EDITORIAL: Foreign labor a sellers’ marketOn Wednesday last week, US President Joe Biden called the immigration policies of Japan and India “xenophobic,” lumping them in with China and Russia. Tokyo’s policy on streamlining the introduction of foreign workers to increase the number of non-Japanese in the workforce would suggest that it is far from the truth that Japan “does not want” immigrants. In these countries, the debate has shifted from how to bolster the birthrate to how to attract more foreign workers. Instead of treating foreign workers as short-term solutions to a long-term problem, they need to look into ways to integrate them and recognize them as full, legitimate members of society. They need to be aware that it is increasingly a sellers’ market, and that there is a race on.
