Japan’s mission to boost the number of overseas visitors suffered a setback this week after hundreds of hoteliers and inn owners said they would turn away foreign guests.
Of the 7,068 hotels and inns that responded to a survey by the communications ministry, 62% had received at least one foreign guest last year, while 38%, or 2,655 establishments, had received none. Of that number, 72% said they would prefer their doors to remain closed to non-Japanese.
The results were published only days after Japan’s newly formed tourist agency said it planned to increase the number of foreign visitors to 10 million by the end of the decade, compared with 8.35 million last year. It then hopes to double the number to 20 million by 2020.
Many cited language problems, while others said they did not have the facilities for foreign guests, although what that actually meant wasn’t specified. Some said they would be unable to respond properly if any problems involving foreigners arose on their premises.
Smaller hotels and traditional inns, called ryokan, are most reluctant to court the international tourist yen.
In theory at least, the country’s thousands of ryokan, often located deep in the mountains or near the coast, are supposed to offer old-fashioned hospitality: faultless service, rooms with sliding paper screens and tatami-mat floors, communal hot spring baths and exquisitely presented local delicacies.
“The survey sheds light on a pretty dark part of Japan,” said Debito Arudou, an American-born naturalised Japanese citizen.
Arudou, the author of a book on racial discrimination in his adopted country, called on local government to enforce anti-discrimination laws and revoke the business licenses of offending hotels and inns.
“They are supposed to be part of the service industry, but they’re not providing that service to foreigners.
“They claim they can’t provide foreign guests with a proper standard of service, so instead they deny it to them altogether. That’s arrogance on a grand scale.”
Officials from Visit Japan, a government-sponsored tourist drive launched in 2003, conceded there was little they could do to encourage reluctant hoteliers to change their ways.“It is up to the individual hotels and inns to decide who they have as guests, but we would like them to realise that the influx of foreign visitors represents a huge business opportunity,” Daisuke Tonai, a spokesman for the Japan National Tourism Organisation, told the Guardian.
“Although we can’t force them to act, we certainly want hotels and inns to do more to make overseas visitors feel more welcome.”
Renewed efforts to woo overseas visitors got off to an inglorious start last month when Nariaki Nakayama, the transport minister, was forced to resign after saying that Japan was “ethnically homogeneous” and that the Japanese, in general, “do not like foreigners”.His replacement, Kazuyoshi Kaneko, whose brief includes tourism, admitted that foreigners were unwelcome in some places.
“Some people might not like the idea of having foreign tourists very much,” he told the Japan Times. “Although it’s not our intention to change the people’s mindset, [the tourism agency’s] major task will be to attract a large number of foreign tourists.”
Though tourist numbers have risen significantly from 5.21 million five years ago, Japan has strict visa and immigration rules and has been criticised for its sometimes frosty attitude towards outsiders.
Japan: No room at inn for foreigners
Most Japanese inns and hotels that didn’t have foreign guests last year don’t want any in the future, according to a government survey released Thursday.
While the majority of such establishments do accept foreigners, the survey showed the country’s more traditional inns are not as hospitable, even as the government mounts a major campaign to draw more tourists from abroad.
Japan’s countryside is dotted with thousands of small, old-fashioned lodgings called “ryokans.” Many are family run and offer only traditional Japanese food and board, such as raw seafood delicacies, simple straw-mat floors and communal hot spring baths.
Some such establishments have barred foreign guests in the past, leading to lawsuits and government fines for discrimination.
The survey carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows that 72 percent of establishments that didn’t have foreign customers in the past year don’t want any, and the majority are ryokans and hotels with fewer than 30 rooms. Such businesses said they are unable to support foreign languages and that their facilities are not suited to foreigners.
While more than 60 percent of the country’s inns and hotels hosted foreign guests last year, the results indicate it may be hard to expand this number.
Tokyo spends about $35 million per year on its “Visit Japan Campaign,” which aims to draw 10 million foreigners to the country for trips and business in the year 2010, up from 8.35 million last year.
Campaign spokesman Ryo Ito said in general Japanese inns have been accepting of foreigners, noting that some now take foreign currencies and have staff that can speak multiple languages. He said the dire state of the global economy was more of a concern.
“The business environment has become very harsh,” he said.
The government survey was done by mail earlier this year, and 7,068 establishments responded.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/10/09/japan.inn.room.foreigners.ap/index.html
Women’s group aims to narrow wage gap
“We will point out that Japan needs to create a law to guarantee equal pay for equal jobs and establish a system to evaluate employees without gender bias,” said Shizuko Koedo, chairwoman of the [Working Women’s Network] which has 800 members nationwide.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, full-time female workers in 2007 earned on average 66.9 percent of what men earned.
This gap can be attributed to the relative scarcity of women in managerial positions. Women also tend to have shorter careers with companies, often leaving when they marry or have children.
But Koedo said the wage gap is also being caused by a discriminatory dual-track career system that usually places men on the fast track to the executive suite and women on the path to low-paying clerical positions.
The system has been criticized by experts as an indirect form of discrimination against women.
If there is a law that clearly stipulates the equal pay for equal work concept and employers evaluate workers more fairly, indirect discrimination through the dual-track system could be prevented, Koedo said.
To that end, the WWN plans to submit the report and lobby CEDAW [U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women] members in Geneva in November, when they hold a working group meeting.
CEDAW requires member countries to report on working conditions for women every four years and to issue recommendations for improvements.
The sixth and latest report compiled by Japan and submitted to CEDAW in April 2008 will be reviewed in New York in July 2009.
In the report, the government claims that the equal pay for equal work rule has been implemented according to Article 4 of the Labor Standard Law, which bans sexually discriminatory wages. However, it admits there remains a wage gap between men and women and encourages employers to take action to narrow the gap.
Kaneko to review visa rules
[Newly appointed Transport Minister Kazuyoshi] Kaneko took over the post earlier this week after his predecessor, Nariaki Nakayama, was forced to resign only four days into the job after making several verbal gaffes.
Among Nakayama’s controversial statements was the assertion that Japan is “ethnically homogeneous.”
Kaneko disavowed Nakayama’s controversial statement and acknowledged Japan’s growing ethnic diversity. Asked about the exclusionary mentality of some Japanese, the Lower House lawmaker, who represents the Gifu No. 4 constituency, said it is imperative for people to welcome foreign tourists with hospitality.
“Some might not like foreign tourists to come very much,” Kaneko said. “Although it’s not our intention to change the people’s mind-set, the major task of the new agency commissioner will be to attract many foreign tourists,” Kaneko said.
Refugee status applications exceed 1,000 for 1st time
The number of applicants for refugee status in the nation reached 1,015 as of early September, the most applications in one year since the system to grant asylums began in 1982, according to a nonprofit organization supporting the refugees.
The Tokyo-based Japan Association for Refugees, which offers support to the applicants, said it was the first time the number exceeded 1,000. The previous record was in 2006, with 954 applications.
Behind the rapid rise is believed to be an increase of politically unstable nations, particularly in Asia.
With more applicants slowing down the application process, the association said the central government should take swift action to address the problem.
In addition to the long examination period, obtaining refugee status is very difficult.
The authorities have annually approved the status of only one to 46 applicants since 1996.
Berlitz strike grows despite naysayers
Historic six-month action is starting to reap dividends
Despite scabs, naysayers and second-guessing pundits in the English-language media, Berlitz teachers are making history. With more than 100 teachers striking at dozens of schools around the Kanto region for over six months, the industrial action at Berlitz is now the largest sustained strike in Japan’s language school history.
Begunto demands a 4.6 percent base pay hike and a one-off bonus of one month’s salary. Berlitz Japan has not raised teachers’ base pay for 16 years. Three years ago, the language school lowered starting pay by over 10 percent per lesson, a cut only partially mitigated by a performance-based raise this year.
These demands are carried over from last year and are the two key demands of Begunto’s 2008 “shunto.”
Shunto is the traditional labor offensive that unions around the country wage each spring. It literally means “spring battle.” In Japan, even labor disputes invoke seasonal change.
Although management’s two proposals have thus far fallen short of Begunto’s demands, members are showing extraordinary energy and commitment to building momentum in the strike until the demands are met. Two language centers that have had particularly effective walkouts are the powerful Akasaka and Ikebukuro “shops.” More than half of all Berlitz schools in Kanto have participated in the strike.
In order to realize the strike demands, the union has organized and coordinated sophisticated surgical strikes, including bait-and-switch and strike feints. This keeps bosses on their toes.
Due to logistic issues, Begunto often can give written notice to the company only several minutes before the start of a particular strike. So management has had to scramble to cover lessons. They sometimes send and pay replacement teachers to cover lessons that end up not being struck, so nonstrikes can be as costly to the company as strikes. On other occasions, management sets up a team of replacement teachers at a nearby cafe, ready to rush over at a moment’s notice in case a strike occurs. The union calls these scabs-in-waiting “caffeine cowboys.” The company also assigns teachers to special “scab-watch” periods, meaning they get paid to wait in case a strike might happen.
Berlitz apparently prefers to spend a great deal of money and energy breaking the strike rather than resolving it by meeting the union’s reasonable demands. Their reasonableness becomes evident in light of Japan’s rising consumer price index (up 2.1 percent year-on-year in August), the slashing of starting pay in 2005 and the 16-year pay hike drought.
In addition to striking nearly every day, Begunto has held demonstrations at various schools around the Kanto Plain nearly every week and has toured Tokyo several times in a sound truck, announcing over a loud speaker, to make sure that the public knows why Berlitz teachers are fighting.
Begunto recently posted on the bulletin board of many Berlitz schools a document entitled “Definition of a Scab,” which caused some controversy. The definition actually belongs to author Jack London and includes such colorful hyperbole as:
“After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab.
“A scab is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
“When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of Hell to keep him out.”
That neither London nor Begunto meant the above definition in a literal way hardly needs mention. That union members are frustrated every time a fellow teacher chooses to help break the strike is why the document went up.
Union members never insist that every single Berlitz employee strike alongside his or her coworkers. They have only asked that teachers refrain from covering struck lessons when it is optional, as it often is. Scabs undermine the hard work, sacrifice and dedication of striking teachers and prolong resolution of the dispute.
One thing I learned from this strike is that there is no way to stay out of it. Each employee is forced by the circumstances of the strike to make a personal decision, which is either: 1) to join the strike; 2) to stay on the sidelines but refuse to cover lessons when it is optional; 3) to help break the strike by choosing to cover struck lessons.
Demonstrating its moderation in comparison with many labor unions, Begunto members have decided to consider only members of the third group as full-fledged “scabs.” In my opinion, it is a difference between courage and cowardice, principle versus pusillanimity.
It is easy to criticize the strike or the union, especially from the sidelines. What is hard is to get up and do something, to make a difference, fight for justice, take action right at the front lines. Begunto members do more than talk ? they act. The small number of teachers and staff who oppose the strike and/or the union will themselves benefit when the union wins higher pay for all.
In fact, thanks to the solidarity, dedication and hard work of union members – and a strike entails quite a bit of hard work – management has already made two pay hike offers, the latest on Sept. 26. At the time of writing, the union was widely expected to reject the second offer as far short of demands. Yet even this offer would never have happened without the efforts of the Begunto strikers.
Most surprisingly, the strike has been very successful as a union-building tool, drawing in many new members impressed that the union is taking positive action.
The right to strike is guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution, the Trade Union Law and international law. An individual has precious little negotiation strength vis-a-vis a big company (or even a small one). A union acting out of solidarity multiplies the negotiating position of its members exponentially. It also turns the workplace from an effective dictatorship into something approaching a democracy.
Teachers at Simul International – like Berlitz Japan a subsidiary of Benesse Corp. – are also striking, “simultaneously,” as it were. In their case, they are fighting for enrollment in Japan’s “shakai hoken” pension and health scheme. The union argues that Simul management is violating both the Health Insurance Law and Pension Insurance Law by failing to enroll its full-time employees.
So Benesse Group has its hands full with big strikes at two of its member companies at the same time.
It’s ironic that some employees, such as the teacher in the recent article in Tokyo’s Metropolis magazine (“Banding Together”), complain that the strike has not yet led to total victory when they themselves are part of the problem. I would say to them that we have not won yet because you have not joined the strike. Strength in numbers – again it hardly needs mentioning.
When more teachers join the strike rather than grumble that it “hasn’t worked yet,” the union will win.
Louis Carlet is Berlitz General Union’s Tokyo Representative, National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu.
Gaffe-prone Nakayama quits Cabinet
Aso names Kaneko to take transport post
Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Cabinet suffered a serious blow Sunday with the resignation of transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, who was under fire for several gaffes, including saying Japan is “ethnically homogenous.”
Aso appointed former administrative reform minister Kazuyoshi Kaneko, 65, to succeed Nakayama.
Kaneko, a seven-term representative from the Gifu No. 4 district, served as state minister in charge of administrative reform from 2003 to 2004 under Junichiro Koizumi.
Nakayama stepped down from the post just four days after he was appointed as part of the new administration.
His miscues drew strong criticism from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito coalition as well as the opposition parties.
Nakayama resigns over gaffes
Transport minister Nariaki Nakayama stepped down Sunday after just five days on the job, amid mounting criticism of a series of controversial remarks, dealing a serious blow to the new administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso.
Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) and other opposition parties, which had called for Nakayama’s resignation or dismissal, will hold Aso responsible for the appointment during Diet debate from Wednesday.
A string of remarks by Nakayama has drawn protest from the Japan Teachers Union, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido and the governor of Chiba Prefecture, among others.
Aso accepted Nakayama’s letter of resignation in a bid to contain the fallout, with the Lower House dissolution and election expected in the coming weeks.
Aso said Sunday that Nakayama’s remarks were “extremely inappropriate” and offered an apology. He also acknowledged his responsibility for Nakayama’s appointment.
In his constituency of Miyazaki, Nakayama, who served as education minister under former Prime Minister Jun-ichiro Koizumi, told reporters that the union was a “cancer on Japanese education.”
In a speech earlier in the day, Nakayama criticized the union’s opposition to mandatory raising of the Hinomaru national flag and singing of the Kimigayo national anthem at schools, and enforcing ethics education.
“We should disband the Japan Teachers Union one way or another,” Nakayama told a meeting organized by the LDP’s Miyazaki prefectural chapter. “If we borrow the style of Koizumi, ‘Let’s destroy the Japan Teachers Union,’ I will spearhead that movement.”
Nakayama also said that Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), which is supported by the teachers and other unions, should be disbanded.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200809290053.html
Nakayama’s gaffes
Was he so overwhelmed at becoming a minister that he lost control of his tongue? On his second day as the new minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, Nariaki Nakayama faced the media and let out a barrage of astounding verbal gaffes.
On the topic of foreign visitors to Japan, and asked how he plans to increase their numbers, he said, “Japan is a very inward-looking nation, you could say it is a homogeneous race …”
Only three months ago the Diet unanimously approved a historic resolution recognizing the Ainu as an indigenous people of Japan. It was supposed to have been the unified will of the Diet that pledged to protect the honor and dignity of the indigenous peoples, or was Nakayama opposed to it?
Nakayama retracted these comments, saying, they “led to misunderstandings.” However, his comments beg the question of his qualifications as a Diet lawmaker, not to mention as a Cabinet minister.
When he was education minister, Nakayama also was well-known for his gaffes, saying things like, “It is really good that history textbooks now have fewer references to comfort women and forced labor,” “there was no such term as comfort women to begin with.”
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200809290039.html
Nakayama ‘to resign’ over series of gaffes
Construction and Transport Minister Nariaki Nakayama intends to resign from his post to take responsibility for a series of verbal gaffes he has made since his appointment last week, sources said Saturday.
He likely will submit his resignation to Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday and Aso is likely to accept it, the sources said.