Japan has embarked on a major shift in its migration policy by issuing the new law in December 2018. Launched effectively on April 1^st, 2019, the new “Specific Skilled Worker” (‘tokuteigino’) visa status for foreign workers in Japan will be enforced, granting five-year residency permits to as many as 345,000 low-skilled workers over the next five years. The plan targets blue-collar workers for two kinds of visa statuses: (1) Specified Skills No.1 (特定技能１号) namely, low-skilled foreign workers (‘gaikokujin jinzai’) who would reside in Japan for up to five years without the benefit of family reunification and work in 14 specific sectors, including farming, construction, hospitality, and shipbuilding sectors; (2) Specified Skills No.2 (特定技能2号) namely, foreign workers with a higher level of skills who would be allowed to bring their family members and could be allowed to live in Japan indefinitely as well as to shift their visa status at the end of their working contract. Within the fiscal year 2019, Japan will allow up to 48,000 foreign workers to enter the country, with up to 7,300 foreign workers are expected to work in agricultural sector and 5,000 each in the restaurants and nursing-care sectors. Many will come from the countries such as China, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

At the present time, Japan has been only granting long-term visas to highly skilled professionals. Foreigners who are allowed to work in Japan under the current via status can be grouped into 5 general categories: (1) people with specialized knowledge and skills including  university professors and lawyers, (2) people staying in Japan with the strength of their legal positions, such as those of Japanese descent, permanent foreign residents, and those with Japanese spouses, (3) Trainees who come to advance their skills by working at factories and farms for a certain period of time and receive remuneration with the designed objective of  knowledge and skill transfer to developing countries, under the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), (4) people engaged in specifically designated types of work which wages are paid including nurses and care-workers coming to Japan under economic partnership agreements, and people visiting Japan under working holiday agreements, and (5) people engaged in activities outside their visa status including foreign students working part-time jobs in places such as convenience stores and restaurants up to 28 hours per week. According to statistics compiled in 2017, as many as 1.28 million foreigners were already working in Japan. Nevertheless, it is expected that more workers will be accepted into the country by the new visa policy to ease serious labor shortages in 14 industrial sectors. According to the government estimation, those 14 sectors covered under this new visa program will face a shortage of about 590,000 workers in fiscal year 2019, and about 1.46 million workers over 5 years through fiscal year 2023. Therefore, to fill up the labor market, the government has no choice, but to welcome foreign workers.

Japan, the third largest economy in the world, has been wrestling with a serious demographic challenge for years. As its population is aging and shrinking, there increases a critical demand for measures to respond to the labor shortage. Japan's current population is approximately 127 million and it is estimated to drop to about 87 million by 2060. Japan’s aging labor force is forecasted to shrink by 23% in the next 25 years, according to Mizuho Research Institute. Moreover, by 2040, more than one in three people in Japan will be over 65 years old, which records the highest proportion in the world. These predictions are based on Japan’s annual records of declining birth rates and subsequent aging population. For example, in 2018, there were 921,000 births and 1.37 million deaths, meaning that Japan’s population fell by 448,000 people. The government estimates that between 2017 and 2030, Japan will lose 3.8 million workers due to deaths outnumbering births. Previous efforts to ease Japan’s labor shortage have had mixed results. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initially tried to attract more women and seniors back into the workforce and sought to boost fertility rates as well, but those efforts could not overcome overwhelming demographic trends.

By passing the new immigration law, Japan seeks to plug gaps in the country’s rapidly shrinking and aging workforce. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito pushed for the revision of the immigration control law through the Upper House despite criticism from opposition parties. The reform comprises of 3 separated parts, namely 2 amendments of existing legislations and 1 set of policy guidelines called “Comprehensive Measures for Acceptance and Integration of Foreign Human Resources” coming into forces this year. The reform also enjoins the creation of a dedicated Immigration and Foreign Residents Agency, to replace the current Immigration Bureau. The new agency is expected not only to take on the functions of immigration control, but also integration policy formulation and implementation. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has insisted that the new law is merely to address labor shortages, which is different from the idea of opening door to immigration. In his view, Japan will only expand the current system to accept work-ready foreign human resources in special fields temporarily in a limited time as the bill contains of a provision that allows for suspending or ending the acceptance of foreign workers if a sector no longer faces worker shortage. When lawmakers have asked whether foreign workers would be forced to return to their home countries under such circumstances, he only mentioned that the government had no intention of immediately repatriating foreign workers who have a valid residence status and work contract.

The controversies appear especially on issues related to Japanese language capabilities, working conditions, family welfare and integration into Japanese society. Japan has never experienced mass immigration in modern times and immigration has long been a sensitive issue in this homogeneous country of 127 million people as the country has maintained a mono-cultural identity of its own in the world for long. Although the implicit immigration had occurred during Meiji Restoration of mid to late 1800s and the colonial period of early 1900s, resulting to the influx of migrants from Korea, China, and Taiwan, the descendants of those people are called “zainichi”  acknowledged as foreign population due to Japan’s belief on jus sanguinis (nationality based on bloodline, not place of birth). After the Second World War, with an intention to discourage long-term settlement of foreign workers, the Japanese government enacted the Immigration Control Act in 1951 and made effective in 1952, providing that the government may only accept foreign workers who have special skills, but not allow unskilled workers entering into the country.

However, in the 1990s, Japan faced serious labor shortage, which pushed it to revise its immigration rules on 2 points: first, to offer long term and renewable visas (‘teijusha’) to the descendants of Japanese emigrants (‘Nikkeijin’) who had moved to Latin America and the United States after the Second World War with the benefit of family reunification; and second, to establish TITP, allowing foreign trainees to be trained and to work in Japan for up to three years. The ‘teijusha’ visa for the Latin American ‘Nikkeijin’ was renewable, allowing a recipient to live in Japan long enough to naturalize or become a permanent resident, and having ability to move freely across the country and change jobs. For the trainees and interns of the TITP, they were tied to the employers whom they were assigned to and were often threatened with deportation if they attempted to find alternative arrangements. The revision of these rules, although displayed the efforts of the government to solve the problem of labor shortage, it did not help much in terms of social integration for foreign workers. 

To respond to the social and cultural aspects of immigration issue, the new immigration law requires specific prerequisite of Japanese language at Level N4 or higher of the Japanese Language Proficiency test, demanding the applicants to be able to read 167 kanji characters, to understand some basic sentences and to have some elementary listening skills. Apart from the social and cultural aspects, other concerns persist that adding more workers from overseas will lower wage levels in the country. Japan’s wages are not much higher than those of rivals in the region. Low-skilled factory workers in Tokyo make about $2,406 per month compared with $1,992 in Hong Kong, and $1,630 in Singapore. Currently, the government has called on employers to pay foreign workers’ wages, pension payment, and health insurance at least the same rate as for the Japanese. In addition, most foreign workers will be likely to seek jobs in urban areas such as Tokyo and other large cities rather than rural areas, where the needs of labors are greater. This situation is also likely to affect the peripheries of major cities, where both Japanese and non-Japanese working in industries will need more housing and an inclusive society in which they can live together harmoniously.

Nevertheless, as the government does not seem to have a willing to acknowledge and accept immigrants, by looking at the issue of no permanent working status or no fund for integration efforts, and no law against hate speech or discrimination against foreigners, any potential backlash and sentiments against immigration can be anticipated.

References:

A new immigration policy for Japan. (2018, December 4). The Japan Times. Retrieved from: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/12/04/commentary/japan-commentary/new-immigration-policy-japan/#.XLBZb5gzbIV

Abe’s reforms to tackle Japan’s ageing population issue. (2014, June 24). Deutshce Welle. Retrieved from: https://www.dw.com/en/abes-reforms-to-tackle-japans-ageing-population-issue/a-17736639.

Bucking a global trend, Japan seeks more Immigrants. Ambivalently. (2018, December 7). The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/world/asia/japan-parliament-foreign-workers.html?fbclid=IwAR1P7bbiHoLMcy76kcK64EYwa5hYStGgpCvEJAMXiHk9a1WmoPsdnXUbb2A.

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Japan has a new guest worker program – Just don’t call it an Immigration Policy. (2019, February 26). Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-26/japan-has-a-new-guest-worker-program-just-don-t-call-it-an-immigration-policy?fbclid=IwAR3geckiBts4NKx5ti8WBegMEhdtOxyhN0uzrdBeuj1ApiiWFNN5CEaSUiU

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Japan plans to accept 48,000 foreign workers in fiscal 2019. (2018, November 14). The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved from: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811140042.html

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Japan’s aims to open door wider to blue-collar workers. (2018, November 2). Reuters. Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-immigration/in-controversial-shift-japan-aims-to-open-door-wider-for-foreign-blue-collar-workers-idUSKCN1N703I.

Japan’s Immigration Policy: Turned Corner or Cul-De-Sac. (2019, February 21). The Diplomat. Retrieved from: https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/japans-immigration-policy-turned-corner-or-cul-de-sac/

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New immigration rules to stir up Japan’s regional rentals scene – if they work. (2019, March 27). Rethink Tokyo. Retrieved from: https://www.rethinktokyo.com/2019/03/27/new-immigration-visa-rules-japan-foreign-workers

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Journal:

Sanmiguel, I. (2001). U-Turn Nikkei Labour Migration to Japan. Teikyo Kokusai Bunka, 4(2), 81-91.

Eaddy, M. B. (2016). An Analysis of Japan Immigration Policy on Migrant Workers and Their Families. Seton Hall University. A Thesis. Retrieved from: https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3247&context=dissertations&fbclid=IwAR3geckiBts4NKx5ti8WBegMEhdtOxyhN0uzrdBeuj1ApiiWFNN5CEaSUiU

Website

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/its-population-ages-japan-quietly-turns-immigration

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/japanese-immigration-policy-responding-conflicting-pressures

Photo: Shinya Sawai Nikkei https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/Japan-enacts-divisive-foreign-worker-bill-to-ease-labor-shortage