Japan election debate stalls over definition of "immigration"

TOKYO - Japan's growing intake of foreign workers has emerged as a key issue taken up by some opposition parties against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming general election, but the two sides appear to be talking past each other amid clashing definitions of "immigration."

The ultraconservative populist Sanseito party and the minor right-wing Conservative Party of Japan have repeatedly criticized the inflow of foreign workers as immigration, while the LDP insists it is not pursuing an immigration policy because it defines immigrants as those with permanent residency.