IT'D BE TOM TANCREDO'S WET DREAM...IF THE NATIVES WEREN'T COLORED:

Immigrants worry as Japan discourages foreign workers (Hiroko Tabuchi, 1/02/11, livemint.com)

Despite facing an imminent labour shortage as its population ages, Japan has done little to open itself up to immigration. In fact, as Fransiska and many others have discovered, the government is doing the opposite, actively encouraging both foreign workers and foreign graduates of its universities and professional schools to return home while protecting tiny interest groups—in the case of Fransiska, a local nursing association afraid that an influx of foreign nurses would lower industry salaries.

In 2009, the number of registered foreigners here fell for the first time since the government started to track annual records almost a half-century ago, shrinking 1.4% from a year earlier to 2.19 million people—or just 1.71% of Japan's overall population of 127.5 million.

Experts say increased immigration provides one obvious remedy to Japan’s two decades of lethargic economic growth. Instead of accepting young workers, however—and along with them, fresh ideas—Tokyo seems to have resigned itself to a demographic crisis that threatens to stunt the country’s growth, hamper efforts to deal with its chronic budget deficits and bankrupt its social security system.

Japan is losing skilled talent across industries, experts say. Investment banks, for example, are moving more staff to hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore, which have more foreigner-friendly immigration and taxation regimes, lower costs of living and a local population that speaks better English.

Foreigners who submitted new applications for residential status—an important indicator of highly skilled labour because the status requires a specialized profession—slumped 49% in 2009 from a year earlier to just 8,905 people.

The barriers to more immigration to Japan are many. Restrictive immigration laws bar the country’s struggling farms or workshops from access to foreign labour, driving some to abuse trainee programmes for workers from developing countries, or hire illegal immigrants. Stringent qualification requirements shut out skilled foreign professionals, while a web of complex rules and procedures discourages entrepreneurs from setting up in Japan.

“The shrinking population is the biggest problem. The country is fighting for its survival,” said Hidenori Sakanaka, director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, an independent research organization. “Despite everything, America manages to stay vibrant because it attracts people from all over the world,” he said. “On the other hand, Japan is content to all but shut out people from overseas.”