TOKYO — Japan is both ageing and shrinking as it tries to emerge from two decades of economic stagnation. The construction workforce is a prime example. It has contracted by a third since its peak in 1997 and is set to continue that trend — a fifth of the workers in that industry are aged over 60. Yet construction companies face boom times with new building projects tied to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and rebuilding work in the areas of northern Japan destroyed by a 2011 tsunami. The easy answer would be to open the immigration gates to foreign labor, but the Japanese public, worried about safety and the impact on their culture, are adamantly opposed. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has found a halfway measure - expanding a controversial program that offers “trainees” from China and elsewhere work for up to three years in the world's third largest economy. — Reuters
