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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Japanese government to give more job opportunities to females, foreigners, and elderly people.
In a recent review, the IMF said that Japan’s economy is healthy and is expected to grow by 1.3% this year. However, the organization predicts that the said growth will decrease to 0.6% in 2018. To avoid this downturn, the IMF advised Japan to diversify the country’s workforce.
In 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began promoting economic reforms, which include providing more jobs for women, expatriates, and elderly people. Because of these policies, the number of employed people in the country has increased. According to a recent report, about 63% of elderly females still work. Japan was also reported to have employed one million foreigners in 2016 and 7.3 million elderly workers in 2015. However, the prime minister’s declining popularity could affect the sustainability of his economic policies.
According to experts, Japan’s economic strategies still have some weak points. For instance, CNN reported that the demand for foreign workers in Japan is still low. Gulf News also noted that elderly workers tend to receive low wages.
To secure Japan’s continuous growth in the coming years, the IMF stressed that more support should be given to all of the country’s workers. They said that Japan should implement reforms like “equal pay for equal work” to encourage more females and elderly people to join the workforce. Finally, they recommended the government to give more job opportunities to foreigners.