Should Japanese Government Take in Immigrants ?
"There is one village where a baby was not born for one year among towns and villages all over the country."(Japan ???) What do you think where this village is? It is in Japan. This is a case of Besshiyama-mura in 2002. According to National Institute of Population and Social Research, declining number of children and increase in ageing population will be developed and as a result, in 2100 Japanese population would be about four million and nine hundred and forty three thousand (4,943,000). Compared with 2006, about one hundred and twenty seven million and seven hundred forty thousand (127,740,000), it is about one-twenty fifth. In response to this situation, the government announced that a rapid advance of a decrease in the birthrate has brought about the situation which shakes the sustainability of society, or economy fundamentally. (Japan ???).In response to these situations, Japanese government needs to shift paradigm from the populous society toward the less populous society. Japan should be going to take in immigrants in the future but some work to do before that. In other words, Japanese government should prepare for accepting immigrants and after the preparation Japanese Government should take in immigrant.
Decreasing population trigger a lot of kinds of problems. Declining economic power is one of the most serious problems. Impact of decreasing population to economic power can be divided into five parts: 1. Decline of consumption and investment demand by decrease in population, 2. Reduction in the work force by reduction in productive population, 3. Aging of the work force by age structure change of productive population accompanying with that the fall of labor productivity and mobility, 4. Decreasing the savings rate by aging society and reducing capital savings, 5. Deterrent effect by aging society of the national burden rate of growth, which includes taxes and social insurance, has (Atoh 2007). Japan would experience many kinds of economic problems.
Taking immigrants could have some good influence on Japanese economy. There are two points to say. First one is immigrants can supplement the population and labor force and second one is immigrants bring more opportunities to contact with other cultures. First of all, immigrants can supplement the population and labor force. National Institute of Population and Social Research states that Japan’s population would be nearly ninety million in 2050 according to medium estimate assumed a total fertility rate (TFR) 1.26 (National Institute of Population and Social Research 2006). High estimate assumed TFR 1.5 also indicates that Japanese population would decrease (National Institute of Population and Social Research 2006). It is almost inevitable to decline Japanese’s population during 21st century. However, these statistics does not include immigrants who do not have Japanese citizenship. In other words, it shows us only number of “the Japanese”. Immigrants can stem the decrease of population or slow it down. Second, immigrants bring more opportunities to contact with other cultures. Some people who believe multiculturalism try to make a place where multi-culture can exchange. For example, in San Francisco, U.S. ,which is known that many immigrants live, there is an unique cooking school which is called “Culture Kitchen SF”. Teachers are immigrant women who came from Mexico, India, France and so on in Culture Kitchen SF. Food reflects the background of culture and it would be a clue to understand inestimable value of different cultures.
On the other hand, immigrants cannot solve all problems concerning on population. Let’s see the news article, “Merkel said German multicultural society has failed.” (BBC 2010)
It is impossible to take in immigrants into Japan immediately and to prepare for declining in economic power because as Max Frisch said “We called for guest workers, and human beings came.”(Atoh 2007). they are people before workers. It indicates to welcome them to Japan that Japanese government is responsible for their happiness because they are inhabitants in Japan. Before accepting them, Japanese should have prospect of accepting immigrants and should make a society where women can work with confidence.
