Organisms in Galapagos islands evolved so much that they become inflexible to live in different environments and may face extinction; they would be punished for their overadaptation. Likewise Japanese companies and society adapted themselves so well to the industries before the IT revolution. Like discussed in “The world is flat”, the IT revolution brought deadly blows to relatively inflexible overconfident Japanese society.
Mentality of Japanese are, in one way or another, so intimately related to its geographical location, and its location is not likely to change any time soon.
So the change must be brought in by the people. But there is a sign of change. The demise of LDP was hard to imagine two years ago. So we will see what will happen to Japan.
I am a Japanese expatriate scientist who have been living in Canada, US, UK and Belgium for 17 years. So I really do not know what is happening in Japan other than things I see on the web.
The immigration policies in countries I lived are more flexible. But I do not know what Japan should do for its immigration policy.
I personally do not think people should take government’s fund to study abroad; these funds will produce many poppets of the government not flexible individuals. Of course if one has no intention to stay abroad for long time then they can take such a fund.