「Policy concerning accepting highly-skilled immigrants」

With a sharp decline in birthrate and a growing elderly population, Japan will be facing a more than 1%
decrease in population each year. At this pace, population will reduce by half in 70 years.
Accepting immigrants is one solution, but there is a high possibility that unskilled labor migrants would find it hard to assimilate, and thus would create a new class of poor workers in the Japanese society. A better solution would be to create a system where a plan for accepting highly-skilled foreign workers would be drawn and enacted.
The Japanese Proficiency test is currently held in 44 countries, over 400,000 applicants take it and less
than 40,000 obtain the Level 1, equivalent to the native proficiency level. These highly-skilled foreigners with a good knowledge of the Japanese language are expected to participate actively in various areas of the Japanese society. An increase in the number of skilled workers who would become a bridge between Japan and other nations would mean that they would play a key role in the trade and finance business relations with Asia and other regions.