Tokyo seeks to reduce barriers to foreign jobs among the rapidly growing older population.
In the wake of a major overhaul of a closed country for refugees, Japan wants to allow foreigners with other blue jobs to stay indefinitely from 2022, the head of the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday.
Under a law that came into effect in 2019, a group of “known workers” in 14 sectors such as agriculture, construction and sanitation are allowed to remain for five years, but without their relatives.
The government has been seeking to reduce the ban, which companies have cited as some of the reasons why it is unlikely to lend the aid.
Once the reforms take effect, such workers – mostly from Vietnam and China – will be allowed to renew their visas permanently and bring their families back, as another group of skilled foreigners is allowed to do.
Moving to Japan has been a difficult one for a long time as many tribes are receiving wages, but the pressure has risen to open its borders due to declining labor and age.
“While the declining population is becoming a major problem and if Japan wants to be seen as a better option for foreign workers, it must say it has a system in place to accommodate them,” said Toshihiro Menju, Japan’s think-tank manager. Center for International Exchange, told Reuters.
The 2019 law was enacted to attract about 345,000 “skilled workers” in five years, but food prices rose by nearly 3,000 a month before the COVID-19 epidemic closed its borders, according to government sources.
By the end of 2020, Japan received 1.72 million foreign workers out of 125.8 million people, about 2.5 percent of the workforce.
