text: Actually, Japanese citizens and citizens of Brunei and Singapore do not need visas to go to many countries in Europe and North America.\n\nThe reason is simple.  Due to disparate standards of living, without immigration controls, such as visas, large numbers of the population of developing countries would crowd into the countries requiring visas, resulting in high unemployment and an upswing in social problems.  this has been demonstrated in very many cases over the last 100 years.  There was even a time when immigrants from Europe to the US returned to Europe because there were too many of them and they couldn't make a living (Italian to US immigration backflow of the early 20th century).\n\nBy imposing a visa regime, the country requiring the visa gets to look at applicants for a visa to determine if they intend to try to become economic refugees (so to speak).  Yes, it is true that many people aren't interested in illegally immigrating, but many are.  When you have almost 10,000,000 people in the country illegally already, it is a strain on the infrastructure in some places.\n\nThe countries with visa regimes generally have ways to obtain an immigrant visa to go into their country legally.  this is to limit the number of people to a manageable group.\n\nOn the other hand, there aren't a lot of people who are looking to immigrate from the United States or Britain to the Philippines to improve their lives and economic condition.  It is as simple as that.  Once you can demonstrate good ties to your home country (better than average job, property; in other words, the things that make you a credible tourist) you will find it easy to get a visa.  \n\nIf you are upset because it is hard to get a visa to go and stay with your cousin in LA fora month and the air ticket price represents two months wages, it is hard to justify yourself as a bonifide tourist (just an example, I don't know your details).