Let Them In, But Maintain “Appropriate Distance”:
Labor shortages and immigrants
When viewing recent problems like the rise of the Islamic State,
I can only think about how difficult it is to understand the
emotional and cultural backgrounds of people from different
ethnicities.
In Japan, meanwhile, where younger generations make up an
ever-shrinking portion of the population, we are being pressed
into a need to admit immigrant laborers to maintain the
nation’s labor force.
In particular, in the field of nursing care for the elderly,
Japan must do away with barriers to the entry of immigrant
workers, such as insisting that they obtain certain
certifications or attain a certain level of language proficiency.
When the job is simply caring for the elderly, there is no
need for care providers to speak Japanese at some particular
level or have some specialized knowledge of health issues.
Look at any country and you will commonly see a family structure
where a grandchild takes care of their grandmother.
This grandchild has no specialized healthcare skills.
It is enough to be a kind, caring person.
When it comes to phrases like “Grandma, try eating this,”
in Japanese, even a young woman who has never been through a
language training program can learn how to say what is needed
in just two or three days on the job.
There are young women in nearby countries who want to come
to Japan to earn a living; we have to let them come and ease
the labor difficulties our nursing care sector now faces.
At the same time, though, we must create a system that strictly
maintains these people’s legal status as immigrants.
There is nothing inhumane about insisting that people who come
to Japan to make money abide by the terms of the contract that
allows them to do so.
Unless we prevent the problem of illegal immigration, no policy
of increasing immigration will last for long.