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14 Prefectures Oppose Allowing Foreigners to Vote in Local Elections
Local assemblies in 14 of Japan’s 47 prefectures have adopted statements in opposition to giving permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections since the Democratic Party of Japan took power last year, a Kyodo News tally showed Monday. Before the launch last September of the new government under Prime Minister…
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Japanese language a barrier for Indonesian and Filipino nurses
The Japanese health ministry has rejected a plan to make it easier for Indonesian and Filipino nurses to qualify for work in Japan. A 2008 Economic Partnership Agreement allows a number of Indonesian and Filipino nurses and caregivers to train and work in Japan. But the compulsory national exam and the level of language the…
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Ueda against letting foreigners vote
Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda said Tuesday he is against a bill that would give permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections. “I have long been opposed to such a bill. I don’t think it is a matter to be decided by a majority of votes (in the Diet),” Ueda said. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100120a8.html
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Assemblies say ‘no’ to foreign suffrage
Fourteen prefectural assemblies have adopted statements opposing legislation that would give permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. The statements were adopted from October to December after the Democratic Party of Japan, which favors foreign suffrage, took power from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Of…
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Human rights in Japan: a top 10 for ’09
They say that human rights advances come in threes: two steps forward and one back. 2009, however, had good news and bad on balance. For me, the top 10 human rights events of the year that affected non-Japanese (NJ) were, in ascending order: 7) ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ (tied) Accused murderer Tatsuya Ichihashi and convicted embezzler…
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Employers denying jobs to applicants based on medical histories, gov’t study finds
Some Japanese companies demand job applicants provide personal medical histories and deny employment based on their content, a Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) research group has discovered. The ministry has directed employers not to ask for medical information unrelated to the positions in question, citing a risk of employment discrimination, while the research…
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Public schools turn to non-Japanese teachers
Third-grade students at Osaka municipal Kita-Nakajima Primary School get insights into culture on the Korean Peninsula that many others do not. Their homeroom teacher is Lee Chi I, 31, a third-generation South Korean living in Japan. Lee’s grandfather came from South Korea’s Gyeongsangnam-do, but she was born and raised in Aichi Prefecture. Students at the…
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Too innocent for prejudice?
Are kindergarteners racist? Do they discriminate between children with different skin colors? “Children are too innocent,” one Japanese mother told me in a survey of parents’ views. Her conclusion: “They do not hold racial prejudices.” As innocent as children may be, extensive research conducted in the United States and Europe has shown that children as…
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A level playing field for immigrants
Despite Japan’s looming demographic disaster — you know, the aging society and population drop due to low birthrates and record-long life spans — we still have no immigration policy. No wonder: The people charged with dealing with non-Japanese (NJ) — i.e. the Ministry of Justice’s Immigration Bureau and sundry business-sector organizations — just police NJ…
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Political shift gives hope to gays
The likelihood that the Democratic Party of Japan, the last party to submit [an antidiscrimination law] bill, will dominate the powerful House of Representatives in an alliance with the Social Democratic Party, which speaks out for homosexual rights, has raised hopes that the inertia may at last be overcome. This was echoed by Boris Dittrich, advocacy director…