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Number of local entertainers in Japan down
Deployment of Filipino entertainers to Japan is on a rapid decline ever since the Japanese government imposed stricter immigration policy for overseas performing artists (OPAs) more than three years ago.
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Ishihara comes out for more immigration
Despite being known for xenophobic remarks, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara claims he welcomes an increase in foreign residents and says Japan should allow more immigrants to live here.
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Foreign employees in Japan up 15.5% to around 650,000 at end of Oct.
A total of 649,982 foreign workers were employed by 108,760 companies and other establishments in Japan as of the end of last October, up 15.5 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, the labor ministry said Monday. The total included 259,362 workers in the manufacturing sector, up 15.6 percent from the year before,…
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Ageing, insular Japan slowly discovers the benefits of immigration
It says much about Japan’s fortress-like approach to immigration that it made news when the country accepted 27 refugees from Burma late last year. They were first of a group of 90 Burmese that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ office persuaded Japan to accept as arguably a first baby step towards creating an humanitarian…
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Japan Keeps a High Wall for Foreign Labor
Maria Fransiska, a young, hard-working nurse from Indonesia, is just the kind of worker Japan would seem to need to replenish its aging work force. But Ms. Fransiska, 26, is having to fight to stay. To extend her three-year stint at a hospital outside Tokyo, she must pass a standardized nursing exam administered in Japanese,…
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Trade pacts one thing, immigrant labor another
Japan, despite a decade of government, business, academic and media warnings that the aging population and lower birthrate mean millions of foreign workers are needed to maintain current GDP levels, has dithered, opting instead to emphasize the goal of wooing highly skilled migrant workers. In July, Jusuf Anwar, Indonesian ambassador to Japan, told a public…
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Immigrants are equal citizens, not guests
There is no quick or easy way out, but Europe — and Japan — should start by making economic migration legitimate Baruch Spinoza, the 17th-century Dutch philosopher, Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the 21st-century French president, have one thing in common: all are sons of immigrants. People have migrated to…
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Japan modifies nursing licensure exam for foreigners
The nursing licensure exam in Japan for foreigners will be modified in February in the hope that more foreign nurses will be able to pass it and eventually work with Japanese patients, a Philippine official said Tuesday. Philippine Overseas Employment Agency chief Jennifer Manalili said Japan has agreed to put English translations beside some Japanese…
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Diplomatic issues close door on families seeking status
Around 300 Kurds live in and around Kawaguchi and neighboring Warabi. Most came to Japan in the 1990s, and many have applied for refugee status due to persecution by the Turkish government. But support organizations say not a single one of them has been recognized. According to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau, there were 1,599…
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Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?
Government statistics suggest multiculturalism is on the rise, but social organizations for mixed-race Japanese say ‘hafus’ still face challenges Japan, which closed its borders from 1639 to 1854 and later colonized its neighbors, has an uneasy history with foreigners, national identity, and multiculturalism. Yet government statistics and grassroots organizations say multiculturalism in the famously insular…