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Factory, employment agency in Japan must pay for exploiting interns
Officially, they came to Japan for training, but in reality, they were forced to work long hours for little pay. A Japanese court on Monday ordered a sewing company and an employment service to pay 4.4 million yen (52,250 dollars) in damages, ruling that the firms had exploited four Chinese interns. The High Court in…
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Gov’t to help foreign residents master Japanese language
The government will help foreign residents master the Japanese language in order to improve their quality of life, its basic guideline on the issue showed Tuesday. “Foreign residents in Japan have difficulties in finding jobs due to their insufficient language capabilities, and more people have faced hardships in their lives,” the guideline, compiled by a…
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New Dissent in Japan Is Loudly Anti-Foreign
The demonstrators appeared one day in December, just as children at an elementary school for ethnic Koreans were cleaning up for lunch. The group of about a dozen Japanese men gathered in front of the school gate, using bullhorns to call the students cockroaches and Korean spies. Inside, the panicked students and teachers huddled in…
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Japan, Germany face less size and clout as anniversary nears
Japan and Germany will celebrate the 150th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2011. Both countries were defeated in World War II but re-emerged strongly from the ashes of war. Over the decades that followed, they became the undisputed economic powerhouses of Asia and Europe. But leaders in both countries may have less reason to…
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Japan looks for answers as China surges past
Japan’s GDP slump, and news that China’s economy is now bigger, will intensify the search for answers on turning around the economy. To some, the answer lies offshore. Not in the traditional sense of exporting cars and televisions, but in bringing in new workers from Japan’s rapidly developing neighbours. The Japanese are good at finding…
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Drop in number of Japan’s foreign workers amid economic crisis
Brazilian community hard hit as jobs shrink and Japanese compete for vacancies The samba vibes that filled the streets of Kawasaki City in July were suitably festive, but their feverish beat failed to conceal the fact that Japan’s Brazilian community – the third-largest group of foreigners after the Chinese and Koreans – has been hard…
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Govt must improve foreign intern program
The revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law took effect in July, enhancing legal protection for foreign interns participating in a government-authorized training program. However, some observers say the revision of the law merely puts off dealing with the real problems. The program is said to be occupational training in name only, with some going…
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Meager pay keeps ranks of instructors in doldrums
It may not be well-known, but [Japanese language instruction] has also been on the rise, with more people than ever trying to learn [the language]. But the number of Japanese who teach nonnative speakers isn’t growing, partly due to lack of interest among academic circles and the low pay at private language schools that derives…
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Strict immigration rules may threaten Japan’s future
Her new country needs her, her new employer adores her, and Joyce Anne Paulino, who landed here 14 months ago knowing not a word of the language, can now say in Japanese that she’d like very much to stay. But Paulino, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, worries about the odds. To stay in Japan…
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The only Filipino nurse to pass Japan’s nursing exam
Ever Lalin, like others in the first batch of 98 nurses and caregivers who went to Japan May last year for a training stint preparatory to taking the Japanese nursing licensure exam, had no prior lessons in the Niponggo language. “Halimaw ah (A monster’s feat),” cheered nurse bloggers when it was announced last March that…