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On July 24, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a meeting of the Ministerial Council on Acceptance and Inclusion of Foreign Human Resources at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, a discussion was held on the way forward for the consideration towards the establishment of a new system and on the direction of the review on comprehensive measures for the acceptance and inclusion of foreign human resources.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“Over the last two and a half years, the ratio of active job openings to applications has exceeded 1.0 for all 47 prefectures; meanwhile, the front lines of various activities, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide, are facing increasingly serious personnel shortages. Therefore, needless to say, we must continue to push forward with improving productivity and securing domestic human resources. At the same time, we have a pressing need to establish schemes for accepting a wide range of foreign human resources who have specific expertise and skills so that they can hit the ground running.
 
I intend to proceed with the preparations with the aim to start accepting foreign human resources under a new system in April of next year. To this end, I ask that you promptly undertake necessary preparations, including the swift submission of bills and selection of eligible industries.
 
In addition, with more foreign nationals expected to reside in Japan, including those to be accepted under the new system, we have an important task to create an environment that welcomes foreign nationals who work, study, and live in Japan as members of society and in which they can live their lives without problems and difficulties.   
 
Based on today’s Cabinet decision, the Ministry of Justice will make the overall arrangements for the development of the environment for accepting foreign nationals. I ask for the cooperation of relevant ministers, so that with the Ministry of Justice acting as a control tower, the relevant ministries can strengthen their collaboration while working together with local governments effectively and efficiently to develop such an environment. Furthermore, I also ask the Ministry of Justice to review fundamentally its existing organizational structure and develop new arrangements for the management of resident status and other matters in order to appropriately address the increases in foreign nationals residing in Japan.”