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Nihongo teaching guidelines drafted
A Cultural Affairs Agency council has accepted a draft of the first-ever language guidelines on how to teach foreigners living in Japan the minimum Japanese language skills required to function in society. The subcommittee of the Council for Cultural Affairs drew up a curriculum for national language education, which was accepted Wednesday by the council’s…
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Workplace policy: What strange things have been banned?
The municipal government of Isesaki in central Japan has banned its male employees from growing beards. Yahoo News reports that there were two specific reasons for the ban. City officals cited a need for public servants to maintain decorum. Also, there were complaints from citizens who found beards and stubble unpleasant. The facial hair policy…
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Gov’t eyes more Japanese language teachers to improve education for foreign children
The government finalized a plan Tuesday to make it easier for children of foreign residents to get a public school education in Japan, including a possible expansion in Japanese language teacher numbers to improve foreign children’s communication skills. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, there were 18,585 foreign children registered…
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Municipal government bans male employees from wearing beards
The municipal government of Isesaki in central Japan on Wednesday banned male employees from wearing beards, citing concerns that citizens find beards unpleasant and the need for public servants to maintain decorum. The government of the Gunma Prefecture city said it has received complaints from some citizens who were offended by city office employees who…
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Still waiting for that last paycheck
Reader TS writes: “I return to the U.S. next week and I was supposed to receive my final pay check from a really bad ALT company . . . last week, but did not receive payment. I’ve called them but the secretaries say that the people in charge are not in the office. I called…
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Wages fell record 3.3% last year
Monthly wages took their largest drop ever — 3.3 percent — in fiscal 2009 ended in March as the global financial crisis and recession took their toll, the labor ministry said Monday. Wages came to ¥315,311 on average, down for a third consecutive year and the sharpest year-on-year drop since fiscal 1991, when the survey’s…
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Nursing candidates get online help
A website that assists foreign students studying Japanese has been updated to help nurse and caregiver candidates from Indonesia and the Philippines learn to read kanji Chinese characters and what Japanese medical and care terms mean. A group led by Yoshiko Kawamura, a professor of Japanese language teaching at Tokyo International University, has added Indonesian…
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Education ministry planning to improve quality of teachers
The education ministry plans to improve the quality of teachers by drastically overhauling the current licensing system and lengthening the time required for teacher training, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will seek advice on the matter as early as June from the Central Council for Education, an…
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Japanese immigration policy: A nation’s bouncers
A suspicious death in police custody Abubakar Awudu Suraj was already unconscious when the cabin crew of EgyptAir MS965 saw him on board, before the Tokyo-to-Cairo flight. Shortly later he was dead. A Ghanaian who had lived illegally in Japan, Mr Suraj was being deported on March 22nd, when he was lifted and forced onto…
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Suicides over lost jobs up sharply
Suicides in Japan in 2009 stayed above 30,000 for the 12th consecutive year, but those linked to job losses spiked, defying claims that the economy is on the mend, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number of suicides in the reporting year totaled 32,845, up 1.85 percent from the preceding year, the NPA…