Many Japanese Not Tolerant of Actively Accepting Foreigners

November 12, 2018

Tokyo--While more than half of Japanese feel that populations in their communities are decreasing, only about 14 pct believe it is necessary for their societies to actively accept foreign workers and settlers in order to keep the regions going, a Jiji Press survey has found.

The survey, covering 2,000 people aged 18 or over nationwide, was conducted in an interview format on Oct. 5-8, with 62.6 pct of them giving valid answers.

According to the survey, 83.5 pct said they have love for the communities they live in.

The combined share of respondents who feel very much or somewhat that populations in their communities are decreasing came to 56.4 pct. The proportion was high among elderly respondents, standing at 68.5 pct for people aged 70 or over and 65.8 pct for those in their 60s, and low among younger generations, at 38.8 pct for people aged 18-29 and 43.0 pct for those in their 30s.

Asked about necessary measures for keeping their communities afloat, with multiple answers allowed, 71.8 pct, the largest group, called for local authorities' financial assistance to attract young people raising children for settlement.

The second-largest group, or 27.9 pct, cited the need to create jobs in local areas through deregulation in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries, followed by 19.8 pct who pointed to the importance of companies introducing a teleworking system to enable employees to work in remote areas.

Meanwhile, only 14.6 pct said that local communities should actively accept workers and settlers from abroad, according to the survey. The proportion showed little difference between respondents who supports the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and those who do not support the administration, coming to 15.6 pct and 16.0 pct, respectively.

A government-sponsored bill to revise the immigration control law has been submitted to the Diet, Japan's parliament. A pillar in the amendment is a plan to introduce new types of resident status designed to accept more foreign workers in order to cover serious labor shortages in Japan. Jiji Press