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Health insurance nixed as visa renewal condition
The Immigration Bureau has effectively scrapped a guideline that compelled foreign residents to present health insurance cards when applying to extend visa status, it has been learned. The new guideline, due to be enforced on April 1, states it would have requested non-Japanese to enroll in the social insurance system and present health insurance cards…
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Police crack down on legal workers who help foreigners illegally work in Japan
Law enforcers are stepping up their crackdown on administrative scriveners who help foreigners illegally work or get falsely married in Japan, officials said. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has set up a liaison council with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Justice Ministry’s Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to deal with the matter. Since 2006, the…
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Security for dispatch workers
The labor ministry last month asked an advisory body to discuss possible revisions to the law governing the dispatch of temporary contract workers. The Hatoyama administration hopes to improve the stability of dispatch workers’ employment situation, and plans to send a bill containing revisions to the Diet in March. According to a ministry draft of…
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DPJ postpones bill to grant local voting rights to permanent foreign residents
The government has abandoned proposing a bill to grant local voting rights to permanent foreign residents in Japan during the current Diet session, in the face of intense opposition from coalition partner People’s New Party (PNP). “It’s extremely difficult for the government to sponsor such a bill due to differences over the issue between the…
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Business lobby to end donation drive
Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) plans to stop soliciting political donations from its members starting this year, in part because of the ascendancy of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which opposes such fund raising, sources said Wednesday. The move by the nation’s most influential business lobby, with a membership of 1,600 companies and organizations,…
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900 axed JNR unionists may get ¥29.5 million each
A 23-year-old dispute over the dismissal of unionized workers at the Japanese National Railways may finally be heading toward a resolution now that the ruling bloc and an opposition party have drafted a ¥27 billion settlement plan. The package, hammered out Tuesday by the three coalition partners and New Komeito, calls for a payment of…
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No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage
How the rest of the world deals with aliens at the ballot box Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration’s push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo,…
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Chinese students cautioned after GEOS English schools in Australia collapse
China’s Education Ministry on Sunday warned students considering studying overseas against Australian schools run by the GEOS group after more than 40 Chinese students were left stranded with the group’s collapse. More than 2,300 students in GEOS group schools across Australia were affected after the college closures. The schools were scattered across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,…
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Average per capita income up for fourth straight year
The national average per capita income has increased for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Annual Report on Prefectural Accounts for fiscal 2007 released by the Cabinet Office. The figure, averaged from prefectural averages, came to approximately 3.05 million yen, a 0.7 percent increase from fiscal 2006. While the variation coefficient dropped for the…
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English school ordered to close / Court warned Fortress Japan last year over coercive sales practices
The Consumer Affairs Agency and the Tokyo metropolitan government on Thursday ordered a Tokyo-based English-language conversation school chain operator to suspend operations due to its coercive method of selling its services to university students and others. Fortress Japan talked customers into signing contracts for the purchase of English-learning programs, often telling students, “You’ll never be…