In a major shift for a country long reluctant to accept immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreign nationals in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely starting as early as the 2022 fiscal year, a Justice Ministry official said on Thursday.
Under a law that took effect in 2019, a category of "specified skilled workers" in 14 sectors such as farming, construction and sanitation have been allowed to stay for up to five years, but without their family members.
The government had been looking to ease those restrictions, which had been cited by companies as among reasons that they were hesitant to hire such workers.