Eh, the Japanese really like their way of life. They don't want their culture to change. If they'd rather disappear from the face of the Earth than accepting foreigners, I think they're free to do so. Personally, as a Japanese-Canadian, I think it's stupid and they should at least allow dual citizenship so they'd get "immigrants" with actual ties to the country, but they don't even wanna do that. So fuck it, let them do their thing. It really isn't up to anyone else to say they "need" immigrants, imo.

That in any case. But honestly, I'm OK with this job being done by robots. It's hard, potentially dangerous work that isn't complicated/complex and that's exactly the kind of work we should strive to automate.
That the money saved probably doesn't end up where it should is a different issue.

Every country will experience labor shortages at some point, it's unavoidable