Borders and Belonging: is Japan turning into a migration state?

As The Conversation Weekly takes a short production break in August, we're bringing you a recent episode from our partners at the Borders and Belonging podcast about Japan’s evolving stance on immigration.

With a rapidly ageing population and a shrinking workforce, Japan is facing an unprecedented crisis: by 2030, it's projected to have a shortfall of nearly 6.4 million workers. But despite Japan’s reputation for being closed off to migrants, there are signs that the country’s national immigration policy is starting to shift.

Each episode of Borders and Belonging takes an in-depth look at a different regional migration issue and puts it into a global context. They do this through interviewing people with deep knowledge and experience of the region, including a couple of academic experts. The show is hosted by Maggie Perzyna, a researcher with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and integration programme at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada.

This episode features Nicholas A. R. Fraser, a senior research associate at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ito Peng, professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Toronto and Nana Oishi, associate professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Borders and Belonging is produced by CERC Migration in collaboration with Lead Podcasting. Sound design for this episode of The Conversation Weekly was by Michelle Macklem, with production by Mend Mariwany. Sign up for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation and to support what we do, please consider donating to The Conversation.