Japan gearing up to be an expat destination

As the West moves to close its borders, Japan is slowly letting more foreigners in.

For literally centuries, Japan has been more than reluctant to allow immigration, due to its fear of losing its iconic culture and ethnicity, but its ageing, shrinking population has spurred PM Shinzo Abe to imagine the unimaginable. Earlier this month, the Japanese government introduced a bill aiming to allow a huge number of semi-skilled foreigners to enter the country and work in areas where skill shortages are affecting the local economy.

Abe has been careful not to stress the word ‘immigration’, insisting the workers will not become permanent residents, but the fact it’s happening at all is a watershed moment in Japanese history. Many lawmakers are against the bill, saying it’s irresponsible at best and half-baked at worst, but the urgent need for workers can’t be argued away. Japan has worse problems than many other countries facing the same dilemma, but lawmakers are aware the alternative for their country, is decline and stagnation.

The bill represents a sea change for a land where few people speak any foreign languages or even have contact with anyone who isn’t Japanese. At present, around 2.6 million expats live and work in Japan, but are mostly confined to the huge cities or work in the tourism industry. At the same time, a good number of would-be expats in the West as well as in Southeast Asia would jump at the chance to relocate to Japan, as the country has been a focus of fascination for several hundreds of years. However, it remains to be seen how the reputedly xenophobic Japanese take to seeing their streets crowded with foreigners who obviously aren’t tourists, and the Japanese language presents a hard to climb barrier for would-be new arrivals.