Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home

After allowing low-skilled laborers of Japanese descent from South America to work there for years, Japan is offering them pay packages and incentives to return to their home country with only one condition: don’t come back. The policy – meant to stem rising unemployment – is related to the slump in Japanese manufacturing that has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis. Many academics are baffled by this turn of events. But government officials view the move as a way to overhaul Japan’s immigration policy and ensure that Japanese nationals are employed even for low skilled jobs. One official went as far as to say that Japan should never be “multiethnic.” Some analysts indict the program as short-sighted given Japan’s aging population. Without proper population growth, Japan’s pension system would not have enough people paying into the system to support it. In any event, Japan already had stringent immigration policies; but this new twist highlights ways countries are addressing domestic economic hurdles caused by a crisis of global proportions. It also highlights a more insidious trend – policies that may not violate the letter of the World Trade Organization rules but could still be protectionist in their intent. – YaleGlobal