More than 70 percent of Japanese are worried that an increase in the number of illegally employed foreign workers could undermine public safety and result in human rights abuses against the workers themselves, according to a government survey released Saturday.
But more than 80 percent said Japan should accept foreign laborers conditionally or unconditionally, and many said Japan does not yet have the legal or other systems in place to deal with crimes, abuses and other problems that may result from accepting foreign workers.
"The result does not necessarily imply that Japanese people have become more exclusive. Actually, some people do think Japan could accept more foreign labor on certain conditions," said Isao Negishi, an assistant director of the Immigration Bureau Immigration Policy Planner's Office at the Justice Ministry.