Under a bill approved by Parliament’s upper house in the early-morning hours, more than a quarter-million visas of five-year duration will be granted to unskilled guest laborers for the first time, starting in 2019.

The measure is a remarkable turn for Japan, surprising neighbors and maybe even itself. A nation that once embraced draconian limits on immigration is now reluctantly moving in the other direction, beckoning foreigners just as anti-immigrant political forces are roiling the West.

The change in Japan, however, is driven largely by economics and demographics. Japan has no other choice for filling jobs in a shrinking work force that is simply getting too old.

But not everybody is happy about it.