Prime Minister Abe - you nice guy you! Asian immigrants thank you
The Japanese government has taken a ground-breaking step towards the liberalisation of its visa restrictions for citizens of emerging market countries who are immediate family of residents of Japan. This move follows similar measures by NZ, which allowed Filipinos to travel to NZ as long as they could demonstrate sufficient financial resources.
In the case of Filpinos, Vietnamese, Thais, Malaysians travelling to Japan, they are now able to get a 1-3 year multiple-entry visa if they are immediate family members (spouse or sibling) of a Japanese resident, who of course will be on a recognised resident visa. Filipinos can find further information at their embassy website.
These are very interesting developments because people might be interpreted with a degree of apprehensions in terms of his policy direction. In some respects, he might be construed as placating nationalist sentiments by canvassing military pre-emption, but on the other hand he is canvassing liberal policies such as these. Is he attempting to be all things to all persons, or is he secretly, just a nice guy?
The reality is I suggest that Japan is passing through another period of reawakening and this is just another step/sign that this is the case. This is not a 'nationalist' measure by any means. This is contemporaneously the type of policy we would expect of a third world country, and the fact that Japan has belatedly joined the trade negotiations is another sign. Its 'pragmatic' exclusion of rice from trade protectionism might be construed as contrary to these steps, but I simply see rice as Japan's welfare state for its aging population. Why would you not want to keep your aging population gainfully employed? Too many anti-intellectual 'conservative' libertarians would deplore such a policy, but in the context of an aging population that needs work, if their pay was not sucking in imports, as its not, its hard not to sanction such measures as supportive of domestic economic activity. In this sense, I have always welcomed the common-sense public policy that develops in Japan. Japan does not readily sink into the liberal-conservative false dichotomy. Some parties of course appeal to anti-intellectual constituencies.
