The Asia Times had a report about the recent Japanese court ruling denying a management exam to a Korean national. I have talked about this issue before, but check out this post for details. The Asia Times piece leaves out a lot of background information about the Korean woman involved and the security concerns. It focuses instead on the future lack of workers in Japan.

Experts are pointing to the need to plug such holes in the work force with imported talent. This has observers forecasting the negative repercussions of the high court’s ruling and possible spillover into the private sector.

Opponents of the ruling say it will have significant negative repercussions, most notably barring foreigners from managerial posts in the public sector without regard to the nature of the position or to the tasks involved. Others speculate further that the ruling could cause vacant slots in the civil service to go to less qualified candidates. Still other critics say it reinforces the image of Japan as unwelcoming.

Japan is definitely heading for a demographic crisis in the future but I think the judge did not take that issue into consideration when he made his ruling.