Japan to make a plan

FOREIGN BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS URGED TO STAY

Brazilian Luan Dartora Taniuti settled in the remote municipality of Akitakata in southwest Japan when he was nine. Leonel Maia of East Timor has been there nearly seven years. Filipina Gladys Gayeta is a newly arrived trainee factory worker, but must leave in less than three years.

Japan’s strict immigration laws mean Taniuti, who has Japanese ancestry, and Maia, who is married to a Japanese, are among the relatively few foreigners the country allows to stay for the long term.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to pass a law this week that would allow in more foreign blue-collar workers such as Gayeta for limited periods. But Akitakata’s mayor, Kazuyoshi Hamada, says his shrinking community, like others in Japan, needs foreigners of all backgrounds to stay.

The rural city has more than 600 non-Japanese, roughly 2% of its population, which has shrunk more than 10% since its incorporation in 2004.

“Given the low birth rate and ageing population, when you consider who can support the elderly and the factories ... we need foreigners,” said Hamada, 74, who in March unveiled a plan that explicitly seeks them as long-term residents.

“I want them to expand the immigration law and create a system where anyone can come to the country.”

Japan’s population decline is well-known, but the problem is especially acute in remote, rural locales such as Akitakata.

Hamada’s proposal to attract foreigners as teijusha, or long-term residents, is the first of its kind in immigration-shy Japan.

Abe is pitching his plan as a way to address Japan’s acute labour shortage but denies it’s an “immigration policy.”

“Hamada openly mentioned Japanese immigration policy and that is very courageous,” said Toshihiro Menju, managing director of the Japan Centre for International Exchange in Tokyo, a think tank. “Akitakata is kind of a forerunner.”

The population of Akitakata, formed from the merger of six small townships, dropped to 28 910 in November from 30 983 in 2014. About 40% of residents are 65 or older.

Car parts factories and farms are crying out for workers, many houses stand empty, darkened streets are deserted by early evening and the aisles of a discount supermarket are mostly empty by 8 pm.

Hamada says long-term resident foreigners are the solution. But integrating them will be crucial; many cities were unprepared for earlier influxes of foreign workers, experts said.

The country had 2.5 million foreign residents as of January 2018, up 7.5% from a year earlier. –

We need foreigners