Pandemic travel restrictions create problems for Japan

Significance

Most of the vanishing visitors were tourists, but they also included foreign workers and students. Omicron COVID-19 cases are falling more slowly in Japan than in other countries. Tight restrictions were eased on March 1, but only a little.

Impacts

• Japan's reliance on foreign workers is considerably greater than official figures suggest.
• The downward trend in the workforce compared with the non-working population is significantly less than commonly claimed.
• The share of the elderly in the population is on course to rise to several times the current level, requiring more foreign workers.
• A central problem facing the Japanese economy is its low participation in global doctoral-level education, particularly in science.