Immigration

Will there ever be a rainbow Japan?

by

Government statistics suggest multiculturalism is on the rise, but social organizations for mixed-race Japanese say ‘hafus’ still face challenges

Japan, which closed its borders from 1639 to 1854 and later colonized its neighbors, has an uneasy history with foreigners, national identity, and multiculturalism.

Yet government statistics and grassroots organizations say multiculturalism in the famously insular country is now on the rise.

Japan: The new melting pot?

Japan’s national government recently announced it is turning to travelers in a foreigner-friendly mission to boost diversity — at least in tourist spots — by paying them to provide feedback on how to increase accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.

David Askew, associate professor of law at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University, identifies more profound changes.

In 1965, a mere 1 in 250 of all marriages in Japan were international, he notes. By 2004, the number had climbed to 1 in 15 across the nation and 1 in 10 in Tokyo.

According to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government, by 2005, foreign residents in the city numbered 248,363, up from 159,073 in 1990.

According to Askew, the upswing in diverse residents and mixed marriages has led to another phenomenon: between 1987 and 2004, more than 500,000 children were born in Japan with at least one foreign parent.

Celebrating diversity

A handful of new organizations are tied, at least in part, to the increase in multicultural marriages.

Groups such as Mixed Roots Japan and Hapa Japan, founded by children of mixed-Japanese couples, aim to celebrate the broadening scope of Japanese identity, both nationally and globally.

“There is a real need now to recognize that Japan is getting more multiracial,” says Mixed Roots founder Edward Sumoto, a self-described “hafu” of Japanese/Venezuelan ethnicity. “The Japanese citizen is not simply a traditional Japanese person with Japanese nationality anymore.”

The issue of the identity of hafu is also being explored in a new film titled “Hafu,” currently under production by the Hafu Project.

In support of multiracial families, Mixed Roots holds Halloween and Christmas parties, picnics and beach days.

The organization also sponsors a monthly radio show on station FMYY, and “Shakeforward” concerts in Tokyo and Kansai, accompanied by youth workshops and symposia.

“These events feature mixed-roots artists who promote social dialogue with their songs,” says Sumoto.

The next “Shakeforward” concert will be held on November 27 in Kobe.

One of Sumoto’s primary goals is to “enable mixed-race kids to meet and talk, so they know there are other people like them.”

Despite the statistics, achieving widespread recognition for Japanese diversity has been a struggle for Sumoto and other grassroots organizers.

“Mentally, do the Japanese think the country is becoming more multicultural?” asks Sumoto. “Possibly more than 20 years ago, because you see more foreigners, but people are still not sure what to do with it.”

Multiculturalism on the margins

Like Sumoto, Erin Aeran Chung, assistant professor of East Asian politics at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, sees the issue of Japanese multiculturalism as multifaceted.

Chung has written extensively on Japan, ethnicity and citizenship, especially as relates to Zainichi Koreans, descendents of pre-war immigrants, many of whom were brought to Japan as slave labor.

Zainichi literally means “staying in Japan temporarily.”

“The concepts of ‘multicultural coexistence’ (tabunka kyōsei) and ‘living in harmony with foreigners’ (gaikokujin to no kyōsei)” — catchwords for multiculturalism used by local government officials and NGOs — “are based on the idea that Japanese nationals, assumed to be culturally homogenous, can live together peacefully with foreign nationals, assumed to be culturally different from the Japanese,” Chung said in a series of interviews.

“Rather than expand the definition of Japanese national identity to include those who are not Japanese by blood or nationality,” Chung argues, “the concept of kyōsei suggests that Japanese nationals must rise to the challenge of living with diversity,” instead of as part of a group of diverse citizens belonging to a truly multicultural nation.

A recent move by the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) suggests not even citizenship guarantees acceptance as “truly” Japanese.

At a meeting last February, the JSA administrative board mandated limiting foreign-born wrestlers to one per stable. The upshot: even if a competitor born abroad becomes a Japanese citizen, he’s still considered the stable’s token foreigner.

The myth of mono-ethnicity

Underneath the debate over Japan’s willingness to embrace multiculturalism lies the question of how mono-ethnic the nation ever really was.

According to Ritsumeikan’s David Askew, “The idea of Japan as mono-ethnic is actually a postwar belief.”

The Ainu and Ryukyuan ethnic groups, engulfed by Japan during its prewar colonial movement, are examples.

As for Taiwan and Korea, they “were part of Japan until 1945, so you could hardly talk about a homogeneous population before then.”

“The conversation about multiculturalism today is one that focuses on accepting ‘foreign’ cultures, ignoring the broad range of cultural practices within Japan itself,” says Askew.

“Unless the Okinawas and Osakas of Japan are accepted as different cultures, the discourse will continue to promote the idea of a homogeneous Japan,” says Askew.

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/life/will-there-ever-be-rainbow-japan-341969#ixzz176ov3ZDy

Japan lifts visa restrictions for foreign dentists, nurses

by

The Justice Ministry on Tuesday revised an ordinance concerning residence visas, lifting a set of restrictions for foreign dentists, nurses, maternity nurses and health workers who have Japanese state qualifications.

The step, which abolished limits on the number of years and the extent of areas in which they can work in the country, was taken on the grounds that Japan needs to accept a broad range of foreigners with specialized skills as it copes with a declining birthrate and rapidly aging population.

The revision allows foreign nurses and health workers without permanent resident status to continue working in Japanese medical institutions beyond the designated number of years. It also paves the way for foreign dentists to open their own clinics in urban areas and work at private clinics.

Until now, the ordinance limited the number of years foreigners could work under medical practitioner visas after obtaining Japanese state qualifications to six years for dentists, seven years for nurses, and four years for maternity nurses and health workers.

It also only allowed foreign dentists to work as long as they were doing clinical studies at university hospitals and to work beyond the designated number of years only while practicing in remote areas designated by the justice minister.

Abolishing the work visa restrictions was one of the agenda items cited in the government’s fourth basic plan on immigration set in March. Japan already lifted six-year working limits for foreign doctors in June 2006.

Foreigners registered under medical practitioner visas including doctors are gradually increasing, totaling 95 in 2000, 114 in 2002 and 220 in 2009.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101130p2g00m0dm059000c.html

Selective immigration for highly skilled urged

by

The Japan Forum on International Relations, a Tokyo-based think tank, urged the government Wednesday to accept more foreign workers and tourists while being selective in accepting long-term residents.

It says municipalities and other entities should direct foreign residents who aren’t proficient in daily Japanese to take language courses and provide them with opportunities to master practical Japanese with minimum financial burden.

On arrangements for foreigners with insufficient Japanese proficiency, the forum advised the government to ascertain their language ability prior to their arrival in the country.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101125f1.html

Japan urged to welcome more skilled migrants

by

Under the proposal of the Japan Forum on International Relations, Japan would adopt a skills-based migration system and put in place social integration policies to prevent the kind of tensions seen in Europe over immigration.

While Japan historically has been reluctant to allow large-scale immigration, some opinion leaders now see it as the only way to boost domestic demand, re-energise the economy and fill labour shortages.

What Japan does on immigration will be keenly watched by multinational companies and capital markets. The country has lost favour as an investment destination because of economic and political stagnation, high corporate tax levels and a range of other factors, including the rise of China.

But it remains the world’s third-largest economy and a massive market for goods and services, so if a path to growth can be found, some of the lost interest and investment will come back.

Kenichi Ito, chairman of the forum’s policy council and one of the proposal’s main authors, said he saw Australia, Canada and the US as models for Japan’s ideal immigration system.

“If Japan wants to survive in a globalised world economy and to advance its integration with the burgeoning East Asian economy, it essentially has no other choice but to accept foreign migrants, while making full use of domestic human resources,” he said. “A key question is not whether we should accept foreign migrants or not, but how we should accept them.”

The number of foreigners moving to Japan has grown gradually from 1.5 million 10 years ago to more than 2 million now, but the growth has been very slow, particularly considering Japan’s population of 127 million.

Mr Ito told The Australian the forum had not set numerical targets for the migration intake, but that clearly a substantial increase in migration was needed.

“The annual intake is estimated to be 50,000 to 60,000 as far as the last 10 years is concerned. We think such a number is too small,” Mr Ito said.

Along with a large skills-based migrant intake, the report proposes that Japan learns from previous immigration mistakes. An almost impossible-to-pass exam for Philippine and Indonesian nurses allowed into Japan should be rewritten to focus on vocational competence rather than Japanese language proficiency; international qualifications should be more easily recognised; and foreign workers should be able to bring their families.

Mr Ito, a former diplomat who is now an emeritus professor at Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University, said Japan must be careful to avoid the tensions over immigration that were affecting countries such as France, Germany and Britain.

“We should learn from Australia, the US and Canada. We should learn your system and infrastructure to adopt foreign migrants integrated into society,” he said.

To this end, the forum’s proposal suggests helping foreigners learn Japanese as the best way to “see that they do not form ethnic clusters within local communities, thereby generating communication gaps, misunderstandings or hostilities in their relations with the Japanese society or other groups of foreigners”.

The report advocates heavily subsidised Japanese learning and ensuring that municipal governments work to help migrants to settle in and establish their new lives in Japan.

Mr Ito envisages that most of the migrants would be from China, whose citizens have the advantage of knowing most of the kanji characters in use in the Japanese language.

Japan has had several tries at establishing an economic or labour-orientated migration program. The first was the disgraceful coercion of Korean migrants to speed up its pre-war industrialisation. The second was the wave of returnees it accepted from the expatriate Japanese communities in Brazil and Peru to satisfy the labour demands of its factories during the bubble economy period of the early 1990s.

The Korean community has faced prejudice but has largely prospered in Japan, although animosity remains between some Japanese and Korean-Japanese. The Latin American returnees have perhaps endured less prejudice, but are still looked down upon by some Japanese because of their jobs.

These attempts at integration were obviously not perfect, but Mr Ito said he believed Japan’s people and politicians were ready for another try.

“I feel the interest on the part of politicians on this topic is very high and keen, and public opinion will, I think, basically welcome our recommendations, though some people are concerned about the political and social consequences of too radical a shift, particularly in view of what’s happening in western European countries,” he said.

Mr Ito said Japan also needed to boost the tiny number of humanitarian migrants it accepted.

“I think Japan should be ashamed for the reluctance it has shown in taking humanitarian migrants,” he said.

The forum’s report has been 18 months in the making and has almost 90 signatories, including top academics, business leaders, former diplomats and ministerial officials and several current and former politicians.

As well as handing it to Prime Minister Kan, the group has also taken out newspaper ads drawing public attention to its contents.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/japan-urged-to-welcome-more-skilled-migrants/story-e6frg8zx-1225961131994

Group Appeals for Overhaul of Japanese Immigration

by

A powerful group of politicians, academics and business leaders is set to launch an unusual campaign to urge Japan to pry open its doors to foreigners, saying the country’s survival hinges on revamping its immigration policy.

Japan has one of the most restrictive immigration policies in the world, and the debate over whether to allow more foreigners to settle in the country has long been a contentious, politically charged issue for the nation. But recently, calls to allow more foreign workers to enter Japan have become louder, as the aging population continues to shrink and the country’s competitiveness and economic growth pales in comparison with its neighbor to the west: China. A minuscule 1.7% of the overall Japanese population are foreigners, compared with 6.8% in the United Kingdom and 21.4% in Switzerland, according to the OECD.

The 87-member policy council of the Japan Forum of International Relations, a powerful nonprofit research foundation, will on Thursday launch a half-page advertisement in the country’s leading newspapers, urging Japan to rethink its immigration policy. They also submitted their policy recommendations to Naoto Kan, the country’s prime minister.

“If Japan wants to survive in a globalized world economy and to advance her integration with the burgeoning East Asian economy, she essentially has no other choice but to accept foreign migrants,” the advertisement says.

The policy council has issued several recommendations, including allowing more skilled workers to enter the labor market, particularly in industries where there are shortages of domestic workers, such as construction and the auto industry. Under economic-partnership agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines, Tokyo has allowed nurses and nursing-care specialists from these countries to enter Japan, but applicants are subjected to a grueling test in Japanese that only three people have passed. The council says these tests have to be made easier.

“Foreign employment may create employment for the Japanese—it’s bridging Japan with the rest of the world,” said Yasushi Iguchi, a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University and a member of the policy council.

Despite Japan’s stance that it doesn’t accept unskilled foreign workers, these days, Chinese cashiers are a common sight at Tokyo’s ubiquitous convenience stores; South Asian clerks are becoming more plentiful at supermarkets and on construction sites. Their ability to work in these positions is often thanks to numerous loopholes in Japan’s immigration policy, which allows students studying in Japan to work a certain number of hours a week. The country also has a technical internship program that allows younger workers to come into Japan and work as a “trainee” for a year, though this has been maligned as a cheap way to exploit foreign workers and pay them menial wages.

Mr. Kan’s government has said it wants to double the number of high-skilled foreign workers as part of its strategy to revive Japan in its growth strategy report compiled in June. The government is eyeing the introduction of a points-based system, in which it gives favored immigration treatment to foreigners depending on their past careers, accomplishments and expertise. The government also aims to increase the number of foreign students to 300,000 through initiatives such as allowing them to accept credits earned in foreign colleges and accepting more foreign teachers.

But this doesn’t mean more foreigners will necessarily want to come to Japan: in 2009, the number of foreigners who live in Japan fell for the first time in nearly half a century. Only one group bucked the trend: the Chinese, one of the few minority groups to increase its presence last year. Chinese nationals now make up nearly a third of Japan’s foreign population.

“If we stop discussing this and stop reforming, our system will be inadequate to cope with the realities,” said Mr. Iguchi. “In rural areas, we can’t maintain local industries—it will increase our competitiveness.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704526504575634151044954866.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_SecondTopStories

Building a ‘Little Yangon’ in Tokyo

by

For Tokyo’s community of Burmese, however, Takadanobaba is something much more important: a home away from home. In fact, so many of them have gathered there that it has come to be known as Little Yangon. Although they number only a few thousand, the mutual support and sense of community have been vital for their survival in a country that offers precious little official support to refugees and migrants.

Japanese employers are sometimes hesitant to hire foreign staff, concerned that there may be problems due to language and cultural differences.

Phone Hlaing, the vice president of a Burmese labor union, admits these concerns can sometimes be justified. “Half of the problems the union sees are because of misunderstandings, because of language problems. So foreigners should learn the Japanese language.”

Phone also wishes the hosts would be more accepting of other cultures. “Japanese also think they are superior to other Asians. This is the mindset,” he says. “There is discrimination, but we have to show that we can work together.”

For the children of Burmese immigrants, the struggle is less about language and more about their place in society. Often, they have been placed in the public school system and can speak Japanese and understand Japanese culture, but are unable to shake their status as outsiders, leaving them stuck between a native country they don’t quite remember and a host country that doesn’t quite accept them. Reports of bullying are not uncommon.

The number of Burmese community groups operating in Tokyo is truly astounding considering their relatively small numbers. There are workers’ unions, student unions, groups for many of Myanmar’s hundred-plus ethnic groups, religious organizations, political advocacy groups, government lobbyists, a Burmese library, and even Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has a branch here. And every Burmese adult belongs to at least one of these groups.

This high rate of political participation is key to understanding the character of the Burmese community in Japan. Contrary to the popular belief that all refugees want to permanently settle in their host countries, most Burmese would not settle in Japan long-term if they were given the choice.

As Saw Ba [Saw Ba Hla Thein, vice chairman of the Karen Nation League Japan and a consultant to the Japanese government on issues affecting the ethnic Karen community] puts it, “The Japanese love Japan and they want to live in Japan. We also love our country and want to live there. We want to live in our native land.”

For the Burmese, all of the protests and attempts to influence Japanese policy are done in the hope of one day being able to go back to a free and democratic Burma. They may have created a Little Yangon in Takadanobaba, but for most of them it is at best a temporary replacement they would leave in a heartbeat for the real thing.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101109a1.html

Woes of foreign nurses, caregivers in Japan

by

Jusuf Anwar, Indonesian ambassador to Japan, has bewailed the overly stringent Japanese national examinations for foreign caregivers and nurses. Out of the 500 Indonesians who took the examinations in 2008 and 2009, only two have passed and have become certified nurses.

Anwar revealed this concern at the “First Public Forum on Indonesia” held on July 23, 2010 at the Kyoto University Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

The problem, he said, is the “kanji” character proficiency part of the examinations. An added burden is that when they fail their exams on the third try, the nurses are obliged to leave the country immediately.

The examinations are part of the criteria introduced by the Tokyo government in line with the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJ-EPA) provision on allowing foreign caregivers and nurses to practice their profession in Japan. The IJ-EPA took effect in 2008 but two years after, Ambassador Anwar said he doubted its usefulness unless the examinations can be made less rigid to enable more Indonesian nurses and caregivers to qualify.

He urged that, rather than emphasizing the “kanji” writing abilities of the nurses, the examinations should concentrate on the competence and technical abilities of the examinees. On this point, Anwar was certain that more Indonesian nurses would easily qualify, given their past experiences working in Japan, even if only in a “kenshusei” (trainee) capacity, and from the gathered testimonies of their patients. And for those who fail, they should be allowed to stay and work for at least one year rather than abruptly ending their employment, Anwar added.

Observers see Japan’s decision to allow the certification of foreign nurses and caregivers as being prompted by concerns over the country’s rapidly aging population and the lack of competent professionals to care for elderly Japanese.

The Japan Times has reported that more and more senior Japanese are left to fend for themselves and many die alone in their homes. The Times reported that in Tokyo alone, “People over 65 who died alone in their residence, including by suicide, stood at 2,211 in 2008, compared with 1,364 in 2002.”

The Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry has denied any connection between “accepting foreign caregivers” and “the manpower shortage in health care.” This is belied, however, by a health ministry survey cited by the Times that shows “about 60 percent of hospitals and about 50 percent of welfare facilities that have accepted Indonesian candidates (say) they offered them jobs hoping to improve staff levels.”

Philippine nurses, too

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) announced in early 2009 that Japan was poised to hire 1,000 foreign nurses and caregivers over the next two years subject, of course, to their passing the language proficiency examinations.

This was a concession included in the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

The woes of Indonesian health care practitioners resonate in the case of their Filipino counterparts. Since the Philippine program began last year, only one Filipino, Ever Lalin, has successfully hurdled the Japanese tests.

In May 2010, Japan Today reported that another batch of 116 Filipino nurses and caregivers left for Japan to undergo a six-month language and cultural course after a screening program that the POEA described as “more rigorous.”

During this training program, the Filipinos will receive a monthly allowance of $400 (about P18,400). Those who pass the Japanese certification and become regular nursing or caregiver staff will get a salary of $1,600 (about P73,600) or more a month.

Nursing associations in both Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed dissatisfaction with their respective EPAs with respect to the hiring of nurses and caregivers to work in Japan.

In a position paper issued as early as 2007, the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), through its president, Dr. Leah Samaco-Paquiz, said that the JPEPA “shortchanges the professional qualifications of Filipino nurses and exposes them to potential abuse and discrimination.”

Dr. Paquiz cited the Japan Nursing Association’s own call for reforms and improvements in their own country’s nursing system in terms of “improving the working conditions, salaries, and benefits of Japanese nurses before Japan allows the entry of Filipino nurses.”

Dr. Paquiz also pointed out that Indonesian nurses under the IJ-EPA “got a better deal” compared to Filipino nurses, as the former are required to have “only three years of formal nursing education and only two years of work experience,” and are not required to pass an Indonesian licensure examination before they are allowed entry into Japan. Filipino nurses, on the other hand, “are required to have had four years of formal nursing education plus three years of work experience, in addition to having passed the licensure examination in the Philippines.”

The major gripe of the PNA, however, centers on the degradation of the Filipino nurses’ position in that, despite having acquired “four years of higher education…, proof of competence via a Philippine license to practice…(and) three years of solid work experience,” the nurses will end up simply as trainees under the supervision of a Japanese nurse for up to three years until they pass the Japanese licensure examination.

Dr. Paquiz adds: They also risk having virtually zero employment rights in Japan as they are considered neither employees nor workers under Japan’s Immigration Control Act. Specific provisions committing Japan to international core labor standards and the protection of the rights of migrant health workers are also absent in the agreement.

The PNA also decried the high language skills required, noting that they “constitute an almost impregnable barrier” to the nurses’ entry. Given these “unnecessarily stringent requirements, (Filipino nurses) will most likely end up providing cheap labor and quality nursing care as nursing trainees in Japanese health care facilities.”

Dr. Paquiz ends the PNA’s position with the plea not to commoditize the nursing profession by classifying nurses as a mere economic category under the JPEPA.

Unfair labor?

The PNA’s fears appear to be confirmed by Emily Homma, a resident of Saitama prefecture who has been assisting Filipino nurses and caregivers. In a February 11, 2010 letter to the Japan Times, Homma charges that the JPEPA has “placed many Filipino nurses and caregivers working in Japan in a miserable situation where they are subjected to unfair labor practices, extreme pressure to pass licensing exams in Japanese, cramped living conditions, and poor salaries.”

On the other hand, the Indonesian National Nurses Association, through its president, Achir Yani, “has called on the Japanese government to be more flexible in the national nursing exam….”

Yani, a University of Indonesia professor, also suggested that a “kanji” pronunciation aid be allowed and that the examinees be given four chances (instead of three) to pass the tests.

Kyodo News reports that Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada had met with Indonesian and Filipino officials in January 2010 and promised “to consider addressing the language issue for foreign nurses.”

At the July 2010 forum at Kyoto University, however, Ambassador Anwar said he has repeatedly raised this issue with the Japanese government but his efforts to have the examination rules relaxed have been in vain.

And given the niggardly passing rate for Indonesian nurses and caregivers, Ambassador Anwar says that “the future of the program to alleviate the problems associated with Japan’s aging society is not so bright.”

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100809-285751/Woes-of-foreign-nurses-caregivers-in-Japan

Japanese premier vows to help RP nurses, road users

by

Communications Strategy Secretary Ricky Carandang said that during the [17th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] talks Friday night, [Japanese Prime Minister Naoto] Kan promised to help make it easier for Filipino nurses to pass Japanese exams so that they could work in Japan under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement.

Carandang told reporters that one of the options was to train the Filipino nurses to speak Japanese even before they leave for Japan and before they take the exam.

He noted that the language barrier was what made it hard for Philippine nurses to enter Japan.

“They recognize that. They want to use simplified characters, they want to use abbreviations that are more internationally accepted so that our nurses could be easily accepted in Japan,” he said.

The strict language requirements under the JPEPA is one of the points of contention in the controversial agreement, with the Philippine Nurses Association saying that the high language skills required was an “almost impregnable barrier” and could lead to Filipino nurses ending up providing cheap labor as nursing trainees in Japanese health care facilities.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20101030-300608/Japanese-premier-vows-to-help-RP-nurses-road-users

Lawyer putting foreigners first

by

Goal to provide access to legal advice for all

Masako Suzuki has dedicated her career to giving legal support to foreigners living in Japan. Starting Monday, she will become the first head of the new Section of Legal Assistance for Foreigners at the Tokyo Public Law Office.

The section will specialize in giving legal advice to foreign residents on both criminal and civil cases, ranging from refugee assistance and visa applications to divorces and labor issues.

“With the diversification of nationalities of foreigners in Japan, legal service has become limited,” Suzuki said. “Foreigners living in Japan are also members of society supporting the country, and they must not be left behind.”

Suzuki also serves as secretary general of the Lawyers Network for Foreigners, a group of 833 lawyers nationwide working on various issues related to foreigners that was founded in May 2009. And the setup of the new legal section at the Tokyo Public Law Office is a part of their activity to increase the number of lawyers specializing in foreigners’ issues as well as improving the quality of their legal service.

Commemorating the new division, free legal consultations will be available for foreigners on Sunday at the Tokyo Public Law Office. With the assistance of the Center for Multilingual Multicultural Education and Research at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, the service on that day will be available in 13 languages including Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Burmese, Thai and Mandarin.

Meanwhile, at the new department, languages the lawyers themselves can directly communicate in include English, Japanese and Korean, but the office will provide interpreters for other languages if and when necessary.

“One of the major reasons why lawyers are reluctant to take on cases involving foreigners is the language barrier,” Suzuki said. “We’d eventually like to be able to put together a list of interpreters to provide the information” to lawyers.

The attorney said the general attitude toward accepting foreigners in Japan has become more negative now since the Justice Ministry launched a five-year campaign in 2004 to reduce the number of illegal foreign residents by half.

“Japan has become more exclusive against foreigners recently,” Suzuki said. “There is no way that I can say Japan has become an easier place to live in than before.”

But with the low birthrate and aging society, the government has acknowledged the need to bring in foreigners.

Suzuki, however, pointed out that Japan has no fundamental policy on foreigners. “I think we are in a critical state because the government knows that the country needs foreigners but has yet to establish a clear policy,” Suzuki said. “Japan needs to squarely face the issues of foreigners in Japan — without it, there is no globalization or anything beyond.”

Free legal consultations for foreigners will be available Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Tokyo Public Law Office, Ikebukuro SIA Building 2F 1-34-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshimaku, Tokyo. Call (03) 5979-2880 or visit www.t-pblo.jp/slaf/

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101028f1.html

Japan befuddled by elderly care debate

by

Wahyudin dreams of becoming a full-fledged caregiver, if not a certified nurse, in Japan. But the Indonesian worker must first pass the required Japanese-language national certification examination, which is far from easy.

Until then the 29-year-old Wahyudin, a registered nurse in his home country, will remain a caregiver trainee in an elderly-care facility in Yamada city in western Tokushima prefecture, where he has worked since arriving in Japan two years ago.

“It’s a long shot but there is no other way I can push my career forward and build a stable future [unless I pass the test],” Wahyudin, who uses one name, said of the examination.

Passing it would give him the professional caregiver status thatwould allow him to be hired by any hospital or nursing home in Japan. He can also expect higher compensation.

The language examination is designed to ensure integration into Japanese society and meet professional standards, but few foreigners manage to pass it. Now, those who work with the elderly in one of the world’s fastest aging societies say it is time to take a second look at this requirement, given Japan’s rapidly growing need for caregivers, many of whom come from overseas.

“Expecting foreign caregivers and nurses to pass the difficult examination in Japanese is unfair and smacks of discrimination,” said Tsutomu Fukuma, spokesman for the Japanese Council of Senior Citizens Welfare Service, a leading nursing care provider.

“The system has disappointed them and many are giving up on staying in Japan, which is not what we want,” he said.

As it is, the Health and Welfare Ministry says the number of Japanese caregivers, most of them middle-aged, is declining. There were 350,000 workers in the healthcare system in 2009, down from 400,000 three years ago. Younger Japanese are not entering the sector.

Japan has 13 million people aged over 75, or 10% of its population of 127 million. In 2025, that age group is projected to grow to 22 million people – and the government predicts that the country will need more than two million caregivers by then.

This is why Japan has been turning to foreign caregivers, but they are not finding it easy to stay for too long in the country. At present, foreign nurses and caregivers are allowed to work in Japan for a maximum of three and four years, respectively. During this period, they must study Japanese and pass the certifying examination that they can take only once.

Because Japan is officially a closed labor market to foreigners, it has different agreements with countries that allow a certain number of “trainees” each year to come work for specified periods of time.

Wahyudin, for instance, came under an economic partnership agreement (EPA) signed between Japan and Indonesia in 2008. A similar pact was signed with the Philippines, another major provider of caregivers here, in 2006.

There are 570 Indonesians and 310 Filipinos working in nursing or elder homes in Japan. A total of 254 have taken the nursing examination, but only three – two Indonesians and one Filipino – have passed and acquired full-time employment status.

Among others, caregivers and nurses seeking professional certification in Japan are lobbying the government to allow foreign examinees to use dictionaries during the test to help them with unfamiliar technical terms and Kanji or Chinese characters, one of three scripts used in the Japanese language, or Nihongo.

But beyond the examination itself, caregivers rue the limited time they have to study the language.

“It’s really hard for us to reach the level of language needed to successfully sit for the exam,” said Wahyudin, who has just one hour or so a day to review his Nihongo owing to his busy work schedule. He is getting formal language training, but he said this is far from adequate even with the six-month government-subsidized language course.

The situation of the elderly in Japan also reflects changing norms that have seen more young adults living away from their aging parents. In fact, the number of Japanese who are over 65 years old, living alone and with no one to look after them, numbered more than 4.6 million as of June 2009.

To many, this highlights even more the need for more caregivers, but not everyone agrees.

Professor Keiko Higuchi, a member of the government panel of welfare advisors, said Japan’s caregiving system should instead encourage the elderly to lead more independent lives. “I am not against accepting foreign caregivers or nurses. But before we start opening the doors [to them], Japan must ensure that its nursing care for the elderly continues to focus on helping them to help themselves,” she said.

Yukiko Okuma, a well-known author on nursing care for the elderly, sees Japan’s EPAs with Indonesia and the Philippines as a quick fix.

“The EPA with Indonesia is a quick remedy for the labor shortage we face in the welfare sector. As a result, we now have a system that faces the risk of lowering Japan’s nursing standards to accommodate more Asian nationals who are themselves not treated fairly under the scheme,” she said.

Okuma adds that today’s situation is also a product of a society where women, especially wives and daughters-in-law, have traditionally taken care of aging parents, leading to “a poorly recognized and underfinanced welfare system” in Japan.

“Japan’s welfare for the elderly must be viewed as a national priority, where workers are treated well by giving them good salaries, paid vacations and other employment benefits, whether they are Japanese or Asians,” she said.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/LH13Dh01.html