Political wrangling over an envisioned shake-up of the immigration control law has intensified in recent days after the government admitted last week to multiple statistical errors concerning the state-sponsored foreign trainee program.
The government wants to pass the legislation by the end of the ongoing Diet session, which is slated to wrap up Dec. 10. The intended revision marks a drastic break with previous policy in immigration-shy Japan, paving the way for an influx of blue-collar foreign workers in some of the most labor-hungry industries for what could become an indefinite period of time.
An opposition backlash to the amendment, however, has flared anew over the lapses in preparing statistics, which came to light Friday, leading to a stalemate among lawmakers in the Diet that could derail the government's intended timeline for passing the amendment.