This forum gets 63 users a day so your appeal is likely to go unanswered. And even if an eccentric English-speaking degrowth-oriented Jap did chime in, that would be a very skewed sample size of 1 - not much use for drawing conclusions compared to, say, a poll.

That said, my understanding is roughly the same as yours. They're worried about it but not enough to consider mass immigration, which would undermine their prized social cohesion. They would prefer solutions to come from technology (robots) and labor reforms if at all possible. But - things are not panning out perfectly and low-skilled immigration for the healthcare sector is in fact rising. Mostly from SE Asia where the culture is considered sufficiently compatible. Philippines in particular.

Many people considering migration of course look at Japan - but it seems extremely poor choice, for naturalization is probably the hardest worldwide,lasting some decades,, and you'll never become japanese "for real", maybe your grandchildren, if you first decide to have children in a place where nobody does. Kind of stupid investment. Japanese culture is awesome though, but it's ok to enjoy it while living elsewhere IMHO.

I could tell from my POV, there is a need for foreign labor in Japan. It was even announced at the Japanese embassy (in my country) most of the labor needed to care for the elderly.

another example just a few months ago https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/02/59f0c75e44f4-indonesian-bus-driver-to-be-1st-to-work-under-new-japan-visa-status.html

You can also take a look at r/japanlife, most of them are foreigners from western countries.