TozenAdmin

Once settled in, chances are you’ll have to pay to stay

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In Japan, property rental renewal fees can cost around one month’s rent per year. The question is: What is it tenants are paying for?

On July 15, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that it is legal for property owners to demand supplemental fees when tenants renew their rental agreements. The ruling was made in conjunction with three lawsuits that tenants had brought against their landlords claiming that koshinryō should be considered invalid in accordance with the Consumer Contracts Law. In all three cases the tenants had paid the renewal fees and were suing to get the money back. The landlords argued that the renewal fees were stipulated in the rental agreements the tenants signed.

The Osaka High Court previously agreed with the plaintiffs in two of the cases, ruling that the renewal fees did violate the Consumer Contract Law, which states that a contract can be voided if its conditions are deemed inherently disadvantageous to the consumer. The Supreme Court, however, found that a renewal fee is reasonable “unless it is too high in comparison with rent or rental agreement periods.” The consumers in these cases, it said, did not suffer any damage.

Those who have had success in fighting these fees usually received assistance from nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations. The Asahi Shimbun recently reported the case of a 60-year-old man in Chiba Prefecture who refused to pay his renewal fee (as did his guarantor) and took his complaint to the prefectural tenants union, which negotiated with the landlord. The union cited the Rental Property Law, which states that a rental agreement is automatically renewed if the tenant wishes to stay there and that a tenant cannot be evicted without reason. Eventually, the landlord waived the fee.

Landlords, however, are on the defensive. Though they claimed victory, it’s a tenants’ market. In 2008, the Ministry for Internal Affairs reported the nationwide vacancy rate for rental properties at 23 percent (as reference, Tokyo’s was 16 percent) and rising. Rental management companies increasingly provide greater transparency in rental agreements and fewer landlords are asking for gift money so as to attract potential tenants. Some realtors now advertise properties with the “adjusted” monthly rent, meaning the monthly rent plus the added fees pro-rated on a monthly basis. It doesn’t make those fees any less arbitrary, but at least it makes the transaction more open.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20110802ht.html

10% of foreign residents have left disaster-hit prefectures

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The number of foreign residents in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures [the hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake-tsunami disaster] dropped 10.5 percent to 30,092 between the end of December and the end of March, according to the Justice Ministry.

The number of foreigners declined 1.9 percent nationwide during the same period.

“Many foreigners returned to their countries after the disaster and have not returned to Japan as they are concerned about the nuclear crisis” at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, an official in the ministry’s Immigration Bureau said.

The number of foreign residents also decreased by 944 in the three prefectures between the end of March and the end of June.

Foreign trainees at companies and other entities at the end of June decreased by 67.9 percent in Miyagi Prefecture from the end of December. The figure dropped 18.5 percent in Iwate and 19.2 percent in Fukushima.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110730x2.html

Bye-bye to the gaijin card, welcome to the Juki Net in ’12

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According to the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Justice and immigration lawyers, the new law will bring about a few major changes.

First of all, the alien registration card (soon to become the “residence card”) will no longer be issued at the local level. From July of next year, the Ministry of Justice will take over responsibility for the residence card.

After the law goes into effect, new arrivals with a valid medium- or long-term visa will receive a residence card at their port of entry. In cases where the port authorities do not have the means to do this — presumably at smaller air and sea ports rather than the main regional hubs — the card will be mailed to you.

Current medium- and long-term residents in Japan will receive the new card when they next apply for a visa extension from July 2012 (permanent residents must apply for the card by July 2015).

The new law will essentially combine the systems for Japanese and non-Japanese under the Juki Net system, a nationwide registry established in 2002 that includes basic information about all citizens. Very controversial, it has been the subject of numerous lawsuits filed by plaintiffs across the country over privacy concerns. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Juki Net does not infringe on the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution.

When the new law comes into force, non-Japanese will be put into this national system, which is why the residence card will be issued directly by the Immigration Bureau rather than local government.

Procedures for updating details on the residence card will also change when the new law goes into effect. Currently your local government office handles most personal information changes, but under the new law nearly all notifications will need to be made at your nearest immigration office.

For example, changes of name or nationality, employer or school information, and family relations (e.g., separation, divorce, death of spouse) will all be handled by the Immigration Bureau. Address registration and changes will still be handled by city hall.

Additionally, if your residence card is lost, damaged or stolen, rather than going to city hall, you will need to visit the immigration office for re-issuance. The time frame in which you have to do so, however, will remain the same: 14 days.

The new system will extend the maximum period of stay from three years to five.

Under the new law, medium-to-long-term residents with a valid passport and residence card will no longer need to apply for a re-entry permit if they leave and return to Japan within one year.

Additionally, the validity term of the re-entry permit for those who plan to be away for longer than 12 months will be extended from three to five years.

Items on the new residence card will no longer include the name of the householder, place of birth, passport number, occupation, and employer’s name and location.

To find more information on the upcoming changes (in English), visit www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/newimmiact/newimmiact_english.html and www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact/pdf/leaflet_english.pdf

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110712at.html

104 Indonesian nurses, caregivers to depart for Japan

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A total of 104 Indonesian nurses and caregivers are to depart for Japan on Monday despite a still low number of foreign workers in Japan who have passed local examinations for health professionals since the program started in 2008.

Wearing batik clothes and able to speak some Japanese, the group attended a pre-departure ceremony at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Indonesia hours before flying to Osaka or Tokyo.

“As the length of Japanese language training has been increased from six months at the beginning, and now to nine months, and to 12 months by next year, we all hope more candidates can pass the local examinations,” Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar said.

He added there have been only 17 Indonesians who have passed the examinations in Japan to qualify as professional nurses.

The new staff will augment their three months of Japanese language training in Indonesia with another six months in Japan.

The number of Indonesians now in Japan under the program is 686, while 64 nurse candidates have returned home after failing in the test, which is in Japanese, and deciding not to have another try.

Besides Indonesia, the Philippines has also sent health professionals to Japan under a similar program.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110705p2g00m0dm003000c.html

Shakai Hoken Seminar

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Do you know your rights when it comes to Shakai Hoken?

Learn how the Japanese social insurance system of public health and pension works starting from the laws, the directives and the differences between Kenko Hoken and Kokumin Kenko Hoken. Chances are that management has mislead you about your legal rights to proper insurance and pension.

Sunday, July 31, 2:00pm to 5:00pm

Osaka Keizai Hohka Daigaku Tokyo Azabudai Seminar House

Free Admission

[Osaka Keizai Hohka University Tokyo Azabudai Seminar House]

Directions: Take the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line to Kamiyacho, take Exit 1, and walk up the left side of Sakura Dori to Osaka Keizai University Tokyo Azabudai Seminar House (5 minutes).

Tokyo finally grasps the migration nettle

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When it comes to immigration reform, the Japanese government seems, for once, to have heeded the wisdom in the political adage, never waste a good crisis.

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun has revealed the government will introduce a points-based skilled migration program by the end of the year. It’s a reform that’s been considered for a long time, but the tsunami and nuclear crisis seems to have convinced the government to finally seize the day.

Immigration in Japan, which is nearly ethnically homogenous, is always a touchy issue. Public opposition or, perhaps more accurately, caution, has seen Japan’s political leaders take tiny and often misguided steps towards opening the country up to greater immigration.

Now, all eyes are on the disaster, so voters are less likely to oppose, or even notice, the introduction of a long-overdue migration system of the kind that has served Australia, Canada and the US so well.

The timing is also serendipitous because the exodus of foreign nationals after the quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis has seen a host of jobs become available, many of which can’t be filled with local staff.

Japan’s leading businesses are also pushing for this kind of reform as they look to boost their global competitiveness to keep pace with their rivals in China, India, South Korea and elsewhere in Asia.

The Yomiuri report suggests that points will be awarded to skilled migrants based on their education, work experience and annual income. It is expected to apply to the academic, technology and corporate sectors. Bonus points will be given for Japanese language skills.

The government also intends making it easier to obtain permanent residency and easing work limits for spouses for some visa holders.

It can’t come soon enough for the beleaguered economy, which is battling population decline, weak demand, structural problems and now an unprecedented combination of natural and nuclear disaster.

With Keynesian-style stimulus programs off the table as the government finally begins to tackle debt levels, increasing immigration is increasingly being viewed as one way to spark economic growth.

Hidenori Sakanaka, a former top immigration official turned NGO leader, said the recent disaster made it even more vital for Japan to open up to immigration. “A falling birth rate and an ageing population mean that the country has far too few young, productive workers,” the head of Tokyo’s Humanitarian Immigrant Support Centre said in a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal.

“This will become even more noticeable as the current working generation begins to retire. Unless radical policies are implemented, it is simply a matter of time before manufacturing, consumption, tax receipts, fiscal health, the pension and welfare system, and the very ability of people to make a living will all collapse under the inexorable dual pressures of rapid ageing and rapid declines in the young working population.”

He said immigration would be vital for reinvigorating industries, including fishing and agriculture where the tsunami has upped the pressure on a geriatric workforce in the affected areas.

Mr Sakanaka said Japan needed to bring in 10 million workers over the next 50 years to stem population decline, and a skills-based system that offered pathways to permanent residency and citizenship was the best way to do it.

“To start, Japan needs a total overhaul of its system for foreign students and trainees,” he said. “Currently those students have few or no prospects for staying permanently. Only 30 per cent of foreign students graduating from Japanese universities stay in Japan. That number must be closer to 70 per cent.”

He also hit out at Japan’s guest-worker schemes that have allowed the exploitation of “trainees” from China on ultra-low wages on short-term visas.

“A country with a declining population does not need guest workers,” Mr Sakanaka said.

“At a minimum, any foreign worker in steady employment should be able to apply for permanent status.

“Japan must recognise that globalisation is here to stay and should stake its very survival on accepting people elsewhere in the world as its brethren and transforming itself into a much more multicultural, diverse society.

“It will be a large task, but Japan is past the point where easy solutions will do.”

It remains doubtful, however, that immigration reform will be tackled in the short term on the scale required to address population decline and boost economic growth.

More likely it will serve to plug certain skill gaps and serve to boost public acceptance of migration, which will hopefully lead to increases in other classes of migration including Japan’s woefully low acceptance of humanitarian refugees.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/tokyo-finally-grasps-the-migration-nettle/story-e6frg9if-1226080878297

18 tax offices in 4 central Japan prefectures kept files on foreigners

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Eighteen tax offices in four central Japan prefectures kept files on foreign residents, including their nationalities and alien registration numbers, the Mainichi learned on June 24.

The Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau says the 18 tax offices in Aichi, Shizuoka, Gifu and Mie prefectures compiled the files to avoid duplicate income tax return applications and to determine the identity of each foreign taxpayer. Foreign taxpayers, however, are not required to mention their nationalities and alien registration numbers in their income tax returns.

The Japanese law on the protection of personal information held by administrative agencies only approves the holding of data necessary to conduct official business, and experts say the tax offices’ actions may constitute a violation of that law.

According to the taxation bureau, the tax offices started compiling files on foreign taxpayers in electronic format in fiscal 2001, listing 10 items for each individual including name, date of birth, place of residence, tax manager (taxpayer’s proxy), and reference number, along with a space for notes.

Informed sources say there are many foreign workers at automobile factories and other plants in the region. The tax offices kept files on foreigners of Japanese ancestry and Westerners, but did not do so on Chinese and others with names in Chinese kanji characters.

The tax offices prepared the data based on information gleaned from income tax returns, and logged alien registration numbers only when foreign taxpayers used alien registration cards to identify themselves.

The files were sent to the internal affairs and communications minister under the law, and account ledgers mentioning things like the purpose of collecting the information can be seen via the Internet.

Each of the tax offices are thought to have kept such files on more than 1,000 foreign taxpayers, but the number of those identified by nationality or alien registration number is not known.

“The tax offices kept files as a matter of convenience, probably because the names of foreigners are confusing. The files were not meant for tax probes,” a Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau representative said, adding that the files were destroyed at the end of March this year due to a switch to a nationwide tax data monitoring system.

Meanwhile, a National Tax Agency official told the Mainichi, “Other tax offices are not keeping such files. The agency has never issued such an order.”

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry’s personal information protection office says it is up to each administrative entity concerned to determine if such individual information is necessary or not.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110625p2a00m0na018000c.html