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Is Japan becoming more insular?
With so much talk of globalization, it might seem counterintuitive to suggest that Japan is turning inward, but that’s what some have concluded. Take Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where the local government last year made what seemed like a coldhearted offer to Latin American immigrants: It would pay them to go back home — as long…
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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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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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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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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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Hunger strike at immigration center
About 60 detainees at the East Japan Immigration Control Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, have been on hunger strike since Monday to seek better treatment, a Tokyo-based volunteer group member said Wednesday. Meanwhile, center spokesman Hiroki Shimizu confirmed to The Japan Times that about 30 detainees, rather than 60, have refused to eat since Monday.…
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Language sets high hurdle for caregiver candidates
FOREIGN NURSES Since the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers arrived in 2008 under a new bilateral economic partnership agreement, 570 have come to Japan, as have 310 Filipinos under another EPA that took effect two years ago. But just two Indonesians and one Filipino — out of 254 applicants — passed Japan’s nursing…
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Fresh batch of Filipino nurses, caregivers to leave for Japan
A fresh batch of over 100 candidate nurses and caregivers will leave the Philippines for Japan this weekend to begin free language and skills training, officials said Saturday. A total of 46 nurses and 70 caregivers, the third group of Filipino health workers to be sent to Japan, will depart Sunday to undergo a six-month…
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Chinese taking 2 different routes to Japan
The two Chinese are about the same age and both plan to improve their future prospects by living in Japan. But the similarities end there. The pair reflect the stark differences among Chinese heading to Japan from the booming coastal areas and the poorer inland regions that have yet to be swept up in the…
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Foreign nurses deserve helping hand
Given the serious shortage of medical and nursing care workers and nurses, lifting certain restrictions so qualified foreigners in these fields can apply their skills in this country is an obvious solution. In its fourth basic immigration control policy plan compiled late last month, the Justice Ministry stated it would reexamine the mandatory limit on…