Business leaders on Saturday welcomed Japan's move to accept more foreign workers to ease the graying nation's labor crunch, but some municipalities appeared unsure about how to brace for the influx.
"We welcome the enactment that is to earnestly deal with the issue of securing supporters for social life and the industrial base as (Japan) faces a serious population decline," Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation), said in a statement.
The law, enacted in the predawn hours despite fierce resistance from opposition parties, creates a new visa system that effectively allows Japan to permit more workers into sectors desperately in need of labor, such as construction, nursing care and farming.