The Laffer Curve is completely useless for practical economics. Beyond the obvious (if we actually have 100% taxation that won't work) its role is solely to enable politicians, and particularly US politicians, to pretend that somehow cutting taxes (a benefit to their wealthy donors) will break even or increase income, even though in fact it does not.

Economics for skilled workers, which are pretty much the only people getting into Japan via work, isn't the issue. Quality of life is very similar for skilled workers in most of Europe and Japan.

The problem is still the immigration process itself, the (work) culture, and the language. Japan still hasn't made the process as easy as pre-COVID, and it wasn't that easy to begin with pre-COVID.

Before joining my current job, I was interviewing for a position at one of Toyota's R&D spin-offs. While they made a stellar job at selling the company (and ensuring all immigration support, from language classes and professional assistance for the process of moving and finding a home), in the end I opted for a lower-risk, lower-friction option because I have a pre-teen daughter and moving countries is a bit stressful, especially crossing such a cultural chasm.

It's still something I would contemplate at a later stage - I actually enjoy jumping cultures.

They could probably attract millions of Westerners tomorrow if they really wanted. Whether or not that's a good idea / they'd like the influx is another question. But, they could do it without changing anything except their insanely difficult immigration schemes.

Abe did that. It's very easy to immigrate to Japan. The reason this succeeded is that nobody in the country noticed, which is why you don't know about it.

It's not that attractive to Westerners if only because wages are low so you can't pay off those student loans.

(Immigrate as in get into the country on a work visa, not as in get permanent residency - that's doable on a "highly skilled professional" visa though.)

What are you comparing with? Wages are not that low relative to the remainder of the developed world and student loans aren't that high outside the US. The US is the main outlier here, not the other way around.

Wages of English teaching are lower than jobs you can get in the US. Or for that matter tech companies, though it's fine if you work for an international company.

English teaching is a pretty obvious low-barrier outlier. Otherwise, you're confirming the US as your main point of comparison, without realizing the US is the primary outlier here. Compare the US to any other developed country and it becomes fairly evident why.

It is? Last time I checked a few years ago it was still rather onerous and was only easy for very highly skilled individuals, not just normal professionals.

You’re probably looking at the requirements for early access to permanent residency.

Work visa’s for skilled work categories in Japan aren’t particularly hard to come by. You just need a qualification or a few years relevant work experience.

Didnt they close the country for foreigners for 2 years due to COVID?

I dont think tourists or people on business trips could come in.

You can still get in if you get a work visa, and it's not that difficult to get one if someone wants to employ you. (If you have a four year college degree.)

The Laffer Curve is a bit of a myth which relies upon fixed exchange rate, fixed amount of money thinking.

That doesn't apply in the real world.

In a floating exchange rate system with a financial system, such as the one Japan has, the currency is essentially a closed system. Yen can't go anywhere else, and you can't use it for anything real outside of Japan.

That means that government spending is matched by the sum of taxation + non-government saving, and it is the spending that causes the taxation and saving, not the other way around.

What the curve says then is that people net save less in the middle of the curve - which generally means they are borrowing too much because they are not earning enough to maintain their standard of living.

The Laffer curve is an overly simplistic model that supposes government revenue is a function of income and sales tax revenue. This simply isn't true: Japan has control over its own money supply and can issue bonds. Nor are workers attracted to/barred from an emigration destination solely by tax -- other issues such as relative standard of living come into play.