Japan Can’t Close Door on Immigrants

Japan’s looming demographic crisis is well known and widespread prejudices against immigrants may cripple the country’s ability to address the problem. Japan’s population could decline by a third over the next 50 years, and observers view immigration as the only viable solution to labor shortages in the Japanese economy. At present, foreigners constitute 1.6 percent of Japan’s population, and sentiments run against immigration: Many Japanese associate immigrants with crime, and in February, a Japanese author called for an apartheid-style system where foreign workers would live in separate communities. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has used backdoor policies as a temporary solution, including recruiting foreign workers as “technical trainees” for farms, factories and the nursing sector, avoiding permanent residency and use of the term “immigrant.” Calls from the Tokyo Immigration Bureau to bring in 200,000 immigrants per year have fallen on deaf ears. – YaleGlobal