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Japan had a similar policy, with respect to legal immigrants it had made a point of recruiting, in the immediate wake of the global financial crisis. They'd buy (largely) Peruvian/Brazilian factory workers of Japanese descent a plane ticket and approximately $3k of compensation (IIRC) in return for them surrendering their work-compatible visa.

It was controversial, from a number of angles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/business/global/23immigra...

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After reading this article, it's crazy to see how the attitude has shifted, and number of immigrants exploded in recent years. I just spent the past 2 weeks in Japan and was surprised by the sheer amount foreign workers. I remember almost a decade ago until COVID, whenever I visited my wife's hometown in very rural Fukuoka, a Russian woman married to a Japanese woman and myself were literally the only foreigners in the town. When I went there 2 weeks ago, I saw several foreign workers at a 7-eleven.

>whenever I visited my wife's hometown in very rural Fukuoka, a Russian woman married to a Japanese woman

This isn't possible in Japan. Japan does not recognize same-sex marriage.

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