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Lower House passes bill revising foreign residency rules
The Lower House passed bills Friday making it easier for the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau to keep tabs on foreigners who have overstayed their visas as well as others residing legally in the country. A new form of identification, called a “zairyu” (residence) card, will replace alien registration cards, with the information on them kept…
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Immigration revision set to be passed
Compromise paves way for state-issued foreigner cards The ruling and opposition camps have revised a contentious set of immigration bills in a way that increases government scrutiny of both legal and illegal foreign residents while extending additional conveniences, according to a draft obtained Thursday by The Japan Times. Legislators from the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito…
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Foreigners stage a sit-in outside Diet to protest immigration bills
About 20 foreign workers [including members of NUGW Tokyo Nambu] and their supporters staged a sit-in Tuesday in front of the Diet to demand that bills to revise the immigration law be scrapped. The bills, now before the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee, would put a greater burden on foreign workers and violate their rights,…
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The issue that dares not speak its name
In Japanese, “racial discrimination” is jinshu sabetsu. That is the established term used in official translations of international treaties (such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD) that Japan has signed up to. However, the Japanese media won’t couch the discussion in these terms. This was visible during the…
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Immigration bills threaten rights of foreigners: critics
Representatives of municipalities and human rights groups voiced their opposition Thursday to government-sponsored immigration bills they say will lead to violations of foreigners’ rights and excessive control over them. The proposed bills would issue new “zairyu” (residency) cards to replace their alien registration cards. Failure to carry the cards or report any changes in status…
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Proposed foreigner card protested
Opponents of change to immigration law fear loss of privacy, other human rights violations More than 200 people [including former members of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu] rallied in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district Sunday to protest government-sponsored immigration bills they claim would violate the privacy of foreign residents and strengthen government control over…
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IC you: bugging the alien
New gaijin cards could allow police to remotely track foreigners When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track “foreigners” (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan. Gaijin cards…
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Exploited workers lose $20B a year
The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide. People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $20 billion a year in earnings, according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday. Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $36 billion, according to the United Nations,…
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Japan: Birthrate report shows it’s not getting any younger
A report says Japan’s ratio of children is now down to 13%, boding ill for the labor pool and pension funds. Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children’s Day, had fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic shift that could eventually wreak havoc on the world’s second-largest…
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Foreign workers who take gov’t support to head home angered by re-entry restriction
Laid-off foreign workers of Japanese descent who accept financial support from the Japanese government to return to their home countries have been dismayed to learn that they will not be allowed to return to Japan. “‘Don’t come back.’ Maybe that’s what they’re saying,” says 62-year-old Tess Ohashi sadly. Ohashi is a second generation Brazilian of…