Challenged by the ongoing population crisis, Japan may be finally and quietly trying to change its strict immigration policy to accept more low-skilled foreign laborers.
On Friday, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which is chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, adopted a set of immigration policies for the creation of a new visa status for non-professional foreign laborers.
By 2025, Abe's government is reportedly considering letting as many as 500,000 relatively low-skilled laborers enter the country to work in five industrial sectors that have been suffering from an acute labor shortage, namely in the construction, agriculture, nursing, hotel and ship-building industries.