Japan Should Welcome Immigrants

This column ran in the January 27, 1991, Asahi Evening News.

In a world where children die of starvation, where poverty, disease and ignorance run rampant, where oceans are polluted and forests disappear, it is criminal to promote population growth.

Japan should be proud of achieving negative population growth, holding it up as a shining example of the positive results of education, health care and economic success.

But politicians bemoan the reduced birth rate, blaming it on the supposed selfishness of liberated women, and various levels of government are exploring incentives to promote motherhood. Others fear that this sounds disturbingly similar to prewar calls for women to turn their wombs into worker-soldier factories.

The argument swirls around issues of male chauvinism and female freedom of choice. It is sidetracked into debates about increasing numbers of "career women" and the economic burdens of raising children, losing sight of a basic fact.

World population is exploding. Can anyone seriously argue that the world needs more people? When we cannot provide a healthy and fulfilling life for all people in the world, when in fact the standard of living is declining in some countries, we certainly don't need to add to the problem by promoting population growth. Perhaps Japan is rich enough to support another baby boom, but it could do so only at the cost of sucking up an even greater disproportion of the world's resources. This would be morally and logically indefensible. Sooner or later developed nations will have to share their wealth with undeveloped nations.

What of the labor shortage? What about Japan's aging society?

The answer is obvious. There are hundreds of thousands of impoverished people literally dying for a chance at work and life in a developed country. Japan could simply open the borders and the labor shortage would disappear. There is no need to wait 20 years for Japanese women to bear and raise a more populous generation of workers. Japan could have thousands of hardworking, tax-paying citizens almost instantly by simply sliding the doors open wider at the immigration office. In one stroke, Japan could solve the labor shortage and provide a better life for destitute fellow citizens of the world.

Why has this simple solution, with obvious benefits for Japan and for thousands of refugees, not been promoted on the front pages of the press? Are there perhaps more pressing issues for Japan to consider than the fecundity of Japanese females?

Forget the declining birthrate and concentrate on issues such as racism, ethnocentricity, and xenophobia. True internationalization results in the intermingling of races and cultures. Internationalization is the future, and there is no way Japan can avoid it. Look at the integration of Europe. Look at the multicultural societies of Canada and the United States, where birthrates are also low and immigration quotas are rising.

Multicultural societies have many problems, but these frictions have to be confronted and solved for humans to survive. Does Japan want to be an odd country out? Hiding behind exclusionary racial and cultural barriers will not succeed in the long run.

Take the challenge, Japan. Open your arms to needy immigrants. Help yourselves by helping others. If there is room for more babies, there is room for immigrants. Forget archaic and destructive notions of blood and purity and uniqueness. Join the world in true internationalization and acceptance of others.

To paraphrase Donne, Japan cannot be an island unto itself. It must accept the responsibilities of power and make every effort to become "a piece of the maine," a truly integrated part of the world.