Japan boosts support for war refugees from Syria, Iraq

Abe told Park that he was looking forward to the trilateral summit, which may take place in late October in Seoul, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said, citing Katsunobu Kato, Japanese deputy chief cabinet secretary.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, September 29, 2015, in New York.

“As an issue of demography, I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees we need to have more activities by women, by elderly people and we must raise (the) birth rate. There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants”.

Japan, which accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of 5,000 applications a year ago, will provide about $810 million in aid in response to refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

The $US750 million set aside for Iraq, and the wider Middle East and North Africa is expected to go on peace and stability efforts such as vocational training, and providing dependable water and sewage facilities.

The prime minister explained that his government plans to expand Japan’ role in activities such as improving roads, bridges and other infrastructure and airlifting people and goods.

Not one Japanese company applied for a subsidy program aimed at promoting more women to senior jobs, an official said yesterday, an embarrassing blow for Tokyo’s push to boost the economy with female workers.

A few argue that increased immigration could help arrest a shrinking population, which is now 126 million.