Aging Japan gets serious about immigration

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-07 10:05

"Look at the Mongolian sumo wrestlers! They speak Japanese really well," he said.

But former immigration bureau chief Sakanaka worries that the Indonesian nursing programme would end in failure because of the complexity of the Japanese language and because he thinks the rules have been made too strict.

"I think the system will turn out to be an embarrassment," he said. "Almost nobody will pass and they will be told to go home."

He advocates inviting in younger foreigners and allowing them to complete their training in Japanese before starting work.

On a broader basis, he and others say, opposition to immigration in Japan is less wide-spread than allegations of discrimination and exclusion would suggest.

"Certainly it is going to take time for Japan to be more accepting," said Yamakawa of Goldman Sachs.

"But I do not believe in the superficial argument that Japan has had a homogeneous population for so long that it cannot accept anyone from outside."

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