Japan must soon get ready to accept, even to welcome, a far greater number of legal foreign workers in its midst. The possibility is not remote, in view of plans just announced by the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau to relax visa procedures for non-Japanese workers in a wider range of fields than previously permitted. The dramatic shift in the nation's formerly strict immigration policy for non-Japanese wanting to work in this country comes just as unemployment levels are at record highs, leading some to question the wisdom of the move. The objections are shortsighted and narrow-minded.

They are also unfair. Critics should bear in mind that the ministry is not proposing an influx of foreign workers who would take employment away from job-hungry Japanese. Immigration Bureau officials are belatedly alerting the public to a twofold crisis of growing urgency: the rapid aging of Japanese society and the continuing precipitous decline in the birthrate. On the same day that the new plans were published, the Management and Coordination Agency announced that Japan's population had grown by only 200,000, or 0.16 percent, as of last Oct. 1, the smallest annual increase since the end of World War II.

Few can dispute the need for increased immigration in the coming years. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's Commission on Japan's Goals for the 21st Century issued a report in January emphasizing the need for more English-language education and allowing more immigrants into the country. Unfortunately, some of the same people who fear that "too much" English will result in a loss of "Japaneseness" oppose more foreign workers for similar reasons. While promising even stronger measures to control illegal aliens, the Justice Ministry is simply proposing easing the requirements for long-term visas for foreign workers in specialized and technical fields where the demand for them is greatest.