In December 2025 the Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University’s Institute for Advanced Social Sciences published their annual survey of Japanese political attitudes. The headline finding was stark: about 59% of respondents disagreed that Japan should actively accept foreign workers, up from 46% a year earlier. A year earlier, most respondents had supported the idea. Now opposition clearly outweighed support.

I have lived and worked in Japan since 2009, and that result landed hard. It deserves to be read carefully, though. A poll can tell us what people feel. It cannot, on its own, tell us whether those feelings match what is happening, or fully explain why they changed.

What the survey found

The survey was mailed to 3,000 voters nationwide between late September and the end of October 2025, and 2,004 responded. The key results, as reported by the Yomiuri:

  • Opposition to actively accepting foreign workers: about 59%, up from 46% the year before.
  • Expected effects of more foreign residents: 68% said public safety would get worse, 63% expected trouble from differences in language and customs, and 61% said foreign residents would help ease labor shortages.
  • National interest: 70% agreed that national interests should come before international cooperation, up from 65%.

So respondents were not blind to the economic case. A majority accepted that foreign workers help with labor shortages. They were simply more worried about public order than they had been.

The age gap runs the other way

The most surprising finding was the age pattern. It is often assumed that older people are more wary of immigration. In this survey, younger respondents were the most concerned.

Among people aged 18 to 39, 79% said public safety would deteriorate with more foreign residents, compared with 72% of those aged 40 to 59 and 59% of those 60 and over. Younger respondents were also the least likely to say foreign workers would ease labor shortages.

I can only speculate about why. Younger people get more of their news from short social media clips, where incidents involving foreigners circulate quickly and without context. They also compete more directly for jobs and housing and have lived through a decade of rising prices without much wage growth. Older respondents, many of whom rely on care services staffed partly by foreign workers, may see the labor shortage more concretely.

Why public order dominates

Public safety has become the lens through which much of the immigration debate is viewed. Part of that is the news environment. Japan has seen a run of high-profile robberies and fraud cases linked to tokuryu, loosely organized, anonymous criminal groups that recruit people through social media. Those cases involve Japanese and foreign perpetrators alike, but they have made many people feel that Japan’s famous safety is more fragile than it used to be.

The official data tell a more complicated story. National Police Agency figures show that criminal arrests of foreign nationals (excluding permanent residents) remain well below their mid-2000s peak, even though the foreign population has roughly doubled since then, to about 4.1 million at the end of 2025. Perception and measured crime have moved in different directions. That gap matters because policy responds to perception.

The political moment

The survey was taken as Japan’s leadership changed. Shigeru Ishiba’s government was ending, and Sanae Takaichi won the LDP leadership in early October and became prime minister later that month. Takaichi had campaigned on a tougher line toward foreign residents, and the survey’s rising preference for national interest over international cooperation fits the mood that carried her into office.

Since then, policy has tightened in several ways. Residence permit renewal fees rise sharply from October 1, 2026, with permanent residence applications jumping to ¥200,000 from ¥10,000. At the same time, the government continues to depend on foreign labor: the number of foreign workers reached a record of about 2.57 million in October 2025, and the Technical Intern Training Program is being replaced by a new “employment for skill development” system from April 2027. The country is becoming more restrictive in tone while becoming more reliant on foreign workers in practice.

What this means for people and businesses here

For foreign residents, this is a moment to be well informed. Keep your documents in order, apply for renewals early and follow changes to fees and permanent residence rules rather than relying on what was true a few years ago.

For businesses that employ foreign staff, public sentiment matters even when the law has not changed. Clear contracts, fair pay, decent housing arrangements and good communication with local communities reduce the friction that feeds negative stories. Companies that treat foreign employees well are also the best evidence against the idea that more foreign residents mean less order.

Reading the headline carefully

The survey is an honest measure of a real shift in attitudes, and it should be taken seriously. It is not evidence that foreign residents are making Japan less safe. The more useful response is to close the gap between perception and data: publish clear, local information about crime, employment and public services, and show people the facts rather than leaving the story to the most alarming clip of the week.

Further reading: foreign workers need functioning local support · immigration costs and Japan’s labor policy · economic frustration and blaming foreigners · Japan’s systemic labor shortfall