東日本大震災の被災地では、多くの医療関係者が昼夜を違わず活動を続けている。その中には、日本との経済連携協定（ＥＰＡ）に基づく看護師・介護士候補者の派遣事業で滞日中のフィリピンやインドネシアの女性たちも含まれる。「お年寄りを見捨てて去れない」「地震も津波も怖くない。みんなを助けたい」。彼女たちの献身的な姿勢には「国の誇り」（インドネシア政府）、「介護のヒロイン」（フィリピンのメディア）などと称賛の声が上がり、被災者たちも感銘している。
Immigration
Foreign arrivals at Narita airport dive 60% since quake
The number of foreign arrivals at Narita International Airport near Tokyo plunged about 60 percent from a year earlier to some 67,000 between March 11, the date of the massive earthquake, and March 22, officials with the Immigration Bureau said Thursday.
In contrast, non-Japanese who left Japan through the country’s biggest international gateway during the same period jumped about 20,000 to roughly 190,000, they said.
Foreigners’ departures peaked at some 40,000 on March 13, a day after the Japanese authorities expanded the evacuation zone to areas within a 20-kilometer radius from the troubled nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture.
Many appear to have left temporarily because some 6,000 applied for permits for reentry into Japan between March 11 and March 22, the officials said.
Both departures by Japanese from Narita and Japanese arrivals at the international airport sank 100,000 from a year earlier to about 200,000 each way.
”Many might have canceled their trips because of the quake although schools let out this time of year,” a bureau official said.
Number of foreigners leaving Japan soars 8-fold
An immigration official says more than 161,000 foreigners have left Japan since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered an unfolding nuclear crisis.
Taichi Iseki, an immigration official at Japan’s major airport, Narita, said Friday the number of foreigners flying out from March 11 to March 22 totaled 161,300 — an eightfold increase from about 20,000 in the same period last year.
The quake and giant tsunami decimated much of northeast Japan, while the crisis at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, one of the quake-hit areas, triggered a massive exodus of foreigners.
The number of foreigners arriving at Narita from March 11 to 22 plunged 60 percent year-on-year to 33,400.
看護師試験合格のインドネシア人「被災地に行かせて」
看護師国家試験に合格した兵庫県姫路市のインドネシア人スワルティさん（３２）が２５日、勤務先の姫路赤十字病院で記者会見。東日本大震災に触れ「できれば（被災地に）行かせてほしい」と涙ながらに話した。
Expats in Japan Tiptoe Back to Work
Life in Japan is showing tentative signs of returning to normal, but a fresh challenge may be facing the expatriates and Japanese who left and are now trickling back to their offices: how to cope with ostracism and anger from their colleagues who have worked through the crisis.
Foreigners again flood immigration
Foreign residents flooded the Tokyo Immigration Bureau early Thursday seeking re-entry permits as fears of a nuclear crisis prompted them to make plans to leave temporarily if needed.
More than 2,500 foreign residents had formed a long line stretching outside the immigration office as of noon, apparently due to fears of the unfolding crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The bureau, part of the Justice Ministry, said it had received re-entry permit requests from about 10,000 foreign residents as of Wednesday and that Thursday’s figure could exceed it.
The bureau said it would issue permission to those who arrived by 4 p.m., even if the process takes extra hours and goes into the middle of the night.
Thousands swamp immigration
Spooked by the radiation leak at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, thousands of people this week have been applying for re-entry permits in preparation for evacuation from Japan.
On Wednesday, the number of applicants at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau appeared to surpass the nearly 5,000 who lined up Tuesday, according to a bureau official.
The Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau Wednesday also began accepting inquiries about whether foreigners registered in Disaster Relief Act-applicable areas in Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are still in Japan.
To make an inquiry, the nationality, name, birth date, sex and address of both applicant and foreigner must be provided.
For more info, contact the Immigration Bureau at (03) 3592-8120. Inquiries are accepted Monday through Friday between 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Inquiries can also be sent by fax at (03) 3592-7368 or by e-mail: nyukan44@moj.go.jp
Foreign workers needed: Maehara
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara called Wednesday for appropriate rules to accept more foreign workers ahead of an anticipated severe labor shortage in rapidly aging Japan, warning that China’s eventual “supergraying society” could soak up migrant workers.
Japan must ease migrant rules or lose carers – minister
Japan must completely revise its immigration rules to deal with a shortage of labour in an ageing society or risk losing workers to China, whose population is also greying, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said on Wednesday.
Number of local entertainers in Japan down
Deployment of Filipino entertainers to Japan is on a rapid decline ever since the Japanese government imposed stricter immigration policy for overseas performing artists (OPAs) more than three years ago.