Society Gaijin scepticism despite population crisis

[thomas]

The Guardian on how Japan perceives 'outside people' amid its severe population crisis: low birthrate and ageing population pose 'an urgent risk to society'. Still, can opening its borders to skilled overseas workers fix the problem?

Here's the case of Murumuru, a certified IT specialist from Sri Lanka, and his wife, a qualified physiotherapist, who found the language barrier an obstacle.

Murumuru spends his weekends toiling on building sites in Japan in the sticky heat of summer to supplement the income from his other job at a bakery. A certified IT specialist, he arrived in Tokyo from Sri Lanka a year ago, hoping to take advantage of job opportunities that have opened up as part of Japan's efforts to tackle its population crisis and encourage more immigration. But Murumuru, a nickname given to him by his Japanese colleagues, has found it hard. Despite staff shortages, he and his wife, a qualified physiotherapist, have found the language barrier an obstacle. "All of the hospitals ask for N1, as do many IT jobs," he explains, referring to the highest-level Japanese test for foreigners, requiring the ability to read around 2,000 kanji characters. Despite initial plans to stay for five years, the couple are considering a move elsewhere, perhaps to the UK. They have relatives there and believe his wife could find work in the National Health Service.

There was a time when foreign workers were paid to leave:

Bringing skilled workers from overseas is requiring a significant shift in a nation that not so long ago treated foreign labour as something akin to a necessary, if temporary, nuisance. The treatment of Japanese-Brazilians who came in the 1990s to work in the factories of Japan is a case in point. The importance placed on bloodlines meant the Brazilian descendants of Japanese emigrants were given priority over other foreign workers in being offered visas. However, it became clear that most of the new arrivals didn't speak Japanese and were culturally Brazilian. When the 2008 global financial crisis forced firms to lay off workers, the Japanese government offered them $3,000 each to go home and not come back.

Still, Murumuru, the Sri Lankan "double shifter," maintains: "I really like Japan. I feel no racism from 99% of people here. People respect each other, whether they do white-collar or blue-collar jobs."

Japan wrestles with its views on ‘outside people’ amid population crisis

Low birthrate and ageing population pose ‘an urgent risk to society’, but can opening its borders to skilled overseas workers fix the problem?

www.theguardian.com