Post

Aside from the obvious populist scapegoating, a striking thing about the government’s stance here is how utterly incoherent it is with the past decade of LDP policy - including that of Takaichi’s icon Abe, who squarely aimed migration policy at shoring up the country’s dwindling workforce.

There’s a case for bumping fees associated with visas if it funds better staffing etc. at the immigration agency, which is operating wildly beyond capacity in Tokyo in particular. The proposed rises go beyond that and are clearly intended to be punitive and dissuade migrants from coming / staying.

These rises will disproportionately impact lower income migrants. People in fields like tech or finance can afford the fees, and employers may cover the costs for many of them. But this will be a hammer blow for fields like agriculture and construction, which are deeply reliant on migrant workers.

For all the rhetoric, Japan struggles to attract migrants - salaries are poor and the weak Yen dissuades migrants from the developing world who need to send money home. The relatively open, easy to navigate immigration system was a rare boon to employers trying to access international labour pools.