Move to give foreigners same resident registration as Japanese

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A bill to allow foreign residents to have the same resident registration as Japanese will be submitted to the regular Diet session early next year at the earliest, a government panel has announced.

A meeting on the basic resident register for foreigners, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Justice Ministry, drafted an outline for the new system on Thursday.

The basic idea is to introduce a system for foreign residents that is akin to the basic resident register for Japanese residents. The new system will replace the current alien registration system.

The new system will be put into practice three years after the bill is passed into law, the meeting said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081219p2a00m0na018000c.html

New registry rules for foreigners proposed

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A government panel Thursday recommended creating a new system by 2012 to register foreign residents on a household basis, replacing the current individual-basis system, to better oversee their living conditions.

Japanese nationals are registered on a household basis.

In a report, the panel of experts under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications also recommended scrapping the current two-tier system in which the Justice Ministry handles immigration and stay permits, while local governments handle registrations of foreign residents, and called for a unified control system.

Based on the recommendation report, the internal affairs ministry will submit a bill for the envisaged foreigner registry system to an ordinary Diet session next year, ministry officials said.

The proposed steps are expected to help improve the welfare, education and other public services for foreign residents, but critics warn it could lead to increased surveillance.

The number of non-Japanese residents has topped 2 million, more than doubling in the past 20 years.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081219a4.html

Nippon Keidanren weakens commitment on job security

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Revised guidelines have put members of the nation’s largest business group on a collision course with their labor unions during talks next spring over job security and pay hikes.

Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), in its guidelines for the 2009 shunto spring labor-management negotiations released Tuesday, simply said employment is an “extremely important issue” and that companies will “make efforts” to maintain jobs.

The expression marks a retreat from an earlier draft that said “the top priority” should be placed on job security.

The guidelines also ruled out an across-the-industry hike in the pay scale. Nippon Keidanren approved pay increases during shunto negotiations last spring.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200812180053.html

Asylum claims nearly double

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Swamped, the Foreign Ministry is running out of support funds

The number of people seeking asylum in Japan is surging toward a new record, and the government is grappling to deal with the flood, a nonprofit support organization has warned.

Due to the rapid increase, to almost double the number of last year’s applicants, the government’s budget for supporting the refugees, many of whom have no means of support, is close to drying up, the Foreign Ministry admitted Wednesday.

According to the Japan Association for Refugees, 1,450 people had applied for refugee status as of the beginning of this month, after exceeding 1,000 in September.

The previous record for applications is 954, set in 2006.

[Eri] Ishikawa [secretary general of JAR] said the amount of money a refugee is entitled to is even lower than what a Japanese citizen would get from welfare.

“The support should be designed to cover two years, or the government should allow people waiting for their status to work,” she said.

“Without a job or any financial support, these people cannot live.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081211a1.html

Masukawa concedes importance of English-speaking ability

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Toshihide Masukawa, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics, delivered a speech in Japanese at the Nobel Lectures 2008 held in Stockholm on Monday, but later admitted the importance of English speaking ability.

Apparently frustrated at being unable to communicate with other Nobel Prize-winners, Masukawa, 68, said ruefully: “As a scientist, I want to communicate with people around the world. I could have done that [in my lecture] if I was able to speak English.”

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081210TDY02302.htm

Minimum wage far below cost of living for men in 20s in metropolitan area: survey

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Men in their 20s in and around Tokyo need to earn 1,345 yen an hour to maintain the minimum standard of living — far more than the current minimum wage of 766 yen, figures from a labor think tank have shown.

For men in their 20s living by themselves, the institute found that they needed 39,564 yen for food, 54,167 yen for rent, and 18,273 yen for education and entertainment each month. Altogether, the total monthly amount reached 233,801 yen. When this figure was divided by 173.8 working hours per month — the figure used by the minimum wage deliberation council — it emerged that they needed to earn a minimum of 1,345 yen per hour.

“A major increase in the minimum wage is necessary,” said Bukkyo University Professor Seiichi Kanezawa, who participated in the survey.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081209p2a00m0na008000c.html

Japan is least healthy place in the world to work

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The workaholic nation of Japan has been crowned the most unhealthy country in the world to be an employee.

Japan is home to the highest rates of employees suffering from work-related health problems, according to a new global survey.

As many as three in five Japanese workers complain that they have become ill or unhealthy as a result of workplace grievances.

This was significantly higher than the 19 per cent of workers globally who have suffered from work-related ill health, according to the study by recruitment firm Kelly Services.

Overworking has emerged as an acute problem in modern day Japan, which even has a word – karoshi – for death from overworking. Japan also has a high rate of work-related fatalities.

While Japan topped the poll in terms of the nation of workers with the most work-related health problems, following closely behind was Canada, according to the poll.

Both Japan and Canada are among the nations with the lowest minimum annual holiday leave ? only ten days a year – which is significantly lower than most other countries

The healthiest places to work emerged as New Zealand, India and Australia, home to the fewest complaints of work-related ill health.

“In economies everywhere, people are spending more time at work, sometimes at the expense of personal health and wellbeing,” said the Kelly Global Workforce Survey.

“A significant number of people also believe that the state of their health is at risk because of workplace conditions. Not only do employees see their health being affected, but they expect employers to actively address the issue.”

The survey, which polled more than 115,000 in 33 countries, found that one in ten employee found it difficult to sleep at night due to work-related stress.

The study also found that as many as one in three workers internationally had taken three or more days sick leave in the previous year ­ with more than a third saying they were made to feel guilty about taking time off.

“Employers can play a pivotal role in improving the health and fitness of their workers by introducing incentives and programs to keep staff encouraged, motivated and productive,” the survey said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3675330/Japan-is-least-healthy-place-in-the-world-to-work.html

Revised Nationality Law enacted

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The revised law was approved at a House of Councillors plenary session by a majority vote, although nine lawmakers from New Party Nippon and the People’s New Party, including NPN leader Yasuo Tanaka, voting against it. Haruko Arimura and Seiichi Eto, both Liberal Democratic Party members, and upper house Vice President Akiko Santo, former LDP member and now independent for the post, abstained from the vote.

Before enactment of the revised law, a Japanese man and non-Japanese woman had to be married when their child was born for the baby to be granted Japanese nationality. In cases in which a child was born out of wedlock to such a couple, the child would only be able to obtain Japanese nationality, strictly as an exception, if the father recognized paternity before the child was born.

Under the revised law, Japanese nationality will be granted to a child whose father recognizes paternity, regardless of whether the child’s parents are married or if paternal recognition comes before or after birth.

The revision to remove the marital status clause from the law followed a ruling by the Supreme Court in June that the Nationality Law was unconstitutional in denying nationality to children born out of wedlock but recognized by fathers after birth.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081206TDY01304.htm

Law revision sparks family joy

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Families seeking Japanese nationality for children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers and foreign mothers were overjoyed at the passing of a revision to the Nationality Law on Friday.

The revision will enable a child born out of wedlock whose parents are unmarried to obtain Japanese nationality and take his or her father’s name if the father recognizes the child as his own.

The joy is tempered, however, by fears that false paternity claims by unrelated Japanese men will become commonplace, a matter of particular concern for the Justice Ministry.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081206TDY02308.htm

Communist leader urges Japan PM to protect part-timers, smaller businesses amid economic slowdown

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The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) leader has urged Prime Minister Taro Aso to take emergency measures to protect the employment of non-regular workers and smaller businesses amid the economic slowdown.

It is extremely rare for the JCP leader to meet exclusively with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) head.

In the meeting on Friday, JCP Chairman Kazuo Shii urged the government to exercise its authority to prevent businesses from dismissing temporary and part-time workers.

In a related development, Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Mizuho Fukushima has also proposed emergency employment guarantee measures. The SDP then asked the LDP to hold a meeting between the leaders of the two parties.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081206p2a00m0na002000c.html