Aging Japan Wants Automation, Not Immigration

Japan is at the forefront of a post-industrial society. Much of the rest of the west would be in a similar position, if not for imported labor or outsourcing labor.<p>China will be in a similar spot soon. Eventually all of the world will be where they are.<p>The things and lessons they learn and discover will be useful to other mature economies soon enough.<p>The headway will make them leaders in innovating in this area of the economy. Automation will only keep on advancing and displacing jobs --Japan&#x27;s workforce and jobs are in sync in this regard and if they thread it right, the reduction in human jobs will diminish with the number of able workers.

This is an opinion piece backed up with practically no information whatsoever.<p>If you want to know about immigration policy in Japan, you need look no further Japan&#x27;s ministry of foreign affairs website. For example, here are the categories where you can get a long term visa [0]<p>You will notice there is a points system [1]. You need 70 points to get in. A degree gives you 10 points. A salary of ~$100K gives you 40 points. Being under 30 gives you 15 points. Having 5 years of experience gives you 10 points. N1 on JLTP gives you 15 points.<p>I mean, it&#x27;s <i>ridiculous</i>. And this is a 5 year visa with relaxed permanent residence requirements, ability to sponsor your parents, ability to work in <i>any</i> field (even jobs that aren&#x27;t related to your skill set!!!). The list goes on!<p>And if by some incredibly unfortunate circumstance you can&#x27;t qualify for that, there are still over 10 categories where you basically only need a relevant university degree and a job offer for a 3 year visa.<p>And if that isn&#x27;t enough, you can start a company in Japan with about ~$50K and sponsor a business visa for yourself.<p>My wife is Japanese and I&#x27;m here on a spousal visa. The application process took 1 week and was free. I am also eligible for relaxed permanent residence status.<p>Seriously, compare this to your home country and then come back and tell me that Japan doesn&#x27;t want immigration.<p>Now if you want to know why Japan doesn&#x27;t have a lot of immigration, it&#x27;s because it is difficult for foreigners to live here if they can&#x27;t speak Japanese and&#x2F;or they can&#x27;t accept Japanese culture. But as far as the government is concerned, the red carpet has been rolled out for a <i>long</i> time. If you have an established company in many foreign countries and wish to open a branch office in Japan (so that you can transfer people here), the government will even give you free assistance!<p>[0] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mofa.go.jp&#x2F;j_info&#x2F;visit&#x2F;visa&#x2F;long&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mofa.go.jp&#x2F;j_info&#x2F;visit&#x2F;visa&#x2F;long&#x2F;index.html</a> [1] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.immi-moj.go.jp&#x2F;newimmiact_3&#x2F;en&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;point_calculation_forms.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.immi-moj.go.jp&#x2F;newimmiact_3&#x2F;en&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;point_calculat...</a>

Here&#x27;s a more in-depth look at the issue of immigration vs automation as it relates to Japan, from 2 Japanese economists: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.japanpolicyforum.jp&#x2F;archives&#x2F;economy&#x2F;pt20141030182705.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.japanpolicyforum.jp&#x2F;archives&#x2F;economy&#x2F;pt2014103018...</a><p>My commentary with support from that article follows:<p>A country with the population of Japan has no chance of maintaining a higher absolute GDP than countries with multiples of their population and more land to expand population. A policy to try to maintain their status in the world in terms of GDP is just silly.<p>If, however, Japan is more interested in the well-being of their population than some sort of international power-play, then this is the route to go. Population growth has no correlation to GDP per capita, so what&#x27;s the point of increasing immigration of low-skilled workers? The upside is minimal, and the potential downside is unknown and unbounded.<p>I&#x27;ve been living in Japan for a little over 2 years now, and haven&#x27;t talked to anyone who is worried about the long-term prospects of Japan&#x27;s economy. There are structural changes that can and probably should be made, as outlined in the link above, but the country is not on some death-spiral like a lot of Western media would have you believe.<p>Is Japan a magical land of far-advanced technology, delicious food, safe and clean cities, beautiful countrysides, and amazing public transportation? Actually, yes; the &quot;far-advanced technology&quot; part just doesn&#x27;t extend to mass-market consumer electronics in the same way any more.

Automation has changed from when Japan was on top. The focus is now on software and open collaboration in a globalized society, not hardware built by factory workers with proprietary standards (looking at you, FeliCa)<p>China may surpass Japan in the automation&#x2F;AI sphere. Lots of young, English-speaking, western-educated workers, plus the PRC has already innovated so much in manufacturing, shipbuilding, etc., and an ecosystem willing to splash cash on daring startups (albeit a lot of that is state funding, and you need CCP connections to come up in the Chinese startup world) in ways that leave Japan in the dust. Look at how Nvidia is working in China, look at the rise of Aliyun, Baidu Cloud and Tencent Cloud.<p>The only Japanese companies I know that are geared for automation for the new economy are companies like Mujin, LeapMind and Preferred Networks.<p>As a side note, the fact that Japan has managed zero-growth despite a rapidly shrinking, aging population; almost zero immigration; and roughly the same economic policy as from the 1980, is nothing short of a Herculean endeavor. I wonder what Japan is going to do when the population decline really gets in gear around 2040.

Japan has never been one to shy away from high-tech industries, and as the article notes, aesthetic sensibilities towards kawaii robots make this a natural progression for a high-tech, ethnically homogeneous, aging nation.<p>Although Japan was once an imperial power, its reconciliation with its past has not included a transition to a multicultural post-colonial state promoted by intellectuals and practiced by widespread (and largely economic) migration from former colonies to the home country at the seat of power, as it has occurred in the case of most other imperial powers. The difference being, the places where this transition <i>did</i> take place had been colonial empires for longer, and had for centuries notions of nationhood derived from shared values more so than shared ethnicity.

Hasn&#x27;t this been the case since the 1980&#x27;s?<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sloanreview.mit.edu&#x2F;article&#x2F;manufacturing-innovation-lessons-from-the-japanese-auto-industry&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sloanreview.mit.edu&#x2F;article&#x2F;manufacturing-innovation-...</a>

An idea: Some blue-collar workers displaced by factory automation could be retrained to maintain and repair robots used in healthcare and home assistance.<p>As developed nations age, there will be increasing needs for healthcare workers including those for home assistance. Since the supply of people wanting the jobs might be limited and many blue-collar workers tend to balk at taking pink-collar jobs, robots could be the intermediary that satisfies both the supply for services and demand for jobs.

I think this is a brilliant solution for them because of the way their country is setup. (Strong culture with extremely homogeneous population and low birth rate) I really do think a lot of what makes japan special would go away with too much immigration. That being said, America is the opposite and automation would hurt us and so would restricting immigration.

This explains a lot of recent moves by SoftBank.

&quot;One small manufacturer insisted that immigration would dilute Japan&#x27;s homogeneous society. &quot; Good, that&#x27;s exactly what Japan needs.

Common sense. A large population is going to be a big liability going forward. The Anglosphere hasn&#x27;t figured this out yet.

Makes a lot of sense. Why risk their cultural homogeneity - something clearly valued by the majority of Japan - if there are technological solutions to increasing productivity?<p>Edit - why the downvotes?

At least it&#x27;s better than paying for immigrants that forced their way into your country as the Germans are doing now.

Automation is no cure for Japan. Their influence is waning rapidly, in many sectors. I would say that, with an aging population, Japan is turning into a stale country, culture wise and economy wise alike.