- Introduction — A Question Raised in the National Diet
- 1. What a Country Loses When Fewer People Go Abroad
- 2. The Hidden Trap of the Smartphone Era
- 3. Why Young People in Particular Need to Step Outside
- 4. The Shift to a Multicultural Society Is No Longer Reversible
- 5. Going Abroad Is Also Preparation for Receiving Others
- 6. What I Value as an Administrative Scrivener
- 7. For the Future of Japanese Society
Introduction — A Question Raised in the National Diet
On April 23, during a session of the House of Councillors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the Social Democratic Party, highlighted Japan’s strikingly low passport ownership rate.
The figures are as follows:
- Japan: 17.8%
- Germany: 80%
- United States: 48%
- South Korea: 45%
In the 2010s, Japan’s rate hovered between 20% and 25%. By 2019, it had fallen to 23.8%, and it has continued to decline. Various factors have been cited: the weak yen, rising prices, an aging population with fewer children, and economic hardship. The Director-General of the Consular Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged that the rate has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels and announced that the passport application fee will be reduced by 7,000 yen. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also conceded that Japan’s rate is low compared with other countries.
As an administrative scrivener (gyoseishoshi) who handles international legal work daily — residency status applications, business manager visas, international marriages, naturalization, and more — I did not view this news as merely a story about declining tourism. To me, it points to something far deeper about Japanese society.
In this article, I would like to share my perspective from the field, and reflect on what we should value as we move into a future of inevitable coexistence with people from other cultures.
1. What a Country Loses When Fewer People Go Abroad
In my work, I serve as a bridge between people from different cultures and legal systems. Visa applications, renewals of residency status, permanent residency, naturalization, international marriages, and supporting companies that employ foreign workers — the cases vary, but they share a common thread: connecting people from different cultural and legal backgrounds.
After many years in this profession, I have come to one firm conviction: Japanese people who have been abroad relate to foreign nationals in a fundamentally different way than those who have not.
Those with international experience can see cultural differences as differences. They understand that greetings, time perception, family structures, religious distance, and contractual norms operate on different premises in different societies, and they engage with the other person while respecting that.
Those with little or no experience abroad, on the other hand, often unconsciously treat “the Japanese way” as the universal default. Differences appear to them not as differences but as deviations — as inconvenient, abnormal, or rude. Tolerance does not naturally grow in such an environment.
This is not a matter of personal character. It is a matter of experience. Without experience, imagination has nothing to build on. This is a structural issue, not a moral failing.
Precisely for that reason, ensuring that a meaningful portion of the population has direct international exposure carries genuine public significance — it sustains the tolerance of the society as a whole. The figure of 17.8% suggests that this public foundation is steadily eroding.
2. The Hidden Trap of the Smartphone Era
Some may say, “But we have the internet now.”
It is true. With a smartphone, we can know what is happening on the other side of the planet in real time. International news, social media, live streams, translation apps — information is everywhere, even without leaving home.
However, I believe there is a serious trap here.
Accessing information about a place is not the same as experiencing it firsthand.
The humidity, the smell, and the sounds the moment you step out of an airport. The chill that creeps up from your feet when you cannot understand the language around you. The quiet release in your chest when, somehow, gestures and broken phrases manage to communicate something meaningful. The bewildered laughter when the dish you ordered turns out to be nothing like what you imagined. The unexpected sense of human solidarity when a busy stranger takes time to give you directions.
These sensory experiences simply do not exist on a screen. No matter how advanced AI becomes, it cannot replace them.
And it is precisely these experiences that change a person. To understand — not with the head, but with the body — that there are people in this world who live by entirely different systems. Whether someone has had this kind of bodily understanding shapes their capacity to relate to others throughout life.
In an era when the world is visible through a smartphone, the value of firsthand, sensory experience has, paradoxically, never been higher.
3. Why Young People in Particular Need to Step Outside
I especially hope that younger generations will go out into the world.
I would like to clarify: this is not a call to “learn a foreign language.”
Of course, language skills are useful. But what truly matters is not language itself, but the experience of trying to build a relationship with someone in a place where the language does not work.
To make do somehow when communication fails. To stumble, laugh, apologize, and still keep reaching toward the other person. This combination of persistence and empathy becomes a lasting asset — when working and living alongside foreign nationals back in Japan.
Even people with strong language skills struggle in multicultural environments if they lack this experience. Conversely, those with broken language but rich firsthand experience tend to earn trust wherever they go.
In other words, the question is not whether one can speak a foreign language. There is something more important than language ability — and that is what I most want young people to acquire.
4. The Shift to a Multicultural Society Is No Longer Reversible
Why do I emphasize this point so strongly?
Because Japanese society has already begun an irreversible shift toward multicultural coexistence.
Declining birth rates, an aging population, shrinking workforce, and labor shortages — these are no longer political talking points. They are facts on the ground. Caregiving, construction, agriculture, manufacturing, services — there is hardly any field today can function without foreign workers.
In my own office, I see this every day: companies wishing to hire foreign workers, employers needing to manage residency procedures for staff already on board, families wanting to bring foreign spouses to Japan, foreign entrepreneurs aiming to launch businesses here. The diversity of cases is continuing to grow.
This trend will not stop—it will accelerate.
This means that younger generations living in Japan will, even without going abroad, study, work, and live together with foreign nationals — at workplaces, in schools, in neighborhoods. This is not a choice; it is a given condition of their future.
If they enter that reality without ever having encountered another culture firsthand, the experience can be hard for them — and equally hard for the foreign nationals they encounter. Society as a whole pays the price in the form of friction.
By contrast, young people who have stepped outside even once carry an internal foundation: “Of course things are different. The differences are what make it interesting.” Those with this foundation can thrive in a coexisting society.
When I urge young people to go abroad, it is for their own future — so that they can live fully and resiliently in the Japan that is coming.
5. Going Abroad Is Also Preparation for Receiving Others
I want to emphasize this point: experiencing life outside Japan is not only valuable for the traveler. It is preparation for becoming someone who welcomes others well.
When Japanese people who will receive foreign nationals have no firsthand exposure to other cultures, what tends to happen?
“Why aren’t they on time?” “Why do they always talk about their family?” “Why do they refuse food for religious reasons?” “Why are they so assertive?”
Each of these can be understood as “simply how things are” once the cultural background is understood. Without that knowledge, however, they look like irresponsibility, lack of teamwork, or selfishness.
The result: talented foreign nationals who came to Japan in good faith do not stay; the company that invested in them suffers; the individuals themselves are hurt; and friction lingers in the local community. In my professional life, I have witnessed many such unfortunate mismatches.
In most cases, the issue does not lie with foreign nationals. It lies in the receiving side’s lack of cultural understanding.
For this reason, increasing the share of “people who have experienced the outside” within Japanese society is a foundational investment — supporting the retention of foreign talent in Japan and, by extension, the Japanese economy itself.
The 17.8% passport ownership rate is, in this sense, a warning that this foundation is weakening.
6. What I Value as an Administrative Scrivener
As a gyoseishoshi handling residency status and international cases, I hold several principles close.
First, our work is not merely document preparation. We are partners in a journey toward each client’s personal or business goals. A visa is not the destination — it is a means of opening the starting point of a new chapter of life.
Second, rather than offering uniform responses, I aim to provide individualized proposals tailored to “your specific situation.” The reason we exist as professionals — beyond AI and generic information sites — is to provide answers that no general source can offer.
Third, I take on cases where I can deliver results. Accepting a case is not the goal; achieving the outcome is. For challenging cases, I draw on knowledge and experience to find a lawful path forward. When a case clearly cannot succeed, however, I tell the client honestly, because that honesty serves them best.
And finally — closer to a sense of mission — supporting foreign nationals is more than a business activity. It involves understanding the background and inconveniences they face. People navigating critical moments of their lives in an unfamiliar legal system, often in a language not their own, deserve to be met with sincerity, both as a professional and as a fellow human being.
7. For the Future of Japanese Society
The reduction of passport application fees by 7,000 yen is a step forward.
But fundamentally, what matters more than cost is whether society can encourage the simple impulse to “step outside and see for yourself.”
Schools can incorporate short-term overseas experiences. Companies can support international training for younger staff. Communities can create opportunities for returnees to share what they learned. Families can talk more often about “going abroad someday.”
Each of us, within our respective capacities, can deliberately build small points of contact with the world beyond. The cumulative effect of these efforts will shape the tolerance of Japanese society ten or twenty years from now.
At the same time, we — the professionals who handle international legal work — must continue to support the systems that allow foreign nationals already in Japan to live with security and dignity.
As an administrative scrivener, I aim to contribute to the development of Japan’s multicultural society from both perspectives.
For any concerns regarding visas, residency status, naturalization, international marriage, business manager visas, or the employment of foreign nationals, please do not hesitate to consult me. I will walk alongside you, committed to results, with attention to your individual circumstances.
Let us work through your specific case together.
