Japan to Release Estimated Numbers of Foreign Workers under New Visas

November 5, 2018

Tokyo--The Japanese government will shortly release its estimates of the numbers of foreign workers the country will accept under two planned visa categories, Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita said Monday.

"We'll make sure the numbers will be available for use in discussions on the bill" related to the new work visas, Yamashita told a House of Councillors Budget Committee meeting.

On Friday, the government submitted the bill to introduce the visas for foreign nationals with "specified skills," including blue-collar workers, by revising the immigration control law, a move aimed at accepting more foreign workers amid an acute labor crunch in the country.

Yamashita said the government will decide on the levels of specified skills that foreign workers will be required to have for obtaining the new visas, via close cooperation with governing ministries and agencies.

Also discussed at the committee meeting was a controversial magazine article contributed by House of Representatives lawmaker Mio Sugita of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in which she argued that lesbian, gay, bisexuals and transgender, or LGBT, couples are unproductive as they do not have children.

"It's wrong to apply the concept of productivity to whether or not to have a child," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

Asked about the current political situation, in which Abe effectively has an unrivaled grip on power in the absence of other strong leaders, the prime minister said he will always be humble and warn himself against being seen as arrogant after staying in office for a long time. Jiji Press