HONG KONG — President Joe Biden stated Wednesday that U.S. ally Japan used to be suffering economically as a result of xenophobia, along with different international locations, together with China and Russia.
Speaking at a marketing campaign fundraiser in Washington that marked the beginning of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Biden stated the U.S. financial system used to be rising partially “because we welcome immigrants.”
“Think about it,” he stated. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?”
“Because they’re xenophobic,” he stated. “They don’t want immigrants.”
Japan is an established U.S. ally within the Asia-Pacific, and Biden has been strengthening safety ties with Tokyo to counter China within the area, having hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit and state dinner in Washington final month.
There used to be no fast response Thursday from Japan, which is in large part on vacation this week.
Like many different international locations in Asia, Japan is grappling with demographic problems, together with an ageing and declining inhabitants.
The nation of 125 million other people has been attempting to draw extra overseas employees however is hampered by means of restrictive immigration regulations that make it tricky to achieve everlasting residency.
In March, the Japanese Cabinet licensed law that may greater than double the cap on overseas professional employees to greater than 800,000 and substitute an internship program with a coaching device for unskilled overseas employees that might supply for medium- to long-term residency, native media reported.
Public attitudes round the problem additionally seem to be converting.
A national survey this yr by means of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper discovered that 62% of respondents had been in prefer of accepting extra overseas employees, up from 44% in 2018.
Japan ranked thirty fifth out of 56 international locations within the 2020 Migrant Integration Policy Index, which classified the rustic’s method as “immigration without integration.” Researchers stated overseas nationals in Japan had been denied equivalent alternatives and a number of fundamental rights, particularly coverage from discrimination, striking it some distance at the back of different advanced international locations.
“Japan’s current policies encourage the public to see immigrants as subordinates and not their neighbors,” the report said.
Japan has additionally been suffering with a susceptible yen, which is at a 34-year low against the dollar, making it much less sexy because it competes for overseas employees with puts similar to South Korea and Taiwan.
To care for financial expansion, the rustic will want 6.74 million overseas employees by means of 2040, the Japan International Cooperation Agency said in a 2022 report, up from 2.05 million within the nation as of October. About 1 / 4 of Japan’s overseas employees come from Vietnam, adopted by means of China at 19% and the Philippines at 11%, the hard work ministry stated in January.
The nation is already experiencing severe hard work shortages in agriculture, building, production and different sectors, an issue worsened by means of border closures all the way through the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials also are looking to deal with the shortages by means of encouraging higher staff participation by means of ladies, in addition to later retirement.
Japan, which used to be as soon as the second-largest financial system on the earth, stated in March that its financial system grew at an annual charge of 0.4% within the final quarter of 2023, up from an preliminary estimate of a zero.4% contraction, which might have put it in a technical recession.
It is now the world’s fourth-largest economy after it fell at the back of Germany early this yr.
