[Gaffe-prone Prime Minister Taro] Aso also expressed his disapproval of DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama’s willingness to give local-level suffrage to foreign nationals with permanent residency.
“Hatoyama says that Japan is not a country just for Japanese, but if that is the case, then whose country is it for?” Aso asked. “Honestly speaking, this isn’t something that will be resolved by just granting (foreigners) suffrage and it is likely that there will be many more difficult problems.”
While many lawmakers in the DPJ and New Komeito are for granting foreigners the right to vote in local elections, many conservative LDP members have expressed strong reluctance.
The prime minister added that the number of descendants of Koreans who lived in Japan before the war and were forced to take Japanese nationality at that time is declining and that “we must consider various things like whether (suffrage for foreigners) is even necessary.”
Immigration
Japan’s baby-making stimulus package
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the country’s main opposition political party and front-runner to take over the Japanese government in the elections to be held on August 30th, has promised a financial stimulus package of a different kind. Designed to address Japan’s increasingly worrisome drop in fertility rate, the DPJ’s stimulus, if enacted, will provide various financial incentives to couples who procreate.
Japan’s impending demographic crisis has long been known about but until now, there has been no real government proposal to make demographic improvements. The commonly accepted fertility rate to maintain the size of a population is 2.1 births per woman. Fertility rates higher than 2.1 will increase the size of a population over time; a rate lower than 2.1 will reduce the size of a population over time. As late as 2005, Japan’s fertility rate was reported as only 1.26 births per woman.
Although developed nations in general tend to have lower birth rates than developing nations, the demographic crisis is not as acute in Western Europe or the United States because immigration policy has been identified as a tool to increase populations over time.
While Japan too has the ability to use immigration policy to solve its population problem, it lacks a demonstrable political will. Japan has a history of maintaining a strict immigration policy and shows no sign of changing in the immediate future. As friendly as the Japanese may be to foreign visitors, its government is infamous for its aversion to immigrants; Japan has one of the most homogenous populations of any country on earth.
Given Japan’s preference for ethnic homogeneity, financial incentives for child-bearing couples may, at first glance, seem like an appropriate solution to Japan’s population problem. The DPJ is currently promising 26,000 Yen (about US $270) per month per child in addition to providing free high school tuition.
This ‘stimulus package’, however, could create incentives for perverse actions. Take for example China’s one child policy, which attempts to do precisely the opposite of what the DPJ says it will attempt. China’s attempt at social engineering, while successful in some respects, has had the unintended consequence of promoting abortions, increasing infanticide, and producing a disproportionate ratio of males to females in Chinese society, problems that only grows worse over time. A DPJ attempt at social engineering could prove equally problematic.
Japan is clearly facing a demographic crisis but the solution lies in immigration policy, not in bribes. Japan must open its borders, not its pocketbook, if it wants to solve this problem. The bleak state of Japan’s economy suggests there might be more efficient uses for taxpayer dollars.
http://www.examiner.com/x-16317-DC-Asia-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Japans-babymaking-stimulus-package
Japan’s ageing, shrinking population
Whichever party wins Japan’s August 30 general election must deal with a population forecast to shrink and age rapidly, because of the country’s low birth rate, high life expectancy and aversion to immigration.
Following are some facts about Japan’s population trends.* Japan is currently the world’s 10th-largest country in terms of population, with more than 127 million people. By 2050, it is forecast to rank 18th, with 93.7 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
* That compares with Russia’s population, which is also forecast to fall from 140 million in 2009 to 109.2 million in 2050, knocking it from 9th position to 16th.
* Japan’s population dependency ratio, or the number of people of working age supporting each elderly person, stood at 3.3 in 2005, but will fall to 1.3 by 2055 according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
* An IMF study calculated that Japan’s real GDP would fall by a cumulative 20 percent over the next century, compared with a baseline simulation with a stationary population.
* The Health Ministry forecasts pension costs will rise to 56 trillion yen in 2015, compared with 39.5 trillion yen in 2006, while health care spending is expected to rise to 37 trillion from 27.5 trillion in 2006. Some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) say consumption tax will need to be raised from the current five percent in future to fund rising social security costs.
* Defense spending has been falling annually from a high of 49.4 trillion yen as social security takes an increasing share of the budget. It will likely fall further and Japan may have trouble staffing its [constitutionally illegal] military due to the shortage of young people.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, IMF, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Defense Ministry, Pacific Forum CSIS
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56U02620090731
New law: no dues, no visa
On a drab, rainy Sunday in June, a group of foreign workers gathered at the office of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu in Shimbashi to discuss an equally drab topic: social insurance. According to a new immigration law passed by the Diet earlier this month, foreign residents will be required to show proof of enrollment in Japan’s health insurance program in order to renew or apply for a visa after April 1, 2010.
A handful of attendees were young, but most were middle-aged or approaching retirement age. Many had been working in Japan for years and had never been told anything about insurance, while others were aware of the program but had been dissuaded by their employers from joining it.
Louis Carlet, deputy secretary of Nambu, laid it down for everyone in the room to understand. There are a few basic things that all foreigners in Japan have to know, he explained: first, that everyone over the age of 20 in Japan is required to enroll in an approved Japanese government health insurance scheme and pension fund. If you are under 75 and working at a company that employs more than five people, this most likely means the shakai hoken (social insurance) program; if you are unemployed, self-employed or retired, the equivalent system is the kokumin kenko hoken and kokumin nenkin (national health insurance and pension). The only people exempt are sailors, day laborers, and those working for companies employing less than five people, or for firms without a permanent address (e.g. a film set).
The two systems cover different ground, all of which is explained in detail at www.sia.go.jp/e/ehi.html. Roughly, shakai hoken consists of two parts: kenko hoken (health insurance), which covers 70 percent of your medical costs and 60 percent of lost wages due to illness, and kosei nenkin (pension insurance), which provides a pension after age 65 for those who have paid into the system. The two are inseparable, and anyone enrolled in shakai hoken through their employer automatically pays into both. The kokumin kenko hoken (national health insurance) and kokumin nenkin (national pension) package offers similar coverage but is not provided through an employer.
The bottom line is that all residents of Japan (except those mentioned above) have to be enrolled in one or other of the two systems. The revised visa laws, therefore, should pose no threat to anyone’s visa renewal, because every foreigner in Japan should already be enrolled.
However, the reality is that most foreigners in Japan do not have either form of insurance. For example, a 2004 survey by Hiroshi Kojima of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found that only 28.3 percent of Japanese Brazilians in Iwata City, Shizuoka Pref., had any kind of health insurance, and that of these only a third were enrolled in shakai hoken. Another survey in 2009 found that just one out of 27 manufacturing companies had enrolled its foreign employees in workers’ compensation, leaving thousands of foreigners ineligible for any form of assistance when the economic downturn hit Japan last year, leading to mass layoffs.
Foreign workers often hear a litany of reasons why they should not be enrolled in shakai hoken, or are simply not told about it at all. Employers would have a much tougher time leaving their Japanese staff off the system, argues Carlet, as many associate shakai hoken with a certain social status — those left out of the system tend to be in insecure employment such as day labor and very short-term contract work. For many Japanese workers, nonenrollment implies that their company either doesn’t value them as a long-term employee or simply doesn’t have the funds to cover the cost of insurance.
Registered foreign population in Japan hits record-high 2.21 million
The number of registered foreign residents in Japan hit a record high of 2,217,000 at the end of 2008, marking an increase of around 50% in the last decade, a report released by the Justice Ministry said Friday. The registered foreign population accounts for 1.74% of Japan’s total population, it said.
Chinese nationals accounted for the largest group of foreign residents at around 30%, or 655,000 people, followed by Koreans at 589,000, Brazilians at 313,000, Filipinos at 211,000 and Peruvians at 60,000. The number of permanent residents increased to 492,000, up 11.9%, and that of nonpermanent residents with skilled labor visas rose by 21.6%. Most foreign nationals resided in Tokyo, with 402,000 registered, followed by Aichi and Osaka prefectures.
Justice Ministry to clear up guidelines for special residence permits
The Justice Ministry will clarify its guidelines for awarding special residence permits to encourage illegal immigrants, fearful of deportation under the current vague standards, to turn themselves in.
Justice Minister Eisuke Mori said Friday the revisions would spell out the “positive” and “negative” factors that are taken into consideration for granting special permits that allow otherwise illegal foreigners to stay in the country.
The ministry’s vague and seemingly arbitrary process of granting special permits has been a target of criticism from groups supporting foreign nationals and lawyers.
Those who have overstayed their visas may be unsure if they qualify for the special permits, so they refuse to step forward and risk deportation.
On Wednesday, the Diet passed a bill to revise the immigration control law and introduce a new program within three years that will benefit legal foreign residents but isolate those here illegally.
Currently, an estimated 130,000 foreigners are residing illegally in Japan.
Under the new guidelines for the special permits, one of the biggest positive factors is if the foreign resident is living with biological children who have been in Japan for 10 or more years and are currently attending elementary, junior high or senior high school.
People with children in junior high school or higher levels of education have often been granted special residence permits. The scope will effectively widen under the new guidelines.
Another main positive factor is if the applicant is suffering from a serious illness, or has kin suffering from illness, that requires treatment in Japan.
Other factors that would work in favor of the foreign resident are residency in Japan for 20 years or longer and if the resident surrenders to authorities.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200907100289.html
New special residency permit guidelines established
New guidelines for special residency permits issued by the Minister of Justice to foreigners who have received deportation orders for illegal overstays have been established, the Ministry of Justice announced Friday.
Listed as having grounds for positive consideration include: those who are raising biological children in elementary, junior, or senior high school and who have lived in Japan for 10 years or more; those who have lived in Japan for 20 years and are firmly rooted in Japan; and those who turn themselves into authorities for illegally overstaying and have no records of other law violations.
Meanwhile, those who have illegally issued or received passports, or entered the country on fraudulent passports or visas are unlikely to be eligible for special residency permits. Even those who have lived in Japan for 20 years or more, will be considered for deportation if they have been convicted of illegally issuing or receiving passports.
While special residence permission is left to the justice minister’s discretion, guidelines for granting permission were established by the Ministry of Justice for the first time in October 2006. The latest revision took place because of a supplementary provision written by both ruling and opposition party legislators into the amended Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law that passed during the current Diet session to “increase the transparency of special residence permissions.”
In 2008, 8,522 foreigners were granted special residency permits, meaning that a little over 70 percent of all petitions for permission have been granted. In March 2009, Justice Minister Eisuke Mori granted special residence permission to a 14-year-old Saitama girl who was born and raised in Japan and whose parents had been deported to the Philippines for illegally entering Japan, given that she lives with her relatives.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/
20090710p2a00m0na004000c.html
Diet approves revised law on immigration
In a major policy shift, the Upper House on Wednesday passed an immigration revision bill that will tighten controls on illegal foreigners while [supposedly] easing restrictions on those living here legally.
The main feature of the revisions to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law is the introduction of an IC card that will replace the existing alien registration card. Foreign residents with the new cards will be registered in the Basic Resident Register, and their whereabouts will be uniformly monitored by the central government.
The revised law will take effect within the next three years.
At the end of 2008, a record 2.217 million people held alien registration cards, which can be obtained from local governments even without a proper visa.
However, only legally residing foreigners who have stayed in Japan for more than three months will be able to receive the IC cards and be entered in the Basic Resident Register.
Changes of address will be monitored by the Justice Ministry through municipalities. Businesses and schools will be obliged to make efforts to cooperate with the central government in providing information on foreign nationals they employ or enroll.
Foreign residents will be required to carry the IC cards at all times, much like the rules for alien registration cards.
Also like the alien registration cards, the new cards will carry the bearer’s picture, name, nationality, address, as well as visa status and period of validity.
The new cards will clearly state whether the card holder is allowed to work in Japan…[and] the IC chips will prevent counterfeiting.
The benefits of the revisions for legally residing foreign residents include an extension of the maximum length of visas from three to five years.
In addition, foreign residents traveling abroad will no longer be required to obtain re-entry permits as long as they return to Japan within a year.
But one problem with the new system is how to deal with the estimated 130,000 illegal foreigners in the country. Some critics predict that undocumented foreigners could be driven underground.
The revisions also include amendments to an industrial training and technical internship program. The amendments offer a new visa status for foreign trainees. They will be protected under labor standard and minimum wage laws from their first year in Japan.
This revision will take effect within a year.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200907090081.html
Diet OKs bills to up foreigner controls
The Diet passed bills Wednesday that tighten controls on foreign residents, paving the way for them to take effect within three years, despite opposition from foreigners and human rights activists.
The planned enforcement follows an agreement on the bills reached last month between the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition and the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party.
The bills, which cleared an Upper House plenary session, will abolish the Alien Registration Act and revise immigration control and resident registration laws.
Rights activists condemned the bills for excessively tightening controls on foreigners.
“We will keep fighting against the enforcement of the bills in municipalities, the Diet and the United Nations, seeking cooperation from nongovernmental organizations in Japan and the world,” said Nobuyuki Sato, representative of Research-Action Institute for the Koreans in Japan, which wants the bills abolished.
The Immigration Bureau and lawmakers worked out the bills to reduce the number of undocumented foreign residents, which the bureau estimates total about 110,000.
Human rights activists, including Akira Hatate, director of the nongovernmental organization Japan Civil Liberties Union, said that instead of focusing on reducing the number of illegal residents, the government should treat overstayers as members of society that can help the country prosper.
Activist sees holes in bills to snare illegals
CONTROLS ON FOREIGNERS
Activist Akira Hatate opposes the bills to tighten control of foreign residents, arguing they will not serve the government’s goal of clarifying who is in the country illegally because transgressors will see little benefit in turning themselves in.
“What (the bills will) achieve is to tighten control of law-abiding foreigners, who have no need to be under tight control,” Hatate, director of the nongovernmental organization Japan Civil Liberties Union.
“The bills are very unbalanced because the government will not be able to control the intended target: undocumented foreigners,” Hatate said. “Instead they will greatly tighten the leash on properly registered foreigners, who do not need monitoring.
“To me, this is the government’s reinforcement of infrastructure to control foreigners. Fingerprinting at airports is to control entrants and the bills are to control residents. The government probably thinks it needs to do this because the number of foreigners will inevitably increase,” he said.