I speak about this a lot around Japan. My belief is International residents will reach 10 percent of the whole during the 2030s. There will be huge challenges and friction but also lots of chances for business and companies/communities to revitalize.
What I've particularly noticed over the years is how many non-Japanese are doing meaningful work in the areas related to traditional culture. When my daughter was dressed in kimono for Coming-of-Age Day, the assistant was from Estonia!
The only thing that seems to jut be regurgitated all over MSM and people online is that the only solution to fix Japan's population is to import foreigners, which won't really help much. Most young foreigners aren't having kids either similar to Japan. Just bringing people into the country won't fix anything. And I do fear that Japan will lose its cultural traits that make it unique, that make it Japan.
But I do think Japan should still let more foreigners in, but only on investment & entrepreneurial grounds. Keep the minimum requirements fairly strict, but once someone qualifies make the timeline from application to residency a streamlined process.
Thanks for this informative and thought-provoking article! I am certainly seeing more and more diversity in my community and work. I think concepts like 多文化共生 ("multicultural conviviality"--though there are other translations) will be important moving forward. To me, this is essentially 'live and let live,' and since Japan already seems to have a broad-based cultural tendency towards this ethos, I think Japanese society can actually be a model for globalizing countries around the world. Smaller cities such as Tsukuba and Hamamatsu seem to be on the forefront of innovating for convivial multicultural coexistence amidst the challenges of linguistic and cultural differences.
Hi Mark! It is more intuition based but decrease in the workforce and every company across Japan opening up to international workers may do it. I guess if we go up 500,000 people a year it will be 4 million by 2027, 6 million by 2030, and about 10 million by 2040. By that time the total Japanese population will have declined more too. I don’t know how to add a photo of the 223/07/26 Nikkei top page that made me feel sure.
The idea that "Some worry that immigrants will take jobs from Japanese citizens..." is puzzling to me since what is driving immigration is a shortage of Japanese labor, isn't it? According to friends and relatives of mine working in Japan, many businesses are barely able to continue operating due to a shortage of staff. The Japanese staff that they are able to recruit are neither properly qualified nor motivated to work or to learn. It's not unusual for a job advert to receive zero responses for months! Understandably, this all puts a strain on everybody.
The point I'd like to raise is about language. While it obviously makes sense for immigrants into Japan to learn Japanese, I'm sure I'm not the only one who arrived in Japan with zero Japanese language skills. It takes time to acquire a working knowledge of spoken Japanese and even longer to read and write it. It would only be polite and considerate of the needs of immigrant consumers if Japanese companies were required to put their websites and product information in several languages, just like Japanese companies already do in overseas markets, eg, Europe. Not only would it be considerate, it is in my opinion, a health-and-safety issue.
I speak about this a lot around Japan. My belief is International residents will reach 10 percent of the whole during the 2030s. There will be huge challenges and friction but also lots of chances for business and companies/communities to revitalize.
What I've particularly noticed over the years is how many non-Japanese are doing meaningful work in the areas related to traditional culture. When my daughter was dressed in kimono for Coming-of-Age Day, the assistant was from Estonia!
Good info and article, thanks!
The only thing that seems to jut be regurgitated all over MSM and people online is that the only solution to fix Japan's population is to import foreigners, which won't really help much. Most young foreigners aren't having kids either similar to Japan. Just bringing people into the country won't fix anything. And I do fear that Japan will lose its cultural traits that make it unique, that make it Japan.
But I do think Japan should still let more foreigners in, but only on investment & entrepreneurial grounds. Keep the minimum requirements fairly strict, but once someone qualifies make the timeline from application to residency a streamlined process.
Thanks for this informative and thought-provoking article! I am certainly seeing more and more diversity in my community and work. I think concepts like 多文化共生 ("multicultural conviviality"--though there are other translations) will be important moving forward. To me, this is essentially 'live and let live,' and since Japan already seems to have a broad-based cultural tendency towards this ethos, I think Japanese society can actually be a model for globalizing countries around the world. Smaller cities such as Tsukuba and Hamamatsu seem to be on the forefront of innovating for convivial multicultural coexistence amidst the challenges of linguistic and cultural differences.
Hi Mark! It is more intuition based but decrease in the workforce and every company across Japan opening up to international workers may do it. I guess if we go up 500,000 people a year it will be 4 million by 2027, 6 million by 2030, and about 10 million by 2040. By that time the total Japanese population will have declined more too. I don’t know how to add a photo of the 223/07/26 Nikkei top page that made me feel sure.
The idea that "Some worry that immigrants will take jobs from Japanese citizens..." is puzzling to me since what is driving immigration is a shortage of Japanese labor, isn't it? According to friends and relatives of mine working in Japan, many businesses are barely able to continue operating due to a shortage of staff. The Japanese staff that they are able to recruit are neither properly qualified nor motivated to work or to learn. It's not unusual for a job advert to receive zero responses for months! Understandably, this all puts a strain on everybody.
The point I'd like to raise is about language. While it obviously makes sense for immigrants into Japan to learn Japanese, I'm sure I'm not the only one who arrived in Japan with zero Japanese language skills. It takes time to acquire a working knowledge of spoken Japanese and even longer to read and write it. It would only be polite and considerate of the needs of immigrant consumers if Japanese companies were required to put their websites and product information in several languages, just like Japanese companies already do in overseas markets, eg, Europe. Not only would it be considerate, it is in my opinion, a health-and-safety issue.
I noticed over the years When visiting Japan the kids seem to be taller.
国籍差別は必要ですよ。それとロリコンユダヤ系、外資系も排除します。