When it was first established as a nation, Japan actively accepted people from abroad, absorbing the culture and technology of the Asian continent. Apparently, these newcomers numbered between one and three million people from the Yayoi period to the Asuka period. In fact, Japan is a nation that has developed through the proactive acceptance of immigrants and foreign technology. Waves of immigration include Spanish and Portuguese during the Azuchi and Momoyama period and Westerners during the Meiji period. The strategic acceptance of immigrants is a policy that should definitely be pursued to prevent Japan’s decline.

The U.S. has 389 while Japan has 29. These are the numbers of legal professionals for every 100,000 people. So the U.S. figure is 13 times that of the Japan figure. It has long been pointed out that Japan has few lawyers compared with Western countries, so the judicial system has been subject to reforms aimed at increasing the quantity and quality of lawyers, yet the gap remains large. Moreover, 93% of law schools in Japan have fewer students enrolled than their quotas. Reforms to raise the competitiveness of Japan’s legal profession are essential.

In Japan, the crime-arrest ratio for homicides is 96%, which is much higher than in many other countries, yet the number of crimes occurring around us in the rise. Such crimes include ore-ore fraud (in which the fraudster tricks the victim into transferring money to a bank account by pretending to be a relative in trouble), the use of illicit drugs, stalking, and domestic violence. Recently, the crime-arrest ratio for crime as a whole has dropped to around 30%. Safety is the cornerstone of life, and also constitutes part of the value of the nation of Japan. The ability of the police to use technology to maintain safety while also safeguarding the rights of citizens therefore needs to be improved.