New statistics regularly pop up to illustrate the accelerating decline of Japan’s population. Last week, the first-ever drop of locals in all 47 prefectures made headlines. Numbers even began to decline in Okinawa, which has the country’s highest birth rate.

At this stage, it is common knowledge that Japan is not an outlier when it comes to low fertility rates, merely a front runner. The same demographic crunch is starting to hit other nations, notably South Korea and China. Fertility in every European Union country is below replacement level. When the debate quickly turns to the benefits of immigration, Japan is often painted as hostile, if not downright xenophobic, and rejecting the choice of foreign workers.