AFP via Google Hosted News, November 14, 2009
[floatr][/floatr]Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.
Japan has some of the world's strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a "sensitive issue".
But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.
"I think Japan should also make itself a country attractive to people so that more and more people, including tourists, hope to visit Japan, hope to live and work in Japan," he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.
"I am not sure if I can call this 'immigration policy', but what's important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Japan," he said.
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Well this should certainly stir the domestic pot a little bit!
I'm not sure how I feel about encouraging more immigration here. On one hand I'm basically an immigrant myself, so being anti-immigration would be more than a little hypocritical. On the other hand I know the problems Canada has from a reasonably open immigration policy and I definitely don't want to see that replicated in Japan...