Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bold report Friday to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, calling for Japan to increase its foreign residents to up to 10 percent of the nation's population in the next 50 years.
The group, headed by former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, has been promoting a more open immigration policy to attract foreigners to Japan in the face of the nation's low birthrate, depopulation and aging society. Nakagawa told reporters after the report's submission that Fukuda said he would take it seriously.
"The prime minister said he, too, has been thinking about how to secure human resources amid a society whose population is declining heavily, and that he must do something about it," Nakagawa said.