"In major shift, Japan looks to allow more foreign workers to stay indefinitely" 18 November 2021

In a major shift for a country long reluctant to accept immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreign nationals in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely starting as early as the 2022 fiscal year, a Justice Ministry official said on Thursday.

Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of "specified skilled workers" in 14 sectors such as farming, construction and sanitation have been allowed to stay for up to five years, but without their family members.

The government had been looking to ease those restrictions, which had been cited by companies as among reasons that they were hesitant to hire such workers.

If the revision takes effect, such workers — many from Vietnam and China — would be allowed to renew their visas indefinitely and bring their families with them, as the other category of more skilled foreign workers are allowed to do now.

[...]Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a news conference that the government is now "considering" the matter, but noted that any change means making renewal of visas possible, but not giving permanent residency status outright.

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Immigration has long been taboo in Japan as many prize ethnic homogeneity, but pressure has mounted to open up its borders due to an acute labour shortage given its dwindling and aging population.

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