THE Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese daily, has a reputation for illiberal commentary. Last week it outdid itself by running a column that lauded the segregation of races in apartheid-era South Africa—and urged Japan to do the same. Ayako Sono, a conservative columnist, said that if her country had to lower its drawbridge to immigrants, then they should be made to live apart. “It is next to impossible to attain an understanding of foreigners by living alongside them”, she wrote.

Ms Sono’s views got an airing as the government of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, appears set to promote immigration in all but name. They caused a stir in South Africa, whose ambassador to Japan called them “scandalous”. In Japan, however, the reaction has been oddly muted. The media scarcely picked up on the ambassador’s letter. The Sankei initially greeted criticism with bemusement. It then issued a pro-forma reply defending its right to run different opinions.

Japan’s government is considering allowing 200,000 foreigners a year to come to Japan to help to solve a deepening demographic crisis and shortage of workers. The population fell by nearly a quarter of a million in 2013. An advisory body to Mr Abe says that immigrants could help stabilise the population at around 100m, from a current 127m. Not since the ancestors of Japan’s current inhabitants arrived in the islands from Korea two millennia ago has there been an example of immigration on the scale of that proposed. In this largely homogeneous country, just 2% of the population is of foreign origin—and that includes large numbers of residents with roots in Korea, a former Japanese colony, whose families have lived in Japan for generations.

Ms Sono is hardly a fringe figure. A bestselling author and conservative activist, she recently sat on a government panel on education reform; she is quoted in a textbook on morals for secondary school students, alongside Mother Theresa. Yet her views have earned little public backing and appear at odds with shifting opinion. A survey by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, shows support for more foreigners is rising. Mark Mullins, a scholar who has followed Ms Sono’s career for years, calls her a “loose cannon” in Team Abe.

Mr Abe’s government has sidestepped the Sankei furore, merely pointing out that Ms Sono had quit the education panel before she published her views. Her article was, in any case, talking about low-paid caregivers to look after Japan’s legions of pensioners. Such professionals, typically from Indonesia and the Philippines, have been allowed in for years under a back-door scheme that labels them “trainees”, a situation that is unlikely to change. Mr Abe wants to encourage the limited migration of skilled workers.

If the Sankei story has any lasting impact, it might be to Japan’s reputation abroad. Ms Sono’s column was entitled “Let them in—but keep them at a distance”. It ran on February 11th, National Foundation Day, by tradition a day for Japanese to express patriotism. The South African ambassador pointed out that February 11th was also the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, 25 years ago.