A Study on Migration Policy in Japan

Abstract

Human migration has a long historical background that stretches back to the earliest periods of human history. In line with that path, migration continues in the modern era in order to provide states, societies and migrants various opportunities. Overall, the estimated number of international migrants had increased over the past four decades from around 85 million in 1970 to 244 million in 2015. Historically, Japan has a migration since it opened in the end of nineteenth century. Many Japanese migrated to the USA and Latin America till 1950s. During the two world wars period, many people from other Asian countries, mainly from Korea and Taiwan moved to the mainland of Japan. After the Second World War, the Koreans and Taiwanese were declared as foreigner in Japan particularly since April 1952 although they were called as old comers after Japan regained independence from the U.S. occupation on 28 April 1952. Therefore, the majority of foreign work forces were colonial immigrants and their descendants till the 1980s. Additionally, the recruitment of Nikkeijin, descendants of Japanese emigrants mainly to Brazil and Peru were given access to residential status with no restrictions on employment after the 1980s. They were regarded as new comers. Japan’s latest revised ICA has come into force from April 1, 2019 amidst severe labor shortages resulting from the ageing population and falling birth rates. The new revised law allows around 345,000 blue color foreign workers in Japan over the next five years in 14 industrial sectors facing domestic work force shortages. As a whole, Japan has launched a new immigration system aimed to bring in foreign workers into specific domestic industrial sectors. The goals of paper examine how the Japanese migration policy has changed since the 1960s. It also analyzes what are reasons for the Japanese government to revise the immigration policies and what are roles of migrant workers in the Japanese economy and society. Last, but not least, it is also important to estimate whether or not Japan could build a multicultural society as other advanced countries.