Immigrants in Japan
There was a question on Oura recently:
Will Japan start accepting immigrants from other countries to solve its population problem?
A lot of people there said that the whole issue was just an incorrect image of Japan, and that there are plenty of foreigners in Japan and they can easily live there, etc.
Sadly, that is an example of a refusal to accept unpleasant facts, to paraphrase George Orwell. And a rather silly habit of thinking personal experience is enough to explain cultural phenomena. It is factually the case that Japan has far less immigrants than other large industrialised countries. It is factually the case that the population is declining... Therefore the question asked is accurate and very important. People here dismissing the question and issue are quite wrong.
The foreign born % in the UK is 13.2%, in Germany its 14.9% (actually more since this is from the 2015 stats.). The figure in Japan for the same year was 1.9%. That is a huge difference - the UK has more than 10 times the amount of immigrants than Japan has. That you, personally, see a lot more foreign staff in the local conbini store does not mean that the facts above disappear or that the problems have been solved.
There is only two possible reasons for the low amount of immigrants, that I can see:
1. Not many people wanted to come to Japan in the last 40 years or so.
2. Government and company policies made it difficult to come to Japan.
Which is it?
(subtle hint: mostly the second one!)
Many here note that immigration rules have been relaxed recently and a lot more immigrants have come in, and this is true. But it implies that it was NOT relaxed until recently, and therefore that number 2 was the central problem. Next question then is: ok, so is the situation fine now, at last? It seems that it is not. Here is some text from a newspaper article of mine on the issue:
“Currently the government estimate is that 340,000 foreign workers could enter Japan over the five years….
But first of all, a look at the figures: although much has been made of this increase by some right wingers it’s actually a relatively small increase by the standards of other developed countries. By comparison, according to the ONS (Office of National Statistics) in the UK: “Latest net migration statistics show that in the year ending June 2018, net migration to the UK was 273,000." That is in just one year, not over 5 years as in the Japanese situation. So, the UK has an immigration figure 4 times more than the Japanese amount. Proportionally it’s even more than that, because the UK is a country with only half the population of Japan – therefore the immigration level is actually 8 times more than that of Japan. Which puts the increase in foreign workers in Japan into global perspective. It comes down to only 68,000 new foreign workers a year - in a country of 127 million that is not a lot, and far short of the labour increase that Japan needs to fill vacancies in all those areas.”
Therefore, based on that info, if it is correct, we can say that Japan definitely has a far smaller amount of immigrants than comparable countries and that the recent increase is almost certainly not enough to meets the needs of employers, and solve the issues of pensions and the wider issues around a declining population.
Secondly, its not simply a question of amount, but also of what the lives of immigrants are like here. I can give you many examples, from my research, of near slave like working conditions of people from Vietnam, the Philipphines etc Some are are not allowed to meet anyone outside of work, for example. And will be penalised if they do. They live in company dorms where no one of the opposite sex is allowed to enter….there are more than 100 cases of female foreign workers who got pregnant being pressured to either have an abortion or leave Japan. How would you like that? So, the related problem, largely ongoing and unsolved, is that those new immigrants need to have much better working situations and much better lives in Japan.
There was a question on Oura recently:
Will Japan start accepting immigrants from other countries to solve its population problem?
A lot of people there said that the whole issue was just an incorrect image of Japan, and that there are plenty of foreigners in Japan and they can easily live there, etc.
Sadly, that is an example of a refusal to accept unpleasant facts, to paraphrase George Orwell. And a rather silly habit of thinking personal experience is enough to explain cultural phenomena. It is factually the case that Japan has far less immigrants than other large industrialised countries. It is factually the case that the population is declining... Therefore the question asked is accurate and very important. People here dismissing the question and issue are quite wrong.
The foreign born % in the UK is 13.2%, in Germany its 14.9% (actually more since this is from the 2015 stats.). The figure in Japan for the same year was 1.9%. That is a huge difference - the UK has more than 10 times the amount of immigrants than Japan has. That you, personally, see a lot more foreign staff in the local conbini store does not mean that the facts above disappear or that the problems have been solved.
There is only two possible reasons for the low amount of immigrants, that I can see:
1. Not many people wanted to come to Japan in the last 40 years or so.
2. Government and company policies made it difficult to come to Japan.
Which is it?
(subtle hint: mostly the second one!)
Many here note that immigration rules have been relaxed recently and a lot more immigrants have come in, and this is true. But it implies that it was NOT relaxed until recently, and therefore that number 2 was the central problem. Next question then is: ok, so is the situation fine now, at last? It seems that it is not. Here is some text from a newspaper article of mine on the issue:
“Currently the government estimate is that 340,000 foreign workers could enter Japan over the five years….
But first of all, a look at the figures: although much has been made of this increase by some right wingers it’s actually a relatively small increase by the standards of other developed countries. By comparison, according to the ONS (Office of National Statistics) in the UK: “Latest net migration statistics show that in the year ending June 2018, net migration to the UK was 273,000." That is in just one year, not over 5 years as in the Japanese situation. So, the UK has an immigration figure 4 times more than the Japanese amount. Proportionally it’s even more than that, because the UK is a country with only half the population of Japan – therefore the immigration level is actually 8 times more than that of Japan. Which puts the increase in foreign workers in Japan into global perspective. It comes down to only 68,000 new foreign workers a year - in a country of 127 million that is not a lot, and far short of the labour increase that Japan needs to fill vacancies in all those areas.”
Therefore, based on that info, if it is correct, we can say that Japan definitely has a far smaller amount of immigrants than comparable countries and that the recent increase is almost certainly not enough to meets the needs of employers, and solve the issues of pensions and the wider issues around a declining population.
Secondly, its not simply a question of amount, but also of what the lives of immigrants are like here. I can give you many examples, from my research, of near slave like working conditions of people from Vietnam, the Philipphines etc Some are are not allowed to meet anyone outside of work, for example. And will be penalised if they do. They live in company dorms where no one of the opposite sex is allowed to enter….there are more than 100 cases of female foreign workers who got pregnant being pressured to either have an abortion or leave Japan. How would you like that? So, the related problem, largely ongoing and unsolved, is that those new immigrants need to have much better working situations and much better lives in Japan.