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Revised Nationality Law passed
The Diet on Friday passed a bill to revise the Nationality Law, which had been blasted as unconstitutional and discriminatory against children of mixed couples born out of wedlock. However, the Diet talks did not go as smoothly as planned because of concerns over fake nationality claims and even some xenophobic messages from the public.…
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Subsidies offered for giving part-timers full-time jobs
Under the stimulus plan, the government would offer up to ¥1 million to small and midsize businesses and ¥500,000 to larger companies every time they make a part-time employee a full-time worker before their contract is terminated. It is also considering granting job creation subsidies to firms that hire those who are facing job cancellations…
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Aso to urge business leaders to give in to wage demands
If Aso follows through with the request, it will represent the full application of his prime ministerial authority to raising corporate wages across the nation, the sources said. In addition to higher wages to spur the anemic economy, the government appears ready to implement a long-promised fiscal stimulus policy of handing out cash gifts worth…
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Japan’s Aso Will Ask Business Leaders to Boost Wages, Kyodo Says
Prime Minister Taro Aso plans to meet with top Japanese corporate executives next week to seek higher wages for workers, Kyodo News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Aso will meet with Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, and other business leaders Dec. 1 in an effort to bolster the economy, the…
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Keidanren Tells Japan’s Salarymen to Work Less, Have More Kids
Keidanren, Japan’s biggest business organization, is worried the nation’s workers aren’t having enough sex. The group urged its 1,632 member companies to start so- called family weeks that give employees more time for playing with the kids and having more children to reverse a declining birth rate. A survey by Japan’s Family Planning Association of…
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Prejudice among obstacles facing non-Japanese tenants
With a falling population, a shrinking tax base and a shortage of carers for its increasing number of elderly, calls are growing for Japan to allow in a large influx of foreign workers to plug the gap. The question is: When they come, will they be able to find a place to stay? With its…
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Lower house OKs bill to remove marriage requirement for nationality
The House of Representatives at its plenary session on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the Nationality Law to enable a child born out of wedlock to a Japanese man and a foreign woman to obtain Japanese nationality if the father recognizes his paternity. The bill will be immediately sent to the House of Councillors…
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LDP panel mulls easing law on dual citizenship
Mixed couples’ kids could have two nationalities Liberal Democratic Party member Taro Kono said Thursday he has submitted a proposal to an LDP panel he heads calling for the Nationality Law to be revised to allow offspring of mixed couples, one of whom being Japanese, to have more than one nationality. The panel will scrutinize…
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Education woes beset Brazilian children
Symposium highlights the need for comprehensive planning in the face of growing immigration Hidenori Sakanaka, director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, said Japan should be prepared to raise the ratio of foreign immigrants to 10 percent of the population in the next 50 years as the population rapidly declines. Sakanaka stressed that immigration policy…
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Nova refugees: Where are they now?
‘All the schools are closed.’ That’s the text message I received on the morning of Oct. 26, 2007, from a fellow Nova teacher. I went to my school later that day to find the lights off, the doors locked and no one around. Like most of Nova Corp.’s hundreds of language centers, it was never…