Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's steps to increase immigration and raise the consumption tax are both signs that Japan's shrinking population is as much opportunity as challenge.
With an unemployment rate of 2.4 percent and a job market that by other measures is the tightest since the 1970s, something has to give. Robots will play a greater role, as will foreign-born employees under new guidelines announced last week.
The immigration changes, aimed at ensuring the supply of blue-collar labor, create two new categories of workers from abroad. Those with fewer skills can reside in Japan for five years, and people with more skills are permitted to stay longer and bring their families. A new type of visa will essentially confer permanent residency, the Nikkei Asian Review wrote.