TOKYO - Foreign workers are now indispensable across Japan, from convenience stores and agriculture to nursing care, and with the House of Representatives election approaching, political parties are sharpening their positions on how the country should manage its rapidly growing foreign population.
The latest figures on foreign workers were released on January 30th, showing a steady rise to around 2.57 million as of October 2025, the highest level on record, up more than 2.8 times from about 910,000 in 2015. The number of foreign residents has also more than doubled over the past decade, far exceeding earlier government assumptions, according to Mai Harada of the TBS Political Affairs Desk, who said the pace of increase has outstripped the capacity of Japan’s existing systems.
Japan’s current framework was not designed on the assumption that large numbers of foreign nationals would live in the country long term, and this mismatch has created distortions in areas such as taxation, social insurance contributions, property registration, land ownership and access to administrative services, Harada said, adding that rules must be rebuilt to reflect present realities. The current administration has treated foreign policy as a key priority, positioning it as one of Prime Minister Takaichi’s signature initiatives.
The government on January 23rd unveiled its basic policy on foreign residents, outlining tougher conditions in several areas. For permanent residency, authorities are considering making participation in learning programs on the Japanese language and domestic systems mandatory. For naturalization, the standard residence requirement would be extended from the current five years to, in principle, ten years. Rules would also be tightened by lowering the threshold for unpaid medical bills shared with immigration authorities from 200,000 yen to 10,000 yen, with the possibility that visa renewals could be denied in some cases.
Ahead of the election, TBS surveyed political parties on their foreign policy platforms, revealing clear differences in emphasis. The Liberal Democratic Party stresses safety and security, arguing that laws and rules should be reviewed in line with social change to support a growing Japan. The Japan Innovation Party calls for a population strategy governing foreign admissions and tougher responses to illegal activity and abuse of the system. Centrist parties advocate protecting foreign residents’ human rights while enacting a basic law on multicultural coexistence. The Democratic Party for the People focuses on investigating foreign participation in social insurance and tightening the conversion of foreign driver’s licenses. The Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party both emphasize protecting the rights of foreign residents and promoting multicultural coexistence, while Reiwa Shinsengumi opposes both what it calls exploitative immigration policies and xenophobia. Sanseito calls for a fundamental overhaul of foreign policy and the creation of a new comprehensive agency, while other smaller parties stress orderly acceptance, regional stability, or curbing the number of migrants.
Former Foresight editor-in-chief Shinsuke Tsutsumi said the debate is split between those prioritizing order and those emphasizing coexistence. He argued that even now, obtaining permanent residency or Japanese nationality is already highly restrictive, questioning whether further tightening is truly necessary. At the same time, he said parties calling for coexistence often lack concrete measures explaining how such a society would be built. Both sides, he said, leave serious issues unresolved.
Tsutsumi also pointed to the long-standing political reluctance to label Japan’s approach as an immigration policy, noting that a former prime minister once clearly stated that Japan would not adopt one. As a result, foreign residents have been treated primarily as temporary workers, leaving institutions underdeveloped, a gap that has contributed to problems such as unpaid social insurance premiums. He argued that Japan should explicitly acknowledge immigration and design coherent policies accordingly.
One of the most closely watched issues is foreign ownership of land and buildings. While the government included the topic in its overall foreign policy discussions, it stopped short of announcing concrete measures in the January 23rd plan. According to the latest survey by the land ministry, overseas buyers account for about 3.5% of new condominium purchases in Tokyo’s 23 wards, a relatively low figure. However, this only reflects cases where the owner’s registered address is overseas and does not capture purchases by foreign residents living in Japan, meaning the full picture remains unclear.
To improve transparency, the government plans to require owners to register their nationality when filing new property registrations. More broadly, officials say they are still working to clarify what is known and what remains unknown about foreign residents and property ownership, with the aim of formulating more concrete policies once the data gap is narrowed.
Source: TBS
