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Keidanren Tells Japan’s Salarymen to Work Less, Have More Kids
Keidanren, Japan’s biggest business organization, is worried the nation’s workers aren’t having enough sex. The group urged its 1,632 member companies to start so- called family weeks that give employees more time for playing with the kids and having more children to reverse a declining birth rate. A survey by Japan’s Family Planning Association of…
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Prejudice among obstacles facing non-Japanese tenants
With a falling population, a shrinking tax base and a shortage of carers for its increasing number of elderly, calls are growing for Japan to allow in a large influx of foreign workers to plug the gap. The question is: When they come, will they be able to find a place to stay? With its…
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Lower house OKs bill to remove marriage requirement for nationality
The House of Representatives at its plenary session on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the Nationality Law to enable a child born out of wedlock to a Japanese man and a foreign woman to obtain Japanese nationality if the father recognizes his paternity. The bill will be immediately sent to the House of Councillors…
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LDP panel mulls easing law on dual citizenship
Mixed couples’ kids could have two nationalities Liberal Democratic Party member Taro Kono said Thursday he has submitted a proposal to an LDP panel he heads calling for the Nationality Law to be revised to allow offspring of mixed couples, one of whom being Japanese, to have more than one nationality. The panel will scrutinize…
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Education woes beset Brazilian children
Symposium highlights the need for comprehensive planning in the face of growing immigration Hidenori Sakanaka, director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, said Japan should be prepared to raise the ratio of foreign immigrants to 10 percent of the population in the next 50 years as the population rapidly declines. Sakanaka stressed that immigration policy…
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Citizenship for kids still tall order
Many observers of the Nationality Law have welcomed the government’s proposed revision approved Tuesday by the Cabinet that will soon allow hundreds of children born out of wedlock to Japanese men and foreign women to obtain Japanese nationality if the father recognizes paternity even after birth. Despite what seems to be a positive move, however,…
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Cities demand more support for foreigners
A group of 26 cities and towns with large foreign communities adopted a declaration Wednesday calling on the government to form a new agency to comprehensively deal with immigration policies and beef up efforts to strengthen Japanese language education. “More and more foreigners are expected to come to Japan as workers in the years ahead…
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Keidanren: Immigrant worker influx vital to halt labor shortage
Japan should expedite an increase in immigrant labor to engage in fields ranging from welfare to manufacturing, construction and agriculture to offset the shrinking domestic workforce, the nation’s largest business lobby said Tuesday. Japan has essentially not accepted unskilled workers in those areas, but the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) now argues the country should…
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Japanese hoteliers turn backs on foreign tourists
Japan’s mission to boost the number of overseas visitors suffered a setback this week after hundreds of hoteliers and inn owners said they would turn away foreign guests. Of the 7,068 hotels and inns that responded to a survey by the communications ministry, 62% had received at least one foreign guest last year, while 38%,…
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Japan: No room at inn for foreigners
Most Japanese inns and hotels that didn’t have foreign guests last year don’t want any in the future, according to a government survey released Thursday. While the majority of such establishments do accept foreigners, the survey showed the country’s more traditional inns are not as hospitable, even as the government mounts a major campaign to…