Japan and emigration are incompatible concepts

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Among the economically developed countries of the world, Japan is included in the group of countries with a relatively closed immigration system for admitting unskilled labor to the labor market. Donald Trump himself can envy such strict control in relation to foreigners: in accordance with the current immigration legislation, from among foreign citizens, only foreigners of Japanese origin, foreign students and interns can legally apply for unskilled work.

Japan is one of the most mono-ethnic countries in the world. Japanese make up 98% of the country's population.

In addition to them, the Ainu and their descendants live in Japan - the ancient aboriginal population of a number of northern islands, primarily Hokkaido. Another common group of the non-Japanese population of the country are Koreans. For almost its entire history, Japan has remained an extremely closed country. Only in the middle of the 19th century was the shogun forced to open the borders for contacts with foreigners after two centuries of complete isolation of the Japanese state. Since that time, Japan has long remained a donor of migrants. The first ship with Japanese immigrants in 1868 went to the Hawaiian Islands. He initiated the mass migration of Japanese immigrants to the United States of America, to some of the islands of Oceania and to Latin America, primarily to Peru. Numerous Japanese diasporas have formed in the United States and Latin America. As for Japan itself, there was still no significant influx of foreign migrants into it. In the first half of the 20th century, when Japan was pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, workers from Korea were imported into the country. They were used for unskilled and hard labor. A large number of women and girls were also exported from Korea and China to Japan.

Liu Hongmei worked in a garment factory in Shanghai, but the grueling work schedule and low wages prompted the woman to move to Japan. So, at the new place of work, for packing and ironing clothes in the factory, she was promised a salary three times higher than that which Liu received in China. The woman was hoping to get thousands of extra dollars for her family, which increased with the birth of her son, writes The New York Times.

“Then it seemed to me that this was a real chance for a better life,” Liu shared with the American publication. However, things turned out differently. In accordance with Japanese law, Liu's work cannot be considered as such - in Japan it is called an "internship." An internship program is quite common in this country.

After World War II, Japan lost all overseas territories and occupied countries. At the same time, the demographic situation in the country was characterized by a high birth rate, which, given the small area of Japan, posed a certain threat to the country's socio-economic stability. Therefore, the Japanese leadership for a long time stimulated the departure of Japanese to the United States and Latin America, and, on the contrary, imposed severe restrictions on foreigners entering the country.

But measures to stimulate the departure of the Japanese abroad did not bring the desired results. Most of the Japanese saw no reason to leave the country, especially since the economic situation in Japan was improving and the country soon turned into one of the most developed and richest countries in the world. The economic boom in Japan has led to an increase in the demand for labor in the country. Nevertheless, unlike Western European countries or the United States, foreign migrants practically did not go to Japan. The bulk of the foreigners living in Japan are Koreans and Taiwanese, who were previously considered Japanese subjects, since Korea and Taiwan were under Japanese rule, but then were deprived of their citizenship. Even the deepening globalization processes did not lead to a significant increase in foreign immigration to Japan.

Until the end of the 1980s. the Japanese authorities pursued a very strict immigration policy aimed at limiting the number of foreign citizens entering the country as much as possible. All foreigners living in the country were under the control of the relevant authorities; it was not so easy to obtain a residence permit in the country. At the same time, Japanese citizens could leave the country almost without hindrance, so many of them quietly shuttled between Japan and the United States, Japan and Latin American countries. It is obvious that the country's authorities saw certain advantages in the presence of an influential Japanese diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. It is enough to look at the example of the Chinese diaspora, which is the conduit of Chinese economic influence in Southeast Asia, to understand that Japan only benefited from the presence of the Japanese in other countries of the world.

It is difficult to find people in Japan who would like to sort vegetables or wash dishes in a restaurant. Therefore, personnel are hired from abroad to fill jobs that are not suitable for the indigenous people of the country.

The internship program is sponsored by the Japanese government. Its goal is to eliminate the labor shortage. Workers are needed in factories, restaurants, farms and other businesses. “Almost every vegetable in Tokyo supermarkets has been selected by trainees,” Kiyoto Tanno, professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, told the American publication. Trainees in Japan mainly come from China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia, and the number is increasing every day.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, the number of foreign nationals living in Japan broke a record of 2.31 million at the end of June 2016, which is 3.4% higher than six months ago. Most were Chinese, South Koreans, Filipinos and Brazilians.

Vietnamese citizens ranked fifth with 175 thousand people, which is 20% more than last year. Of the 2.31 million, 81.5% were those with medium and long-term visas. The number of those who hold an engineer or humanities visa, as well as those who work for international companies, increased by 11.8%. The number of visitors with a spousal visa decreased by 0.4%.

The usual tough anti-immigration policy has led to real problems in the labor market. Many industries are suffering from labor shortages, thereby hampering the country's economic development. It is worth noting that the total number of workers of foreign origin in Japan, according to the government, last year exceeded the million mark, writes The New York Times. Moreover, most of them came to the country as a technical trainee.

To come to Japan, Liu Hongmei paid $ 7,000 to brokers for a visa. But the working and living conditions that were promised to her turned out to be much worse.

“The bosses treat us like slaves,” she tells The New York Times. "There is no education at all."

Yoshio Kimura, a member of parliament for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, calls such a system "labor import." Chao Bao, a 33-year-old trainee from Jilin Province in northeastern China, worked in a small auto parts factory in central Japan.

“People in companies are different. The places where I worked were not very honest: we could work all weekend and not get paid for it. Then they fired me altogether for some mistake found by the manager,”the young man commented on his internship experience to the publication.

Tham Thi Nhung, a seamstress from Vietnam, said that in four months of work, not a single seamstress from their factory had a day off, and the working day lasted from eight in the morning until ten in the evening. At the same time, after a collective complaint from women about the monthly underpayment of $ 712, the owner sent them a letter in which he said that the plant was closing and all workers were fired.

Despite these conditions, demand still exceeds supply. This is also due to the fact that the number of working-age Japanese has been declining since the mid-1990s due to low birth rates. Nationwide, unemployment is only 3%, according to The New York Times.

The Japanese government plans to extend the internship visa period from three to five years, while expanding the hiring of foreign workers to nursing homes and cleaning companies for offices and hotels.

It is almost impossible to get to the Land of the Rising Sun without the internship program. There are programs for students, refugees, but almost all applicants end up not getting a visa. Most of the country's inhabitants are ethnic Japanese who have a negative attitude towards migrants. In addition, Japan is geographically distant from the poor states that supply refugees. For example, in 2015, according to the Ministry of Justice of Japan, about 7.6 thousand applications for refugee status were received, of which only 27 were satisfied (in 2014 there were about 5 thousand applications, of which only 16 were satisfied). The majority of asylum seekers in 2015 were from Indonesia, Nepal and Turkey.

The internship program in Japan has been criticized by workers and lawyers for calling it "worker exploitation." Moreover, most people borrow thousands of dollars to pay a broker's commission, counting on a stable income in the future. After arriving in the country and real acquaintance with the conditions, they do not have the right to change employers: companies do not hire them directly, and the visa itself binds the employee to a certain company. The only way out is to go home, eventually losing everything.

Mr. Kimuro does not deny that the working conditions for interns are far from ideal, but he is sure that Japan will not do without migrants. “If we want economic growth in the future, we need foreigners,” he told The New York Times.

In 2011, according to the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, the Japanese trainee program was deemed unreliable due to a lack of protection from debt bondage and worker abuse. Those who cannot pay the broker for their visa remain in Japan illegally. Nearly 6,000 migrants did this in 2015, according to the Japanese Ministry of Justice. At the same time, according to government estimates, the number of illegal migrants in Japan is about 60 thousand. For comparison: the number of illegal migrants in the United States reaches 11 million, writes The New York Times.

After all, the West is the West, and the East is the East. Tokyo has difficult feelings about European migrant problems. Japan itself lures migrants as soon as it can - but without much success.

Tokyo is ringing the alarm: Japan's population is rapidly aging and shrinking. She urgently needs migrants. In Europe, probably, many hiccups. According to available estimates, in 40-50 years from the current 127 million, the population will be reduced to 87 million, and half of the citizens of the Land of the Rising Sun will be retired.

There are more than enough reasons for this. And the Europeanized consciousness of the islanders, accustomed to prosperity and well-being, which, as world practice shows, often do not help, but interfere with childbirth. And the consequences of the state policy implemented after the defeat in World War II in this area. Then large families were not only discouraged, but, on the contrary, were undesirable. And the fear of the society of the island country to face problems in the field of food and resources. The current government recognizes that there are an abundance of problems with demography, and solving them at the expense of migrants may meet with rejection among the population, 98% of which are ethnic Japanese. Which, in general, is unique in the modern world. Nevertheless, the government is forming more and more new programs to attract migrants as a guarantee of preserving the state in its current form.

They don't work yet. The situation is devoid of dynamics. Tens of thousands go to Japan, while she needs millions. And not just anyone, but highly professional specialists. Robots can also sweep the streets. The state has big plans. For example, in the field of space. A multi-year program was recently adopted that will cost billions of dollars. But there are also big problems with neighbors, including over territorial disputes over the South China Sea. Moreover, Tokyo's geopolitical ambitions are growing, as evidenced by the latest military budget, which many call "militaristic." And in order to implement them, you need people, a lot of motivated people.

Until now, Japan is the third economy in the world, following the United States and China. But this place of honor may not be eternal. Aging and declining population will inevitably affect the country's position in the world, including in the financial and economic sphere. It is not in vain that messengers from Tokyo are touring in different regions of the world, including Central Asia. They want to gain a foothold. Yes, only competitors get in the way. And the main one is clear who: China. While Japan is not as financially capable as its neighbor, it is passionate about competing with it wherever possible.

And the situation is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It would seem that more than one and a half billion China is a potential and very beneficial "supplier" of migrants to Japan. But this is not the case. There are too many contradictions between Beijing and Tokyo. Moreover, the PRC itself is interested in the influx of qualified personnel, scientists and intellectuals from all over the planet. And, by the way, it does a lot for this. So far, in this competition with the Celestial Empire, the Land of the Rising Sun suffers a crushing defeat. The government is simply not able to turn the country into one big Silicon Valley, where the best representatives of humanity will come. And it admits it. And society does not need such a "valley". As a result, you have to mark time. The matter is not limited to specific, but most importantly, working mechanisms for overcoming the demographic crisis, which, due to the specifics of Japanese society, are not so easy to come up with, but good wishes and a feeling of constant anxiety.

The population of Japan by 2065, according to the forecasts of specialists from the National Institute for Research in Population and Social Security, will amount to 88.08 million people, i.e. will decrease by almost a third (31%) compared to the level of 2015 (127, 1 million). The population decline in the Land of the Rising Sun began in 2008, when it peaked at 128.08 million. The report, prepared by demographers, urges the government to prepare in advance for the consequences of a stable population decline that will manifest itself everywhere, including pensions and health care, which already work with considerable strain.

It is expected that the average life expectancy of Japanese people will rise to 84.95 by 2065, and that of Japanese women - 91.35 years. In 2015, these figures were 80, 75 and 86, 98 years, respectively. In half a century, the proportion of Japanese and Japanese women over 65 will rise to 38.4% of the total population. In half a century, the Japanese under the age of 14 will be 10.2%. In 2015, these figures were respectively 26, 6 and 12, 5%.

The gloomiest point of the forecast for both economists and the authorities is that in 2065 every retiree over 65 will be served by only 1, 2 working Japanese. In 2015, there were more than two of them - 2, 1. The birth rate, one of the main indicators for predicting the population size, in 2015 was 1, 45. In 2024, according to the forecast, it will decrease to 1, 42, but by 2065 should rise to 1, 44.

The Japanese government pays great attention to demography. Population projections are published every five years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe considers demography one of the priorities of his cabinet and intends to bring the birth rate to 1.8 per Japanese woman from the current 1, 4. In his opinion, population decline is not a heavy burden, but a reason for increasing labor productivity through innovation and, first of all, industrial robotics and the introduction of artificial intelligence.

Many developed countries have problems with a shrinking population. Japan differs from the overwhelming majority in that it does not want (at least for now) to follow the generally accepted path of combating demographic problems - to make up for population losses at the expense of migrants.

The decline in population has already affected many Japanese towns and villages. First of all, the authorities and the economy felt this on themselves, because the amount of taxes collected is decreasing and the number of the able-bodied population is decreasing. For example, the administration of the city of Shizuoka, located halfway between Tokyo and Nagoya, said last week that the population fell below 700 thousand for the first time and amounted to 699,421 as of April 1 this year. At the moment, in the Land of the Rising Sun there are about two dozen of the same cities that are asking the federal government to compensate for the tax cuts.

Young people leave Shizuoka to study and work in Tokyo or Nagoya. A difficult situation even in the capital of Japan, despite the fact that it attracts young people from all over the country like a magnet. According to the government's November forecast, the population of Tokyo will decline to 11.73 million by 2060, i.e. will decrease by 13% compared to 2015.