Nikkei gave top play to a GOJ plan to accept foreigners as “manual laborers,” explaining that by around 2025, as many as 500,000 foreigners may be allowed to work in Japan in five sectors, including construction, agriculture, tourism, and elderly care even if their Japanese language skills are deemed inadequate. Noting that the GOJ is apparently set to ease the present strict regulations on foreign manual labor in the face of Japan’s serious and chronic labor shortage, the daily speculated that the envisaged plan may mark a major shift in the nation’s immigration policy.