Immigration Crackdown in Japan?

Ichiro Suzuki

Newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has created a new cabinet post, Immigration Minister. The PM appointed an outspoken woman to the post. Former model Kimi Onoda, 42, wears another hat of the Minister of Economic National Security. Appointing a relatively young woman to heavyweight positions displays the new PM’s seriousness in promoting women. 

In the House of Councillors (the Upper House) election in July, immigration was one of the issues. Though Japan hasn’t been an immigration hot spot, it is changing lately, in line with the global trend. More people from Asia have come to work and live in Japan, lured by relatively high wages as well as the country’s unique culture. Not surprisingly, some people in Japan are not happy about growing presence of those who look and behave differently without speaking fluent language.

As of March 2025, there were an estimated 3.8 million foreign residents in Japan, or approximately 3% of the country’s population. Of course, foreigners’ presence is much greater in large cities. Tokyo, as defined by its 23 wards, at 6%, has the ratio twice as high as the national average. In Shinjuku ward, it is almost 15%. About one in six people there are foreigners. At the heart of Tokyo, the majority of employees at convenience stores appear to be foreigners. Residents in the city center take it for granted to be living alongside with different peoples. In places where local residents are not used to seeing them regularly on the streets, however, they are not feeling comfortable with them. 

In response to steadily growing fears among voters, anti-immigration Sanseito (Do it Yourself Party) made strong gains in the July election. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party hasn’t been conservative enough in the last several years under relatively liberal Prime Ministers Kishida and Ishiba. The LDP reckons that leaning toward liberalism led to losses of many votes to new conservative parties that position themselves to the right of the LDP. For the party to bounce back from successive election debacles, rank and file LDP members, therefore, concluded that they had to make a rightward shift. This is why they overwhelmingly voted for Takaichi in the LDP president election in September. Running for the party president, Takaichi expressed her intention to enforce laws on illegal residents and return them home, but added that she had no intention being hostile to foreigners. 

About 70,000+ foreign nationals are estimated to be living in Japan illegally. The number simply isn’t comparable to those in the U.S. or major European countries and, objectively speaking, causes neither economic problems nor social issues on a macro level. This matter, however, can’t be discussed objectively. Fears can be spread for irrational reasons. In the homogeneous society of Japan, fears of those who don’t look like us can erupt at a low boiling point. In the age of social media, a small number people can start talking about fears, which then spread fast.

In the coming months, more news of deportation is likely to be heard. However, there -will no masked men grabbing people on the streets. It will be done in a much quieter fashion and the number will be relatively limited. After all, President Obama deported a large number of illegal residents out of the U.S., without making headlines. A major exception to expected subtlety could be handing of Kurdish people who live in the cities of Kawaguchi and Warabi, across the river from Tokyo in the north of the capitol. A few thousand of these people, Turkish nationals primarily, have been living there for some time. Many of them are waiting for an asylum status that may never be granted. These Kurdish people are forming a relatively visible Muslim community that is not seen elsewhere in Japan. Their frictions with the local communities are reported sometimes. Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey, the U.S., the EU, Australia and Japan, has been disbanded recently and are disarming themselves. PKK’s move makes it difficult for these Kurdish people to be considered as persecuted refugees. Many of them are growing their families in Japan and their children haven’t lived anywhere else. Mass deportation of these people could cause some dramas.

Besides illegal residents, windows have been narrowed for foreigners before Takaichi’s arrival. The scheme of converting foreign drivers license into Japanese ones has been taken advantage of by Chinese tourists in recent years. The scheme is in place for Japanese nationals living abroad to settle back in Japan. Since the scheme has been so loosely operated that Chinese people ruthlessly exploited it, because Chinese drivers license isn’t good for driving in the majority of the developed world. They even organized tours to Japan for the purpose of getting a drivers’ license. There are episodes of Chinese drivers who got hold of a license through this scheme found to be driving in Japan recklessly. The authority now requires legal address in Japan to shun such tourists. (Chinese people may have abused the scheme, but it is the Japanese authority’s fault for leaving a loophole open for a long time. Few thought someone would exploit the system. This is Japan.)

Japan’s business management visa has been known among foreigners as one of the easiest ways to be settled in a developed country. It took only ¥5 million investment to have this visa that allows one to live in Japan. While the vast majority of the visa holders are engaged in running small businesses quietly, some have been using it rather aggressively. There have been episodes of investors in an apartment building expelled existing residents through suddenly jacked-up rents that are considerably higher than ongoing rates in the neighborhood, for the purpose of turning it into Airbnb operations There are more than 40,000 foreigners staying in Japan on this visa. Though the number isn’t particularly large, the authority has moved to make it harder to get this visa, raising required amount of investments to ¥30 million beginning this October. It is unfortunate the hurdle for the visa has been raised substantially. The visa gave a major escape route for people not feeling comfortable living in an authoritarian regime in the mainland China and more recently Hong Kong. 

While entry into Japan has become harder recently, the country has no luxury of keeping turning away those who want to come. Japan’s population has been shrinking and shortages of workers have been felt acutely at construction sites, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. where young Japanese don’t show strong interest in working. Even worse, decades of stagnant economy is making Japan less appealing to Asian people to come to work. If lackluster growth continues to persist, Japan would have to be begging them to come in the future. 

About the author: Mr. Suzuki is a retired banker based in Tokyo, Japan.