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The Rising Sun slowly sets
Unfortunately, Japan is notoriously closed to foreigners, mainly because opinion polls show that most Japanese associate foreigners with crime. As of 2003, there were only 1.9 million registered foreign residents in Japan, equivalent to only 1.5% of the population. The real number of foreigners is even lower, considering that 600,000 are ethnic Koreans mostly born…
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Aso family’s ’slave’ link under scrutiny
While Taro Aso’s public statements as foreign minister have done little to help ease tensions between Tokyo and the rest of Asia, a family connection to wartime forced labor has raised further questions over his ability to oversee good relations with Japan’s neighbors. Speaking at the opening of the Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka last…
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Bill warrants thorough debate
Only two weeks after it was sent to the chamber’s floor and with little debate, the Lower House has passed a bill that will allow the fingerprinting and photographing of foreigners as they enter Japan. At present, the United States is the only country that photographs and fingerprints entrants, although a few European countries fingerprint…
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Japan to map out plan to enhance competitiveness
[The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy] will discuss changing the country’s immigration rules so that more skilled foreigners can come to Japan for work. An outline is slated for release in May. Meanwhile, the panel also agreed to discuss measures to address problems that may arise from an increase in the number of foreign residents…
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Unlike with the French, a lack of fight spells future gloom for Japan’s workers
For about a decade the Japanese government has been loosening its labor laws. Companies that were forced to restructure in the 1990s demanded more flexibility in hiring, so the government expanded the number of job types that could be covered by temporary workers. The result has been a steady erosion of wages, since companies who…
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Gov’t promises to improve livelihood of foreign residents
The panel will take up various problems facing foreign residents, including economic issues and language and other handicaps their children may face, [LDP Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo] Abe said. It will also try to ascertain how they have been accepted by local communities, he said. “Having admitted them into the country, Japan bears a certain…
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Foreign students’ goal of career proves elusive
[The director of a major Tokyo-based dispatch company] also said many Japanese employers prevent foreigners from signing up for the social insurance system because they do not want to shoulder part of the cost of the insurance. They have not shed their tendency to pay low wages to foreigners, she added. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060407f1.html
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Ministry plans electronic maps to track down suspicious foreigners
In another controversial plan, the Justice Ministry will use electronic maps to locate foreigners believed to be staying here illegally, as well as businesses that have hired illegal workers, sources said. Criticism had already been lodged against the plan, much like the Justice Ministry’s system set up in 2004 of having the public send e-mail…
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Fingerprint bill unfair, activists say
A bill under deliberation in the Upper House to fingerprint foreigners entering Japan, which backers say is a necessary counterterrorism measure, must be defeated at all costs because it is discriminatory and vague, human rights groups said Wednesday. Amnesty International Japan Secretary General Makoto Teranaka slammed the bill, saying it encourages discrimination against foreigners and…
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Times get tough for teachers
English teaching in Japan is not what it used to be. Conditions are changing; the work is harder to come by, wages are falling, and staff are increasingly taking their employers to court. “It’s (the ALT industry) getting bigger and bigger, but as it gets bigger there is a race to the bottom in wages,”…