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Kawasaki foreign residents’ panel has significant impact on city policy
“If a foreigner is admitted as a resident and has the right to vote, the consciousness of local assembly members, companies and communities will change and their discrimination against foreigners will decline,” he said. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20060103f3.htm
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Foreign worker ranks grow, diversify
A record high 198,380 foreigners were working in Japan as of June 1, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. A total of 144,891 were indirectly-employed workers, including temporary or contract staff, an increase of 9.4 percent, the ministry said. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20051224a8.htm
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Top court favors tenant in row over responsibility for wear and tear in apartment
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a public housing corporation should return the deposit it seized from a tenant to cover repairs in an apartment from normal wear and tear. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20051216p2a00m0na021000c.html
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Paid holidays
Is a part time teacher at a “senmon gakko” (ten 90-minute classes over three days) entitled to pro rata annual paid leave? A representative of the National Union of General Workers in Tokyo advises that, roughly speaking, those working less than 30 hours a week are eligible to “hirei-fuyo nenji-yukyu” (pro rata paid holidays). http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050920a1.htm
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McDonald’s to pay millions in unpaid overtime
The decision earlier this week by McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) to make up for inadequate overtime wages and nonscheduled cash earnings owed to nearly 130,000 part-time and regular-payroll workers has sent a shock wave through industries heavily dependent on employees paid by the hour. A Tokyo-based managers’ union that has also received complaints about McDonald’s…
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Berlitz Tokyo Union Protests Pay Freeze
Across the Tokyo region, Berlitz language teachers are striking. Members of the Begunto Union, the Berlitz teachers’ union in the Tokyo region of Japan, are striking against management actions regarding a pay freeze and introduction of new work contracts they see as less than satisfactory. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=243288&rel_no=1
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Stranger in Tokyo
The size of Japan’s workforce is expected to peak ? and start falling ? within the next 2 years. But many it’s not easy being gaijin in Japan. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/08/04/PM200508043.html
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Suspicious minds
Japan is hoping to boost foreign investment and tourism by promoting the country as a land of hospitality. However, institutional racism and the media’s tendency to blame foreigners for rising crime means many visitors find themselves less than welcome. http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1166528,00.html
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U.N. calls for antidiscrimination law
The government urgently needs to acknowledge that deep discrimination against minorities, Korean and Chinese residents and other foreigners exists in Japan, an independent investigator said Monday. Doudou Diene, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2002 as special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, was in Japan for…
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Nationwide Probe of 750 Language Schools
The evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun carried a story by Ari Hirayama about a nationwide probe of 750 language schools suspected of not enrolling foreign teachers in shakai hoken (employee pension and health scheme), not only on the front page but as the top story. It even beat out Saddam Hussein’s indictment. Bob Tench,…