In his first parliamentary face-off Monday with party leaders in the fall session that kicked off last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was questioned on topics ranging from the intended creation of new visa statuses to the postwar Constitution and the consumption tax hike slated for next year.
Abe elaborated on his earlier suggestions that Japan's intended acceptance of blue-collar foreign workers in labor-hungry sectors does not equate to the nation opening up to immigrants, citing the narrow scope of eligible workers and a fixed period of their stay.
But noting that the planned amendment of the immigration control law will effectively pave the way for an inflow of foreign workers engaging in a raft of short-handed, "menial" jobs, Yukio Edano, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, pressed Abe to provide a better explanation for the claim.
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