It’s one Japan for rich Chinese shoppers, another for low-skilled workers
Many Japanese strive to keep up egalitarian appearances. Porsche drivers keep their cars tactfully hidden away. Houses of the well-heeled are unflashy. In the finest department stores, even the demure “elevator girls” are treated with impeccable politeness.
But when it comes to the way Japan treats its nouveau riche neighbour, China, different rules apply. Two events this month betray the double standards with which Japanese officialdom treats China’s rich and poor. On July 1st Japan relaxed visa requirements for well-off Chinese tourists. It was not stated how much anyone needed to earn to apply for one. But as long as they had at least a gold credit card and a solid professional or civil-service job to go back to, they were free to come to Japan, to shop until they dropped.
Far from the bright lights of Japan’s shopping districts, however, young Chinese working in small industrial firms get anything but red-carpet treatment. On July 5th Kyodo, a news agency, reported that 21 Chinese were among 27 foreign trainees who died last year on a government-sponsored skills-transfer scheme for developing countries that over the past four years has brought in an average of 94,000 workers a year, mostly from China.
Of the 27, nine died of heart or brain diseases, four died while working and three committed suicide. A few days earlier officials confirmed that a 31-year-old Chinese trainee who died in 2008 after clocking up about 100 hours a month of overtime was the victim not of heart failure, as originally reported, but of “karoshi”, the Japanese affliction of death from overwork.
Japan International Training Co-operation Organisation, the outfit set up by five government ministries to oversee the skills-transfer programme, refuses to discuss the deaths. But Lila Abiko, of the Lawyers’ Network for Foreign Trainees, an NGO, says many guest-workers do so much low-paid overtime—with the support of their employers—that they literally work themselves to death. The mortality rate from heart disease and other stress-related ailments among trainees in their 20s and 30s is almost double that of Japanese of the same age, she says. “Japan is the richest country in Asia, yet this programme is exploiting poor Chinese like slaves.”
Japan’s shrinking population is at the root of both phenomena. As domestic spending declines, Japan needs wealthy Chinese tourists to help prop up the local economy, and low-skilled Chinese trainees to help man its factories. Figures for both have climbed .
The worse the demographics become, the more useful it may be for Japan to have China on its doorstep. But for the moment, the best many Chinese can say about Japan is that they love its products. That is not the basis for an enduring affinity.
Immigration
33 foreign care workers go home; test too difficult
Thirty-three Filipinos and Indonesians who came to Japan to work as nurses and nursing care workers have returned home after becoming discouraged by their slim prospects of passing the national exams for their professions, it has been learned.
Eleven went home after learning they had failed the latest annual nursing exam. Only 1.2 percent of foreign applicants have passed the exam.
More would-be nurses and care workers could decide to return home after becoming discouraged by the language barrier in the exams, according to observers.
The government plans to review the exams’ format, including the language and terminology used.
Since fiscal 2008, 998 nurses and care workers have arrived in Japan under bilateral economic partnership agreements with the Philippines and Indonesia.
No foreign applicant passed last year’s exams, as they apparently had difficulty understanding kanji and technical terms written in Japanese. This year, only three passed the nursing exam.
The 33 trainees who returned home were among the 880 who arrived in fiscal 2008 and 2009. They comprised 15 Indonesians, including 12 nurses, and 18 Filipinos, including 11 nurses.
According to the Japanese International Corporation of Welfare Service, which oversees the program, 118 nurses and care-givers arrived this fiscal year.
Under the bilateral agreements, the nurses are given help learning Japanese and preparing for the exams while working at hospitals and care facilities in the nation.
Applicants can take the exam when they are deemed to have professional skills and knowledge equal to those of graduates of Japanese nursing schools or university nursing science departments.
These foreigners can work in Japan as certified nurses or care workers only if they pass the exams within three or four years of arriving here, respectively. They can only work in limited trainee nurse roles until they pass the exam: If they fail to pass the exam before the three- or four-year term expires, they must return home.
An expert panel of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry this month discussed measures to alleviate the problem, such as using simpler alternatives to difficult technical terms in the nursing exams.
The panel will draw up proposals as soon as next month.
Labor standards office to rule Chinese trainee at metal plant died of overwork
A local labor standards inspection office [in Ibaraki Prefecture] is set to recognize the death of a Chinese trainee at a metal processing factory was caused by overwork, officials said.
This will be the first time that the death of a foreign vocational trainee in Japan has been recognized as a work-related accident, according to a liaison council of attorneys working on issues related to foreign trainees.
Jiang Xiaodong died of heart failure at the company residence of Fuji Denka Kogyo in Itako, Ibaraki Prefecture, in June 2008 while employed at its factory under a government-backed training program. His bereaved family filed a petition with the Kashima Labor Standards Inspection Office in August last year for compensation for a work-related accident.
The labor office has confirmed that Jiang worked up to 98 hours of overtime a month between March and May 2008. Moreover, the office has found that the company forged his payroll book based on a false time-clock card, destroyed relevant documents and failed to pay him some overtime wages.
The office then concluded that Jiang died from overwork resulting from working excessively long hours in violation of the Labor Standards Law. It has also sent an investigation document on the company’s 66-year-old president to prosecutors, accusing him of violating the Labor Standards Law.
The president denied that the victim’s death was a result of overwork. “He underwent a health check in April 2008, and we paid due attention to his health. We had him work overtime on his request. We don’t think his death was a work-related accident.”
Shoichi Ibusuki, an attorney for the bereaved family [and special guest at Tozen’s 2010 Convention], emphasized how common such cases may be, saying, “It’s difficult to file a petition for compensation for a foreign trainee’s death as a result of a work-related accident because we can’t easily contact bereaved families. The latest case is the tip of the iceberg.”
Approximately 87,000 foreign nationals have undergone vocational training in Japan under the government-backed program, some 65,700 of whom are Chinese.
Until the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law came into force this month, trainees had not been recognized as workers — to whom the Labor Standards Law applies — during the first year of their training. Therefore, they were forced to work for extremely long hours at unreasonably low wages.
In fiscal 2008, a record 34 foreign vocational trainees died while they were in Japan, according to the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization. Of them, 16 died of brain or heart ailments allegedly caused by working too long — 2.5 times more than a year earlier.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100703p2a00m0na014000c.html
Chinese intern death in Japan ‘very likely’ due to overwork
A Chinese intern employed in Japan under a government training program “very likely” died because he had been overworked, labour officials said Friday.
The 31-year-old man worked at a metal processing firm in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, and died of cardiac arrest in June 2008 after working more than 100 hours overtime the month before.
The government program has long been criticized for the ease with which it can be used for labour exploitation, and lawyers said it was the first such death to be recognized as a result of overwork, but likely only the tip of the iceberg.
Japan has strict immigration rules, but some companies, especially in manufacturing, have used a loophole to bring in low-wage foreign workers on “training” schemes under the foreign assistance program.
Amid rising concern over abuses under the scheme, a government body announced last year that a record 34 workers from Asia, mainly Chinese nationals, had died in Japan in the year to March 2009 alone.
“This is a case very likely to be recognized as ‘karoshi’ (overwork death),” said a spokesman for the area labour office, adding the case was filed with prosecutors against the company Fuji Denka Kogyo and his 66-year-old boss.
Last year the Japan International Training Co-operation Organization, which oversees the nation’s training programs, said of the 34 deaths in the year to March 2009 that 16 died of heart and brain ailments, five died in workplace accidents and one committed suicide.
Some 190,000 foreigners — mainly from China, Indonesia and the Philippines — are currently believed to be in Japan on government training programs.
Lawyer Shoichi Ibusuki, a member of a legal group that has represented trainee workers in cases of alleged abuse [and special guest at Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union‘s 2010 Convention], said that the foreign trainees are being exploited by Japanese companies.
Many of the trainees work on assembly lines, mainly in the textiles, food processing and machinery sectors.
Japan has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, but it has so far rejected allowing large-scale immigration of unskilled workers.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Chinese+intern+death+Japan+very+likely+overwork/3227865/story.html
Foreigner suffrage, separate surnames stir passions in poll runup
Whether to grant permanent foreign residents voting rights for local-level elections and allow married couples to keep their respective surnames have become contentious issues ahead of the July 11 Upper House election.
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which advocates the introduction of foreigner suffrage and separate surnames for married couples if desired, faces strong opposition from conservatives in the Liberal Democratic Party and small parties, including its own ruling bloc partner.
Aichi Prefecture voters, however, are puzzled by the conservatives’ fervor because the topics have yet to stir national debate.
“If we give foreigners the right to vote (in a disorderly manner), it would threaten Japanese tradition and national security,” said Hiroyasu Inoue, 62, of the city of Kariya.
A citizens group led by Inoue has called on assemblies to oppose foreigner voting rights. In response, more than 20 have approved written opinions or adopted statements either to object to such suffrage or to take a cautious approach. “We are closely monitoring each candidate’s opinion, regardless of the parties,” said Inoue.
The LDP and small conservative parties set out to oppose the ideas in their platforms, vying with the DPJ, which has liberal views on these issues. Some homemakers, who used to be the last to become involved in politics, now speak to people at the weekly rally of Inoue’s group held at Kanayama Station in Nagoya.
“The pride of this country that has been built up by the Yamato (Japanese) race must be passed down to our children, otherwise there will be no future for the country,” said Masahito Fujikawa, 49, an LDP-backed candidate [and apparent xenophobe] in the Aichi electoral district.
Fujikawa, 49, also spoke to an audience of about 200 at a rally staged by a women’s group in front of JR Nagoya Station in early June, drawing applause. Members of the group handed out leaflets to passersby while holding banners to protest granting suffrage to foreigners and allowing separate surnames for married couples.
Aiming to appeal to conservative ranks, small parties, including Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party), which is still in a coalition with the DPJ, and Tachiagare Nippon (Sunrise Party of Japan), whose members bolted from the LDP and fear being overshadowed by the LDP and DPJ, are clearly demonstrating their conservative stance in the runup to the election.
Candidates from the major parties in the Aichi district, other than Fujikawa of the LDP, who are clearly against giving foreigners voting rights include Michiyo Yakushiji, 46, of Your Party.
Nobuko Motomura, 37, of the Japanese Communist Party, and Mitsuko Aoyama, 62, of the Social Democratic Party, meanwhile support foreigner suffrage because foreign residents pay taxes and are part of their communities.
The two DPJ candidates differ in opinion. “One option is to open the door for foreigners after having enough discussions,” said Yoshitaka Saito, 47, who is supportive, while Misako Yasui, 44, is against the measure.
Meanwhile, foreign residents expressed concerns in a divisive debate on foreigner suffrage. “Brazilian residents are not as interested in the voting rights as Japanese people see it as a problem,” said Hideo Alcides Tanaka, 49, of the Brazilian Association of the city of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. He is concerned the debate over suffrage could become a political focal point that triggers a move to exclude foreigners from society.
“This is the issue of Japanese democracy and how Japanese think of living together with Korean descendants in Japan despite the history (of Japanese oppression). It is for the Japanese to decide how to handle the issues,” said Do Sang Tae, a Korean descendant and chairman of a nonprofit organization in Toyohashi.
Opening Japan’s Immigration Door
Buried in the government’s new growth strategy is a short section calling for an easing — albeit slight — in Japan’s ultra-tight immigration restrictions. It’s a small gesture, but symbolically significant for a nation that has been slow to open its borders, despite a shrinking native population.
The Kan administration hopes to “double the number of highly skilled foreign personnel” over the next decade, said the report issued Friday. That’s up from about 200,000 now.
An accompanying Justice Ministry report suggests specific policy changes to reach that goal, such as allowing those people to stay in Japan on special visas for five years — up from the current three — and to make it easier for them gain permanent residency status.
The goal, according to the Justice report is to “show the world what sort of highly skilled talent the country hopes to strategically invite.” Such an influx, it added, could: “increase productivity of industry, stimulate the labor market, and consequently, create new energy in the social economy and strengthen international competitiveness.”
Japan is one of the least immigrant-friendly developed countries in the world. In 2006, just 1.1% of Japan’s workforce (about 753,000) was made up of immigrants, highly skilled or otherwise, compared with 8.5% for Germany and 15.6% for the U.S.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/06/23/opening-japans-immigration-door/
95% fear for Japan’s future
According to an Asahi Shimbun survey, about 95 percent of Japanese are worried about Japan’s future, while 62 percent say the nation is being rapidly overtaken by other countries.
Asked about their future vision for Japan, 51 percent said they hope to see a society that promotes economic wealth through hard work, while 43 percent said Japanese society should be one that achieves a relatively comfortable level of wealth without working too hard.
Seventy-three percent said they preferred a nation that is “not so affluent but has a smaller income disparity,” against 17 percent who chose “an affluent society but with a large disparity.”
Fifty-eight percent favored a large government offering full administrative services, such as social security, even at the cost of higher taxes, while 32 percent preferred a small government.
As for Japan’s role in the world, 39 percent said Japan should be a major player with more clout and obligations, while 55 percent said they did not think Japan should be a global power.
On accepting immigrants to maintain economic vitality, only 26 percent supported such a move, while 65 percent opposed.
Groups push for better refugee treatment
Organizations supporting people seeking asylum in Japan urged the government Monday to improve the treatment of refugees at immigration control centers, two of which have seen hunger strikes by detainees this year.
The groups, including Amnesty International Japan, say the Justice Ministry’s policies, including mandatory detention of asylum seekers and long periods of detention without clear deadlines, are major problems that need to be fixed immediately.
The immigration authorities should also provide a better living environment as well as medical treatment for asylum seekers, whose stress levels increase the longer they are in detention, they said.
“These issues need to be solved, not just for the benefit of my clients. The situation is also an embarrassment for Japan,” lawyer Takeshi Ohashi said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
Ohashi has represented numerous people seeking political refuge in Japan.
Although a council affiliated with the government will inspect immigration detention facilities starting in July, Ohashi stressed that an environment where nongovernmental organizations can work closely with them should be secured so the council can function as an effective third-party surveillance authority.
According to Hiroka Shoji of Amnesty International Japan, two detainees committed suicide, in February and April, at the East Japan Immigration Control Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture. In March and May, outbreaks of tuberculosis were confirmed there and at a facility under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, she said.
Japan must become ‘immigration powerhouse’
The size of a country’s population is a fundamental element of its government, economy and society. If the population keeps shrinking, it is self-evident that the nation’s strength will wane, the economy will shrink and the survival of society will be threatened.
Three elements contribute to demographic changes: births, deaths and migration across national borders.
In the face of Japan’s population problem, the government has focused on measures for boosting the birthrate. Huge sums of money have been poured into programs such as child allowances to help people raise children.
But will the nation’s population start growing just by continuing with these measures?
My view is that a low birthrate is unavoidable as a civilization matures.
Other industrially advanced countries have also turned into societies with low birthrates as they have matured. Advancements in education, increased urbanization, the empowerment of women and diversification of lifestyles also exemplify the maturity of a society.
Japan, a mature civilization, should expect to experience a low birthrate for at least the foreseeable future.
Even if the government’s measures succeed in increasing the birthrate sharply and cause the population to increase, any era of population growth is far away and will be preceded by a stage of “few births and few deaths,” where there are declines in both birth and mortality rates.
Accordingly, the only long-term solution for alleviating the nation’s population crisis is a government policy of accepting immigrants. Promotion of an effective immigration policy will produce an effect in a far shorter time period than steps taken to raise the nation’s birthrate.
We, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, propose that Japan accept 10 million immigrants over the next 50 years.
We believe that to effectively cope with a crisis that threatens the nation’s existence, Japan must become an “immigration powerhouse” by letting manpower from around the world enter the country.
By allowing people from a wide variety of racial and cultural backgrounds to mingle together, a new breed of culture, creativity and energy will arise, which will surely renew and revitalize Japan.
If this proposal is implemented, the 10 million immigrants, most of whom will be young workers, will lessen the burden on young Japanese in funding social welfare programs for the elderly. The new immigrants will be “comrades,” not competitors in tackling the challenges of a graying society and a declining population.
Young Japanese workers will need to join forces with the immigrants to weather these difficulties.
Encouraging the acceptance of immigrants will not only help Japan out of the population crisis. The immigrants will also serve as a driving force in converting this homogenous and uniform society into one teeming with diversity, where a galaxy of talented people will interact to create a vigorous multiethnic society.
It also must be clearly stated that if Japan hopes to benefit by throwing its doors open to immigrants, it must become a place where immigrants have sufficient opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
Analysts at home and abroad have often declared the “sinking of Japan” because of its passivity over reform, but there can be no denying that transforming Japan into an immigration powerhouse should be the ultimate goal of any reform agenda.
If this country dares to implement the immigration policy we envision, the world will surely welcome the opening of this country’s doors to immigrants as a “revolution of Japan.” This, I believe, will boost the presence of the nation in the international community.
This is the “making of a new nation” that could develop into a change as radical as the Meiji Restoration.
The grand, revolutionary task of transforming Japan cannot be achieved without ambitious men and women in their 20s and early 30s, people like Sakamoto Ryoma and Takasugi Shinsaku at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867).
With this in mind, I plan to establish a school in July for young people to discuss what a desirable immigration policy should entail.
I hope this will help foster leaders for the Heisei era (1989- ) that will carve out a future for Japan.
Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, is executive director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/commentary/20100526dy01.htm
Immigrants can buoy Japan
Japan is unique among economies that are highly developed and in demographic decline in having so few immigrants. In fact, even European states that are in much better demographic condition also have large numbers of foreigners and recently naturalized citizens in their labor force.
The domestic economic advantages of a more open immigration policy are well documented. What is less understood is how it can be used as a foreign policy instrument. If Japan were home to several million guest workers, the country would become the lifeline of tens of millions of individuals back in their homeland who would benefit from the remittances of their relatives in the archipelago. Its economic role in the lives of some of these countries would become second to none. Many individuals would start to study Japanese, in the hope of one day working in the country. Familiarity with Japan and its culture would also rise dramatically in these nations.
Immigrants would also gradually provide Japanese businesses with a pool of truly bicultural and bilingual employees whom they could hire and use to develop their overseas activities. Japanese universities would gain researchers who are not only well-trained but also better able to participate in international scientific projects and symposiums. Bringing qualified teachers from countries such as the Philippines and India could give Japanese students, for the first time in their lives, the experience of learning English with instructors who actually know the language fluently (unlike many Japanese who teach English) and who are trained to teach (as opposed to the many Westerners in “English conversation schools” whose blue eyes and blond hair are frequently their only qualifications).
All of these changes would benefit not only Japan’s economy but also its ability to be heard in the world. Thus, immigration is one of the most important tools Japan has if it wishes to build a new Asia where Japan will be at the center rather than the periphery.