden, 81, Declares U.S. Ally Japan ‘Xenophobic,’ Along with Russia, China

Japan is “xenophobic,” as well as Russia and China, President Joe Biden, 81, declared Wednesday in an unprecedented statement.

Japan is a longtime U.S. ally and a counterweight to China’s growing aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Biden recently worked to build trust with Japan. In April, he hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit and state dinner.

While delivering live remarks at a campaign fundraiser in Washington to mark the beginning of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Biden said the United States’s economy was strong due in part “because we welcome immigrants.”

Biden then contrasted America to U.S. ally Japan and adversarial China, and Russia. “Think about it,” Biden said referencing why their economies allegedly struggle.

“Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?” he questioned.

The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.

The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers.

The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because the population replacement allows elites to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans.

Biden took heat for his accusation.

“It’s not something diplomatic to say about one of America’s closest allies,” Jeffrey Hall, Japanese studies lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan, told CNBC. “So it just strikes me as something that was unnecessary to say in this context.”

“It will sound like America is once again talking down to the Japanese,” Hall added, “and that’s not really an effective way of getting Japan to fix various problems with its society that even Japanese people would agree are problems.”

File/U.S. President Joe Biden holds a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) and Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos (L) at the White House on April 11, 2024 in Washington, DC.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

It is not the first time Biden gaffed in recent days. Biden appeared to have a difficult time speaking clearly last week during a campaign rally. He read the word “pause” from the teleprompter instead of pausing his remarks to allow applause, video shows.

“Imagine what we could do next,” Biden said. “Four more years. Pause.”

Biden, whom special counsel Robert Hur characterized as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” appears to struggle daily with gaffes. “Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy?” Biden asked supporters in April.

Biden made the case for his reelection earlier this year, arguing he is ready for four more years because “I’m in the 20th century,” he said, before correcting himself, saying “the 21st century.”

• About one-third of Democrats doubt Biden’s mental fitness, a Harvard/Harris survey recently found.
• Another poll revealed 82 percent of Americans harbor concerns about his physical and mental health.
• Only about one-third of voters say Biden is physically or mentally fit to serve a second term, Quinnipiac found.