Two aides to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the nation is planning to bring in more overseas workers to bolster the shrinking labor force.
Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker in Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party who serves as a special adviser to the prime minister, said in an interview in Singapore last week that policies under consideration may result in a doubling of foreign workers in Japan.
"Probably a lot of strategies are going to be adopted in the coming few years," Shibayama said. "I don't think it's a fixed goal of the government but, in my opinion, doubling the number of foreign workers cannot be avoided in this global market situation. We have to make a sustainable system for accepting more and more foreign workers."
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