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Immigration bills threaten rights of foreigners: critics
Representatives of municipalities and human rights groups voiced their opposition Thursday to government-sponsored immigration bills they say will lead to violations of foreigners’ rights and excessive control over them. The proposed bills would issue new “zairyu” (residency) cards to replace their alien registration cards. Failure to carry the cards or report any changes in status…
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5,631 temps killed, injured in work accidents in 2008
A total of 5,631 dispatch workers were killed or injured in work-related accidents in 2008, many of them inexperienced workers in the manufacturing industry, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry report. While the figure is 254 lower than in 2007, it is still high–more than eight times the number injured or killed in…
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Proposed foreigner card protested
Opponents of change to immigration law fear loss of privacy, other human rights violations More than 200 people [including former members of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu] rallied in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district Sunday to protest government-sponsored immigration bills they claim would violate the privacy of foreign residents and strengthen government control over…
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IC you: bugging the alien
New gaijin cards could allow police to remotely track foreigners When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track “foreigners” (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan. Gaijin cards…
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Exploited workers lose $20B a year
The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide. People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $20 billion a year in earnings, according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday. Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $36 billion, according to the United Nations,…
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Japan: Birthrate report shows it’s not getting any younger
A report says Japan’s ratio of children is now down to 13%, boding ill for the labor pool and pension funds. Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children’s Day, had fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic shift that could eventually wreak havoc on the world’s second-largest…
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Unions gather in Tokyo, nationwide for May Day labor events
Members of Japan’s labor unions gathered in Tokyo and other cities across the country for the 80th Central May Day event Friday. The participants called for a halt to both temporary and permanent worker layoffs, under slogans such as “Eliminate unemployment and poverty!” and “Major companies, use your reserves and protect employment!” The National Trade…
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Foreign workers who take gov’t support to head home angered by re-entry restriction
Laid-off foreign workers of Japanese descent who accept financial support from the Japanese government to return to their home countries have been dismayed to learn that they will not be allowed to return to Japan. “‘Don’t come back.’ Maybe that’s what they’re saying,” says 62-year-old Tess Ohashi sadly. Ohashi is a second generation Brazilian of…
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Berlitz blitz against union bogs down
In December, after a year of strike action by over 100 teachers, the company filed a lawsuit against seven union members. Named in the suit are five Berlitz teachers who volunteer as Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) executives and two officials from the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu: President Yujiro Hiraga and Louis…
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Lower House panel takes up contentious immigration bill
A Lower House panel Friday began deliberating a controversial bill that would revise the immigration law by strengthening state control over foreigners and illegal entry by shifting responsibility for alien registration to the central government from municipalities and increasing penalties for violators. The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is trying to get the bill…