Low birthrate and ageing population pose ‘an urgent risk to society’, but can opening its borders to skilled overseas workers fix the problem?
Murumuru spends his weekends toiling on building sites inA certified IT specialist, he arrived in Tokyo from Sri Lanka a year ago, hoping to take advantage of job opportunities that have opened up as part of Japan’s efforts toBut Murumuru, a nickname given to him by his Japanese colleagues, has found it hard. Despite staff shortages, both he and his wife, a qualified physiotherapist, have found the language barrier an obstacle.
The shift provides a welcome boost to the size of its working-age population but requires authorities to negotiate Japan’s complex relationship with “outside people”. Meanwhile, new arrivals often have to navigate rigorous language requirements for jobs that pay less than in comparable countries.Bringing skilled workers from overseas is requiring a significant shift in a nation that not so long ago treated foreign labour as something akin to a necessary, if temporary, nuisance.
Japan’s ethnic Korean population has a much longer history, and one that speaks to the challenges in welcoming migration. During the occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, thousands of Koreans were forced to work in Japan. Japan has been reluctant to take in refugees, but did welcome 2,500 fleeing the war in Ukraine, on the understanding that they would return to their homes later.Despite the demographic challenges, Japan has remained reluctant to accept refugees and the number of applicants it grants asylum to annually rarely exceeds double digits. The warm welcomesince the war began appears at first glance to be a striking exception to decades of policy.
Park believes it will be hard for Japan to lure large numbers of skilled workers due to language difficulties, dealing with the complexities of Japanese culture, and uncompetitive wages in many sectors.
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