by Jack Campitelli | March 15th, 2011
Precis: In response to the earthquake, tsunamis, an nuclear fallout, immediately change U.S. immigration policy to allow easy Japanese immigration for entrepreneurs, companies, and farmers. Create Japanese work/trade zones that are basically self-regulating. This could take the pressure off Japan with a now reduced land mass and its production significantly diminished. The Japanese could then hire U.S. workers alongside their own workforce.
The idea is simple: immediately modify our immigration regulations for Japanese for a small window.
My rationale is that Japan is a small crowded country. Yet its citizens are some of the most productive on earth. The quality of their work is unparalleled. Japanese American children consistently place the highest in advance education testing. Meaning they are precisely the kind of citizen our country needs.
Perhaps the offer could come with a grant from Japan to cover some of the costs or we would absorb the cost in lieu of a grant-in-aid to Japan. Japan could pledge of capital or loan guarantees to help the émigrés set up businesses in the U.S. Perhaps the offer would only be open to entrepreneurs, upper management and leaders for Japanese businesses, and farmers so that Japanese presence created U.S. jobs, not sop up the few U.S. jobs around.
The largest populations of Japanese are in California and Washington state. But there are other significant Japanese population centers. We could also move Japanese farmers into areas that need uplifting.
An even more outrageous idea would be to set aside Japanese trade zones that were basically in the U.S. but outside the U.S. regulatory and standard taxation system. This would still create jobs for U.S. citizens, but would allow the Japanese to sort of “buy” land in the U.S. to take the pressure of their small landmass that is now smaller and will be smaller for a long time. The areas devastated by the tsunamis or radiation won’t be able to be used for a long time. Japan needs more land. We’ve got land. What we need is production and jobs.
In the end, this would solidify the strength of the bond of the two countries that has grown since the end of WW II.
Japan’s economy is in a shambles. With 22 auto-production lines closed and a number of electronic production lines closed, the ripple goes far into the Japanese populations.
I would argue that Japan is going to need fundamental restructuring and not just a cash infusion from countries already strapped with debt they can’t handle.
Seems to me that it could be a win-win.
