Facing an ageing, shrinking workforce, Tokyo flirts with breaking a taboo surrounding immigration by preparing to welcome half a million low-skilled foreign workers

In a clear departure from its former stance, Tokyo is vowing to greet low-skilled foreign workers with open arms in an effort to offset labour shortages caused by its ageing population.
On June 15, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which is chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, decided to introduce a new visa for non-professional foreign labourers. Abe had justified the visa by saying: “As the labour shortage becomes serious, we need to rush to build a system where foreign talents can be accepted as an immediate asset with a certain level of expertise and technique.”
Under the new policy, the government plans to create a new five-year visa category, through which Japan would receive 500,000 low-skilled labourers by 2025. The newcomers are expected to work in five sectors that have been suffering from an acute labour shortage: nursing care, lodging, agriculture, construction and shipbuilding.



Fears of lost jobs have long made immigration a taboo subject for Japanese politicians, and in the past the country has only accepted high-skilled talent from overseas. Even with the change, the government insists the new policy is not equal to receiving immigrants.
Japan has long lagged other developed countries in integrating foreign workers into local communities, but that hasn’t stopped newcomers from trying. Two years ago in Kathmandu, Samten Narayan (not his real name) heard from his friend that Japan was the “country of opportunity”. He had been working as an editor at a local TV station, creating animations. He borrowed money from his family and friends to move to Tokyo.
Now 28 years old, Samten explains in rudimentary Japanese that he has just graduated from a Japanese language school, but because of financial difficulties he has had to give up studying animation, and recently decided to go to a less expensive college to major in commerce.
Like many other foreign students, Samten has become sidetracked. He now shares a room with another classmate in a run-down flat near the Shinjuku district and, again like many other foreign students, he makes ends meet by working shifts at a nearby 7-Eleven. Samten says “it’s very difficult to learn Japanese” and complains that it is hard to make it to his work obligations on time in a nation he says is “too punctual”.

http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/busine...hem-immigrants

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