Japanese Governor: Accept More Foreigners to Combat Depopulation

Japan’s aging and decreasing population has been a vexing problem for years. However, good solutions have been few and far between. A governor of a Japanese prefecture has what’s sure to be a controversial suggestion: accept more foreign immigrants.

Murai Yoshihiro (村井嘉浩), the governor of Miyagi Prefecture in Japan’s Tohoku region, made the comments during a press conference on January 10th. While he noted that Japan already accepts immigrants through its technical trainee program and other avenues, he said this was only to fill gaps in the country’s workforce. He called for a more aggressive immigration program specifically intended to counter depopulation in the short term.

“With the declining birth rate, it’s important we don’t decrease the number of Japanese,” he told reporters. “But no matter what measures we take, it’ll be difficult to reign in the rate of decline immediately. Now’s the time to take bold action with the assumption that the population and birth rate will keep declining.”

Murai praised Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s call for a “new kind of depopulation strategy” and his call to create a “child first” Japan.

“Germany is also facing declining birth rates, but thanks to immigration, their population isn’t declining,” he observed.

Immigration in Japan

Worker welding at a factory
Picture: Fast&Slow / PIXTA(ピクスタ)

Historically, immigration rates to Japan are lower than most other industrialized nations despite a relatively lax immigration policy for skilled workers. Immigrants only make up around 2% of Japan’s total population. In contrast, in the United States, immigrants account for around 15% of the populace.

The language barrier, Japan’s business culture, and stagnant real wages in Japan over the past three decades all play a part in low immigration rates.

Murai’s call will likely generate resistance and controversy, particularly among Japan’s right-wing elements. Japan’s conservative wing already believes there are “too many foreigners” in Japan and accuse them online of bleeding Japan dry through public assistance programs. (Several major Japanese newspapers have worked to dispel this myth.)

As a result, as in other countries, some foreigners in Japan find themselves running up against age-old prejudices. In a recent case that made headlines, a Brazilian-Japanese woman was told to “go back home” when she filed for public assistance. Japan’s non-white residents report also struggling with discrimination compared to the country’s white immigrant population.

Some activists within Japan also charge that the country’s technical trainee program suffers from abuses. Participants say they are fired and sent home for various infractions, such as having a relationship or getting pregnant. A group of Japanese women recently rallied to the cause of a Vietnamese woman who was jailed for hiding the stillbirth of her twins for fear of being sent home.

Sources

村井知事「外国人をどんどん受け入れていくことも考えるタイミングだ」少子化・人口減少対策で持論展開「技能実習生受け入れの本音は労働力不足を補うこと」. TBS News Dig

岸田首相「異次元の少子化対策」発言に国民侃々諤々 泉明石市長は“ちんぷんかんぷん”と疑問呈する. Nikkan Gendai

Japanese-Brazilian Woman Told “Go Back to Your Country” by Welfare Office

A Japanese-Brazilian woman who has been a permanent resident of Japan for 10 years was denied public assistance recently and told she should consider going back to her country. The woman is now speaking out about her experience to prevent it from happening to others.

The story was broken by Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun. The woman, 41, lives in Anjo in Aichi Prefecture. Her husband, who worked in an automotive plant, lost his job due to the pandemic-related economic downturn. Things took an even worse turn when her husband was arrested recently for driving without a license.

The woman, who has two sons, told Mainichi in tears about how she watered down milk that friends gave her to the point that it was “like water.”

Friends assured the woman she’d qualify for public assistance. But when she visited the city welfare office, a city worker refused her petition. The city worker told her (incorrectly) that she wasn’t eligible for public assistance because she isn’t a Japanese citizen. The woman further told her that “it’d be better if you returned to your country” and also implied that she’d lose her spousal visa due to her husband’s arrest.

The woman eventually obtained the assistance she was seeking. She also received an apology from the city for the worker’s discriminatory behavior.

“It was frightening going to city hall and feeling emotionally cornered,” she told Mainichi. “I wish foreigners would be seen as people.”

It’s a common refrain from Japan’s right-wing that foreigners are bleeding Japan dry through public assistance. In reality, few foreigners in Japan receive public assistance of any kind. Permanent residents were not even eligible to receive assistance until a 2018 change in the law passed under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Currently, most approved assistance goes to Zainichi Koreans and others who have suffered systemic discrimination in the past. For example, Zainichi Koreans were long forbidden from participating in the country’s pension system.

Sources

「国に帰ればいい」　日系ブラジル人の生活保護拒否、誤情報伝える. Mainichi Shimbun