When illegal foreign workers get hurt, compensation is an uphill battle

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Individuals, […], labor unions and private organizations are continuing low-profile activities to provide support for those injured workers. Under the workers’ accident compensation insurance, even if a victim of an industrial accident is working here illegally, compensatory payments are made.

However, many employers refuse to help their illegal employees apply for workers’ compensation. And many illegal workers are afraid of applying out of fears their status will be revealed.

…

“Among employers who take on illegal immigrants, those who try to conceal industrial accidents are probably in the majority,” [Hiroshi Nakajima, of the foreign workers’ section of the Tokyo-based Zentoitsu Workers Union, which has more than 3,000 foreign members] said.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200609290164.html

English just ‘candy’ for the brain

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Likening English education to “sweets”–pleasing but unnecessary–[newly appointed] education minister Bunmei Ibuki has again expressed his opposition to making the language compulsory at elementary schools.

Questioned on the issue during a post-Cabinet meeting news conference Friday, the new minister insisted that teaching fundamental subjects such as Japanese should come first.

Describing those core subjects as “protein and starch,” which he said were important to maintain the body, he brushed aside suggestions that English classes were necessary.

“They (elementary school pupils) can eat delicious cakes and Japanese-style sweets if they still have an appetite for them (after eating the necessities),” he said.

While admitting that when children study English they also gain other positive benefits associated with cross-cultural communication, he said, “Children should be taught English conversation from the alphabet only after they have acquired the minimum good grounding in Japanese.”

In March, a special team of the Central Council for Education recommended compulsory English classes be introduced one hour a week from the fifth grade up, prompting widespread discussion on the issue.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200609300143.html

Foreigners to need ’skills’ to live in Japan

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As suggested in the [Justice Ministry] panel’s interim report released in May, the panel said foreigners who want to work in Japan, including those of Japanese descent, must have a certain degree of proficiency in the Japanese language to be granted legal status.

[Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro] Kono called the government’s current policy of granting preferential treatment to people of Japanese descent a “mistake” and said the policy must be reconsidered.

“Many children of those ethnic Japanese who do not speak (the language) are dropping out of school, which must be stopped,” he said, adding that the lack of language ability is becoming a major problem for foreign workers.

“The government must take responsibility for building a system to teach Japanese to them,” Kono said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060923a1.html

Trouble looms as foreign labor floods in

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…before official discussions on foreign labor go much further, national legislation to outlaw all forms of racial and ethnic discrimination is needed, according to the United Nations and nearly 80 Japan-based human rights organizations, many of which work to protect long-term foreign residents.

Without such a law, they argue, Japan will have serious problems with new arrivals, regardless of the restrictions on them, their Japanese-language skills or efforts to educate their children.

But the central government is not seriously considering such legal protections at the moment. In a comment reflective of the views of many senior policymakers and ordinary Japanese, [Vice Justice Minister Taro] Kono said he did not think such a law would be useful.

“Even if we were to pass such a law, Japanese attitudes toward foreigners wouldn’t change. It’s more important to change the culture of Japanese society to one that is accepting of foreigners,” Kono said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060912f1.html

Kanagawa PFT Petition

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A petition addressed to the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly, the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Kanagawa Board of Education is being circulated by a group of concerned citizens in support of the teachers dismissed by the Kanagawa Board of Education last April, and calls for the return to direct-hiring in the schools. A copy of the petition can be downloaded from the kanagawapft.org website. To add your name, please download the petition, print it out, and, after signing it, return to the address indicated in the petition info section of the website.

http://kanagawapft.org/petitionexplanation.pdf

This is the New Japan

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Takahashi’s frustration underscores a critical disconnect in Japan?a split between what the country is becoming and what most Japanese want it to be. For mostly economic reasons, Japan must open itself to other ethnicities. Japan’s population is not only aging rapidly, but starting to decline. By the year 2050, it is expected to fall from 128 million now to around 105 million. To keep the economy viable, experts say, the country must let in more immigrants?not just guest workers, but foreign-born naturalized citizens. A government panel acknowledged that in a report this summer, while at the same time recommending that the foreign percentage of the total population not exceed 3 percent, roughly double what it is now.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14640269/site/newsweek/

Labour Relations Board Hearing for dismissed ALTs in Kanagawa

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In February of 2006, the Kanagawa Board of Education informed all of its 89 Assistant Language Teachers that their contracts would not be renewed, and that the Board would instead be signing a contract with Interac to fill their jobs. Some teachers were offered the chance to keep their jobs, albeit with a new employer and a 15% cut in wages. Some took it, others decided to fight, and the case is now being heard at the Kanagawa Labour Relations Board.

Outsourcing by Boards of Education is an increasing problem throughout Japan, and is just one of the negative trends in the language industry. The teachers, members of NUGW Kanagawa, ask for your support.

If you are free at 5:30 on Wednesday, August 30th, please attend the meeting of the Labour Relations Board, at the Kanagawa Labor Office. The building is a 10-minute walk from Kannai station, through the Yokohama stadium grounds and past the Board of education building, turn right in front of the main post office and left at the next corner. It’s the second building  on the left, next to an office supplies shop.

Map: http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/tihosomu/tiroi/zu.htm

The hearing usually lasts about 25  minutes or so. Anyone wishing to attend can contact Bill at: stakeschamp AT yahoo DOT com

For more information, see this website: www.kanagawapft.org

‘Disguised contracting’ gets proper airing in media . . . with results

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According to the Asahi article, the labor bureaus have been sending warnings to such companies for at least two years. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry conducted a survey in 2004 and estimated that there were 870,000 ukeoi laborers in Japan at the time. What’s more, most of the workers who replied to the survey were under the impression that they were temp workers, not contracted workers. When I read this a red flag went up in my mind. Two years? More than 300 companies and 870,000 workers? Why is this news now? Why wasn’t it news last year?

Actually, it was. It’s just that the media covering it don’t answer to advertisers. The muckraking weekly Shukan Kinyobi has mentioned giso ukeoi in its coverage of labor disputes, and the Communist Party organ Akahata has made something of a crusade out of the issue. In addition, there are blogs and Internet Web sites that have talked about the problem. There’s even one in English.

 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20060827pb.html

Temp workers

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Some firms have neglected their legal requirement to report job-related accidents involving contract temporary workers to the labor authority. Others have left such workers without social security coverage. The practice must be stopped. But simply treating these workers fairly as temporary workers, as they actually are, won’t be enough. Employers should consider offering permanent jobs to as many of them as possible. 

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200608260115.html