This won’t change things drastically. It is a very Japanese way of doing things. We couldn’t have them flooding in like they do in Hong Kong.

Heizo Takenaka, a former economy minister who now serves on a government panel on special economic zones. He was referring to a housekeeping program as Japan’s first serious attempt at bringing in the workers needed to put the economy on track. The admission of cleaners from overseas -- first to Kanagawa and Osaka and later to Tokyo -- is aimed at making housekeeping services affordable for the middle classes and getting more Japanese women into the workforce. (Bloomberg)

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