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  1. #1
    Banned Tennis's Avatar
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    Angry Japan has a labor crisis that refugees could fix, if the government would let them

    https://qz.com/1014031/japan-has-a-l...ould-let-them/

    Japan would rather have robots nurse its elderly, and self-driven lorries transport its goods than allow refugees to help ease the nation’s ballooning labor crisis.

    Japan is drowning in a surplus of jobs, and while that may sound like the pinnacle of capitalist aspirations, it’s actually a huge economic problem. Put another way: bleak demographics have saddled Japan with its worst labor shortage in decades.
    The unemployment rate may be joyously low at 2.8%, but the dwindling workforce chokes growth and forces businesses to take desperate moves, like resorting to “digging robots” at construction sites, and letting overtime go unpaid.

    With no one left to build their roads, harvest their food, or empty their hospital bedpans, Japan needs workers, and it needs them now. At the end of May, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare announced that vacancies exceed 1.48 jobs for every applicant. The ratio is 2:1 in Tokyo, and 3 or even 4:1 in the pinched nursing and construction sectors. The bite is only set to get worse as the current workforce grays and the birth rate continues to decline.

    Yet Japan has willfully ignored the obvious solution already sitting on its doorstep: hiring asylum seekers.

    Despite what appears to be an obvious win-win, Japan accepts fewer asylum seekers than almost any other developed country. Last year, just 28 out of 10,901 asylum applicants—or 0.26%—were successful, one more than the previous year. UN chief António Guterres at one point called for an overhaul of Japan’s system, calling it “too rigid, and too restrictive.” If humanitarian grounds alone were not cause enough to move Japan to act, financial imperatives should make the choice an easy one.

    Economists from the prime minister’s own office to the International Monetary Fund have cautioned that unless Japan overcomes its reluctance to drastically accelerate large-scale immigration, its fatal combination of the world’s highest longevity and one of the lowest birth rates will spawn a crushing burden for the next generation, and stagnate the world’s third-largest economy.
    By some estimates, Japan needs an average of 609,000 immigrants per year for nearly 50 years to reestablish its peak workforce of the 1990s bubble years. If, hypothetically, Japan were to suddenly throw its doors open and take in every one of the 170,000 refugees the UN anticipates resettling this year, that gap would not even be close to plugged.

    With Japan’s surfeit of jobs, and a ready population of 1.19 million people globally in need of placement, the math isn’t hard, but the politics are a tough sell.

    Japan achieved Trump’s nativist, anti-immigration fever dream long ago. Unskilled workers are barred, and a ludicrously literal interpretation of the refugee convention means even asylum seekers who escaped civil war are typically rejected, and only a paltry number of refugees—just 18 last year—are resettled from overseas.

    Prime minister Shinzo Abe has made it clear that Japan is not open to permanent immigration—even for Syrians fleeing war.

    “I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees we need to have more activities by women, by elderly people, and we must raise [the] birth rate,” he told the UN in 2015.

    In a scathing report released in 2016, Oxfam railed against several nations, Japan included, for taking in 0% of their perceived “fair share” of Syrian refugees.

    By Oxfam’s count, Japan should have resettled 49,747 Syrian refugees, roughly on par with the number Germany and Canada have already welcomed.

    Instead, Japan has pledged to accept over five years a maximum of 150 Syrian students, with their families, under a scholarship program. Another 69 Syrians filed applications for refugee status in Japan between 2011 and 2016. Only seven were accepted, while 52 were allowed to stay temporarily on under humanitarian grounds for a one-year reprieve which does not encompass family members.

    Japan says its refugee policies are not heartless, but fiscally responsible. Instead of paying around $10,000 per head for resettlement, Japan was the fourth largest donor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last year, contributing $165 million.

    “You can save the lives of 30 or 40 people at a refugee camp overseas by using the same amount of money as accepting one refugee in Japan,” said Saburo Takizawa, a former UNHCR representative in Japan.

    But refugee advocates counter that Japan’s policies are “completely out of touch with reality.” By showering money on refugee camps from Kampala to Baghdad, Japan may keep desperate families off its shores, but it also defers those same families’ ability to restart their lives, and prevents them from economically contributing to the nation where they resettle.

    “Accepting more refugees would not affect the labor participation of women and older people, but rather help society become more inclusive and tolerant to different groups,” Taisuke Komatsu, a Japanese human rights advocate, wrote in an op-ed.

    Foreigners only account for 1.74% of the total population of Japan. Public reluctance to changing that composition is rife.

    Prime minister Abe’s adviser Masahiko Shibayama said that Japan has “an allergy toward the word ‘immigration,’” and, yes, even in a place with a job glut, there are fears that immigrants will ‘steal’ jobs. “People are worried about public security. They worry that foreign workers would eat up Japanese jobs,” he said.

    But so pressing is the need for blue-color workers in Japan that Abe has somewhat relented to business leaders’ demands for foreign manpower by boosting the quota of a “trainee” scheme to 200,000. But the temporary program, which was slammed by the US as perpetuating forced labor, only allots three-year visas, after which the workers must return home.

    Meanwhile, the 10,000 or so asylum seekers already in the country cannot legally rent apartments, open bank accounts, or sign up for mobile phone contracts. They can only legally work if they entered the country on a valid visa—an impossibility for those who fled their homes without time for gathering paperwork. Out of necessity, many seek work in the black market which business leaders are already illicitly tapping into, hiring those seeking refugee status for a cheap and much-needed source of labor. The arrangement makes so much financial sense that its common for businesses to risk the potential $30,000 fine and jail sentence for employing undocumented foreign workers.

    On the outskirts of Tokyo, a neighborhood locally dubbed “Warabistan” has cropped up to accommodate the Kurdish asylum seekers who staff construction sites and convenience stores. Government-funded road projects and Subaru cars plants have both benefitted from asylum seekers’ work. In 2015, asylum seekers were even found removing radioactive contamination at Fukushima—under the false pretense that they would be given visas in return.

    How Japan handles its aging society and strained labor market is being closely watched by other countries that will soon face the same challenges. So far, Japan has been exemplary only at getting old and increasingly cantankerous about immigration.

    Japanese business leaders have cautioned that if the country wants to remain competitive, redrafting its immigration policies is inevitable. Politicians are starting to catch on to the idea as well. Yoshio Kimura, a member of parliament with Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, told Reuters last year that fiscal policies to spur growth have maxed out.

    “Breaking a 50-year taboo, we will tackle the debate on accepting foreigners as workers,” he said. Whether that will extend to a more generous acceptance of refugees, however, remains to be seen.

    Great article here. It's tough to feel sorry for a country which chooses to avoid taking obvious steps to remedy its problems. With an aging population and low birthrate, this does seem like a logical step. Hopefully Nippon makes the jump soon.

  2. #2
    Ojou-sama Medusa Cascade's Avatar
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    Robots are better

  3. #3
    Is this immigration thread #3283 for tennis?

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Your average 'refugee' obviously has the qualifications needed, learns japanese in a heartbeat and adapts to the culture most spiffily. How can the Japanese be so blind.



    "In 2015, asylum seekers were even found removing radioactive contamination at Fukushima—under the false pretense that they would be given visas in return."

    You support surprisingly pragmatic solutions at times. Kudos.

  5. #5
    Half the refugees we have here aren't even working. They're just getting money from the government. So I don't think Canada's game plan will help Japan with this problem.

  6. #6
    Refugees
    Fuck that, good for them.
    It's a sad reality but these 'refugees' have infiltrators and it only takes one going rogue to fuck things up for both sides.

    I'd rather live and die with robots over children being molested, things exploding and the rest of the world too busy being apologetic to realize what's going on.
    Last edited by Veliane; 2017-07-08 at 03:41 PM.

  7. #7
    Ojou-sama Medusa Cascade's Avatar
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    Artificial wombs are coming anyway

  8. #8
    Banned Tennis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sykol View Post
    Half the refugees we have here aren't even working. They're just getting money from the government. So I don't think Canada's game plan will help Japan with this problem.
    Uh most of them are women and children. Not sure how you expect them to magically find jobs.

  9. #9
    Most refugees in Europe don't work and leech from taxpayers so that's not a good solution.

  10. #10
    Japan also seems to have an extremely low crime rate problem, something that refugees can definitely help out with.

  11. #11
    The Unstoppable Force Super Kami Dende's Avatar
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    Japan knows better than to allow people with incompatible cultures and shitty ideologies into their country. I foresee if it becomes much of an issue for them they will reach out to Western Countries for Employees before accepting refugees.

  12. #12
    Stood in the Fire
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    Quote Originally Posted by jstnw89 View Post
    Is this immigration thread #3283 for tennis?

    No, #3284. You missed one
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiira View Post
    I could throw a shoe out of my window and hit a more reliable source than noxxic.
    Quote Originally Posted by Seiko Sora View Post
    But Tennisace I want you to provide a solution. You're our only hope.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Tennisace View Post
    Uh most of them are women and children. Not sure how you expect them to magically find jobs.
    So actually they wouldn't help japans labor crisis since they can't work.

  14. #14
    Hahaha, no.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tennisace View Post
    Uh most of them are women and children. Not sure how you expect them to magically find jobs.
    Wait, women can't work now? Thanks for informing us Tennisace, I'm behind on these social rules that keep changing.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiira View Post
    I could throw a shoe out of my window and hit a more reliable source than noxxic.
    Quote Originally Posted by Seiko Sora View Post
    But Tennisace I want you to provide a solution. You're our only hope.

  16. #16
    Japan's birthrates are actually improving in a lot of areas, now that the government has started incentivizing reproduction with tax cuts/financial rewards/etc.

    As I recall, under Abe, the plan is actually to get the Japanese population to level out at a certain number. This is of course perfectly reasonable, save to those who unwittingly (or otherwise) peddle the ironically rather Capitalist/Neo-Liberal belief that populations need to grow indefinitely - not to mention those who never stop to ask the question that if we're bringing in immigrants/refugees to compensate for us, who compensates for the immigrants/refugees?

  17. #17
    Sustainability requires economic models that operate on 0 growth. Japan may be facing trouble, but they are ahead of the curve.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Austilias View Post
    Japan's birthrates are actually improving in a lot of areas, now that the government has started incentivizing the making of families with tax cuts/financial rewards/etc.

    As I recall, under Abe, the plan is actually to get the Japanese population to level out at a certain number. This is of course perfectly reasonable, save to those who unwittingly (or otherwise) peddle the ironically rather Capitalist belief that populations need to grow indefinitely - not to mention those who never stop to ask the question that if we're bringing in immigrants/refugees to compensate for us, who compensates for the immigrants/refugees?
    Difference in work ethics make sure that taking them isn't going to work out.

  19. #19
    Also the Refugees don't even have high school let alone a middle school education lvl for the countries they are going into *mostly because of language, but they lack in math and science compared to the west.

    now it doesn't mean they can't learn, but you have to put a lot of money in before you get anything for a decade at least and most of them just want a welfare check.

    there is also the the problem they are more likely to commit crimes than the native citizens and then muslim extremist who want sharia law *also btw last statistics i read 50% of the muslims in the US would support *not ENGAGE IN* a violent overthrow of the government to put in sharia law.

    *aka i don't want to fight for it but if it happens i want it additude*

    this number only gets worse in Europe and farther in the middle east......

    not all of them are bad, but you have to think OF YOUR CITIZENS first before others, Japan knows by bringing in immigrants they will start the trend of losing their culture.

    lets ALL BE HONEST HERE! SHARIA LAW is not compatiable with the west, and more muslims want it then don't......*you would think liberals would be all for this considering they stone gays and woman and throw them off buildings for stupid shit*

    i even meet a muslim in one of my classes I took last semester for a political/worldview requirement who supported trumps ban *he liked Bernie's policies though* because he didn't want bad muslims from the middle east making him look bad.....he also talked about how where his dad use to live was very modern *i forget which country, but it was before muslim brotherhood* and nice until the extremist took over the religion and turned it into a hellhole.
    Last edited by Arthas242; 2017-07-08 at 03:54 PM.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Implying any significant amount refugees are willing to endure japanese work ethics.

    Most of them would also most likely never integrate properly over there

    They are doing the right thing, they accept the few that can make it and spend money to help the rest.
    Last edited by mmoc96d9238e4b; 2017-07-08 at 03:54 PM.

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