Abstract
For several decades, Japan has been the only industrial country in the world that did not rely on immigration. Among the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, Japan has the lowest percentage of immigrants. The Japanese government has recently launched various measures to favor the return of Latin American immigrants living in Japan to their countries of origin. The Japanese ambassador in Peru said that currently there are some 60,000 Peruvians living in Japan and he recognized that the situation of the Latin American immigrants is quite difficult in all countries. It is the same plight in Japan due to the effects of the financial and economic crisis. That's why Japan proposes to issue $3,000 for a plane ticket to some foreigners who have lost their jobs because of the current crisis. The government's motivation is three-fold: ease pressure on its own labor market, help the foreign workers to get home, and possibly reducing a great portion of people off the unemployment rolls. In reality, this comes within a long trend: Japan's net migration since the Second World War has been approximately zero.
