According to surveys carried out by Asahi, a major Japanese newspaper, 51% of Japanese now support making it easier to immigrate to Japan, up from 26% in 2010. Only 34% of people are against it, as opposed to 65% opposition from the 2010 survey.
The news is good to hear. I'm hoping that Japan is more open to immigration in the future, and moves past simply hiring foreign workers for a few years and then sending them home for the labor shortage. It would be nice to see Japan suffer less from the effects of depopulation, but greater interaction with those who are not ethnically Japanese would hopefully cause Japan to be more tolerant of minorities.
I'm a bit skeptical considering that the number is so high, since IIRC Asashi is a center-left newspaper which may show opinions more liberal than the actual Japanese population. However, I don't closely follow Japanese politics, so I don't really know how developments regarding depopulation and immigration have played out in Japan within the past five years.
I don't expect much loosening of immigration laws under Abe, but I've heard there's been some discussion. If current trends continue, and as the effects of depopulation are more heavily felt in Japan, immigration laws will probably become more lax in the future.
Either way, what do you think? Will Japan end up following the path of states in Europe and be more open to immigration? Is it only a matter of time before Japan starts accepting more refugees from war-torn areas as well? Should Japan open itself up to more immigration?