Japan is feeling a tightening squeeze between competing economic and social concerns. Economic dynamism, daily activity and social security solvency require a robust and growing labor force. The country’s demographic profile means that substantial flows of immigrants are needed to meet those needs.
At the same time, however, Japan remains a conservative society. A surge in temporary visitors and longer-term residents in recent years has manifested into calls for tighter immigration controls. Reconciling those two outlooks is critical to the nation’s future.
The country’s demographic trajectory is bleak. To say it has a rapidly aging population is another way of saying that it lacks young people to balance an increasingly elderly society. That means that there are not enough people to fill ordinary jobs, to pay into pension and other social security programs or generate the energy and new thinking that produces innovation and dynamism.
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