Some 30 Japanese, Chinese, Ghanaian and ethnic Kurds from Turkey staged protests Wednesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa Ward and the Justice Ministry in Chiyoda Ward, demanding better treatment for detainees.
Masanori Kashiwazaki, a member of SYI, a group supporting foreigners detained in immigration detention centers, gave identical protest letters to Shinagawa Immigration Bureau Director Shigeru Takaya and Justice Minister Keiko Chiba.
The protests were called after 70 detainees at the West Japan Immigration Control Center went on an 11-day hunger strike in early March, protesting alleged inhumane treatment by center officials.
“Give me back my father,” an ethnic Kurdish boy from Turkey shouted via a bullhorn during the protest in front of the immigration facility where his father is being held.
In the letters, the SYI demanded that the center stop violent and repressive treatment of detainees. They also urged the Immigration Bureau to investigate and disclose the cause of the death of a Ghanaian man aboard an airplane that was about to leave Narita airport on March 22 as the illegal resident was being deported to his home country.
Immigration officers reportedly overpowered the Ghanaian, who was allegedly acting violent.
“We want to encourage detainees by taking action. We want to send a message that they are not alone,” Kashiwazaki said.
“We heard immigration officers commit violence against detainees. But we don’t know what’s really going on. The thing is that the Immigration Bureau is very secretive. Detainees may receive harsher treatment than prisoners,” he said.
Discrimination
U.N. rights rapporteur says end foreign trainee program ‘slavery’
A visiting U.N. expert on the rights of migrants urged the government Wednesday to terminate its industrial trainee and technical intern program for workers from overseas, saying it may amount to “slavery” in some cases, fueling demand for exploitative cheap labor in possible violation of human rights.
“This program should be discontinued and replaced by an employment program,” Jorge Bustamante, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights of migrants, told reporters at the U.N. Information Center in Tokyo.
While praising some government measures to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis on the foreign population, Bustamante noted the country still faces a range of challenges, including racism, discrimination and exploitation of migrants, based on information provided by civil society.
“Racism and discrimination based on nationality are still too common in Japan, including in the workplace, in schools, in health care establishments and housing,” he said.
“Japan should adopt specific legislation on the prevention and elimination of racial discrimination, since the current general provisions included in the Constitution and existing laws are not effective in protecting foreign residents from discrimination based on race and nationality,” Bustamante said.
Since his arrival in the country on March 23 for an official inspection, Bustamante has interviewed migrants and their families, including Filipinos and Brazilians in Nagoya, and discussed the issues with ministry and agency officials.
Japanese civic groups supporting migrants said it is significant that a U.N. expert has conducted an assessment of human rights of migrants in Japan, which has yet to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
He will submit a report on his visit to the U.N. Human Rights Council to present his findings, conclusions and recommendations possibly in September or October after submitting a draft to the Japanese government.
Following a series of meetings and discussions he has held in the country, Bustamante pointed out that a number of parents of Japanese-born children or those who have lived in the country for a long time have been deported or detained due to their irregular residence status.
“In accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child, families should not be separated,” he said.
Assigned in July 2005 to the post created in 1999, Bustamante’s main responsibilities include examining ways of overcoming obstacles to the protection of migrants’ human rights.
Deportation rule troubles U.N. official
A recent government decision to deport only the parents of families without residency status, thus separating children from their mothers and fathers, flies in the face of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Jorge Bustamante, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said Saturday in Tokyo.
Bustamante, who is on his first official fact-finding mission to Japan, is meeting with government officials, nongovernmental organizations, legal experts and foreign residents, and is expected to submit a report on Japan to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
On Saturday, he met with residents caught in the deportation dilemma — among them Noriko Calderon, a 14-year-old girl who was born in Japan to an undocumented Filipino couple. Calderon’s case drew media attention when her parents were deported last spring.
“It is very difficult to live separated from my parents, and I miss them very much,” Calderon said. “But I hope that one day, all three of us can live in Japan together and I plan to do my best” to realize that goal.
Bustamante expressed concern over the separation of families and said he would cite the situation in his report.
“It’s going to be made public,” Bustamante told the gathering. “And this, of course, might result in an embarrassment for the government of Japan and therefore certain pressure (will be) put on the government of Japan.”
Five families, including the Calderons, have faced this ultimatum, according to lawyers supporting their cause.
“My role is not to make a judgment — my role is to report,” Bustamante said. “But what I hear is something that could be described as actions of the government that imply not a clear abiding by the international rules of law.”
Another to meet with the U.N. special rapporteur was a Peruvian-born 16-year-old girl who has lived in Japan most of her life. The girl, whose name was withheld, told Bustamante that while she realizes that they do not have legal status in Japan, neither she nor her brothers and sisters speak Spanish and have no knowledge of Peru.
“If we go back to Peru, no future awaits us,” the girl said. “We are reaching our limits mentally as well as financially . . . (but) I will never give up hope and do my best till the end to keep living in Japan.”
Prada, manager fail to come to settlement in harassment case
Prada Japan’s senior retail manager said Saturday she had failed to reach a settlement with the Italian fashion label in a dispute alleging the company harassed her and other employees.
The manager, Rina Bovrisse, told The Japan Times she will prepare to take further legal action against the company.
The case was handled by an industrial tribunal, a streamlined system for resolving labor disputes without trial. If no settlement is reached through the tribunal, the parties involved can opt to proceed with a civil suit to seek a court ruling.
“I am planning to collect more witnesses and file a lawsuit as soon as possible,” Bovrisse said, adding this process may take a month or two.
In December, Bovrisse, who alleged Prada Japan CEO Davide Sesia and Human Resources Manager Hiroyuki Takahashi discriminated against employees based on their appearance, filed a labor complaint with the Tokyo District Court demanding compensation for emotional distress and cancellation of her demotion and leave.
Bovrisse, who has been on involuntary leave since November, was notified Saturday by Prada Japan, the local unit of the world-famous brand, that she will be fired Monday on the grounds that she made false accusations against the company.
Bovrisse has alleged that Sesia asked her to “eliminate” about 15 shop managers and assistant managers he described as being “old, fat, ugly, disgusting or not having the Prada look” last May. Most of them chose to quit after the human resources manager issued transfer orders that amounted to demotions, she said.
In the complaint, Bovrisse alleged that she was verbally abused regarding her appearance by Takahashi, who delivered Sesia’s message to her, and that the company forced its employees to purchase Prada products with their own money.
Prada Japan and Prada Milan headquarters have denied Bovrisse’s allegations.
Prada accused of maltreatment
Boss wanted ‘old, fat, ugly’ out: manager
A senior manager at Prada Japan has filed a legal complaint against the Italian fashion label, accusing the company of harassment and discrimination based on appearance and alleging it maltreated other employees in the past.
Last May, Prada Japan CEO Davide Sesia visited some of the 40 Prada shops in Japan with Rina Bovrisse, its senior retail manager. Afterward, he asked her to “eliminate” about 15 shop managers and assistant managers he described as being “old, fat, ugly, disgusting or not having the Prada look,” Bovrisse said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.
Tokyo-based lawyer Reiko Shiratori, who specializes mainly in workplace harassment cases, said it would be illegal even for a luxury fashion house to order the dismissal, demotion or unfavorable transfer of a worker on the grounds of physical appearance because that isn’t the only relevant job requirement.
Bovrisse said she is taking this opportunity to raise the issue of harassment against women in the workplace because she wants to improve their working environment.
70 immigration detainees on hunger strike
Fast in Osaka tied to denial of release: activists
At least 70 detainees at the West Japan Immigration Control Center, which has long been criticized by human rights groups and Diet members, have been on a hunger strike since Monday, center officials and volunteers helping them confirmed Thursday.
“Around 70 foreigners began a hunger strike Monday night because they want to be released on a temporary basis,” Norifumi Kishida, an official at the center, said Thursday morning. The center, in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, is providing food but they are refusing to eat, he said.
Hiromi Sano, a human rights activist involved with immigration issues who has been meeting with detainees over the past few days, said some hunger strikers have applied for refugee status.
“They are demanding to know why their applications for release from the center were rejected, even though their refugee claims are being reviewed administratively or judicially, with support from lawyers and legal assistance workers,” she said.
Reports of detainee abuse and harsh conditions at the West Japan Immigration Control Center go back at least a decade. According to an investigation by Kyodo News, 23 detainees at the center had attempted suicide between 2000 and 2004.
Foreigners rally over job security
Hundreds of foreign and Japanese people staged a rally Sunday in Tokyo demanding better working conditions and employment benefits for foreign residents.
At the annual “March in March” event at Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward, Louis Carlet, deputy general secretary of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, said foreign workers have a great need for job security and health care.
“It’s difficult to be a foreigner in any country. But it’s much more difficult when you don’t have job security, when you don’t have health care,” said Carlet, whose union jointly hosted the event with other groups lobbying for improved labor conditions.
One of the biggest problems is that most foreigners are being employed as nonregular workers, and more and more Japanese are being used the same way, he said.
Participants at the rally included people from many different ethnic backgrounds as well as various unions. Organizers said around 400 people took part.
Romsun Pramudito from Indonesia, who chairs the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Indonesia Youth Association, said more job security should be given to foreigner workers.
“We are working very hard and really contributing to the country,” he said, adding he hopes foreigners receive better treatment. He also said foreigners and Japanese should collaborate to find a solution.
Buddhika Weerasinghe, a Fukui-based freelance photojournalist from Sri Lanka, came to the event because he is interested in the problems foreign workers face in Japan.
Weerasinghe said he has heard from foreign workers in the city of Fukui — many of them Chinese working in garment factories — that some received salary cuts without explanation and even experienced physical harassment. “I feel foreigners working in Japan are facing a lot of problems.”
While hopeful that improvement will accompany the change in government last September, little progress has been made, Carlet said.
“We want the new government to take this issue very seriously and make serious change,” he said.
The event also featured a live music by musicians from various countries, including Senegalese drum sessions and Ainu dancing from Hokkaido.
A march planned after the gathering, however, was called off because of the chilly rain, organizers said.
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 at the application window when reporting changes in their status of residence or when renewing visas.
But the newly revised immigration guideline also states that failing to present health insurance cards would not adversely affect decisions by the bureau on the issues of changing residence status or renewing visas. [Japanese as well as] non-Japanese are required by law to enroll in the social insurance system.
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 ruling coalition partners,” said Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi.
Now, the attention is focused on whether ruling and opposition parties will launch a campaign to pass the bill as legislator-initiated legislation.
The suffrage bill was expected to be based on a draft that the DPJ prepared before it took over the reins of government, and it proposes to grant local suffrage to foreign residents from countries with which Japan has diplomatic ties. The DPJ’s proposal will cover some 420,000 Korean and other special permanent residents — both those who arrived in Japan before World War II and their offspring — as well as about 490,000 foreign residents from other countries.
The campaign to enact legislation on foreign suffrage in local elections dates back to 15 years ago.
Encouraged by the 1995 Supreme Court ruling that “foreign suffrage is not banned by the Constitution,” over 1,500 local assemblies adopted a resolution to support and promote legislation to grant local suffrage to permanent foreign residents in Japan — some 910,000 people as of the end of 2008.
However, as the passage of the bill becomes a real possibility along with the change of government, various views have emerged.
The National Association of Chairpersons of Prefectural Assemblies held an interparty discussion meeting on local suffrage for permanent foreign residents on Feb. 9 in Tokyo.
“It’s not the time for national isolation,” said Azuma Konno, a House of Councillors member of the DPJ, as he explained the party’s policy on the legislation at the meeting, raising massive jeers and objections from participants.
“We can introduce legislation which will make it easier for foreigners to be naturalized,” said Kazuyoshi Hatakeyama, speaker of the Miyagi Prefectural Assembly, while Kochi Prefectural Assembly Vice Speaker Eiji Morita countered, saying: “The DPJ excluded the suffrage bill from its manifesto for last summer’s election.”
The Mie Prefectural Assembly, in which DPJ members form the largest political group, was the only chapter to support the granting of local suffrage to permanent foreign residents.
“The argument against suffrage rings of ethnic nationalism,” said Speaker Tetsuo Mitani.
The fact that the DPJ’s legislation plan met with strong opposition during the meeting highlighted the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s strong sway over local assemblies, where its members manage to remain as the largest political group.
Opponents of the bill argue that it is unreasonable for the central government to make decisions on regional electoral systems while pledging to promote decentralization of authority. Furthermore, the national association of chairpersons adopted a special resolution calling on the government to focus more on the opinions of local assemblies on Jan. 21.
During the LDP Policy Research Council’s national meeting on Feb. 10, LDP lawmakers instructed its prefectural chapters to promote resolutions opposing foreign suffrage at respective local assemblies, in a bid to undermine the Hatoyama administration and the DPJ in cooperation with regional politics.
According to the chairpersons’ association, before the change of government last summer, a total of 34 prefectures supported the granting of local suffrage to foreign residents; however, eight reversed their positions after the DPJ came into power. The trend is expected to accelerate further, pointing to antagonism between the nation’s two largest political parties, as well as the conflicts between the DPJ-led national government and local governments.
The Chiba Prefectural Assembly, which adopted the resolution supporting foreign suffrage in 1999, reversed its position in December last year.
“We cannot believe they overturned their own decision,” said an official at Mindan’s Chiba Prefecture branch. The branch, which has a close relationship with LDP lawmakers, had owed the prefecture’s previous decision to support the suffrage bill to the efforts of LDP members in the prefectural assembly.
The Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly, too, is one of the eight local assemblies that went from for to against suffrage. Mindan’s Ibaraki branch has also expressed its disappointment, saying: “Assembly members are using the issue as part of their campaign strategy for the coming election.”
According to the National Diet Library, foreign residents are granted local suffrage in most major developed countries.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100227p2a00m0na009000c.html
Survey: 14 prefectures against foreign suffrage
Fourteen of the nation’s 47 prefectural assemblies oppose or have called for prudence in granting permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections, a recent survey by the National Association of Chairpersons of Prefectural Assemblies has found.
Of the 14, eight including Chiba and Ishikawa had previously voted in favor of enfranchising non-Japanese with permanent resident status.
Observers point out that the move represents a revolt by conservatives that control many local assemblies, as legislation granting foreign residents the right to vote grows ever more likely under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration.
Muneyuki Shindo, professor of political science at Chiba University, suspects that the LDP headquarters have asked affiliated assembly members to oppose any legislation granting permanent foreign residents the right to vote in a bid to cause a split within the DPJ-led administration.
“LDP members and those supporting the LDP are dominant in many local assemblies. I suspect that the LDP headquarters is creating a trend in which many of the local assemblies are opposed to the move and trying to cause a split within the administration,” he said.
Among municipal assemblies, at least 13, including the Yamagata Prefecture city of Tendo, had adopted resolutions against giving permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections by the end of last year, according to a survey by the National Association of Chairpersons of City Councils.
On the other hand, the Koganei Municipal Assembly in western Tokyo voted in December in favor of voting rights for non-Japanese with permanent resident status. Only four of its 24 members are affiliated with the LDP.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100212p2a00m0na001000c.html