Despite strong criticism from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations and human rights organizations, the bill cleared the House of Councilors with a majority vote by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito.
With the revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, an estimated 6 million to 7 million foreigners entering Japan every year will be obliged to have their fingerprints and photographs taken, along with other personal identification information.
News
Nova projects net loss as rapid expansion backfires
Nova Corp said Friday it expects its group net balance to have fallen into the red in the business year through last March with a loss of 3 billion yen as a result of competition for student enrollment among its own schools. The major English conversation school operator had projected a 200 million yen profit for fiscal 2005. The projected net loss compares with the 204 million yen profit for fiscal 2004.
Nova rapidly increased the number of its schools by around 300 to 994 between October 2004 and March this year. The expansion has caused the company to employ inexperienced managers and suffer from competition among its own schools located close to each other.
Toyota lawsuit a reminder that changes in Japan are coming too slowly
Lawyers have said that over the past decade, firms in Japan have improved their policies against sexual harassment due to changes in the law and an increased awareness of their corporate social responsibility.
However, they said companies are not doing enough to educate their male employees that their behavior victimizes women and has serious consequences, including severe emotional damage.
Some firms are simply trying to protect their images and not dealing with discrimination, the lawyers charged.
Universal access — if you speak Japanese
Despite 2 million foreign residents and calls for internationalization from within, Japan has a long way to go before becoming a multilingual society. The current state of health care is no exception. Be it university hospitals with cutting-edge research facilities or your neighborhood dental clinic, few medical institutions in Japan are capable of serving patients in a foreign language.
The gap between Japanese doctors and foreign patients can have serious repercussions. According to a 2005 report on maternity care for foreigners written by Dr. Hiroya Matsuo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Kobe University, foreigners are “a high-risk group in health care,” due to language and culture problems. The report stated that the mortality rate among foreign pregnant women and infants here is “two or three times higher” than that of Japanese.
Japan rethinks immigration policy
“Whether we like it or not, there are many foreigners who want to come to Japan. We must think about how we can accept those who want to work or settle in Japanese society, without friction,” Koizumi told members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, according to the publicized minutes.
“If we accept foreigners beyond a certain scale…there must be friction. In that case, social costs would be tremendous,” Koizumi continued. “We must think how to improve the environment and education system in order to let foreigners work comfortably as a steady labor power.”
Media oppose self-censorship clause in national referendum bill
Media outlets are concerned a draft bill broadly agreed to by the three largest political parties to call on news organizations to censor themselves during a campaign for a proposed national referendum to revise the Constitution would undermine reporting and informed discussion of a constitutional amendment.
Constitution survey shows 77% oppose changing Article 9
Seventy-seven percent of the public is against revising the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9, according to the results of a street survey released Wednesday by a citizens group [led by Ryuzaburo Noda, professor emeritus of mathematics at Okayama University].
Of the 28,169 people polled, 21,652, or 77 percent, opposed revision, 3,270, or 12 percent, supported revision, and 3,247, or 11 percent, had no opinion, the group said.
The survey started Saturday and ended on Wednesday, which was Constitution Day — the day the Constitution was promulgated on May 3, 1947.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060504a6.html
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Tottori’s Human Rights Ordinance is a case study in alarmism
On Oct. 12, 2005, the Tottori Prefectural Assembly approved Japan’s first human rights ordinance, a local law forbidding and punishing racial discrimination. In a land where racial discrimination is not illegal, this is an historic occasion. Even a clarion call: If even rural Tottori can pass this, what’s stopping the rest of the country? But history pushed back. Five months later, Tottori Prefectural Assembly unpassed the ordinance.
What went wrong? This is a cautionary tale on how not to create landmark legislation.
Wave of retiring workers could force big changes
All over Japan, companies are bracing for a demographic wave that will wash away many of their most experienced employees. The Japanese call it their “2007 problem.” Beginning next year, members of what Japan considers its baby boom generation will start hitting 60 and dropping out of the workforce. Some might postpone retirement, but they can’t work forever. Plunging birth rates mean there won’t be nearly enough young people to replace them.
Japan is just beginning to wrestle with a more controversial solution to the labor shortage: opening the floodgates to immigration.
Foreign workers account for just 1% of Japan’s labor force, vs. about 15% in the USA. Japan relaxes visa requirements for engineers and other specialized workers. But it is reluctant to let less-skilled workers into the country, limiting them to two- or three-year “training” contracts if it admits them at all.
“Sooner or later, we will need more people,” says Hidenori Sakanaka, retired head of the national immigration bureau office in Tokyo. “This is the time to create a new immigration policy.”
Sakanaka, the former immigration official, says Japanese bureaucrats are in denial. After retiring from his government job, he set up the Japan Immigration Policy Institute to advocate more liberal policies. He made what he admits is a utopian proposal: Admit 20 million foreigners in the next 50 years, up from less than 2 million now.
“Look at the speed of the decline in population. It’s unbelievable. Thirty million people will disappear,” he says. “There are two ways to go: Shrunken Japan ? and learning to live with it; and Big Japan ? we accept foreigners.”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2006-05-02-japan-econ-usat_x.htm
http://www.ncpa.org/newdpd/dpdarticle.php?article_id=3292
Immigration reform, political protests mark world May Day
About 300,000 people across Japan took part in various May Day events calling for better working conditions.
In Tokyo, 44,000 people gathered in a park before marching through the city center, waving colorful banners to protest what they see as growing social inequalities between the rich and poor.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/may/02/yehey/world/
20060502wor1.html