Visible in statistics regarding Japan's labor market, with record numbers of registered foreigners, international marriages, and Permanent Residents, Japan's internationalization and multiculturalization is inevitable. Critiquing Japan's ability and political will to assimilate them properly, the author finds that Japan is not as ill-prepared as one might expect. Nevertheless, significant obstacles to immigration and assimilation remain legally, legislatively, and socially, which the government is only beginning to address. Japan must learn how to treat outsiders not only with the respect and recognition they deserve (as contributors to Japanese society), but also must cease depicting foreigners as a social bane. If not, Japanese citizens will also bear the brunt of unresolved discrimination by race and ethnicity in future.
