One by one, Mohammad and Munadi thread scallop shells on to thin metal rods, breaking the monotony with quiet chatter in their native Javanese.
The shells are soon to be used to cultivate oysters, a specialty in this region of western Japan.
Neither of the men, crouching on the floor of a shed overlooking Japan’s Inland Sea, had even seen an oyster before they moved to Akitsu, a tiny port town in eastern Hiroshima Prefecture, in April.
They are part of a growing foreign workforce that policymakers see as a solution to Japan’s shrinking, aging population and a stubbornly low birthrate.
Under pressure from businesses battling the tightest labor shortage in decades, the Japanese government has finally been forced to relax its tough immigration policy.
Last week, the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved legislation that would open the door to as many as half a million foreign workers by 2025, in what some are calling the end to Japan’s traditional opposition to large-scale immigration.
The bill is expected to pass by the end of the year and go into effect in April.
Japan — one of the world’s most homogenous societies — has long resisted foreign labor, with exceptions made for those in professions such as teaching, medicine, engineering and the law.
Mohammad and Munadi are part of a government-run foreign technical trainee program that is supposed to provide workers from developing nations with skills they can take back home after five years.
Critics say employers abuse the scheme for cheap labor, with many failing to pay proper salaries and forcing interns to work long hours.
In addition, the program, which employed more than 260,000 foreign workers last year, does not include enough people with the specific skills required in sectors of the economy that are suffering from a labor shortage.
There were 1.28 million foreign workers among Japan’s workforce of 66 million last year — double the number in 2012 — but many are university students or technical trainees who, like Mohammad and Munadi, are not permitted to stay indefinitely.
Unemployment dropped to at just 2.3 percent in September and there are 163 job vacancies for every 100 jobseekers — the highest job availability for more than 40 years.
Under the new legislation, foreign workers would be divided into two categories. Those with skills in sectors experiencing labor shortages would be allowed to work for up to five years, but cannot bring their families with them. Those with more advanced skills would be able to bring family members and renew their visas indefinitely, and could eventually apply for permanent residency.
Members of both groups must pass a Japanese-language exam.
Abe denied he was abandoning Japan’s tough immigration policy.
“Please don’t misunderstand,” he said, warning that labor shortages risked obstructing Japan’s return to modest economic growth.
“We are not pursuing a conventional immigration policy,” Abe told lawmakers, adding that most foreign workers would stay in Japan for limited periods and that the policy would be reviewed in the event of an economic downturn or easing of labor shortages in particular sectors.
“It would be wrong to force our values on foreigners. Instead, it’s important to create an environment in which people can happily coexist,” he said.
However, some experts disagree.
“I think this is a de facto shift to an immigration policy,” said Hidenori Sakanaka, the former head of the Tokyo immigration bureau.
The prospect of a significant rise in the number of immigrant workers prompted a backlash from opposition parties.
The right-wing Japan First party complained that an influx of foreign workers would place intolerable pressure on welfare services and lead to higher crime rates.
Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki voiced concern over pressure on wages and social services, but he became the first party leader to support a European-style immigration policy that, he said, should ensure equal pay for equal work and allow foreign workers to bring their families to Japan.
The right-wing magazine Sapio featured a series of articles warning of a rise in violence, sex crimes and cultural clashes, while the private broadcaster Fuji TV was criticized for a program about visa overstayers that demonized immigrants.
However, the public appears more tolerant.
A survey by TV Tokyo and the Nikkei newspaper showed that 54 percent of Japanese voters favored allowing in more unskilled foreign workers, with 36 percent against.
Support for the move was particularly high among younger people.
The Asahi newspaper said Abe had failed to address “a slew of concerns about its hasty initiative to drastically increase the number of foreign workers.”
“Whether they are called immigrants or not, the government has a responsibility to lay out a viable and convincing vision of the future of Japanese society, where foreign workers and Japanese citizens can live together in harmony and feel secure,” the newspaper said, adding that the change was “bound to have a far-reaching effect on Japanese society.”
Those changes are already being felt in Hiroshima Prefecture’s fisheries, where one in six workers are foreign — the highest rate in any industry in Japan.
Among fishers in their 20s and 30s, the ratio is one in two.
In Akitsu, young fishers from overseas now outnumber their aging Japanese counterparts 33 to 30.
Akitsu fishermen’s cooperative head Takatoshi Shiba said that at 67, he is relatively young compared with his Japanese colleagues.
“It feels like a wasted opportunity because the trainees spend time learning the job and getting used to life here, and then they have to go home after a few years,” Shiba said. “I don’t think the government has any choice but to act soon. Places like this can’t survive without foreign workers.”
Mohammad and Munadi said they have adapted well to life in rural Japan, although neither has plans to stay more than three years.
They spend their days off shopping in nearby Hiroshima and playing badminton, and can now buy halal meat from the local supermarket.
In just a few months they have acquired enough conversational Japanese to communicate with their neighbors and other trainees from China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.
“We get on well with our Japanese colleagues and bosses,” said Munadi, 27, who left Java in April just after his wife gave birth to their first child. “And we get paid a lot more here than we would back in Indonesia.”
Mohammad agreed.
“The work is no problem, but we miss our families,” he said as he removed another scallop shell from the pile in front of him. “But we are happy here.”
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