Then again, it would be just piling on...

... to note that two days after posting this, The Asahi Shimbun had the following as the lead story of its morning edition:

Incentives aim to lure top Asian students to stay
Asahi Shimbun

The government plans to offer scholarships for Asian students to study at universities and graduate schools in Japan to encourage them to stay and work for domestic companies after graduation.

According to sources, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will launch the scholarship system in fiscal 2007 in cooperation with domestic firms interested in recruiting students from China, South Korea and other Asian countries.

The idea is to raise the number of skilled foreign nationals working in the corporate sector, the sources said.

Japanese version of the story here.

While the GOJ's trying to cajole students from Continental Asia into staying in Japan post-graduation--and the inner city retail sector's salvation from its employment of large numbers of Chinese students---presents something of an apples and oranges problem (skilled vs. unskilled labor)--both stories reflect a shift toward a greater acceptance, indeed desire, for non-Japanese participation in the national workforce

(Take that, robots! Back! Back!)

Something of a corrective for the very public fiasco over the opening up nursing positions for qualified Filippina applicants.