Does Declining Population Mean Work

Japan is full of foreigners looking to work in a different field than English teaching. It makes sense. If you have any older students (and are teaching), you have probably discussed the arising concern of women in the Japanese workplace. Or if your students are better read, the approaching decline in the workforce numbers. Sooner or later, many professionals have said, Japan will need foreign labor as REAL labor; though, there is some likelihood that Japan may never come around to this idea (Read article from japanfocus.com or this somewhat too pro-US article in The Kansas State Collegian) . "Japanese is difficult, so a head start may be well worth it or will it?" becomes the question.

Here is a less developed conversation on the topic of finding work other than being an English teacher on japan-guide.com. It has one note that I found interesting. A participant suggests creating your own company here in Japan. This, as someone who started a company in the US, may require more effort and Japanese skills than he may know. Still, the idea is worth exploring.

"There are not many opportunity for a person in "our situation". I dont want to be an English teacher but i will have to since i plan to stay here for a while. But i a m considering deloping my own business"
LINK

Let's consider history for a moment. Though the Japanese are not known for treating their foreign labor particularly well in the past, there is a long history of using foreign labor. They did, for instance, bring Koreans into Japan originally as scribes when beginning their written language. What we can gain from this historical fact is that Japan will bring in labor when they need to, they will not however, do so with the all-encompassing embrace of the United States. This may turn out to be a very big advantage.

Many countries that have naively brought in their foreign labor have in turn ended up with multi-cultural crises! The North-African-heritage population in France, the Turkish-heritage population in Germany, and the African-American population (yes, it is a different situation but still a population brought in as slave "labor") are all facing problems being truly recognized as members of their society and country. Even the Hispanic speaking population of the US that President Bush has reached to and garnered some major support from creates a dilemma for the previous US population. Bringing in foreign workers changes the values and heritage of your population, thus changing the same qualities in the system of government and culture. This can be extremely damaging and have its own negative reactions against the system that the country is trying to maintain. The actual ideas of liberty, pursuit of happiness, or even "wa" (the sense of peace that Japanese maintain in social interactions) can be violently shaken.

To bring this back to our topic, I expect that this caution on the part of the Japanese is healthy in maintaining Japan as an identity that a aging population will need to rely on. If there was a first world country that Japan could look to as successfully bringing in foreign labor and maintaining a strong national identity, they would be following that role model. Since there is not, we may find that Japans slow pace and caution with newcomers is the model. As foreigners looking to work in Japan, we come back to the simple tasks: (1) Learn the language and culture (2) Define yourself. Perhaps, starting a business in Japan is a radical attempt at self-definition for some, like myself, but it is an interesting and challenging way to make your own place in Japan. And this we must do, we must find our own place in Japan. We will never be considered Japanese in the pure sense. In that sense, the ideas of culture, race and nationality are tied up (into a confused bundle). Achieving the status of permanent resident, with friends and family who manage to untie the bundle is probably the best that can be hoped for, at least for a few generations.