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Wife presses for details in death of deportee
The Japanese wife of a Ghanaian who died last month while he was being deported for overstaying his visa called Tuesday on police and the Immigration Bureau to disclose exactly how he died. “I want the government to unveil the truth as soon as possible to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents,” the wife of…
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Foreigner suffrage opponents rally
Conservative politicians express outrage at DPJ plan Conservative intellectuals and key executives from five political parties were among the thousands who gathered in Tokyo on Saturday to rally against granting foreign residents voting rights for local elections. On hand were financial services minister Shizuka Kamei, who heads Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party), Liberal Democratic Party…
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Japanese population declines by record 180,000 to 127.51 mil.
Japan’s estimated population decreased for the second year in a row, declining by a record 183,000, or 0.14 percent, from a year earlier to 127,510,000 as of Oct. 1, 2009, government data showed Friday. By prefecture, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Aichi, Shiga and Okinawa saw population increases as they did in 2008. Okinawa saw the…
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Population shrank by record 183,000 in ’09
Japan’s population has entered full-scale decline and shrank by a record 183,000 people over the past year, government data showed Friday. As of Oct. 1, the population stood at an estimated 127,510,000 after shrinking by a record 0.14 percent, contracting for the second year in a row. The year-on-year drop is the third to strike…
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Japanese population declines by record 180,000 to 127.51 mil.
Japan’s estimated population decreased for the second year in a row, declining by a record 183,000, or 0.14 percent, from a year earlier to 127,510,000 as of Oct. 1, 2009, government data showed Friday. It was the third year-on-year decline in Japan’s population since 1950 when comparable data became available, the Ministry of Internal Affairs…
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Gov’t drafts guidelines for teaching Japanese to foreign residents
A government subcommittee has drafted guidelines for the first time on teaching Japanese to foreign residents of Japan in order to support them in their daily lives, government officials said Thursday. The draft guidelines compiled by a Council for Cultural Affairs subcommittee lists examples of words and phrases that foreigners should be encouraged to learn…
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Ultranationalist ‘citizens groups’ on the march
“Get out of Japan!” “Cockroach.” “Kimchi.” Those were just some of the insults hurled at a demonstration on Feb. 21 in Tokyo’s Minato Ward. More than 100 protesters belonging to several groups describing themselves as “active conservatives” gathered in front of a building that houses both the consular affairs department of the South Korean Embassy…
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For Japan to thrive, the wall must come down
More than 20 years have passed since the Berlin Wall fell, yet Japan remains shut out from the rest of humanity by its own wall. Though it is a shapeless partition that we cannot touch, it nevertheless cuts off the country from the world beyond its shores. What are the characteristics of this invisible barrier?…
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Japan, U.N. share blind spot on ‘migrants’
I wish to speak about the treatment of those of “foreign” origin and appearance in Japan, such as white and non-Asian people. Simply put, we are not officially registered — or even counted sometimes — as genuine residents. We are not treated as taxpayers, not protected as consumers, not seen as ethnicities even in the…
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Migrant children struggle in public schools
With the recession taking a particularly heavy toll on migrant communities, many schools for children of Japanese-Brazilian and other backgrounds have closed their doors after struggling through falling enrollments and nonpayment of fees. The closures have forced many children of migrants to enter the public school system, a daunting prospect for those whose entire schooling…