Section 1 Japanese Society and People Deepening Their Ties with the World

1 Japan's Growth and Acceptance of Foreign Nationals

(1) Growth Strategy and Visa System

At the end of March 2016, the Government of Japan formulated the “Tourism Vision to Support the Future of Japan,” heading toward a new nation-building as an “advanced tourism nation.” It set new goals for the number of inbound international visitors¹ to 40 million in 2020 and 60 million in 2030. Given this context, and from the perspective of promoting people-to-people exchanges and strengthening bilateral relations, etc., with other countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) had been implementing a relaxation of visa requirements, including simplification of application documents and expansion of targeted persons for certain visas issuance. Through these efforts, inbound international visitors numbered 31.88 million in 2019 (source: Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), 2020 Visitor Arrivals & Japanese Overseas Travelers).

However, the number of inbound international visitors dropped significantly in and after 2020 due to the impact of strengthened border measures imposed by Japan and other foreign countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan then began to gradually relax its border measures in March 2022, while balancing the prevention of the spread of the infections and maintenance of socioeconomic activities. On October 11, along with the resumption of individual tourism and the abolishment of the limit of the total number of entrants, visa exemption measures that had been temporarily suspended were resumed (meanwhile, in light of the acute deterioration of infectious situations and the difficulty of obtaining detailed information in China, since December 30, Japan has taken provisional measures such as requiring travelers from China to take an on-arrival test and to submit a certificate of negative result of a COVID-19 test (as of the end of January 2023)). The abovementioned series of relaxation of border measures led to the increase of the number of inbound international visitors between October and December 2022 up to approximately 2.8 million people, indicating a trend of the recovery (37.6% compared with the number of the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic as calculated based on the preliminary figures published in JNTO's 2022 Visitor Arrivals & Japanese Overseas Travelers (compared with 2019)). As the relaxation of visa requirements is expected to have a certain effect on promoting people-to-people exchanges and Japan's economic growth, it is an important measure to boost the recovery of inbound tourism after the relaxation of border measures.

Meanwhile, from the perspective of preventing the entry of criminals and foreign visitors planning to work illegally, as well as those who could become victims of human trafficking, intensifying visa control is also an important challenge. MOFA will keep considering the relaxation of visa requirements in order to increase the number of foreign visitors to Japan while maintaining “Japan as the safest country in the world,” and to contribute to making Japan a tourism-oriented country both in quality and quantity by attracting wealthy, repeat, and younger visitors. MOFA intends to consider this relaxation of visa requirements while taking into account bilateral relations, its diplomatic significance, and other factors in a comprehensive manner, as well as considering its balance with border measures.

• 1 Inbound international visitors are foreign travelers entering Japan. This group consists of foreign nationals legally entering Japan minus foreign nationals who are residents of Japan (both according to the nationality-based statistics by the Ministry of Justice), plus those in transit.

(2) Hosting Foreign Human Resources and Their Social Integration

With Japan's declining birthrate, aging population, and shrinking population, in order to address worsening labor shortages faced by various businesses including small- and medium-sized businesses and small-scale enterprises, a “Specified Skilled Worker” system was established in April 2019 for accepting work-ready foreign nationals with certain expertise and skills into some industries, which continued to face difficulties in securing human resources despite efforts that were made to improve productivity and secure human resources domestically. MOFA, as one of the organizations related to this system alongside the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the National Police Agency, prepares Memorandums of Cooperation (MOC) that set out the frameworks for information partnerships with the countries of origin, and participates in bilateral discussions based on those MOCs. MOFA also undertakes public relations efforts in the local languages of the main countries of origin.

Furthermore, “the Ministerial Meeting on accepting and coexisting with foreign human resources” was established to conduct a government-wide, comprehensive discussion on developing the environment for accepting new foreign human resources and realizing a society in which Japanese nationals coexist with foreign nationals living in Japan. In June, the “Comprehensive Measures for Accepting and Coexisting with Foreign Human Resources” (revised 2022) were decided upon. Furthermore, every year MOFA hosts the “International Forum on Acceptance of Foreign Nationals and Their Integration into Japan,” aiming to encourage debate among the people by providing opportunities to discuss concrete challenges and measures.