… Japan granted refugee status to 46 asylum- seekers in 2005, a record high since 1983.
Although this pales in comparison with the approximately 70,000 admitted as refugees and granted asylum by the U.S. in 2005, [Jana] Mason [deputy director of government relations for International Rescue Committee, a major U.S. nongovernmental organization] called the number a considerable step forward for Japan, which had granted refugee status to only 49 people during the entire 1990s.
According to Mason, the appropriate number of refugees a country should admit must be based on its size and population as well as the number of applicants. But there is no magic number, and it is estimated there are 11 million refugees worldwide.
Immigration
Plaintiff gets redress but not for racial bias
A black American man won a partial victory Wednesday in a discrimination suit against a shopkeeper who had barred his entry, when the Osaka High Court ruled that the defendant’s action was illegal, but not racially biased despite his stated bigotry, and awarded the plaintiff 350,000 yen.
In overturning the lower court ruling, the high court ordered optical shop owner Takashi Narita to pay 350,000 yen in compensation to Steve McGowan, 42. McGowan had sued for racial discrimination over an incident that occurred outside the shop in September 2004.
Immigration Battle Diary
Fundamentally, [Hidenori] Sakanaka [former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau] argues, the issue before Japan is what kind of country it wants to become by the middle of this century: a “big” country or a “small” country. Becoming a Big Country means accepting, by 2050, roughly 20 million immigrants in order to maintain current economic levels of prosperity. The alternative is to become a Small Country, let the population drop to about 100 million, keep most foreigners out, and use robots to do some of the work often done by immigrants elsewhere.
To achieve the goal of becoming a Big Country, Sakanaka advocates the establishment of an Immigration Ministry, a separate government organ with full ministerial powers that would be responsible for all aspects of Japan’s immigration policy, as well as the immigrants themselves once they have arrived and until they have obtained Japanese citizenship. Sakanaka basically favors Japan becoming a Big Country, not just for economic reasons but to serve as the “Canada of Asia”, a multicultural, multiethnic salad bowl of a country where people of all races and creeds can feel comfortable.
The Rise of Migrant Militancy
As organizing campaigns in New York City show, migrant workers are indispensable to the revitalization of the labor movement. As employers turn to migrant labor to fill low-wage jobs, unions must encourage and support organizing drives that emerge from the oppressive conditions of work. As the 1930s workers’ movement demonstrates, if conditions improve for immigrants, all workers will prosper. To gain traction, unions must recognize that capital is pitting migrant workers against native-born laborers to lower wages and improve profitability. Although unions have had some success organizing immigrants, most are circling the wagons, disinterested in building a more inclusive mass labor movement. The first step is for unions to go beyond rhetoric and form a broad and inclusive coalition embracing migrant workers.
When illegal foreign workers get hurt, compensation is an uphill battle
Individuals, […], labor unions and private organizations are continuing low-profile activities to provide support for those injured workers. Under the workers’ accident compensation insurance, even if a victim of an industrial accident is working here illegally, compensatory payments are made.
However, many employers refuse to help their illegal employees apply for workers’ compensation. And many illegal workers are afraid of applying out of fears their status will be revealed.
…
“Among employers who take on illegal immigrants, those who try to conceal industrial accidents are probably in the majority,” [Hiroshi Nakajima, of the foreign workers’ section of the Tokyo-based Zentoitsu Workers Union, which has more than 3,000 foreign members] said.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200609290164.html
Foreigners to need ’skills’ to live in Japan
As suggested in the [Justice Ministry] panel’s interim report released in May, the panel said foreigners who want to work in Japan, including those of Japanese descent, must have a certain degree of proficiency in the Japanese language to be granted legal status.
[Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro] Kono called the government’s current policy of granting preferential treatment to people of Japanese descent a “mistake” and said the policy must be reconsidered.
“Many children of those ethnic Japanese who do not speak (the language) are dropping out of school, which must be stopped,” he said, adding that the lack of language ability is becoming a major problem for foreign workers.
“The government must take responsibility for building a system to teach Japanese to them,” Kono said.
Trouble looms as foreign labor floods in
…before official discussions on foreign labor go much further, national legislation to outlaw all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination is needed, according to the United Nations and nearly 80 Japan-based human rights organizations, many of which work to protect long-term foreign residents.
Without such a law, they argue, Japan will have serious problems with new arrivals, regardless of the restrictions on them, their Japanese-language skills or efforts to educate their children.
But the central government is not seriously considering such legal protections at the moment. In a comment reflective of the views of many senior policymakers and ordinary Japanese, [Vice Justice Minister Taro] Kono said he did not think such a law would be useful.
“Even if we were to pass such a law, Japanese attitudes toward foreigners wouldn’t change. It’s more important to change the culture of Japanese society to one that is accepting of foreigners,” Kono said.
Courts refuse to hire lawyers on nationality
Three courts have refused to allow three Korean residents working as lawyers to assume commissioned jobs despite being nominated by their bar associations, because they are not Japanese, attorneys said Thursday.
Japan’s fingerprinting law is dumb . . . (and that’s just what the government thinks)
On May 18, 2006, a little discussed and little debated law passed the Diet.
With changes modeled on the “U.S. Visit” system set up in 2003, the Immigration Control Law was amended to require that, from November 2007, all foreigners (except “special” permanent residents) be photographed and fingerprinted upon entering the country.
The law has sparked concern among the international community in Japan, as well as with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which believes the amendments to the law are unconstitutional.
While the Justice Ministry does appear to be adopting a flexible, open approach to the terms of implementation, some government officials have described the law as “dumb” and “poorly thought-out.”
Others admit they’ve never even heard of it.
Revised ordinance bars gangs from sponsoring foreign entertainers
An amended government ordinance entered force Thursday, banning companies linked to organized crime syndicates from sponsoring foreign singers and dancers entering Japan on entertainment visas.
The updated Justice Ministry ordinance is aimed at tackling human trafficking as foreign women who have entered Japan as entertainers have often been forced to work for low wages as hostesses in bars or nightclubs or to engage in prostitution.