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05/31/2008: "Japanese are Loath to Rebuild Workforce through Immigration"
Inside the government, there is growing agreement that Japan can head off disastrous population decline by significantly increasing immigration.
Japan has the world's highest proportion of people older than 65 and the world's smallest proportion of children younger than 15. Without immigration in substantial numbers, it will soon run perilously low on people of working age.
Yet among highly developed countries, Japan has always ranked near the bottom in the percentage of foreign-born residents. In the United States, about 12 percent are foreign-born; in Japan, just 1.6 percent. Most immigrants here are from Asia or South America. The largest number come from Korea (about 600,000 people), followed by China and Brazil. The Brazilians are mostly of mixed Japanese descent.
Yet there is little or no political will here to persuade or prepare the public to accept a sizable influx of foreigners.
[ Because economic growth is so sacred, population growth is also required, this will only come from the nations that produce the most children. Some populations are being actively replaced, while the world'd population continues to grow. ]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903576.html?hpid=moreheadlines