Perhaps the darker side that could be missed is that despite their demographic problem, Japan continues to refuse to let in more young foreigners in to help balance the demographics.
Japan isn't going to change in that regard anytime soon. They'd definitely rather have less Japanese people, and have them still be what they consider "Japanese" enough. Japan has many wonderful aspects to it, but the racism and nationalism are not part of them.
I remember reading an article about AirBnB breaking into Japan, where the local resistance wasn't the usual complaints of limiting the monthly rental supply therefore jacking up rental rates, but that AirBnB 'encouraged more foreigners to come here'. To get rid of foreigners, Japan puts up so many blocks and delays to permanent residency they hope you get the message and choose to leave.
They're not a culture that relishes saying "no" outright either, so what you're talking about can get intensely aggressive by way of a substitute for "no". For example, if someone in Japan tells you that something is, "Very difficult", they means it's about as likely as spontaneous, unpowered, human flight.
They don't want any random fix of their demographics where they just bring in young people of whatever nationality. They want a Japanese fix to their demographics.
If they viewed people as just interchangeable culturally, why even care about their falling demographics? Other Asian and Africans countries make up for them.
> If they viewed people as just interchangeable culturally, why even care about their falling demographics? Other Asian and Africans countries make up for them.
Because they need young, employed people locally to provide services to all the retirees.
Do you have a degree in some engineering and speak Japanese? You can get your visa in about 2 months. Actually, if you are a programmer you may not even need Japanese.