Hatoyama says Japan should embrace more migrants

Sunday 15th November, 07:17 AM JST

SINGAPORE —

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.

Japan has some of the world’s strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a “sensitive issue.” But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.

“I think Japan should also make itself a country attractive to people so that more and more people, including tourists, hope to visit Japan, hope to live and work in Japan,” he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.

“I am not sure if I can call this ‘immigration policy,’ but what’s important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Japan,” he said.

Japan has relatively few resident foreigners, although in recent years it has cautiously opened up its job market to nurses and care workers from some Southeast Asian countries.

“First, we will improve support for child-rearing by offering cash allowances for families with children,” before thinking about immigration to address the country’s low birth rate, the premier said.

Japan’s population has been shrinking since 2005. Despite efforts to raise the birth rate, a woman’s average number of offspring now hovers around 1.3, well below the 2.07 needed to maintain the population.

Japan rejected the prospect of mass immigration under the conservative government led by the Liberal Democratic Party. Hatoyama’s center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ousted them in September.

Some politicians have argued that an influx of immigrants would lead to lower wages for Japanese workers and a higher crime rate.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 71 Total Comments Show All

sf2k at 06:38 AM JST - 16th November

the transition to a Japanese population not of direct Japanese heritage should have started decades earlier, say 70-80s. This is too little too late with the inevitable result of the wholesale decline of Japan.
sf2k at 06:40 AM JST - 16th November

@GerryMandering;

citizen is not a race, so what origin of your countrymen are is totally irrelevant. Your citizens pay taxes and keep the economy running.

Japan on the other hand is losing workers by the generation full, and has little to help them when the time comes.
sf2k at 06:43 AM JST - 16th November

sad to read so many depressing comments
cnc at 06:56 AM JST - 16th November

japan does not allow you to call your parents over to live with you , they are only allowed here on a temporary 3-month visitors visa, thats it. I have permanent residency.
perspective at 07:07 AM JST - 16th November

If the government would force companies to stop requiring employees to work crazy hours w/o overtime and discourage the practice of going out until the wee hours with one's coworkers and supervisor, allowing Japanese people to have a decent family life, and, a big if, Japanese men change their attitude towards women, perhaps more people would get married and have children.

Japan will always be for the Japanese only, doesn't take one long here to understand this; only the self-delusional like Debito think that foreigners can actually assimilate into this country with the same inherent rights and privileges as native born.
Richard_III at 07:17 AM JST - 16th November

You can travel anywhere in the World for work and use English. Learning Japanese is, while interesting, largely a waste of time when you could be concentrating on something else.

As in most things, I suspect they will dither on this for 10 or so years, then finally begin to introduce some significant changes. That said, in the 5 or so years I've been here, there seem to be more foreigners in Tokyo. I haven't faced trouble renting apartments recently either. Whether this is just to do with me or is a more general trend, I'm unsure.
UnagiDon at 09:13 AM JST - 16th November

Assimilation rarely happens with the first generation even in immigrant-friendly countries like Canada, it's usually the second-generation who are born in their new country who actually begin to assimilate, so maybe this would hold true in Japan. Sadly immigrants in Canada far too often move into neighborhoods full of their fellow ex-countrymen which end up as ethnic enclaves where people can't even speak English as they have no need to, Japan should avoid this too.

Oh and if this push for migrants keeps out more of the eikaiwa rifraff, then I'm all for it.
seesaw at 10:31 AM JST - 16th November

japan does not allow you to call your parents over to live with you , they are only allowed here on a temporary 3-month visitors visa, thats it. I have permanent residency.

The first thing I learnt when I decided to live and work in Japan is that you must be independent and able to live away from your family. From then on I just look at the bright side of living in Japan. Glad that I found JT discussion board and many fellow gaijins to 'talk' to...:) thx!
Hotbox08 at 08:53 PM JST - 16th November

Japan is NOT an attractive place to live and work for most western foreigners at least

WMD: Why are you still here then?

Good point, seesaw. I often ask myself the question, why would anyone continue to live in a place that they obviously hate, especially when they continue to have citizenship elsewhere (thus making it easy for them to return anytime). I for one would just go back home, if I ever thought it absolutely unbearable to live in Japan. Things that make you go hmmm..
dolphingirl at 09:58 PM JST - 16th November

Many foreigners living here have complaints about Japan but we don't leave because there are also lots of good things about Japan. I would love to see Japan become a more international country but that's not likely going to happen until many changes are made. Having people of different cultures and ethnicities living in the same country creates a beautiful diversity. We learn from each other, find new ways of thinking about things...

Ideally, if people could easily move from one country to another and establish a life, international marriages would be more common and there would lots of bicultural children too, thus encouraging more understanding and tolerance of other cultures; maybe more peace, too. Japan will eventually learn that it has to open it's doors if it's going to survive in this global economy.
Hotbox08 at 10:37 PM JST - 16th November

I would love to see Japan become a more international country but that's not likely going to happen until many changes are made.

Good point. I would also like to see Japan become more international. However, I seriously doubt that the vast majority of foreigners would work in anything other than the English teaching industry, or "entertainment" industry. Yet, there are a good number of foreigners who have taken steps to preserve the Japanese culture by learning trades like making tatami mats, rice-paper screens, Japanese lacquerware, and traditional house-building (without the use of nails).

Once Japan relaxes immigration procedures, and foreigners become more open to adopting the Japanese culture and language, it will become a more international country. I'm sure the hundreds of other homogeneous countries in the world (such as Korea, Morocco, Algeria, India, and Poland) will also follow suit.
frontandcentre at 01:19 PM JST - 17th November

Embrace them, then send them back, I suspect most people would say.
shufu at 07:41 PM JST - 18th November

Hes blowing hot air again.

The problem is, the term "foreigners" is just too general. For example, many Japanese people do not want Chinese, or Korean foreigners in their country, but Europeans are more accepted.

I myself have encountered this with a Japanese lady i used work with. A gaikokujin came to work in our old office and the old Oba got so angry, shouting about americans invading Japan, but when she found out the girl was actually from England, the Oba was perfectly nice to her. When asked, the Oba told me that English people are polite and kind, so she didnt mind them coming to Japan, but she didnt like Americans.

I guess the old stereotypes still exist :(
eresay at 08:38 AM JST - 19th November

Men and women marry with the intention of raising a family with lots of children to be loved, cared for the glory of God.

Oh, please! You can have a functional and loving family without subjecting your kids to "God" and other forms of antiquated mythology.
Ah_so at 06:37 AM JST - 22nd November

he old Oba got so angry, shouting about americans invading Japan, but when she found out the girl was actually from England, the Oba was perfectly nice to her.

Funny...a geriatric from England would probably not have quite the same positive feelings about the Japanese. The Oba remembers the American occupation, the British remember Burma.

Japan does not want mass permanent third world immigration, or rather its population did not. The only real solution is the birthrate - Japan must be more generous to families. It is proposed, but long overdue.

Japan needs a baby boom now, or the country will be in crisis in 20 years. Then the young will be trying to get out and wishing they had paid attention in English class.