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Japan Mulls Importing Foreign Workers
The prospect of a shrinking, rapidly aging population is spurring a debate about whether Japan is so insular that it once barred foreigners from its shores for two centuries should open up to more foreign workers. Japan’s 2 million registered foreigners, 1.57 percent of the population, are at a record high but minuscule compared with…
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Mixed results with foreign influx: Japan is changing, but system, attitudes need to keep pace
The birthrate in Japan is at an all-time low, far below the rate needed to maintain the population. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has predicted that Japan could lose 20 million people by 2050. If that isn’t bad enough, Japan also has one of the most rapidly graying populations in the…
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Detention centers lack docs / 2 facilities holding visa violators not offering proper medical care
Two state-run immigration centers where foreigners who have violated the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law are detained until they are deported failed to have a full-time doctor on staff despite ministerial requirements, it has been learned. As adequate medical treatment and health care for the detainees is stipulated in a Justice Ministry ordinance, a…
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Japan salvages its older workers
Fears of a labour crunch and a deficit of skilled workers are growing in Japan as baby boomers start hitting the standard retirement age of 60 this year, in what Japanese media have dubbed the “2007 problem”. A decline in numbers of young workers is exacerbating the concern as the population ages at an unprecedented…
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Foreign permanent residents on rise, filling gaps
Japan’s population started declining in 2005, but in contrast, registered foreigners soared to a record high 2.01 million, a leap from 1.36 million a decade ago and accounting for 1.57 percent of the nation’s total population. As baby boomers born between 1947 to 1949 start to retire this year, getting more foreign nationals into the…
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Entertainer visa issuance down over 70% in 2 years
The number of visas for entertainers issued by Japan is estimated to have fallen by more than 70% from a peak of 140,000 in 2004 to 40,000 this year on tougher visa requirements, according to data made available by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday. The government issues such visas to singers, dancers and other foreign…
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Author dismisses government’s fear mongering myth of crime wave by foreigners
For years, people like Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara have been up in arms about rising crime rates among foreigners and juveniles in Japan, but one of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s public safety experts has come out to say the claims are groundless, according to Sunday Mainichi (12/31). Ishihara and his ilk have long laid the…
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Factory denies Muslim basic human rights
A sewing factory in eastern Japan required an Indonesian Muslim trainee to sign a note promising to forgo praying five times a day and Ramadan fasting as a condition of her employment, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Monday. The firm also prohibited her from owning a cell phone and exchanging letters. The Justice Ministry suspect the…
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Firms face foreign hire disclosure
The government plans to make it mandatory, and no longer voluntary, that all companies in Japan report details about noncitizens when employing or dismissing them, in order to prevent an increase in illegal employment, officials said Thursday. The details will include the names, nationalities and visa status and duration. Employers who fail to make such…
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Hello Work violated temp staff law
Sixteen Hello Work job-placement offices under the jurisdiction of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Osaka Labor Bureau have allowed employees from two organizations to engage in work performed by Hello Work offices, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Tuesday. The employees of the Employment and Human Resources Development Organization of Japan (EHDO), an independent administrative institution…