Japan's ruling party eyes foreign workers for financial sector

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is drafting a proposal to absorb high-skilled employees from overseas for Tokyo's financial sector, the lawmaker heading the LDP's committee on foreign laborers said on Wednesday.

Japan's minister, in charge of local economic revitalization, Satsuki Katayama, stated that the party would enforce the proposal as early as Thursday.

The situation in East Asia was very tense, and absorbing financiers to work in Tokyo was a long-standing plan for Japan, she said after a committee meeting about oversea employees.

As a part of Japan's country-wide economic plan, the proposal includes an attempt to make Tokyo a financial hub, which will suggest how oversea employees can assimilate into the Japanese workforce.

The world's third-largest economy is relaxing tight labor controls for workers from overseas to fill the gaps left by its ageing population.

Since April 1, 2019, Japan has had a new visa system to bring more foreign workers into the country, a major policy shift from its traditionally strict immigration rules.

(CGTN)