An amendment to the immigration control law with the aim of accepting more foreign workers is being discussed in the Diet. The revision has two pillars — the creation of new visa categories for foreign workers with certain skills and the establishment of an immigration control agency as an extra-ministerial bureau of the Justice Ministry. The Abe administration hopes to get the amendment enacted during the current Diet session and enforce it next April.
The creation of the new categories is significant in that it will fill a missing piece in the current visa status framework. Two types of residence status will be created. The first type is for foreigners to engage in work that requires a reasonable level of knowledge or experience in the field. The second type is for foreign workers to be engaged in work that requires higher-level skills. Those given the second status type will be allowed to bring their spouses and children along to this country.
Japan has accepted large numbers of unskilled workers from overseas as trainees under the Technical Intern Training Program. In reality, the program has served as a scheme to supply foreign workers to industries suffering from manpower shortage. Behind this distortion is the discrepancy between the real motive and stated purpose of the program.