Japan’s Immigration Paradox: Needing Foreign Workers Amid Rising Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Japan is facing a growing contradiction. As the country grapples with an aging population and severe labor shortages, it is planning to admit up to 820,000 foreign workers under its Specified Skilled Worker program by the end of the decade. Yet at the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment has been gaining ground in Japanese politics. 

In this episode of Teka Teka, Prof. Gracia Liu-Farrer, co-author of a recent Foreign Affairs article on Japan’s immigration paradox, joins us to unpack the country’s demographic crisis and what Japan’s labor policies mean for migrant workers on the ground. We also look at what these shifts mean for Filipino migrants, the fourth-largest foreign community in Japan.

You can read the Foreign Affairs article here.

This episode is produced by Lyn Olavario and engineered by Jem Bunao. Jaemark Tordecilla is our editor-at-large.

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