What a specious, fearmongering piece of tripe paraded as 'reporting'. One unnamed pseudonymous 'source' and another who is not in a position of risk due to her ability, albeit, reluctance to naturalize. All based on, we're worried because of political grandstanding by minority party members, and some second hand hearsay uptick in anti-immigrant sentiments around "Abdul".

Lets look at this for what it is; aljazeera making mud-pies and trying to sell them as cake.

None of the rules for work visas have changed; a proposal to reinforce financial readiness and social integration before permanent residency only leaves those working on a short term visa making regular renewals as they currently exist instead of transitioning to permanent resident visa.

Side-jobs and off-visa work continues to require formal approval for visa holders, "Designated Activities" is just some more paperwork, but in Japan the paperwork process is clearly defined and consistently followed. Foreign workers who find the system too complex or opaque need to hire a scrivener and be proactive about participating ahead of deadlines as there has never been a window for 'late' or 'overdue' paperwork.

The pay to cost-of-living margin is exceptionally good if you are not trying to outspend your neighbors; rent in most of the country equates to about 1/4 to 1/3 of a single MINIMUM WAGE full time job. And most employment for foreigners is better than minimum wage. The proposal to require above average income for permanent residency is simply to allow for more regular oversight of people working below the median in their industry, and makes sense as there have been cases of permanent resident visa holders falling below or behind on bills due to not being required to show that they have sufficient employment and not having the oversight that a visa renewal process would have provided.

Grandstanding aside, the only 'anti-foreign' sentiment statement i have encountered are in areas where foreigners have aggregated and behave outside of the safe and established norms; such as a taxi driver complaining that with the rise of outsiders he sees more jaywalking and he even stated it's not the ones who live here that make his day riskier, it's tourists. The overwhelming consensus here is that; qualified workers are scarce, the demand for help in agriculture, industry, hospitality, communications, and technology is real. The system can seem slow, but it is methodical not malicious, and the coworkers and employers are very happy to have willing help.