00:00 "Closing My Shop": A Korean Business Owner's Tears
02:54 "Foreigners Are Indispensable," So Why This Shift?
04:42 "Foreigners Are Barely Putting the Brakes on the Declining Birthrate"
06:29 Is "AI Robot" the Answer?


1. "Closing My Shop": A Korean Business Owner's Tears
This is Tokyo. Today, we are going to talk about Japan's foreign worker policies and, more broadly, how the country is coping with population decline. Foreigners living here fall into various categories, including corporate expatriates like myself, those employed by Japanese companies or running their own businesses, professors, international students, and their families. Having experienced a declining birthrate and labor shortages ahead of us, Japan used to be relatively open to foreigners, and for foreigners, Japan was attractive in many ways. Recently, however, the atmosphere has changed. While visiting a restaurant in Tokyo a while ago, I heard a shocking story. It was a popular local spot where correspondents often held dinners, but it was shutting down.

[Choi Seok-jin / Restaurant Owner: "I just cry, you know. But I am deeply grateful because our regular customers keep coming here every single day just because the shop is closing. That is the only thing I am thankful for."]

When asked why, the reason pointed to visa policies. Late last year, the Japanese government significantly tightened the requirements for the "business manager visa" issued to foreign entrepreneurs. The capital requirement was raised sixfold all at once, from 5 million yen to 30 million yen. For a small-scale business owner, suddenly coming up with nearly 300 million won is no easy task. As of 2024, only about 1% of the 143,000 corporations established in Japan have a capital of 30 million yen or more. And there is another condition attached: they must hire Japanese nationals or permanent residents as full-time employees.

[Choi Seok-jin / Restaurant Owner: "If we had 300 million won, we wouldn't need to come here. We could just go back to Korea and live there. Another major problem is that all the part-time workers at our shop are Vietnamese. Young Japanese people do not want to do this kind of work. If we start a business under these conditions, practically nothing is left over. This talk effectively means they will no longer grant permits. In other words, it means go home."]

It is not just business visas like Mr. Choi's. General Japanese residency status renewal fees, which used to be around 50,000 won, have surged more than twelvefold to over 600,000 won at the maximum. For a family of four, this means spending over 2.4 million won every two to three years. Moreover, even those who managed to obtain permanent residency can no longer feel secure. Falling behind on taxes or social insurance premiums has been added as grounds for revoking permanent residency. Exclusionary moves against foreigners are also appearing in university admissions. Some universities are abolishing special admissions tracks for foreign students or scaling back tuition reduction benefits, and some national universities have even emerged with plans to charge international students more than double the tuition of Japanese nationals. In short, society as a whole is narrowing its doors to foreigners.

2. "Foreigners Are Indispensable," So Why This Shift?
However, visiting manufacturing-based regions reveals that they still suffer from labor shortages and maintain that foreigners are indispensable. Why is this phenomenon happening in Japan, where even the Self-Defense Forces, responsible for national defense, repeatedly fall short of their recruitment quotas every year? First, politically, it seems related to the inauguration of the Takaichi cabinet and the subsequent rise in exclusionary public opinion against foreigners. A year ago, when the Takaichi cabinet took office, reports surfaced consecutively that a so-called "total quota regulation on foreigners" policy was under consideration. Although it was not ultimately included in major policies, Prime Minister Takaichi has consistently tightened foreign policies by positioning hardliner MP Onodakimi as the responsible minister. Minister Onoda, whose replacement had been steadily discussed due to suspicions of election law violations, was retained in the cabinet reshuffle last September. This appears to reflect the Prime Minister's determination to maintain existing foreign policies. In addition, the sensational surge of the right-wing Sanseito party in last year's elections, fronting the provocative slogan "Japan First," is also seen as having had an impact. Sanseito is loudly calling for the full-scale introduction of "total quota regulation on foreigners" in parliament. Within the Korean community in Shinokubo, complaints are emerging that these foreign policies were practically aimed at Chinese nationals, yet unrelated people are suffering the collateral damage. Amid this atmosphere, the fact that immigrants from Korea and Uzbekistan founded a political party in Japan for the first time is also a notable phenomenon. While it was not created to oppose foreign policies, the party itself can be seen as a reaction to the current mood in Japan and could potentially serve as a vehicle to voice the opinions of foreigners in the future.

[Jung Jae-wook / Co-Representative of Shiseito: "It is becoming harder for young people to enter Japan. This is not good for Japan's future either."]

3. "Foreigners Are Barely Putting the Brakes on the Declining Birthrate"
The tightening of foreign policies cannot be explained solely by Japan's rightward shift. From a long-term perspective, it needs to be understood as Japan's way of coping with population decline. Some argue that while foreigners were accepted to meet labor demands, once they exceed working age, various welfare costs such as pensions and health insurance kick in, ultimately increasing social burdens. From this perspective, some interpret recent Japanese foreign policies as intending to allow foreigners to stay only during their productive years, with the exception of a few highly educated specialized talents, and then return to their home countries. However, from the perspective of foreigners, this feels unfair. They question why their sincere tax payments and contributions to the economy are overlooked. Furthermore, giving birth and raising children here, living for a long time, and then suddenly returning to a homeland with no foundation is not as easy as it sounds. While Japan's current total fertility rate is slightly higher than South Korea's, arguments suggest that even that rate is being sustained thanks to foreigners. Statistics released recently showed that foreign children under the age of 15 living in Japan in 2025 increased by 34% over a five-year period. Nikkei explained, "Foreigners are barely putting the brakes on the declining birthrate trend." If foreigners were to leave under these circumstances, the drop in the birth rate would accelerate further, which could have a significant impact on Japan's economy and government finances. In the first half of this year, foreign business owners leaving Japan surged fourfold compared to the same period last year. Aside from the business visa issues mentioned earlier, it is also worth pondering whether foreigners are gradually turning their backs on the country. Some point out that Japan's overall appeal is diminishing due to recent high inflation, a weak yen, and an exclusionary sentiment toward foreigners.

4. Is "AI Robot" the Answer?
In this situation, if the barriers for foreigners are simply raised, how does Japan intend to cope with population decline? Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi outlined her general approach during a policy speech delivered in parliament on October 5th. Takaichi defined population decline as a "quietly progressing national crisis" and stated that a "comprehensive population strategy" would be formulated by the end of the year. She also mentioned that reviews would be conducted regarding the "fundamental approach to accepting foreigners." Following this, she brought up AX, which stands for "AI Transformation."

[Sanae Takaichi / Prime Minister of Japan: "Labor shortages are the greatest challenge in a depopulating society. To maintain essential services such as medical care, nursing, logistics, and public transportation, and to respond to the expansion of domestic investment, we will boldly drive the societal implementation of AX."]

Goals have been set to invest more than 10.5 trillion yen (over 88 trillion won) across the public and private sectors in AI-related fields by fiscal 2040, and to introduce 10 million AI robots domestically in Japan by the same period. The plan is to fill the labor shortage with AI robots. In fact, last August, private companies in Japan jointly opened a large-scale facility in Chiba Prefecture to develop domestic physical AI, training them on human movements so they can be deployed in nursing and logistics tasks. They plan to deploy them into the field as early as within the year. In the private sector as well, the development of robots capable of substituting for convenience store clerks or hospital caregivers is gaining speed. AI robots, which have no nationality and require no visas, will likely be of some help to a labor-deficient Japan. However, robots cannot entirely replace human labor, nor can they replace consumers and local community residents lost to population decline. Slowing down population decline while deciding how many foreigners to accept and to what extent missing labor can be supplemented by technology—and how we can live together with them—is a challenge that Japan faces first, and one that we, facing even faster population decline, can no longer postpone.

(Reported by Mun Junmo | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Han Chul-min, Mun Hyun-jin | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Graphics by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)