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10% of foreign residents have left disaster-hit prefectures
“Many foreigners returned to their countries after the disaster and have not returned to Japan as they are concerned about the nuclear crisis” at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, an official in the ministry’s Immigration Bureau said.
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Bye-bye to the gaijin card, welcome to the Juki Net in ’12
According to the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Justice and immigration lawyers, the new law will bring about a few major changes.
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Foreign trainee program ‘like human trafficking’
The U.S. State Department said in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report that some conditions faced by participants in Japan’s foreign trainee program were similar to those seen in human trafficking operations.
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104 Indonesian nurses, caregivers to depart for Japan
“As the length of Japanese language training has been increased from six months at the beginning, and now to nine months, and to 12 months by next year, we all hope more candidates can pass the local examinations,” Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar said.
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Tokyo finally grasps the migration nettle
“Unless radical policies are implemented, it is simply a matter of time before manufacturing, consumption, tax receipts, fiscal health, the pension and welfare system, and the very ability of people to make a living will all collapse under the inexorable dual pressures of rapid ageing and rapid declines in the young working population.”
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18 tax offices in 4 central Japan prefectures kept files on foreigners
Each of the tax offices are thought to have kept such files on more than 1,000 foreign taxpayers, but the number of those identified by nationality or alien registration number is not known.
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Govt to set point system for foreigners
The government will introduce a point system by the end of the year to give preferential treatment, such as easing the conditions for permanent residency, to non-Japanese with advanced expertise who want to come to Japan, according to a government source.
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An Immigration Stimulus for Japan
Hidenori Sakanaka, former Chief of Entry and Residence at the Nagoya and Tokyo Immigration Bureaus, argues that Japan allowing in more foreign workers would boost growth, especially in quake-ravaged areas.
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Foreign refugees pitch in to help
Myo Myint Swe, a 42-year-old refugee from Myanmar, said that since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, he wanted to help those in the Tohoku region affected by the devastation.
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Chinese exodus hurts industries dependent on foreign trainees, interns
“If the expenses for (going to China to) recruit and train are added to their wages, Chinese interns now cost more than Japanese workers,” the president said. “I intend to do away with accepting interns over the next three to five years.”