I wish to speak about the treatment of those of “foreign” origin and appearance in Japan, such as white and non-Asian people. Simply put, we are not officially registered — or even counted sometimes — as genuine residents. We are not treated as taxpayers, not protected as consumers, not seen as ethnicities even in the national census. According to government polls and surveys, we do not even deserve the same human rights as Japanese. The view of “foreigner” as “only temporary in Japan” is a blind spot even the United Nations seems to share, but I will get to that later.
First, an overview: The number of non-Japanese (NJ) on visas of three months or longer has increased since 1990 from about 1 million to over two. Permanent residents (PR) number over 1 million, meaning about half of all registered NJ can stay here forever. Given how hard PR is to get — about five years if married to a Japanese, 10 years if not — a million NJ permanent residents are clearly not a temporary part of Japanese society.
Moreover, this does not count the estimated half-million or so naturalized Japanese citizens (I am one of them). Nor does this count children of international marriages, about 40,000 annually. Mathematically, if each couple has two children, eventually that will mean 80,000 more ethnically diverse Japanese children; over a decade, 800,000 — almost a million again. Not all of these children of diverse backgrounds will “look Japanese.”
What’s more, we don’t know Japan’s true diversity because the Census Bureau only surveys for nationality. This means when I fill out the census, I write down “Japanese” for my nationality, but I cannot indicate my ethnicity as a “white Japanese,” or a “Japanese of American extraction” (amerikakei nihonjin). I believe this is by design — because the politics of identity in Japan are all about “monoculturality and monoethnicity.” Given modern Japan’s emerging immigration and assimilation, this is a fiction. The official conflation of Japanese nationality and ethnicity is incorrect, yet our government refuses to collect data that would correct that.
The point is we cannot tell who is “Japanese” just by looking at them. This means that whenever distinctions are made between “foreigner” and “Japanese,” be it police racial profiling or “Japanese only” signs, some Japanese citizens will also be affected. Thus we need a law against racial discrimination in Japan — not only because it will help noncitizens assimilate into Japan, but also because it will protect Japanese against xenophobia, bigotry and exclusionism, against the discrimination that is “deep and profound” and “practiced undisturbed in Japan,” according to U.N. Rapporteur Doudou Diene in 2005 and 2006.
There are some differences in viewpoint between my esteemed colleagues here today and the people I am trying to speak for. Japan’s minorities as definable under the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), including Ainu, Ryukyuans, zainichi special-permanent- resident ethnic Koreans and Chinese, and burakumin, will speak to you as people who have been here for a long time — much longer than people like me, of course. Their claims are based upon time-honored and genuine grievances that have never been properly redressed. For ease of understanding, I will call them the “oldcomers.”
I will try to speak on behalf of the “newcomers,” i.e., people who came here relatively recently to make a life in Japan. Of course both oldcomers and newcomers contribute to Japanese society, in terms of taxes, service and culture, for example. But it is we newcomers who really need a Japanese law against racial discrimination, because we, the people who are seen because of our skin color as “foreigners,” are often singled out for our own variant of discriminatory treatment. Examples in brief:
1. Housing, accommodation
One barrier many newcomers face is finding an apartment. According to the Mainichi Shimbun (Jan. 8), on average in Tokyo it takes 15 visits to realtors for an NJ to find an apartment. Common experience — this is all we have because there is no government study of the problem — dictates that agents generally phrase the issue to landlords as, “The renter is a foreigner, is that OK?” This overt discrimination happens with impunity in Japan. One Osaka realtor even advertises apartments as “gaijin allowed,” a sales point at odds with the status quo. People who face discriminatory landlords can only take them to court. This means years, money for lawyers and court fees, and an uncertain outcome — when all you need is a place to live, now.Another barrier is hotels. Lodgings are expressly forbidden by Hotel Management Law Article 5 to refuse customers unless rooms are full, there is a clear threat of contagious disease, or an issue of “public morals.” However, government surveys indicate that 27 percent of all Japanese hotels do not want foreign guests, period. Not to be outdone, Fukushima Prefecture Tourist Information advertised the fact that 318 of their member hotels refuse NJ. Thus even when a law technically forbids exclusionism, the government will not enforce it. On the contrary, official bodies will even promote excluders.
2. Racial profiling by police
Another rude awakening happens when NJ walk down the street. All NJ (but not citizens) must carry ID cards at all times or face possible criminal charges and incarceration. So Japanese police will target and stop people who “look foreign” in public, sometimes forcefully and rudely, and demand personal identification. This very alienating process of “carding” can happen when walking while white, cycling while foreign-looking, using public transportation while multiethnic, or waiting for arrivals at airports while colored. One person has apparently been “carded,” sometimes through physical force, more than 50 times in one year, and 125 times over 10 years.Police justify this as a hunt for foreign criminals and visa over-stayers, or cite special security measures or campaigns. However, these “campaigns” are products of government policies depicting NJ as “terrorists, criminals and carriers of infectious diseases.” None of these things, of course, is contingent upon nationality. Moreover, since 2007, all noncitizens are fingerprinted every time they re-enter Japan. This includes newcomer PRs, going further than the US-VISIT program, which does not refingerprint Green Card holders. However, the worst example of bad social science is the National Research Institute of Police Science, which spends taxpayer money on researching “foreign DNA” for racial profiling at crime scenes.
In sum, Japan’s police see NJ as “foreign agents” in both senses of the word. They are systematically taking measures to deal with NJ as a social problem, not as fellow residents or immigrants.
3. Exclusion as ‘residents’
Japan’s registration system, meaning the current koseki family registry and juminhyo residency certificate systems, refuse to list NJ as “spouse” or “family member” because they are not citizens. Officially, NJ residing here are not registered as “residents” (jumin), even though they pay residency taxes (juminzei) like anyone else. Worse, some local governments (such as Tokyo’s Nerima Ward) do not even count NJ in their population tallies. This is the ultimate in invisibility, and it is government-sanctioned.
4. ‘Japanese only’ exclusionWith no law against racial discrimination, “No foreigners allowed” signs have appeared nationwide, at places such as stores, restaurants, hotels, public bathhouses, bars, discos, an eyeglass outlet, a ballet school, an Internet cafe, a billiards hall, a women’s boutique — even in publicity for a newspaper subscription service. Regardless, the government has said repeatedly to the U.N. that Japan does not need a racial discrimination law because of our effective judicial system. That is untrue.
For example, in the Otaru onsen case (1999-2005), where two NJ and one naturalized Japanese (myself) were excluded from a public bathhouse, judges refused to rule these exclusions were illegal due to racial discrimination. They called it “unrational discrimination.” Moreover, the judiciary refused to enforce relevant international treaty as law, or punish the negligent Otaru City government for ineffective measures against racial discrimination. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Furthermore, in 2006, an openly racist shopkeeper refused an African-American customer entry, yet the Osaka District Court ruled in favor of the owner! Japan needs a criminal law, with enforceable punishments, because the present judicial system will not fix this.
5. Unfettered hate speech
There is also the matter of the cyberbullying of minorities and prejudiced statements made by our politicians over the years. Other NGOs will talk more about the anti-Korean and anti-Chinese hate speech during the current debate about granting local suffrage rights to permanent residents.I would instead like to briefly mention some media, such as the magazine “Underground Files of Crimes by Gaijin” (Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu (2007)) and “PR Suffrage will make Japan Disappear” (Gaikokujin Sanseiken de Nihon ga Nakunaru Hi (2010)). Both these books stretch their case to talk about an innate criminality or deviousness in the foreign element, and “Underground Files” even cites things that are not crimes, such as dating Japanese women. It also includes epithets like “nigger,” racist caricatures and ponderings on whether Korean pudenda smell like kimchi. This is hate speech. And it is not illegal in Japan. You could even find it on sale in convenience stores.
ConclusionIn light of all the above, the Japanese government’s stance towards the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is easily summarized: The Ainu, Ryukyuans and burakumin are citizens, therefore they don’t fall under the CERD because they are protected by the Japanese Constitution. However, the zainichis and newcomers are not citizens, therefore they don’t get protection from the CERD either. Thus, our government effectively argues, the CERD does not cover anyone in Japan.
Well, what about me? Or our children? Are there really no ethnic minorities with Japanese citizenship in Japan?
In conclusion, I would like to thank the U.N. for investigating our cases. On March 16, the CERD Committee issued some very welcome recommendations in its review. However, may I point out that the U.N. still made a glaring oversight.
During the committee’s questioning of Japan last Feb. 24 and 25, very little mention was made of the CERD’s “unenforcement” in Japan’s judiciary and criminal code. Furthermore, almost no mention was made of “Japanese only” signs, the most indefensible violations of the CERD.
Both Japan and the U.N. have a blind spot in how they perceive Japan’s minorities. Newcomers are never couched as residents of or immigrants to Japan, but rather as “foreign migrants.” The unconscious assumption seems to be that 1) foreign migrants have a temporary status in Japan, and 2) Japan has few ethnically diverse Japanese citizens.
Time for an update. Look at me. I am a Japanese. The government put me through a very rigorous and arbitrary test for naturalization, and I passed it. People like me are part of Japan’s future. When the U.N. makes their recommendations, please have them reflect how Japan must face up to its multicultural society. Please recognize us newcomers as a permanent part of the debate.
The Japanese government will not. It says little positive about us, and allows very nasty things to be said by our politicians, policymakers and police. It’s about time we all recognized the good that newcomers are doing for our home, Japan. Please help us.
Month: April 2010
‘Non-Japanese only’ Okinawa eatery turns tables
Jon Mitchell explores why one restaurateur has effectively banned Japanese patrons
Okinawa Prefecture is home to three-quarters of America’s military bases in Japan. The vast majority of these, including Kadena Air Base, Torii Station and the contentious Marine Corps installation at Futenma, are located in the central part of the main island.
Despite overwhelming Okinawan opposition to the presence of the United States military, open animosity towards American servicemen is remarkably rare here. One of the few places where it is experienced, though, is in central Okinawa’s entertainment districts. Japanese-owned clubs and bars regularly turn away American customers, and some of them display English signs stating “members only” and “private club” in order to exclude unwanted foreign patrons. With Japan’s laws on racial discrimination tending towards the ambiguous, transforming a business into a private club has become a common way to circumvent any potential complaints to the Bureau of Human Rights.
Under these circumstances, the notices on the door of Sushi Zen, a small restaurant located at the edge of Chatan Town’s fishing port, are not unusual: “This store has a members-only policy. Entry is restricted to members.” However, what is different is the fact that they’re written in Japanese, and designed to keep away Japanese customers. Furthermore, Sushi Zen’s owner is not a xenophobic foreign expatriate, but a soft-spoken Japanese man named Yukio Okuhama…
Migrant children struggle in public schools
With the recession taking a particularly heavy toll on migrant communities, many schools for children of Japanese-Brazilian and other backgrounds have closed their doors after struggling through falling enrollments and nonpayment of fees.
The closures have forced many children of migrants to enter the public school system, a daunting prospect for those whose entire schooling has been conducted in another language and who don’t speak Japanese at home.
To help them better integrate into the public school system, the education ministry launched the “Rainbow Bridge classroom” project last fall, providing additional Japanese-language instruction.
But the ministry is struggling to win over migrant parents, many of whom resist the idea of sending their children to Japanese schools.
There were about 90 Brazilian schools across the country at the end of 2008. The number had fallen to around 60 this February. Many parents lost their jobs, leaving them unable to pay their children’s tuition. Others returned with their families to their home countries.
The Colegio Brasil Japao, a Brazilian school in Minato Ward, Nagoya, had 80 students at the end of 2008, but the number dropped to 49 at the end of last year. Each month, 10 to 20 students failed to pay a monthly fee of about ¥30,000, forcing the school to post a monthly loss of around ¥800,000.
“We have tried our best, but there is a limit to what we can endure,” said the school’s principal, Carlos Shinoda, at a January meeting to notify guardians of the suspension of some classes.
None of the parents said they wanted to send their children to Japanese schools.
Yojiro Arlindo Ogasawara, 40, whose three children attend the Brazilian school, said, “If they attend a Japanese school, they will be left behind academically while trying to learn the Japanese language.”
He continued to send his children to the school, even after losing his job, because he said his eldest son had been bullied at a Japanese nursery school, where he was told, “Foreigners are stupid.”
Many guardians are worried that their children will be treated only as “guests” in public school classrooms unless they know the Japanese language.
“Enrolling in Japanese schools is the last resort,” said a 38-year-old mother. “I would like to continue to send my daughter to a classroom where the atmosphere is warm.”
Thirty-two organizations, including boards of education and nonprofit organizations, were running Rainbow Bridge classrooms in Ibaraki, Gunma, Saitama, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Mie, Shiga and Okayama prefectures as of February, to teach Japanese to foreign children. Portuguese lessons are also offered.
“Public schools are given the cold shoulder by foreigners because of experiences and rumors of bullying,” said Akio Nakayama, representative in Japan of the International Organization for Migration, which is promoting the project at the request of the education ministry. “A coordinator at each classroom is visiting families to urge them to take part in the class.”
Besides Brazilians, there are foreign children who can’t attend public schools because they require special assistance, and even if they are enrolled in such schools many refuse to attend.
Although the Rainbow Bridge role in classrooms is becoming increasingly important, Nakayama pointed to the need for schools to do more to assist foreign children.
“In addition to the creation of a framework by Japanese public schools to receive and support foreign children, roles like the one performed by coordinators at Rainbow Bridge classrooms should be institutionalized,” he said.
Such classrooms accept not only Brazilian but also other foreign children.
Group: Hunger strike worked
Supporters of inmates held at the Nishi-Nihon Japan Immigration Center said a hunger strike in March has led to more provisional releases for those with health problems.
But immigration center officials denied any connection between the hunger strike and the provisional releases.
About 70 male inmates began a hunger strike March 8, demanding that those with serious health problems be given provisional releases to receive medical care.
A citizens group aiding the inmates said that after the hunger strike, a Pakistani man whose weight had plummeted due to depression and fever was granted a provisional release.
Another Pakistani man taken to a hospital in December after falling unconscious from extremely high blood pressure was also told he would be given a provisional release.
The two had been confined at the immigration center for over a year. The support group had been requesting a provisional release for them since late last year because of their failing health. The request was initially rejected in February.
Japanese firms adopt a global appearance
With overseas markets increasingly seen as the key to their survival, Japanese companies are adopting a more “international” look at home involving changes that would have been unheard of years ago.
[A few] long-held practices in hiring have been scrapped, as have [some] limits on positions available to non-Japanese at the companies’ head offices in Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
Currently, nearly 140,000 foreign nationals work at businesses in Japan.
According to a labor ministry-commissioned survey conducted by the Fujitsu Research Institute on about 800 companies from September through October last year, nearly 40 percent of those companies have hired foreigners with high-level knowledge and skills, including engineers, in recent years.
But 58 companies have suspended their employment of foreigners, showing that language barrier and corporate culture clashes remain a potential problem.
In a country where company loyalty remains relatively strong, 25 percent of those companies said they stopped hiring foreigners because previous hires had left for other companies offering better working conditions.
In addition, 20 percent said they lacked supervisors who could work effectively with the foreign employees.
But the trend has been to expand hiring of non-Japanese as the domestic market shrinks and the declining birthrate is expected to lead to a huge shortage in demand in future years.
Meanwhile, Internet shopping site operator Rakuten Inc. regards 2010 as the year to develop into a truly global company.
In February, Rakuten began distributing papers written in English instead of Japanese at its Monday morning executive meetings, a policy that soon covered meetings attended by all employees.
And in March, the dozens of participants at the executive meetings were required to speak in English.
Rakuten assigns graduates of overseas universities to technological divisions in which they are required to improve their Japanese-language skills and learn in-house culture.
Those non-Japanese are expected to eventually play key roles in Rakuten’s offices overseas.
Woman to sue Casio for wrongful dismissal after claiming harassment by boss
A former temporary employee of Casio Computer Co. is set to file a lawsuit against the company over wrongful termination after she protested a series of harassment incidents by her superior, it has been learned.
The 33-year-old former temporary worker with the Tokyo-based electronic device manufacturer will file a case against the company and its group firm with the Tokyo District Court shortly, seeking the reversal of her dismissal and the payment of some 3.6 million yen in compensation.
The woman, a resident of Saitama Prefecture, was dispatched to Casio’s group company in December 2003, and worked for the firm for about six years until her contract was terminated with one month’s notice in September last year.
According to the woman, her superior questioned her loyalty when she declined his invitation to a music concert in April last year, and started forcing her to perform chores, such as washing his cup and throwing away garbage. After she reported the harassment to her staffing agency, she was fired due to a “reduction in her duties.”
The woman claims that she was not offered a direct contract with the company even after she completed the first three years of work, the maximum contract period for temporary employment stipulated by the Worker Dispatching Law, and says it was unlawful that the company forced her to continue to work as a dispatched worker.
“I worked like a regular employee, but my contract was terminated so easily because I was a temporary worker and was in a disadvantaged position,” she said.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100405p2a00m0na007000c.html
Indonesians seek flexibility in exam for foreign nurses
Indonesia’s nursing association has called on the Japanese government to be more flexible in the national nursing exam so more foreign nurses can pass it and work in the nation.
Achir Yani, president of the Indonesian National Nurses’ Association, made the call following a recent announcement by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry that only three nurses — two from Indonesia and one from the Philippines — passed this year’s exam.
They were among 254 foreigners who took the exam in February and are the first successful applicants. Last year, none of the 82 foreign applicants passed.
Yani said the two Indonesians — Yared Febrian Fernandes and Ria Agustina, both 26 — have proved that “what is impossible is now possible,” referring to how difficult the exam is.
The Japanese-language requirement and technical terms used in the exam are thought to pose a high hurdle for foreign nurses.
“I myself am not satisfied because I know that (Indonesian applicants) are very competent, but the language (requirement) has made them fail,” Yani said.
During an ongoing survey her association is conducting in cooperation with a Japanese university, the professor at the University of Indonesia said the nurses expressed a wish that “furigana,” a kanji pronunciation aid, be allowed.
They also requested four chances to take the exam, instead of three, considering the first opportunity comes only six months after their training.
“So, for sure, they are not going to make it,” Yani said.
She expressed concern that unless the government accepts the requests of the foreign applicants, Indonesian nurses, especially those who have not been recruited yet, will be discouraged.
She also suggested that hospitals in Japan take note of the efforts made by the hospital where Fernandes and Agustina work to support them in their Japanese-language study.
Both women came to Japan from Indonesia in 2008 and are working at a hospital in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture.
“That can be a lesson learned by other hospitals so their nurses will also be able to pass the exam with the support they have,” Yani said, adding it is her understanding that numerous hospitals in Japan appreciate the contributions of their Indonesian nurses and want them to become registered nurses.
Japan began accepting foreign nurses and caregivers in 2008 to address labor shortages in the medical and nursing service fields.
Foreign nurses are required to return to their home countries if they fail to pass the nurse qualifying exam within three years. Caregivers need to clear the qualifying exam within four years.
In talks with Indonesian and Philippine officials in January, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada promised to consider addressing the language barrier for foreign nurses.
The health ministry is now studying the use of simpler terms in the exam and helping foreign nurses study the Japanese language, officials said.
In the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years through last Wednesday, Japan accepted 277 nurses and 293 caregivers from Indonesia. In 2009, 280 health care workers came to Japan from the Philippines.
Attorney to work in bar, against bar association’s wishes
An attorney bar in which a lawyer serves alcoholic drinks and chats with customers about legal affairs is set to open in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on April 12.
The bar, Legal Bar Roppo, is to be operated by lawyer Jun Sotooka, 29, who belongs to the Daini Tokyo Bar Association, together with the president of a consulting company. Sotooka will work as a bartender without pay. But upon the request of customers, he will provide legal consultations at his office on a later date for a fee, the two said.
Meanwhile, the Daini Tokyo Bar Association requested them to withdraw the plan when it was announced in December.
“The bar will effectively act as a go-between for the attorney’s practice, which may violate the Lawyers Law,” an official of the bar association said.
“After looking into the situation, we may pursue disciplinary action (against Sotooka),” said Takaaki Nakajo, vice chairman of the Daini Tokyo Bar Association.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20100405-208534.html
Korean worker who sued Tokyo govt retires
Public health nurse Chong Hyang Gyun was all smiles when she retired from the Tokyo metropolitan government recently, even though it had refused to let her seek promotion because of her South Korean nationality.
A second-generation Korean resident of this country, Chong sued the metropolitan government in 1994, demanding she be allowed to take a promotion exam for a managerial post. The trial went on for 10 years of Chong’s 22-year career with the metropolitan government.
Ultimately, Chong was not able to be promoted because the Supreme Court overturned her victory in a lower court. Upon her retirement, however, she smiled and said, “I have no regrets.”
Chong officially retired Wednesday, as she had reached her mandatory retirement age of 60.
Chong was born in Iwate Prefecture. In 1988, she was hired as the first non-Japanese public health nurse to work for the metropolitan government.
Her application to take the internal exam to become a manager was refused, however, because of the metropolitan government’s “nationality clause,” which prohibits the appointment of non-Japanese employees to managerial posts.
The Tokyo District Court decided against her in 1996, ruling that the metropolitan government’s action was constitutional.
In 1997, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the metropolitan government’s decision violated the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom to choose one’s occupation, and ordered the Tokyo government to pay compensation to Chong.
The metropolitan government appealed this decision and in 2005, the Supreme Court nullified the high court ruling and rejected Chong’s demand.
After Chong openly expressed her disappointment at a press conference about the Supreme Court ruling, she received critical e-mails and other messages. Chong also said she sometimes felt it was hard to stay in her workplace.
However, a sizable number of her colleagues and area residents understood her feelings.
“I was supported by many people. I enjoyed my job,” Chong said.
For two years from 2006, Chong worked on Miyakejima island, helping residents deal with difficulties resulting from their prolonged evacuation.
Just before her retirement, Chong visited health care centers in Tokyo and other related facilities as chief of a section for preventing infectious diseases and caring for mentally handicapped people.
She was rehired from April as a nonregular employee at her workplace’s request, but she will work fewer days.
“I’ve been tense ever since filing the lawsuit, trying not to make any mistakes in other areas. Now I can finally relax,” Chong said.
Chong recently has been interested in supporting Indonesian nurse candidates in Japan. During the New Year holidays, she held a gathering to introduce them to Japanese culture.
“Now that a greater number of foreigners are in Japan, society as a whole should think about how to assimilate them,” Chong said.
She said she believed her lawsuit has helped raise those kind of questions.
Migrants in Japan facing discrimination
Migrants in Japan face discrimination, exploitation and other forms of mistreatment, an independent United Nations human rights expert said, urging the Japanese Government to strengthen their protection.
“They [migrants] still face a range of challenges, including racism and discrimination, exploitation, a tendency by the judiciary and police to ignore their rights, and the overall lack of a comprehensive immigration policy that incorporates human rights protection,” said Jorge A. Bustamante, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, at the end of a nine-day visit to Japan on Wednesday.
Bustamante praised some of the measures taken by the Government to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis on migrants and their children.
However, he stressed that “Japan has yet to adopt a comprehensive immigration policy that provides for the protection of migrants’ rights,” 20 years after it started receiving migrant workers.
“Japan should establish institutionalized programmes designed to create the necessary conditions for the integration of migrants into Japanese society and the respect of their rights, including to work, health, housing and education, without discrimination,” Bustamante said.
“Racism and discrimination based on nationality are still too common in Japan, including in the workplace, in schools, in healthcare establishments and housing,” he added.
Existing general provisions are not effective in protecting foreign residents from discrimination based on race and nationality, he said.
Bustamante expressed concern about the policy of detaining irregular migrants, including asylum-seekers, parents and children, for prolonged periods, in some cases for as long as three years, saying that practice amounted to a “de facto indefinite detention.”
“Clear criteria should be established in order to limit detention to the cases where it is strictly necessary, avoiding detaining persons such as those who are ill or who are the parents of minor children,” the human rights expert said.
“A maximum period of detention pending deportation should be set, after which foreigners should be released.”
The Special Rapporteur also drew attention to the high incidence of domestic violence against migrant women and their children.
“Appropriate policies to protect and assist single mothers and their children who find themselves in this extremely vulnerable situation are lacking and should be adopted and implemented urgently,” he said.
Noting that a considerable number of migrant children in Japan do not attend school, Bustamante said that “governmental efforts should be increased to facilitate that foreign children study either in Japanese or foreign schools, and learn Japanese.”
During his mission, the independent expert heard many cases where parents of children born in Japan or who have lived there for up to 15 years have been recently deported or detained, resulting in the children being separated from their parents because of their irregular residence status. “In accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child, families should not be separated,” he said.
The Special Rapporteur will later this year present to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council a complete report on his visit, with his observations and recommendations.
An expert from Mexico on international migration, Bustamante was appointed as Special Rapporteur by the former Commission on Human Rights in 2005.