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Foreign trainee abuses doubled
A record 449 corporations and organizations that accepted foreign nationals under a controversial trainee and intern system were found to have treated them unlawfully and abusively in 2007, the Justice Ministry said. The figure is twice the number from a year earlier. The ministry said employers had violated labor laws in 178 cases. Companies sent…
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Japan looks to immigrants as population shrinks: report
Japan’s ruling party is considering plans to encourage foreign workers to stay in the country long-term, a daily reported Monday after the birth rate fell for the 27th successive year. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has proposed setting up an “immigration agency” to help foreign workers — including providing language lessons, the Nikkei economic daily…
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DPJ weighs voting rights for all permanent residents
The DPJ lawmakers in favor of alien suffrage held seminars almost every other week until the end of March, inviting guest speakers on both sides of the issue to clarify their ideas. In early April, the group declared that voting rights should be given to all permanent residents who come from countries with which Japan…
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Japan May Issue Longer Visa for Foreigners With Language Skill
Japan plans to increase the length of stay for long-term visa holders who have Japanese-language ability, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said today. The government may expand the period of stay for foreigners who know Japanese to five years from three, Komura told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo today. Non-Japanese who use the language in…
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Method in the madness?
Japanese firms stand to gain from tougher border controls in a post-9/11 world In November, Japan became only the second country in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting and photo-taking at all international entry points, as part of beefed-up “antiterrorism” measures by the Ministry of Justice. The move was greeted by…
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Report urges closer watch on foreigners
Critics deride proposal to let Justice Ministry handle all data Foreigners living in Japan should be allowed five-year visas but kept under the eye of a new unified Justice Ministry-run nationwide identification system, a government panel on immigration control said in its report released Wednesday. The panel, made up of university professors and private-sector executives,…
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Kurdish man, Filipino wife granted special residence permission after overstaying visas
The Justice Ministry has decided to grant special residence permission to a Kurdish man, his Filipino wife and their 7-year-old daughter, overturning its earlier decision to deport the couple for overstaying their visas. The ministry’s move came after the Tokyo High Court suggested a settlement in the case in which the family’s request to nullify…
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Arudo Debito Book Tour
Author and activist Arudo Debito will be speaking at Tokyo Nambu HQ on Sunday, March 16, at 5:00, about his new book, “Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan”. Read on to find out more, and come to Nambu on Sunday night to talk to the author in person. “HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS, AND…
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LABOUR-JAPAN: Foreign Workers’ Grievances Erupt At Rally
With its own population both aging and declining, Japan needs migrant workers to sustain its economy. But the government?s failure to formulate an accommodative policy was evident at a rally in the capital on Sunday attended by some 300 foreign workers. Waving banners and shouting slogans such as “stop discrimination against foreign workers” and “Japanese…
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Foreign workers rally in Tokyo for equal rights, job security
Angry and frustrated, nearly 300 foreign residents of Japan rallied in the streets of central Tokyo Sunday to demand equal rights and job security. At the fourth annual demonstration, workers from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas spoke about unfair treatment they received on the job in Japan. South Korea’s song for democracy, “Great China”…