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Foreigners’ voting rights
In their election manifestoes, New Komeito, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party pledge to achieve foreign suffrage. Other parties, like the Liberal Democratic Party, the People’s New Party, the Sunrise Party of Japan and Your Party, are opposed to the change. In contrast, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s manifesto says nothing…
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Department stores and sweat shops
It’s one Japan for rich Chinese shoppers, another for low-skilled workers Many Japanese strive to keep up egalitarian appearances. Porsche drivers keep their cars tactfully hidden away. Houses of the well-heeled are unflashy. In the finest department stores, even the demure “elevator girls” are treated with impeccable politeness. But when it comes to the way…
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33 foreign care workers go home; test too difficult
Thirty-three Filipinos and Indonesians who came to Japan to work as nurses and nursing care workers have returned home after becoming discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the national exams for their professions, it has been learned. Eleven went home after learning they had failed the latest annual nursing exam. Only 1.2 percent of…
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Labor standards office to rule Chinese trainee at metal plant died of overwork
A local labor standards inspection office [in Ibaraki Prefecture] is set to recognize the death of a Chinese trainee at a metal processing factory was caused by overwork, officials said. This will be the first time that the death of a foreign vocational trainee in Japan has been recognized as a work-related accident, according to…
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Chinese intern death in Japan ‘very likely’ due to overwork
A Chinese intern employed in Japan under a government training program “very likely” died because he had been overworked, labour officials said Friday. The 31-year-old man worked at a metal processing firm in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, and died of cardiac arrest in June 2008 after working more than 100 hours overtime the month…
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Foreigner suffrage, separate surnames stir passions in poll runup
Whether to grant permanent foreign residents voting rights for local-level elections and allow married couples to keep their respective surnames have become contentious issues ahead of the July 11 Upper House election. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which advocates the introduction of foreigner suffrage and separate surnames for married couples if desired, faces strong…
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Health Checks – They’re mandatory! Interac ordered to obey the law
Cross-posted from the General Union in Osaka: 5 Jul 2010 Health Checks – They’re mandatory! Interac ordered to obey the law Industrial Health & Safety Act For many westerners, the idea of a state mandated health check smacks of a nanny state, and we are often reluctant to submit to the tests. While not all…
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Foreign talent feeling gypped by top agency
Inagawa Motoko Office, one of the largest and oldest show business agencies catering to foreign performers in Japan, recently came under fire from some of its registered artists for not paying them in a timely manner for work they have done. In recent interviews with The Japan Times, 10 people registered with IMO said those…
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Opening Japan’s Immigration Door
Buried in the government’s new growth strategy is a short section calling for an easing — albeit slight — in Japan’s ultra-tight immigration restrictions. It’s a small gesture, but symbolically significant for a nation that has been slow to open its borders, despite a shrinking native population. The Kan administration hopes to “double the number…
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Workplace bans on beards raise hairy questions
In May, the city of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, banned all male municipal employees from sporting beards in the office on the grounds that public servants should look decent. The city took the action after some residents complained about its bearded workers. In response to the news, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said it had…