Three new books presenting two opposing arguments on world population have made me think of Japan's immigration policy.
At one end is Alan Weisman's "Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?" At the other end are Philip Kramer's "The Other Population Crisis: What Governments Can Do About Falling Birth Rates" and Jonathan Last's "What to Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disaster."
Weisman, a journalist, warns that Earth can tolerate just about 2 billion human beings at most, ideally 1.5 billion, the level reached around 1900. Now our planet has 7.2 billion and counting. Medical and agronomical innovations, among others, have enabled this unnatural growth and expansion, with untold damage.