The legislative purpose of H1B is to preserve the ability of companies to hire professionals who cannot be found at any price in America. There are a few safeguards designed to promote this: a requirement to advertise for the position in the US, for example, and the publication process.
A frequent criticism made of H1B is that it is used as an end-run around our (typically fairly strict) immigration procedures to bring in modern-day indentured servants who do jobs many Americans can do at wages which are markedly lower than the prevailing US wages. You'll frequently see this in e.g. Slashdot criticism, with tales of H1Bs hired by Infosys or whomever paid to do systems engineering for $20k ~ $30k, which (if substantially accurate) is an abuse of the program.
FWIW, I am in Japan by the grace of a status of residence very similar to the H1B, and that would be yanked instantly if I was not earning more than the prevailing wage for similarly situated Japanese engineers. (Though there is another status here -- trainee -- which is widely abused to that purpose.)
For all intents and purposes, the "trainee" visa in Japan is borderline slavery and is used to bring in extremely cheap labor from China and SE Asia.
Japan is actually pretty relaxed about immigration considering the xenophobic image. All you need is a job offer from a company willing to do the paperwork, (normally) a Bachelors degree in the field you will work in and a salary offer that is at least what a Japanese hire would get. No quotas or H1B hire-in-Japan-first requirements. You aren't trapped in your job - once you get a work visa, you can change to another company in the same field with no repercussions. Get married and you have full rights to work, not work or start a business as you please with a spousal visa.
Don't want to work for someone else or get married? 5 million yen in the bank (about $60k) and a business plan gets you an "Investors" visa.
A frequent criticism made of H1B is that it is used as an end-run around our (typically fairly strict) immigration procedures to bring in modern-day indentured servants who do jobs many Americans can do at wages which are markedly lower than the prevailing US wages. You'll frequently see this in e.g. Slashdot criticism, with tales of H1Bs hired by Infosys or whomever paid to do systems engineering for $20k ~ $30k, which (if substantially accurate) is an abuse of the program.
FWIW, I am in Japan by the grace of a status of residence very similar to the H1B, and that would be yanked instantly if I was not earning more than the prevailing wage for similarly situated Japanese engineers. (Though there is another status here -- trainee -- which is widely abused to that purpose.)