Following the Liberal Democratic Party’s electoral landslide last month, the government has once again affirmed a familiar contradiction: Japan will expand its reliance on foreign labor while insisting it has no “immigration policy.”

This long-standing sleight of hand was crystallized during the creation of the ikusei shūrō training and employment system. In parliamentary deliberations before its passage in June 2024, the government stated plainly: “The introduction of this system is not intended to be an ‘immigration policy.’”

This logic has remained remarkably consistent across successive administrations. By relying on a 2018 definition by the Cabinet that equates “immigration policy” only with the permanent, large-scale settlement of families, the government maintains a persistent tatemae, or pretense: it can expand residency paths like the Specified Skilled Worker visa — which functions as a de facto immigration route — while flatly denying that any “immigration policy” exists. Semantics like this allow the state to procure labor while preserving the political myth of a homogenous nation, effectively inviting workers but ignoring the human beings.

This position was reaffirmed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in her inaugural policy speech on Feb. 20. While the prime minister presented a vision of "orderly coexistence with foreigners" and pledged to enhance Japanese language education for them, she deliberately remained silent on the legal status of immigrants.

This refusal to utter the word “immigrant” is tatemae in its purest form — a public facade maintained to preserve social harmony........

© The Japan Times