Japan is now facing a major decrease in population ever than before and by 2100, it is believed that the population will decrease by half. Despite this problem, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has rejected immigration, which surprises those who have heard his speech of reviving the Japanese economy. Immigration is the only solution left for Japan to survive in the global world. In this essay I would like to mention about how important it is to accept immigration to revive Japan’s economy.
First of all, it is said that if Japan doesn’t accept foreign workers to stabilize the population and the economy by 2050 the population will decrease by 30 million and in the early 2100s population could be half of even a two thirds of what it is now. This is a catastrophic economic problem in a country that has the world’s heaviest public debt load and one third of the national budget already goes to pensions and health care. Japan is now realizing that they cannot escape the consequence of border-crossing forces of globalization. Today there are three working age people to support one retiree, but in half a century the ratio will be one-to-one. Such estimated results of the future Japan clearly states that the consequence of not accepting foreigners into the country can do great harm to Japan.
Secondly, In the 1960s Japanese economy experienced labor shortages during the economic boom but the government and the major corporations chose not to depend on foreign labor and pushed for automation in production. In 2005, Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stated that “If the foreign labor exceeds a certain level, it is bound to cause a clash. It is necessary to consider measures to prevent it and then admit foreign workers as necessary. Just because there is a Labor shortage does not mean we should readily allow foreign workers to come in” But, as Japan experienced economic growth after 1980s the number of visa over stayers ascended dramatically; from less than 10,000 in 1996 to nearly 20,000 in 1999 and to 48,000 in 2004. Although on a recent TV program Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has showed negative feelings towards accepting foreigners, Japanese governments have recently developed policies to solve problems involving in the flows of immigrants. Such as relaxing restriction on employment of certain categories of workers for which there are serious labor shortages,-from nannies to medical doctors- introducing stricter review producers to prevent exploitation. Government also amended the penal code, Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law in June 2005 to provide for the protection of foreign victims of human trafficking. In July 2005, Japanese government introduced a relaxed tourist visa regime to all Chinese citizens which resulted in a 14 percent increase in the tourists visiting Japan. Despite the efforts of government, public show little appetite in accepting foreigners, according to the result of poll by the Jiji news agency in March, just under 60 percent would accept foreign workers for temporary employment in labor shortages.
Thirdly, one of the big issues about immigration is the public view; not many Japanese have appetite to accepting immigrants. A survey taken by Asahi news in 2010 shows that two-thirds of the Japanese citizens were against large scale immigration.
The reason for this is because of the mounting concerns of public security and growing apprehensions about international terrorism. It is true that among Japanese society there is a growing perception of immigrants, especially for those who are standing in an unauthorized status in the country, are the major reasons to the rising crime rate and deterioration of the public safety. Another issue involving in immigration is exploitation of foreign workers in Japan. The government has been working to prevent foreign trainees who are being exploited disappear or become “unaccounted for”. To improve the current misinterpretation towards immigrants, Japanese government should aim to get positive image from immigrants by making full use of media. Also, for a country with extreme homogeneity, rather than accepting many immigrants at once, it would be a wiser approach for government to adjust the amount to avoid conflicts between native Japanese and foreign ethnic groups. For Japan to become a multi-cultural country, it must change the nature of today’s social system which its foundation is based on homogeneity and individualism. Japan should accept different ethnic group’s culture, ideas and thoughts.
Fourthly, from a linguistic point of view, accepting more immigrants will improve Japan’s English skills. Despite the fact that Japan has an enormous wealth and has a high literacy rate, Japan is consistently ranked bottom in TOEFL scores among Asian countries. By accepting more foreigners from not only west but also English speaking Asian countries.
It will improve countries’ English skills and also diverse environment in schools and workplaces. This can help Japan strive in the global competition and bond with other countries.
Finally, comparing Japan and the US, current percentage of immigrants in Japan is just under 2percent, whereas US relies heavily on immigration to keep the economy stabilized. US as a super power, its economic growth occurred from 1980s to the beginning of the 20th century, which was the peak year of immigration too. US also suffers from falling birth rate and the aging population. In the 1950s, birthrate per woman was 3.5, however currently it has dropped down to 1.93. Immigrants have played an important role to fill the age distribution and most importantly work and pay taxes for decades. Not only the high-skilled immigrants who are the innovators, creating new products, services and new works, low-skilled immigrants also play a big role. Research shows that each low-skilled immigrants were associated with 464 jobs for native-born Americans, which clearly states the contribution of the low-skilled workers. High-skilled workers who engage in engineering, mathematics, science and technology fields contribute to raising the countries’ GDP. The long-run effect of immigrants to the Native Americans is positive. Each individual contribute to different jobs, therefore its competition is minimal. Immigrants and Americans with different abilities and languages can make people more productive. Japan on the other hand has never been so independent on immigrants before, this is a rare case for a country with wealth and power. The problem that Japan has right now is the harsh labor condition for Low-skilled workers. For a decade Japan has been criticized by human right groups, parliamentarians and the United Nations for exploitation and abusive and unmonitored system and yet government has not taken an appropriate action towards it. For Japan to accept immigrants into the country, it must aim to treat every workers equally and fairly. Government must enact a more strict law to regulate exploitation that dehumanize the immigrants.