Is Japan Finally Embracing Immigration?

I got my PhD in Japan. What Japan wants is to bring you in, underpay you and send you back. They make it very difficult to build a life for you there, which may be fine for some but for specialized professionals who tend to be older is a horrible deal.

Japan's work culture is more pressing issue, increasing immigration will not solve that.

I live in Japan, there are a ton of Vietnamese, Nepalese, Filipinos and even Bhutanese here, usually working in entry level positions. There's usually little issues. But for professions that require higher levels of education, Japan has difficulty in attracting (due to lower salary) and retaining foreign talent.

A lot of people move to Japan seeking a better life than decide to move back to their own country and that's because Japanese people are very good at reminding foreigners they will never really be part of society regardless of how amazing their Japanese is, if you marry into a Japanese family or contribute to society. There are people who decide to stay and accept they are outsiders, but vast majority of people leave due to the mental strain Japanese society puts on them. I have friend who has been in Japan for over 20 years married to a Japanese women has a child and was at out at a bar in Tokyo; met some random Japanese people and firstly they were shocked he spoke Japanese ,which is normal for expats, but then after he told them his story , was asked when he plans to go back to his country. This was not an attack on him directly, but how Japanese people think. Even if Japan opens their doors and people come in; majority will eventually leave, unless the situation in their home country is dire.

Please stop asking me all these questions, I don't know.

The problem isn’t even immigration honestly. It’s the terrible work life balance in Japan. I’m sure if it was actually affordable/possible to have kids, they would

A very dear friend of my parents, immigrated to Japan more than 15 years ago, he was working there as a university professor, he married a Japanese women and they had two kids, but he said despite all that I've never been fully accepted and he've always been reminded that he is a foreigner. So eventually 5 years ago they all moved to Australia. So I don't think a pressure from the business can change the mindset of a nation. Just a slowing economy is looking for cheap labour on regular basis.

Its like saying "That ain't exactly wrong, but that was rude bruh".

Immigration is only a temporary solution. It doesn't fix the underlying issues why birth rates are down.

The naturalization process in Japan is actually not that difficult. The reason why many choose not to do so is because Japan does not recognize dual citizenship, which requires people to completely cut ties to their native land, a difficult decision for many 1st and 2nd generation immigrants. For many Zainichi Koreans, it's more about internal pressure within their community to not abandon their Korean heritage and resist efforts by the Japanese government to assimilate them into the Japanese population. With that being said, many 3rd and 4th generation Zainichi Koreans are increasingly choosing to obtain Japanese citizenship, as many have little to no remaining ties to the Korean peninsula and have lived in Japan their entire lives.

Most rented apartments will just straight up refuse to rent to foreigners it's a fact.

I've been in japan for almost 6 years, spent 2 in tokyo and 4 in the countryside. My experience here was all great. I've made great friends, met great people, gotten great support from japanese government. You could say that I got so lucky with all the Japanese that I even had the chance to meet but many of my friends share the same experience as well. Working in japan often gets the perception of being excruciating but that really depends on the place you work for and what type of jobs you are doing. Once you sorted these out, you may find that japan is not that different from many developed countries. The problem is probably the language, and the culture. Learning and getting used to these take time, i think it's the same for anywhere else. I just want to say that most of the things that people think they know about japan is just as wrong as what are being said on the internet. Agree that Japan is not for everyone, but if given a chance, you should experience it yourself. You can't know a country sitting at home and talking on the internet.

I am Japanese and I have been living in a foreign country for a long time. Why I decided to leave Japan was because the work circumstances really sucked. I couldn't see my future there even if I worked at a quite big company. However, I like going back to Japan for a short visit.

Every time Japan runs out of free labor, they tapped new demographic to mitigate that. They tapped rural Japan for a while and the population pyramid of rural Japan looks more like population mushroom. They tapped elderly, not only had they delayed the official retirement age from 60 to 65, people can now "chose" to delay retirement up to 75. They tapped women, which absolutely would have no effect whatsoever on already collapsing birthrate. And now it's foreigners. Hope you Gaijins love our working culture!

I was honestly a little surprised Japan was offended at being called xenophobic… having lived there for years it’s just the reality and the general populace is broadly aware. It’s literal policy. So

The language, low wages, rigorous work culture, and lack of social security are not attractive to Europeans like myself. Why should I work in Japan when I could work in Switzerland under much better conditions?

Japan is like: Come work here BUT don’t come here 😆 sounds like my cat.

In the U.S. the business owners say “no one wants to work anymore” yet they get 1000’s of applications for 1 job posting and they choose not to hire

Well Japan, it was nice knowing you.

Don’t do it