We would like to support the acceptance of foreign labors in Japan. We have three main reasons as below.

Firstly, Japan confronts the rapid decrease of work force due to aging society. Work force between 15 and 64 years old is decreasing more rapidly than total population in Japan. According to United Nations, it is estimated at 81.5million (64.2% of total population) in 2010, 74.0 million (59.9%) in 2020, and 51.8 million (50.9%) in 2050. At the moment, Japanese government is trying to encourage unemployed youth, women, and elderly people to get job opportunities. This policy is significantly necessary but not enough for Japanese future. In a short term, Japan could solve the shortage by fully utilization of unemployed youth, women, and elderly people. In a middle or long term, however, it is obvious that Japan will confront the serious shortage not fulfilled by domestic work force.

Secondly, as well as shortage of supply, demand will increase in social service sector corresponding to the rapid increase of elderly people. In Japan, proportion of elderly people over 65 is estimated at 22.6% in 2010, 28.5% in 2020, and 37.8% in 2050. Particularly, Japan faces shortage of nurses and care workers at the present and much worse in the future. Under EPA policy, Japan has accepted about 1,100 trainees for nurses and care workers from Indonesia and Philippines since 2008. Yet the trainees have to leave Japan if they fail to pass the qualification examination within a certain period of 3 or 4 years. Because the examination held in Japanese is quite difficult for them, the pass rate is only 4% these two years. Despite most of the local hospitals accepting the trainees are satisfied with their performance and they improved communication matters in a year, Japan doesn’t utilize the trainees who are enthusiastic and experienced under the current system. In the future, many other countries such as South Korea and China are heading for aging society as well as Japan. It means that every country will compete to procure huge demand for work force such as nurses and care workers in the global labor market. It can be too late to attract foreign work force if Japan doesn’t seriously prepare the basis to accept and utilize the foreign work force as soon as possible.

Thirdly, many foreign labors want to come to Japan for work. Some foreigners have trained to master Japanese traditional culture. They will help to fulfill the shortage of successors and grow the Japanese traditional culture. For example, Hakuho is a Mongolian Sumo wrestler who has won the many titles as a Yokozuna, the highest rank in professional Sumo wrestling. He contributes to the growth of Sumo industry by showing strong performance. In summary, Japan can’t avoid accepting foreign labors in a middle or long term. It is obvious that Japan will confront the rapid decrease of work force and increase of demand more seriously in our future. Japan has to make decisions and efforts to prepare the acceptance of foreign labors as soon as possible. They will also help to fulfill the shortage of successors and grow the Japanese traditional culture. Group1 member: Hideki, Marie, Yukari, Minoru