Japan’s Fickle Stance on Immigrant Workers
A Japanese stop sign, does the country need immigrants?
The New York Times writes that the Japanese government has taken another approach to its relationship with its small, Latin American immigrant community. By offering these immigrants, mainly from Brazil, several thousand dollars to fly home, they’re attempting to prevent a further rise in the nation’s unemployment statistics. This offer is made on the condition that they can never apply for a Japanese work visa (known as the Nikkei visa, which is for people of Japanese descent) in the future, which dismays many, both in the government and in the immigrant population.
What’s even more interesting is that a post in February on the CultureWizard blog noted how Japan was desperate to retain its foreign workers due to the aging Japanese population. This new policy seems counter intuitive, but clearly comes out of the chaos a deep recession causes. Is this response to unemployment influenced by Japanese culture? Japan is notoriously “immigrant-averse,” so could the overarching dedication to the “group” be dictating this decision to target non-members?
