hopes for a better japan

Last Tuesday, Shinzo Abe was formally elected as the new prime minister of Japan. I watched his first ever speech on TV as a prime minister on the day he announced his new cabinet members. From what i understood (oops! parang ang galing galing ko nang mag-nihongo ano? heheh... actually naka-bilingual mode po yung news so hindi pa talaga ako magaling umintindi ng wikang Hapon.. heheh), Japan is becoming more and more open to foreigners. The new prime minister is encouraging foreign people and investments to come to Japan. He was saying that Japan has a shortage on labor force. And with this, aside from making use of technology and improving the educational system of Japan, he is depending on people from other countries to answer to this problem. Well, while hearing that speech, I was like, "Hey! I am one of those foreign people, prime minister! Please speed up your reforms!" hehehe... (But I don't know much about the politics here in Japan, maybe it's all just words, and no concrete action... (er, as what you could see with some/most politicians in the Philippines today.)

About Japan's workforce, I agree with him since I do observe that there is a high demand in people like me, engineers, and also nurses. I have been to a lot of job interviews here in Japan, and some of these I was able to pass, a sign that there really are a lot of vacant positions that they even considered hiring people who are "just OK" in Nihongo. So if one could just master Nihongo, sky is the limit when job-hunting. :) (Er, don't pack your things yet! Nihongo is a difficult language to learn! With all the kanji and different levels of formality, it certainly takes years!)

Anyway, I really hope the new prime minister will be successful in making Japan a better country, for its citizens and for foreign workers like me!