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Stick over carrot approach doesn’t help foreign residents integrate, professor says

Foreign technical interns working at a factory. Immigrants are rarely hired full-time or promoted to senior positions because they are still viewed as temporary fixes for short-term labor shortages.

Foreign technical interns working at a factory. Immigrants are rarely hired full-time or promoted to senior positions because they are still viewed as temporary fixes for short-term labor shortages. | GETTY IMAGES

By Himari Semans
STAFF WRITER

Dec 25, 2025

Foreign residents in Japan were widely discussed in 2025, as their population reached a record high of 3.9 million in June.

In July’s Upper House election, all parties included policies on foreign nationals in their manifestos. Sanseito, campaigning under the slogan “Japanese First,” won big.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is drafting ad-hoc immigration measures to achieve a “well-ordered and harmonious coexistence” with foreign residents.

Amid the heat and humidity in Japan, a good night’s sleep is growing increasingly elusive without the heavy use of air conditioning.

Summer has arrived in Japan and so have hot sleepless nights

By Tomoko Otake

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan’s landscape that they often go unnoticed.

Why Japan’s utility poles won’t be disappearing anytime soon

By Alex K.T. Martin

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