Toshihiro Menju is managing director of the Japan Center for International Exchange, a foreign affairs institute in Tokyo.
The economic rebound from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen demand for workers revive forcefully in many countries around the world.
Many employers, especially in advanced economies, have encountered unprecedented difficulties in filling positions. Preexisting issues around low wages and aging populations have been compounded by a shift in expectations about working from home and other employment conditions.
Other complications stem from the closure of borders during the pandemic which brought international labor mobility to a near halt. This has magnified the stakes in long-standing domestic debates over the extent to which immigration should be part of the answer to building a strong workforce and national prosperity.
In the case of Japan, with its ever-declining birthrates and aging population, the country seems to be finally recognizing the depth of its need for migrants and is beginning to make fundamental technical, policy and cultural shifts to accommodate them.
Having failed to attract anywhere near its targeted number of foreign workers amid a global skills race, Tokyo is considering expanding a program for workers with specific skills from just shipbuilding and construction to 12 other sectors that are also suffering from labor shortages.
These five-year visas can be renewed an unlimited number of times and will now also allow holders to bring their families with them into Japan. Those who have lived in Japan for 10 years will be able to be considered for permanent residency.
Accompanying shifts within the government will also send a welcome message to those who come to work.
The new Immigration Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice will not just process paperwork, but provide support for migrants' daily life. Other ministries are putting into effect measures to provide migrants with Japanese language education and safeguards for their rights.
In June, the Ministry of Justice released its "Roadmap for a society in coexistence with foreigners." This year, Japan ranked 15th out of 104 nations rated by the Singapore-based Chandler Institute of Governance on the effectiveness of their governance.
The weakening of the yen to its lowest levels against the dollar in decades makes it harder for post-coronavirus Japan to attract foreign workers. This makes it all the more important for the government to make a clear statement of intent that Japan is open and ready to join the race for workers.
Changes like those underway can only help the long-term standing of Japan on the international stage. With workforce as a key component of Japan's global competitiveness, the hope is that these policy shifts will help the country to fill both high- and low-skill labor gaps.
Other developed countries are also adjusting their immigration policies to fill labor needs.
Canada, which is enduring the worst labor shortages among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members despite its long-standing openness to immigration, has loosened conditions on several of its visa programs.
Requirements for skilled workers to qualify as immigrants have been extensively relaxed, with an eye particularly toward those from sectors like artificial intelligence and software development. Obstacles to permanent residency for many of those in the country on temporary visas, especially health care workers and foreign students, have been lowered. Even before this, more than a quarter of foreign students usually stayed on in the country to become permanent residents.
Ottawa has also invested heavily in raising the skill level of its domestic workforce to meet the needs of small and midsize enterprises, partnering with universities and the private sector to match talents with future-oriented needs.
Australia and the U.K. are both also experiencing severe worker shortages in many sectors but face strong anti-immigration sentiments among their publics.
In September, Australian business leaders and government officials convened for a Jobs and Skills Summit where they fervently debated how to build a better trained and more productive workforce, boost real wages and living standards, and create more opportunities for more Australians in the longer term while addressing today's labor shortages.
Australia's COVID border controls were among the world's tightest, creating severe complications for sectors like agriculture that depend on low-skilled migrants entering with temporary visas. An inefficient bureaucracy means visa applications and renewals are now backlogged by up to 18 months.
The economy of the U.K., meanwhile, is short an estimated 1.3 million workers, especially in sectors such as construction, hospitality and healthcare, while coping with double-digit inflation. The country's 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU was driven in large part by anti-immigration sentiments, however, and Liz Truss' short tenure as prime minister that ended last month saw her make no headway on efforts to plug skills gaps with new migrant flows.
These examples show that while it is easy enough to say governments simply need to look at their labor needs and adjust their policies accordingly, authorities also have to juggle public sentiment and other political and economic factors, like inflation, plus social and cultural considerations. This time, Japan hopefully has struck the balance right.