Japan mulls foreign-labor law changes
Asia Times Online / April 23, 2003
...forcing the nation to take stock of its foreign labor laws - a move that could herald a historic shift in the country's labor composition.
"Despite the laws, foreign workers are here and finding jobs," said university Professor Kiyoto Tanno, a sociologist who is an expert on Japan's labor dynamics. "There are signals which indicate that Japan may, for the first time in its history, develop a comprehensive policy to ease restrictions on foreign workers."
Among the strongest of those signals came in January, when the very influential Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) issued a report titled "Toward Making Japan a Country Full of Vitality and Attractiveness". What aroused much comment was the federation's call for flexibility in Japan's labor market..