Japan is opening up to immigration – but is it welcoming immigrants?

For hundreds of years, Japan was notorious for being closed off to foreigners.

But over the past decade the country has been forced to start opening up to immigration, in need of foreign workers to plug the labour shortages caused by its plummeting birth rates and ageing population.

Now, Japan is increasingly struggling to accommodate the newcomers – in particular, the growing population of Muslims.

'A tatami welcome mat'

The "yokoso" (welcome) sign at Tokyo's Narita Airport is "clearly provisional and time-limited", said Philip Patrick in The Spectator. Japan puts "social cohesion and societal harmony well ahead of any desire for diversity".

But there has been a "major shift in policy". In the past few years, "radical" changes to visa and work-permit requirements have amounted to "a door being flung open and a tatami welcome mat being rolled out to the world". Why? "Japan has no choice."

Japan is still "often painted as hostile, if not downright xenophobic", said The Japan Times. But the number of overseas workers has "more than doubled" over the past decade, The foreign community, including students, has increased 50%. In 2023, then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expanded the visa allowing foreign workers and their families to stay in Japan indefinitely, from just two industries to 11. Now, foreigners account for about 2.4% of the population.

These reforms have not sparked "the populist backlash seen in European countries experiencing shrinking populations", said the Harvard International Review. So far, most Japanese people "appear content" with the changes.

Foreign workers are mostly permitted in industries like agriculture and nursing care, fields in which the Japanese generally aren't keen to work. But the country has "prioritised immigrants based on their usefulness", and focussed less on their integration – "leaving newcomers to face language, cultural, and social barriers alone".

There are also inklings of a backtrack. The government has been planning an electronic authentication system to strengthen checks on visa-waivered foreigners entering the country – the Japanese version of the US's ESTA – to prevent them from overstaying their welcome.

It had aimed to introduce the system by 2030, but on Wednesday, 23 April, Justice Minister Suzuki Keisuke said that the process needed to be "accelerated" by two years, according to NHK World – due to the increase in foreigners.

'Still far from a multicultural society'

The increase in migrants has also sparked a growing demand for an unexpected product: graves. In Japan, almost everyone is cremated – which Islam strictly forbids.

But Muslim migrants and converts "face opposition" when it comes to building cemeteries that can accommodate an Islamic burial, said South China Morning Post. Some community leaders have raised objections over "sanitary concerns".

The Muslim population in Japan is about 350,000: more than three times the number in 2010, according to Hirofumi Tanada, professor emeritus of Waseda University's Faculty of Human Sciences, and expert on Muslim affairs in Japan.

There are still only about 10 "major locations with burial sites" with religious affiliations in Japan, including Christian sites. Almost all cemeteries still only perform cremations. Muslims considering staying in Japan indefinitely say the limited number of burial plots "makes them anxious about their future".

The availability of halal food is increasing, but the "rapid increase" in Muslims, mostly from Indonesia, means finding places for group prayers is "a struggle", said Nikkei. There are also challenges in education and health care, as most Japanese are unfamiliar with Islam.

"As Japan continues to bring in foreign workers, its Muslim population is sure to grow," said the news site. "But Japan is still far from becoming a multicultural society that fully accommodates Muslims, whose religious and daily customs differ significantly from Japanese ones."