Category: Immigration

… Japan granted refugee status to 46 asylum- seekers in 2005, a record high since 1983. Although this pales in comparison with the approximately 70,000 admitted as refugees and granted asylum by the U.S. in 2005, [Jana] Mason [deputy director of government relations for International Rescue Committee, a major U.S. nongovernmental organization] called the number a…

A black American man won a partial victory Wednesday in a discrimination suit against a shopkeeper who had barred his entry, when the Osaka High Court ruled that the defendant’s action was illegal, but not racially biased despite his stated bigotry, and awarded the plaintiff 350,000 yen. In overturning the lower court ruling, the high…

Fundamentally, [Hidenori] Sakanaka [former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau] argues, the issue before Japan is what kind of country it wants to become by the middle of this century: a “big” country or a “small” country. Becoming a Big Country means accepting, by 2050, roughly 20 million immigrants in order to maintain current economic levels…

As organizing campaigns in New York City show, migrant workers are indispensable to the revitalization of the labor movement. As employers turn to migrant labor to fill low-wage jobs, unions must encourage and support organizing drives that emerge from the oppressive conditions of work. As the 1930s workers’ movement demonstrates, if conditions improve for immigrants,…

Individuals, […], labor unions and private organizations are continuing low-profile activities to provide support for those injured workers. Under the workers’ accident compensation insurance, even if a victim of an industrial accident is working here illegally, compensatory payments are made. However, many employers refuse to help their illegal employees apply for workers’ compensation. And many illegal…

As suggested in the [Justice Ministry] panel’s interim report released in May, the panel said foreigners who want to work in Japan, including those of Japanese descent, must have a certain degree of proficiency in the Japanese language to be granted legal status. [Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro] Kono called the government’s current policy of granting…

…before official discussions on foreign labor go much further, national legislation to outlaw all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination is needed, according to the United Nations and nearly 80 Japan-based human rights organizations, many of which work to protect long-term foreign residents. Without such a law, they argue, Japan will have serious problems with…

Three courts have refused to allow three Korean residents working as lawyers to assume commissioned jobs despite being nominated by their bar associations, because they are not Japanese, attorneys said Thursday. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060901a2.html

On May 18, 2006, a little discussed and little debated law passed the Diet. With changes modeled on the “U.S. Visit” system set up in 2003, the Immigration Control Law was amended to require that, from November 2007, all foreigners (except “special” permanent residents) be photographed and fingerprinted upon entering the country. The law has…

An amended government ordinance entered force Thursday, banning companies linked to organized crime syndicates from sponsoring foreign singers and dancers entering Japan on entertainment visas. The updated Justice Ministry ordinance is aimed at tackling human trafficking as foreign women who have entered Japan as entertainers have often been forced to work for low wages as…