Labor issues

Issues regarding employment of NJ, and how jobs affect integration and assimilation in Japan (particularly regarding the “trainee” visa regime that even our politicians call a “scam”).

Revamped article on the Nikkei Repatriation Bribe

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog.  A few weeks ago I was invited to retool my recent Japan Times article on the Nikkei Repatriation Bribe for an academic website.  After doing so (and integrating a point I had neglected about the bribe being one way to save on pension monies), they decided that I had enough outlets (what with this blog and the JT) and thought it wasn’t quite original enough.  Ah well.  I like how it turned out anyway, so I’ll post it here as the outlet.  Thanks for reading it.  Debito in Sapporo

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THE NIKKEI REPATRIATION BRIBE:  WHY IT’S A RAW DEAL FOR NJ

By Arudou Debito.  Debito.org May 8, 2009

One cannot read the news without hearing how bad the world economy has become, and Japan is no exception. Daily headlines proclaim what was once considered inconceivable in a land of lifetime employment: tens of thousands of people fired from Japan’s world-class factories. The Economist in April referred to Japan’s “two lost decades”, suggesting that modest economic gains over the past five years will be completely wiped out, according to OECD forecasts for 2009.

Cutbacks have bitten especially deeply into the labor market for non-Japanese workers. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reports that in the two months up to January 2009, more than 9,000 foreigners asked “Hello Work” unemployment agencies for assistance — eleven times the figure for the same period a year earlier. The Mainichi Shinbun reported (April 7, 2009) that 1,007 foreign “trainees”, working in Japanese factories, were made redundant between October 2008 and January 2009 alone.

In the same report [1], the labor ministry asserts that non-Japanese are unfamiliar with Japan’s language and corporate culture, concluding that (despite years of factory work) they are “extremely unre-employable” (saishuushoku ga kiwamete muzukashii).[2] So select regions are offering information centers, language training, and some degree of job placement. Under an emergency measure drawn up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in March, the Japanese government began from April 1 offering workers of Japanese descent (nikkei) working here on “long-term resident” visas — a repatriation package. Applicants get 300,000 yen, plus 200,000 yen for each family dependent, if they return to their own country. If they take up the offer before their unemployment benefit runs out, they get 100,000 yen added to each sum for each month outstanding.

This sounds good. After all, why keep people here who cannot find a job? But read the small print of the proposal: The retraining measures only target 5,000 people, a tiny fraction of the 420,000-plus nikkei already in Japan. Of course, the offer extends to none of the 102,018 “trainees” (mostly Chinese) that Japan’s factories received in 2007 alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are on their own.

From this, it is clear the government is engaging in damage control by physically removing a small number of people from Japan’s unemployment rosters – the nikkei – and doing a dramatic U-turn in imported-labor policies. A twenty-year-old visa regime, based on economic and political contradictions, official and unofficial cross-purposes, unregulated corrupt programs, and a mindset of treating people as mere work units, is coming to a close. This is an enormous policy miscalculation by the Japanese government thanks to a blind spot of using racially based paradigms to create a new domestic workforce.

First, let’s return to the “repatriation offer” and consider its implications. Although the sum of 300,000 yen may appear magnanimous, it comes with two built-in ironies. One is the sense that history is repeating itself. These nikkei beneficiaries are the descendents of beneficiaries of an earlier scheme by the Japanese government to export its unemployed. A century ago, Japan sent farmers to Brazil, America, Canada, Peru and other South American countries. Over the past two decades, however, Japan has brought nikkei back under yet another scheme to utilize their cheap labor. This time, however, if the nikkei take the ticket back “home,” they can’t return — at least not under the same preferential work visa. The welcome mat has been retracted.

The other irony is the clear policy failure. Close to half a million nikkei are living in Japan, some for up to twenty years, paying taxes, social security, and nenkin retirement pensions. They have worked long hours at low wages to keep Japan’s factories competitive in the world economy. Although the nikkei have doubled Japan’s foreign population since 1990, minimal seniority and entrenchment has taken a heavy toll on these long-termers; books have been written on how few foreigners, including the Nikkei, have been assimilated.[3] Now that markets have soured, foreigners are the first to be laid off, and their unassimilated status, even in the eyes of the labor ministry, has made many of them unmarketable.

Put bluntly, the policy is: train one percent (5,000) to stay; bribe the rest to go and become some other country’s problem. In fact, the government stands to save a great deal of money by paying the nikkei a pittance in plane fares and repatriation fees, while keeping their many years of pension contributions (usually about 15% of monthly salary). By using this economic sleight-of hand, offering desperate people short-term cash if they foresake their long-term investments, this anti-assimilation policy becomes profitable for the government, while beggaring foreigners’ retirements.

Now consider another layer: This scheme only applies to nikkei, not to other non-Japanese workers such as the large number of Chinese “trainees” also here at Japan’s invitation. How has a government policy for a developed country disintegrated into something so ludicrous, where even officially sanctioned exclusionism has a hierarchy?

The background, in brief, is this: Japan faced a huge blue-collar labor shortage in the late 1980s, and realized with the rise in the value of the yen and high minimum wages, that its exports were being priced out of world markets.

Japan’s solution, like that of many other developed countries, was to import cheaper foreign labor. Of course, other countries with a significant influx of migrant labor, also had problems with equitable working conditions and assimilation.[4] However, as a new documentary, Sour Strawberries: Japan’s hidden “guest workers” vividly portrays, what made Japan’s policy fundamentally different was a view of foreign labor through a racial prism. Policymaking elites, worried about debasing Japan’s allegedly homogeneous society with foreigners who might stay, maintained an official stance of “no immigration” and “no import of unskilled labor”.

However, that was tatemae — a façade. Urged by business lobbies such as Nippon Keidanren, Japan created a visa regime from 1990 to import foreign laborers (mostly Chinese) as “trainees”, ostensibly to learn a skill, but basically to put them in factories and farms doing unskilled “dirty, difficult, and dangerous” labor eschewed by Japanese. The trainees were paid less than half the minimum wage (as they were not legally workers under Japanese labor law) and received no social welfare.

Although some trainees were reportedly working 10, 15 and in one case even 22-hour days, six to seven days a week including holidays, they received wages so paltry they beggared belief — in some cases 40,000 yen a month. A Chinese “trainee” interviewed in Sour Strawberries said he wound up earning the same here as he would in China. Others received even less, being charged by employers for rent, utilities, and food on top of that.

Abuses proliferated. Trainees found their passports confiscated and pay withheld, were denied basic human rights such as freedom of association or religious practice, were harassed and beaten, and were even fired without compensation if they were injured on the job. One employer hired thugs to force his Chinese staff to board a plane home. But trainees couldn’t just give up and go back. Due to visa restrictions, requiring significant deposits before coming to Japan (to put a damper on emigration), Chinese took out travel loans of between 700,000 to one million yen. If they returned before their visas were up, they would be in default, sued by their banks or brokers and ruined. Thus they were locked into abusive jobs they couldn’t complain about or quit without losing their visa and livelihoods overseas.

As Zentoitsu Worker’s Union leader Torii Ippei said in the documentary, this government-sponsored but largely unregulated program made so many employers turn bad, that places without worker abuses were “very rare”. The Yomiuri Shinbun (April 11, 2009) reported a recent Justice Ministry finding of “irregularities” at 452 companies and organizations involving trainees in 2008 alone, including hundreds of cases of unpaid overtime and illegal wages. Cases have been remanded to public prosecutors resulting in the occasional court victory, such as the 2008 landmark decision against the Tochigi strawberry farm that became the sobriquet for the documentary, have resulted in hefty (by Japanese standards) punitive judgments.

But these “trainees” were not the only ones getting exploited. 1990 was also the year the “long term resident” visa was introduced for the nikkei. Unlike the trainees, they were given significantly higher wages, labor law protections and unlimited employment opportunities — supposedly to allow them to “explore their heritage” — while being worked, in many cases 10 to 15 hours a day, six days a week.

Why this most-favored visa status for the nikkei? The reason was racially based. As LDP and Keidanren representatives testified in Sour Strawberries, policymakers figured that nikkei would present fewer assimilation problems. After all, they have Japanese blood, ergo the prerequisite cultural understanding of Japan’s unique culture and garbage-sorting procedures. It was deemed unnecessary to create any integration policy. However, as neighborhood problems arose, visible in the “No Foreigner” shop signs around nikkei areas and the Ana Bortz vs. Seibido Jewelry Store (1998-9) lawsuit, the atmosphere was counterproductive and demoralizing for an enthusiastic workforce.[5] A nikkei interviewed in the documentary described how overseas she felt like a Japanese, yet in Japan she ultimately felt like a foreigner.

Under these visa regimes, Japan invited over a million non-Japanese to come to Japan to work — and work they did, many in virtual indentured servitude. Yet instead of being praised for their contributions, they became scapegoats. Neighborhoods not only turned against them, but also police campaigns offered years of opprobrium for alleged rises in crime and overstaying (even though foreign crime rates were actually lower than domestic, and the number of visa overstayers dropped every year since 1993). Non-Japanese workers were also bashed for not learning the language (when they actually had little time to study, let alone attend Japanese classes offered by a mere handful of merciful local governments) — all disincentives for settling in Japan.

This is what happens when people are brought into a country by official government policy, yet for unofficial purposes at odds with official pledges. Japan has no immigration policy. It then becomes awkward for the government to make official pronouncements on how the new workforce is contributing to the economy, or why it should be allowed to stay. So the workforce remains in societal limbo. Then when things go wrong — in this case a tectonic macroeconomic shift — and the policy fails, it is the foreigners, not the government, who bear the brunt.

And fail the policy did on April Fools’ Day 2009, when the government confirmed that nikkei didn’t actually belong in Japan by offering them golden parachutes. Of course, race was again a factor, as the repatriation package was unavailable to wrong-blooded “trainees,” who must return on their own dime (perhaps, in some cases, with fines added on for overstaying) to face financial ruin.

What to do instead? In my view, the Japanese government must take responsibility. Having invited foreigners over here, it is necessary to treat them like human beings. Give them the same labor rights and job training that you would give every worker in Japan, and free nationwide Japanese lessons to bring them up to speed. Reward them for their investment in our society and their taxes paid. Do what can be done to make them more comfortable and settled. Above all, stop bashing them: Let Japanese society know why foreigners are here and what they have contributed to the country.

Don’t treat foreigners like toxic waste, sending them overseas for somebody else to deal with, and don’t detoxify our society under the same racially-based paradigms that got us into this situation in the first place. You brought this upon yourselves through a labor policy that ignored immigration and assimilation. Deal with it in Japan, by helping non-Japanese residents of whatever background make Japan their home.

This is not a radical proposal. Given the low-birthrate of Japan’s aging society, experts have been urging you to do this for a decade now. This labor downturn won’t last forever, and when things pick up again you will have a younger, more acculturated, more acclimatized, even grateful workforce to help pick up the pieces. Just sending people back, where they will tell others about their dreadful years in Japan being exploited and excluded, is on so many levels the wrong thing to do.

NOTES:
[1] Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Labour report at http://www.mhlw.go.jp/houdou/2009/03/dl/h0331-10a.pdf
[2] Original Japanese reads in the above report 「日本語能力の不足や我が国の雇用慣行の不案内に加え、職務経験も十分ではないため、いったん離職した場合には、再就職が極めて厳しい状況にあります。]
[3] See Takeyuki Tsuda, Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland.[add source information]
[4] For examples of issues of migrant labor and assimilation in Spain, South Korea, and Italy as well as Japan, see Takeyuki Tsuda, ed. Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective. Other examples, such as the Turks in West Germany, Poles in the British Isles, Algerians and Moroccans in France, and Africans throughout Western Europe, have warranted significant media attention over the decades, but the labor mobility created by EU passports have arguably made the counterarguments against migration less “homogeneous-society” and “racially-based” in origin than in the Japanese example. [recheck and revise last sentence]
[5] For a description of the Ana Bortz and other cases of Nikkei exclusionism, see http://www.debito.org/bortzdiscrimreport.html

Arudou Debito, Associate Professor at Hokkaido Information University, is a columnist for The Japan Times and the manager of the debito.org daily blog. The co-author of Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan, and author of Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (Akashi Shoten, Inc.), Arudou is organizing nationwide showings of Sour Strawberries around Japan late August-early September; contact him at debito@debito.org to arrange a screening. You can purchase a copy of the documentary by visiting http://www.cinemabstruso.de/strawberries/main.html

A briefer version of this article was published in The Japan Times on April 7, 2009

BBC on what’s happening to returning Nikkei Brazilians

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog. Some more follow-up from the overseas media on what’s happening to imported Nikkei who take the GOJ bribe back to their countries of origin. Worth a look, although not much unexpected information there.

Meanwhile, I’ll have a revamped and more thorough article online later on today on The Bribe based upon my previous Japan Times article, for the record. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

From Brazil to Japan and back again
May 1, 2009 Courtesy Sean B.

By Roland Buerk, BBC correspondent, Tokyo, Japan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8025089.stm

The NYK Clara, escorted by a tug, slipped into Yokohama port, Tokyo bay carrying the BBC Box.

For our container, which we have been following around the world since last September, it is the end of a long journey from Brazil – across the Atlantic, round the Cape of Good Hope and then on across the Indian Ocean.

Inside is a cargo of foodstuffs, ingredients that had been ordered by one of Japan’s biggest food manufacturing companies.

Not enough food is grown in mountainous Japan to supply its large population’s needs, so imports like this are vital.

Returning migrants

It is not just goods that have made the journey from Brazil to Japan.

Carlos Zaha, radio broadcaster
They called us to come back to Japan and put us in factory lines the day after
Carlos Zaha, radio broadcaster

In the last 20 years, migrant workers have been coming here too, to fill vacancies in factories.

But they are not faring well in the global downturn.

So many Brazilians live in Hamamatsu in central Japan that Carlos Zaha has set up a radio station broadcasting pop songs in Portuguese.

He looks Japanese because by blood he is.

Like many others, his ancestors left Japan a century ago, escaping rural poverty for a better life in Brazil.

Exports halved

Mr Zaha’s family history is of being blown around the world by the winds of economic change.

“In the 1990s they called us because they needed people to work in factories,” he says. “They called us to come back to Japan and put us in factory lines the day after.”

But visit the local advice centre in Hamamatsu, and there is evidence enough that times have changed.

Wellington Shibuya
Now they don’t have a job for us, they’re saying ‘we’ll give you a little money, but don’t come back. Bye bye’
Wellington Shibuya

Japan’s exports have nearly halved when compared with last year.

Companies making cars and electronic gadgets once needed Brazilian workers to fill vacancies.

In recent months they have instead been slashing production as fast as they can.

Sent home

The advice centre used to get 200 inquiries a month. Now they have 1,000, many from Brazilian workers who have been laid off.

Wellington Shibuya is one of them. He not only prays in a local church. After losing his home, this is also where he sleeps.

Now he is taking an offer from Japan’s Government of 300,000 yen, around 3,000 dollars, to go back to Brazil.

But the Government help comes with a catch. He won’t be allowed back into Japan on the same easy terms to seek work.

Effectively it is a one way ticket.

“They told us ‘come, come, welcome to Japan’,” he says in halting Japanese. “‘We’ll give you a job, a place to live. Welcome, welcome.’ Now they don’t have a job for us, they’re saying ‘we’ll give you a little money, but don’t come back. Bye bye’.”

Supporters of the scheme say the Government had to do something to help people in need far from home.

There is also an offer of courses in Japanese to help Brazilians become more employable outside the factories.

Changing lives

Critics say Japan can scarcely afford to lose people. For a great industrialized nation it has remarkably few immigrants.

There are strict immigration laws because many people value a homogenous society.

But the low birth rate means the population is in long term decline.

“The work force is shrinking, the society is aging,” says Taro Kono, a member of the House of Representatives for the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

“So the pension, our medical fees [mean] we have to do something about it. The best way is to have immigration in this country. A lot of people are reacting very emotionally, so the politicians are a bit afraid to do the straight talk.”

Back in Yokohama port a giant crane lifted our BBC box off the ship before placing it on a truck to be driven away.

It is looking a little battered now and the scarlet paint is a bit faded after all that time at sea.

It is not just the flow of goods that is being affected by the global downturn.

People’s lives are being changed too.

ENDS

Thoughts on May Day 2009 in Odori Park, Sapporo

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog.  A little post for the holidays:

I was cycling on my way to work on May 1 and going through Odori Park, where the 80th Annual Hokkaido May Day labor union rallies were taking place.  They’re fun affairs (you get the pretentious lefties spouting off about protecting human rights, but then with no sense of irony whatsoever refuse to give me a flyer as I’m walking past…), and it’s always interesting to see who’s speaking.

I had just missed Hokkaido Governor Takahashi Harumi’s speech (but I saw her in the speaker gallery — she’s a tiny little person!), but Sapporo Mayor Ueda Fumio gave a short and well-tailored speech designed for the workers:  about how Hokkaido’s in the job market toilet and we have to keep it from getting worse; and we’d better make sure that no more companies go bankrupt (I raised an eyebrow at that; that doesn’t sound all that populist anymore).

But then came the rabbit out of the hat.  DPJ leader Ozawa Ichiro (yes, THAT Ozawa) gave a ten-minuter about how the LDP was about to lose power and how the DPJ and associated allies were going to kick butt in the next unavoidable election.  I snickered a bit, about how the worm had turned (given Ozawa’s history as a LDP kingpin dealing within the smoke-filled rooms of Kanemaru and PM Takeshita), and renewed my distrust of him.  He’ll say anything to get into power, which might indeed be the job description of any politician, but I still felt after he left the podium that he lacked any personal convictions except getting his own back on the LDP.

But he was soon overshadowed two speakers later.  After the vice-prez of Shamintou gave the proper address about unemployed workers, the Japanese Constitution, and various other leftie issues that I agreed with to the core but noticed how smoothly they were served up, out came the person that should be banished from any public event with crucifixes:  Suzuki Muneo.  Yes, another former LDP kingpin, now twice-convicted for corruption (and in office only because his case is on appeal in the Supreme Court, and because Hokkaido people can be pretty stupid), up at the podium protesting his innocence yet again.  Yes, no kidding, in between the pat statements that Hokkaido is underrepresented and kept poor by the mainland (I agree, but I wouldn’t want Muneo to be the representer), he talked about how the police are going after people like Ozawa and himself unfairly because the latter are challenging the ruling class.  And how he looked forward to being part of the new ruling DPJ even if his one-person party has only elected him (played that one for laughs; it worked).  The shikai who came on after that noted how suddenly May Day had taken on a different tone.  No wonder.  The politicians had hijacked it for their own purposes, not for the promotion of worker rights.

Anyway, back to Muneo.  He had clearly hitched his wagon to the left.  At about 150 decibels, he was the most attention-getting speaker of the day (I admit he’s an incredible speaker; even if you don’t trust him, you’ll be boxed about the ears by his high-volume convictions).  He walked off with more applause than anyone (Ozawa got some desultory claps; he’s a by-the-numbers speaker because he believes in very little fervently; Muneo, a performance artist like Iggy Pop, would cut his chest on stage if he got your support — he certainly shredded his vocal cords) and probably garnered a few more votes from desperate Dosanko.  Sigh.

I resumed my trek to work after that.  As always, I’m fascinated by Japanese politics, because I like to see what appeals.  Very little of it is as well-thought-out or as inspiring as a single Obama speech.  That’s one reason that Obama’s speeches are best-sellers in Japan.  The Japanese electorate is thirsting for someone to show some impressive leadership.  All the left got today in Sapporo, however, were Ichiro and Muneo.  And they are hardly leftists.  

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Economist.com blog piles on re Nikkei Repatriation Bribe

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog. Here’s a brief from The Economist, also questioning the wisdom of the Nikkei Repatriation Bribe, as similar influential media in yesterday’s blog entry did. Courtesy of Norik. Feel free to comment there as here. (Not sure if I’ll have access to my blog during the weekend, so please be patient with comments, sorry.) Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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April 23, 2009
And don’t come back
Posted by: Economist.com | NEW YORK
Categories: Immigration
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/04/and_dont_come_back.cfm

PROTECTIONISM is rearing its ugly head again, in unusual ways. Japan is offering money to unemployed low-skill immigrants if they leave the country and do not return. Well, they can come back as tourists, but they give up the right to live and work in Japan again (unless they transform into high-skill professionals).

Low-skilled workers are an odd target for Japan. The country has so few immigrants to begin with; they make up less than 2% of the population. (Most immigrant labourers are ethnic Japanese coming from Latin America.) Given the demographic pressures facing Japan, the government should be begging immigrants to come. Perhaps they have plans to counteract this policy with a programme to encourage Japanese women to have more babies.

Japan’s policy results from a perception that the stock of jobs is fixed, so if you remove the foreign population more jobs go to natives. But low-skill immigrants often do jobs natives will not. Some argue that without immigrants these undesirable jobs would pay more and then natives would take them. But that simply encourages employers to outsource these jobs to another country (which means the wages are spent elsewhere). When it comes to jobs that can physically not be sent abroad, it raises the costs of production which can mean fewer high-skill, well-paid jobs.

Low-skill foreigners also provide cheap services to natives, such as childcare and care for the elderly (something Japan needs). This frees up family members to pursue other work that pays more than what a low-skill immigrant demands, but less than the market wage if only natives did the job.

The Czech Republic and Spain have also bribed foreigners to leave, but at least they will let them come back. Japan is pursuing this policy because its concerned about rising unemployment, but presumably it will need immigrants when the economy improves. Jiro Kawasaki, a former health minister and senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party explains:

“Naturally, we don’t want those same people back in Japan after a couple of months,” Mr. Kawasaki said. “Japanese taxpayers would ask, ‘What kind of ridiculous policy is this?’”

It’s a good question.

ENDS

TIME Mag, Asahi, NY Times: “Japan to Immigrants: Thanks, but go home”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog. Three articles that echo much of the sentiment I expressed in my April 7, 2009 Japan Times article on the Nikkei repatriation bribe. First TIME Magazine, then a blurb (that’s all) from the Asahi on how returned Nikkei are faring overseas, and than finally the New York Times with some good quotes from the architect of this policy, the LDP’s Kawasaki Jiro (who amazingly calls US immigration policy “a failure”, and uses it to justify kicking out Japan’s immigrants). Arudou Debito in Sapporo

PS:  Here’s a political comic based upon the NY Times photo accompanying the article below.  Courtesy of creator RDV:

http://politicomix.blogspot.com/2009/04/foreigners-fuck-off.html

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TIME Magazine, Monday, Apr. 20, 2009
Japan to Immigrants: Thanks, But You Can Go Home Now
By Coco Masters / Tokyo, Courtesy Matt Dioguardi and KG
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892469,00.html

When union leader Francisco Freitas has something to say, Japan’s Brazilian community listens. The 49-year old director of the Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers called up the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo April 14, fuming over a form being passed out at employment offices in Hamamatsu City, southwest of Tokyo. Double-sided and printed on large sheets of paper, the form enables unemployed workers of Japanese descent — and their family members — to secure government money for tickets home. It sounded like a good deal to the Brazilians for whom it was intended. The fine print in Portuguese, however, revealed a catch that soured the deal: it’s a one-way ticket with an agreement not to return.

Japan’s offer to minority communities in need has spawned the ire of those whom it intends to help. It is one thing to be laid off in an economic crisis. It is quite another to be unemployed and to feel unwanted by the country where you’ve settled. That’s how Freitas and other Brazilians feel since the Japanese government started the program to pay $3,000 to each jobless foreigner of Japanese descent (called Nikkei) and $2,000 to each family member to return to their country of origin. The money isn’t the problem, the Brazilians say; it’s the fact that they will not be allowed to return until economic and employment conditions improve — whenever that may be. “When Nikkei go back and can’t return, for us that’s discrimination,” says Freitas, who has lived in Japan with his family for 12 years.

With Japan’s unemployment rate on the rise — it reached a three-year high of 4.4% in February — the government is frantic to find solutions to stanch the flow of job losses and to help the unemployed. The virtual collapse of Japan’s export-driven economy, in which exports have nearly halved compared to the first two months of last year, has forced manufacturers to cut production. Temporary and contract workers at automotive and electronics companies have been hit especially hard. Hamamatsu has 18,000 Brazilian residents, about 5% of the total in Japan, and is home to the nation’s largest Brazilian community. After immigration laws relaxed in 1990, making it easier for foreigners to live and work in Japan, Brazilians have grown to be the country’s third largest minority, after Koreans and Chinese. But as jobs grow scarce and money runs out, some Nikkei ironically now face the same tough decision their Japanese relatives did 100 years ago, when they migrated to Brazil.

Japan can scarcely afford to lose part of its labor force, or close itself off further to foreigners. Japan, with its aging population that is projected to shrink by one-third over the next 50 years, needs all the workers it can get. The U.N. has projected that the nation will need 17 million immigrants by 2050 to maintain a productive economy. But immigration laws remain strict, and foreign-born workers make up only 1.7% of the total population. Brazilians feel particularly hard done by. “The reaction from the Brazilian community is very hot,” says a Brazilian Embassy official. The embassy has asked Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to “ease the conditions” of reentry for Brazilians who accept the money. (Paradoxically, the Japanese government had recently stepped up efforts to help Brazilian residents, with programs such as Japanese-language training and job-counseling.) This particular solution to unemployment, however, is perceived as a misguided gift. “Maybe there were good intentions, but the offer was presented in the worst way possible,” says the Brazilian official. The program applies to Brazilians who have long-term Nikkei visas, but restricts their right — and that of their family members — to reentry until jobs are available in Japan. The terms are vague and will probably stay that way. Tatsushi Nagasawa, a Japanese health ministry official says it’s not possible to know when those who accept the money will be allowed back into Japan, though the conditions for reentry for highly skilled positions might be relaxed.

The Brazilian community plainly needs some help. The Brazilian embassy normally pays for between 10 and 15 repatriations each year, but in the last few months it has already paid for about 40. Since last September, Carlos Zaha has seen many in his Hamamatsu community lose their jobs. In December, he helped start Brasil Fureai, or “Contact Brazil,” an association to help unemployed Brazilian residents find jobs. He’s thankful to the Japanese government for the offer of assisted repatriation, but says the decision will be a rough one for workers. “I don’t think [the government] thought this through well,” Zaha says. “If someone is over 50 years old and is already thinking of returning to Brazil then it might work. But there are many people in their 20s and 30s, and after two or three years they’re going to want to come back to Japan — and they won’t be able to.”

Lenine Freitas, 23, the son of the union leader, lost his job at Asmo, a small motor manufacturer, one month ago, but says he plans to stay in Japan and work. Freitas says that there would be no problem if the Japanese government set a term of, say, three years, after which Brazilians who took the money could return. But after nine years working at Suzuki Motor Corp., he thinks that the government should continue to take responsibility for foreigners in Japan. “They have to help people to continue working in Japan,” he says. “If Brazilians go home, what will they do there?”

And if Nikkei Brazilians, Peruvians and others who have lost their jobs go home, what will Japan do? Last week, Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a long-term growth strategy to create millions of jobs and add $1.2 trillion to GDP by 2020. But the discussion of immigration reform is notoriously absent in Japan, and reaching a sensible policy for foreign workers has hardly got under way. Encouraging those foreigners who would actually like to stay in Japan to leave seems a funny place to start.

ENDS

=========================================

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200904170104.html

Returnees to Brazil finding it tough

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2009/4/17, courtesy of KG
SAO PAULO–Many Brazilians of Japanese ancestry returning here from recession-struck Japan are struggling to find work, according to Grupo Nikkei, an NGO set up to support the job-seekers.

The group said the number of returnees seeking help had more than doubled from 70 a month last year to 150 a month this year.

Some returnees who performed unskilled labor in Japan have found it difficult to return to old jobs that require specific expertise, according to Leda Shimabukuro, 57, who heads the group. Some youths also lack Portuguese literacy skills, Shimabukuro said.(IHT/Asahi: April 17,2009)

ENDS (yes, that’s all the space this merits in the Asahi)

==========================================

New York Times April 23, 2009

Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home

By HIROKO TABUCHI, courtesy of Alechan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/business/global/23immigrant.html?_r=1&ref=business
HAMAMATSU, Japan — Rita Yamaoka, a mother of three who immigrated from Brazil, recently lost her factory job here. Now, Japan has made her an offer she may not be able to refuse.

The government will pay thousands of dollars to fly Mrs. Yamaoka; her husband, who is a Brazilian citizen of Japanese descent; and their family back to Brazil. But in exchange, Mrs. Yamaoka and her husband must agree never to seek to work in Japan again.

“I feel immense stress. I’ve been crying very often,” Mrs. Yamaoka, 38, said after a meeting where local officials detailed the offer in this industrial town in central Japan.

“I tell my husband that we should take the money and go back,” she said, her eyes teary. “We can’t afford to stay here much longer.”

Japan’s offer, extended to hundreds of thousands of blue-collar Latin American immigrants, is part of a new drive to encourage them to leave this recession-racked country. So far, at least 100 workers and their families have agreed to leave, Japanese officials said.

But critics denounce the program as shortsighted, inhumane and a threat to what little progress Japan has made in opening its economy to foreign workers.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s cold-hearted,” said Hidenori Sakanaka, director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, an independent research organization.

“And Japan is kicking itself in the foot,” he added. “We might be in a recession now, but it’s clear it doesn’t have a future without workers from overseas.”

The program is limited to the country’s Latin American guest workers, whose Japanese parents and grandparents emigrated to Brazil and neighboring countries a century ago to work on coffee plantations.

In 1990, Japan — facing a growing industrial labor shortage — started issuing thousands of special work visas to descendants of these emigrants. An estimated 366,000 Brazilians and Peruvians now live in Japan.

The guest workers quickly became the largest group of foreign blue-collar workers in an otherwise immigration-averse country, filling the so-called three-K jobs (kitsui, kitanai, kiken — hard, dirty and dangerous).

But the nation’s manufacturing sector has slumped as demand for Japanese goods evaporated, pushing unemployment to a three-year high of 4.4 percent. Japan’s exports plunged 45.6 percent in March from a year earlier, and industrial production is at its lowest level in 25 years.

New data from the Japanese trade ministry suggested manufacturing output could rise in March and April, as manufacturers start to ease production cuts. But the numbers could have more to do with inventories falling so low that they need to be replenished than with any increase in demand.

While Japan waits for that to happen, it has been keen to help foreign workers leave, which could ease pressure on domestic labor markets and the unemployment rolls.

“There won’t be good employment opportunities for a while, so that’s why we’re suggesting that the Nikkei Brazilians go home,” said Jiro Kawasaki, a former health minister and senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

“Nikkei” visas are special visas granted because of Japanese ancestry or association.

Mr. Kawasaki led the ruling party task force that devised the repatriation plan, part of a wider emergency strategy to combat rising unemployment.

Under the emergency program, introduced this month, the country’s Brazilian and other Latin American guest workers are offered $3,000 toward air fare, plus $2,000 for each dependent — attractive lump sums for many immigrants here. Workers who leave have been told they can pocket any amount left over.

But those who travel home on Japan’s dime will not be allowed to reapply for a work visa. Stripped of that status, most would find it all but impossible to return. They could come back on three-month tourist visas. Or, if they became doctors or bankers or held certain other positions, and had a company sponsor, they could apply for professional visas.

Spain, with a unemployment rate of 15.5 percent, has adopted a similar program, but immigrants are allowed to reclaim their residency and work visas after three years.

Japan is under pressure to allow returns. Officials have said they will consider such a modification, but have not committed to it.

“Naturally, we don’t want those same people back in Japan after a couple of months,” Mr. Kawasaki said. “Japanese taxpayers would ask, ‘What kind of ridiculous policy is this?’ ”

The plan came as a shock to many, especially after the government introduced a number of measures in recent months to help jobless foreigners, including free Japanese-language courses, vocational training and job counseling. Guest workers are eligible for limited cash unemployment benefits, provided they have paid monthly premiums.

“It’s baffling,” said Angelo Ishi, an associate professor in sociology at Musashi University in Tokyo. “The Japanese government has previously made it clear that they welcome Japanese-Brazilians, but this is an insult to the community.”

It could also hurt Japan in the long run. The aging country faces an impending labor shortage. The population has been falling since 2005, and its working-age population could fall by a third by 2050. Though manufacturers have been laying off workers, sectors like farming and care for the elderly still face shortages.

But Mr. Kawasaki said the economic slump was a good opportunity to overhaul Japan’s immigration policy as a whole.

“We should stop letting unskilled laborers into Japan. We should make sure that even the three-K jobs are paid well, and that they are filled by Japanese,” he said. “I do not think that Japan should ever become a multi-ethnic society.”

He said the United States had been “a failure on the immigration front,” and cited extreme income inequalities between rich Americans and poor immigrants.

At the packed town hall meeting in Hamamatsu, immigrants voiced disbelief that they would be barred from returning. Angry members of the audience converged on officials. Others walked out of the meeting room.

“Are you saying even our children will not be able to come back?” one man shouted.

“That is correct, they will not be able to come back,” a local labor official, Masahiro Watai, answered calmly.

Claudio Nishimori, 30, said he was considering returning to Brazil because his shifts at a electronics parts factory were recently reduced. But he felt anxious about going back to a country he had left so long ago.

“I’ve lived in Japan for 13 years. I’m not sure what job I can find when I return to Brazil,” he said. But his wife has been unemployed since being laid off last year and he can no longer afford to support his family.

Mrs. Yamaoka and her husband, Sergio, who settled here three years ago at the height of the export boom, are undecided. But they have both lost jobs at auto factories. Others have made up their minds to leave. About 1,000 of Hamamatsu’s Brazilian inhabitants left the city before the aid was even announced. The city’s Brazilian elementary school closed last month.

“They put up with us as long as they needed the labor,” said Wellington Shibuya, who came six years ago and lost his job at a stove factory in October. “But now that the economy is bad, they throw us a bit of cash and say goodbye.”

He recently applied for the government repatriation aid and is set to leave in June.

“We worked hard; we tried to fit in. Yet they’re so quick to kick us out,” he said. “I’m happy to leave a country like this.”

ENDS

Filmmaker requests interviewees for documentary on NJ visa overstayers

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog.  Filmmaker Adrian Francis has this request.  Arudou Debito

=================================

Hello Debito.org readers.  I am an Australian documentary filmmaker living in Tokyo. I am currently researching a documentary about illegal workers in Japan. Their plight has been in the spotlight in recent months due to the Calderon family case, and more generally, against a background debate about the role of immigration in present and future Japan. Like the Calderons,  many illegal workers in Japan are important contributors to this country, but are not acknowledged as such by the police, a sensationalist media, or official government policy. My aim is to make a film that can give illegal workers themselves some kind of voice in a public discussion about their role.
 
At this stage I’m thinking purely in terms of research. I understand that this is a highly sensitive topic, and for the people themsleves it could potentially involve deportation or incarceration. If you, or someone you know is in this situation, I would very much like to hear about your/their experiences. I would be happy to communicate in any form that is most comfortable – email, phone, or in person.

For your reference, here is a link to a trailer and synopsis of a short documentary I made last year in Australia:


I can be contacted on wabi_sabi_09  AT  yahoo.com

Any help would be most appreciated.

Adrian Francis
ends

Mainichi: Kofu Laundry taken to cleaners over abuses of Chinese “trainees”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog.  Mainichi reports yet another case of “Trainee” labor abuses, and this time the public prosecutor looks to do something about it.  Plus a brief Yomiuri article on how deep the abuses are going, alas with only a brief citation of figures, nothing about the whos, wheres, and what’s to be done about it.  Like siccing the public prosecutor on them.  Debito in Sapporo

====================================

Dry-cleaning company boss reported to prosecutors over treatment of Chinese trainees

Mainichi Shinbun April 9, 2009, courtesy of Jeff K.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090409p2a00m0na004000c.html

KOFU — The Kofu Labor Standards Inspection Office has sent documents to public prosecutors accusing a dry-cleaning company president of violating labor and wage laws by making Chinese trainees work for pay below the minimum wage.

The office sent documents to the Kofu District Public Prosecutors Office accusing 60-year-old Masafumi Uchida, the president of a dry-cleaning company in Yamanashi Prefecture, of violating the Minimum Wage Law and Labor Standards Law.

The labor standards inspection office had been conducting an investigation after the Mainichi Shimbun reported on the treatment of the workers on Aug. 27 last year.

Uchida was reported to prosecutors over the alleged failure to pay about 11.15 million yen to six female trainees from China aged in their 20s and 30s, during the period between February 2007 and July 2008.

The office also reported a 37-year-old certified social insurance labor consultant from Chuo, Yamanashi Prefecture, to public prosecutors accusing him of assisting in the violation of both laws by providing assistance to Uchida and other related parties.

(Mainichi Japan) April 9, 2009

ENDS

Japanese version with sparser details:

=================================

労基法違反：中国実習生に最低賃金未満　容疑で山梨の会社を書類送検

毎日新聞　2009年4月9日　東京朝刊

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20090409ddm041040120000c.html

　中国人実習生を最低賃金未満の給与で働かせていたとして甲府労働基準監督署は８日、山梨県昭和町のクリーニング会社「テクノクリーン」と内田正文社長（６０）を最低賃金法と労働基準法違反容疑で甲府地検に書類送検した。毎日新聞が０８年８月２７日付で報じ、同署が調べていた。

　容疑は０７年２月～０８年７月、雇用していた２０～３０代中国人女性実習生６人に対し、総額約１１１５万円を支払わなかったとしている。同県中央市の社会保険労務士の男性（３７）も社長らに協力したとして、両法違反のほう助容疑で送検した。【中西啓介】

=================================

Foreign trainee abuse found at 452 entities

The Yomiuri Shimbun April 11, 2009, courtesy of Wilbert Q.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090411TDY02308.htm

The Justice Ministry says it has found irregularities at a 452 companies and organizations that hosted foreign trainees last year.

The job-training system for foreign trainees from developing countries was introduced to help them acquire technical expertise and skills from Japanese organizations, but it has often been misused by unscrupulous companies and organizations as a means to get unskilled workers from developing countries who will work for extremely low wages.

Officials of the ministry said it had confirmed that the companies and organizations violated labor laws, such as by paying lower-than-minimum wages to foreign trainees. Of the total, 169 cases of entities making trainees work unpaid overtime were found and 155 cases concerned other labor law violations such as payment of illegally low wages.

(Apr. 11, 2009)
ENDS

See I told you so #2: Oct-Jan 1000 “Trainees” repatriated, returning to debts.

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog.  Here come the stats.  The “Trainees” (mostly Chinese working non-laborers in Japanese farms and factories), which I discussed in part in my most recent Japan Times article, are being sent home in large numbers, to face debts.  Oh well, so what, as I’ve said — they’re not Nikkei.  They don’t get any assistance.  Just the promise of a “review”of the “trainee visa system” by May 2009, something people have been clamoring for since at least November 2006!  Yet it only took a month or so for the GOJ to come up with and inaugurate something to help the Nikkei, after all (see above JT article).  But again, too bad:  wrong blood.  

I think we’ll see a drop in the number of registered NJ for the first time in more than four decades this year.  Maybe that’ll be See I Told You So #3.  I hope I’m wrong this time, however.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

PS:  Love how the Mainichi classifies this as “National News” in English, but “Overseas News” (kaigai) in Japanese.  I guess the hundreds of thousands of “Trainees” saving our industries are not a domestic problem for Japanese readers.

============================

National News

1,000 foreign trainees forced to return home as firms feel pinch

(Mainichi Japan) April 7, 2009, Courtesy Matt D and Jeff K

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20090407p2a00m0na014000c.html

More than 1,000 foreign trainees involved in government programs were forced to return home as sponsor companies have been suffering from the deteriorating economy, a government survey has revealed.

According to the survey held by the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau, a total of 1,007 foreign trainees left Japan between October last year and January before their contract period ended. Of that figure, 921 people were laid off due to their employers’ deteriorating business conditions, and 86 were dismissed after their host companies went bankrupt.

The figures have increased every month, quadrupling to 489 in January from 114 in October last year.

The trainees’ three-year contracts can be terminated if both parties agree, however, most of foreigners were forced to leave, according to the survey.

“Most of the trainees took out a loan of about 700,000 yen to 1 million yen to come to Japan,” said a representative of Advocacy Network for Foreign Trainees in Tokyo’s Taito Ward. “If they return home before their contract period ends, they will be left in debt. The government should take some countermeasures.”

The central government is now reviewing the trainee program, including the guarantee of the trainees’ status, which is not covered by the current Labor Standards Law. A revision is expected to be made in May.

Japan received a total of 102,018 foreign trainees in 2007, according to the Immigration Bureau.

ENDS

=============================

海外

外国人研修生：１０００人超が途中帰国　経営悪化や倒産で

http://mainichi.jp/select/world/news/20090407k0000m040125000c.html

　国の外国人研修・技能実習制度を利用して来日したが、受け入れ企業の倒産や事業縮小で途中帰国した外国人が昨年１０月～今年１月で１０００人を超えたことが、法務省入国管理局の初めての調査で分かった。原則３年認められている期間中の打ち切りは、受け入れ側と研修・実習生側が合意すれば認められるが、実際には企業側の都合で行われるケースが大半といい、市民団体は「実質的な派遣切り」と訴えている。

　東京や大阪など８カ所の入国管理局が、途中帰国した理由を不況の影響に絞って集計した。総数は１００７人で、内訳は研修生２２２人、企業と雇用関係を結ぶ実習生が７８５人。月別では、昨年１０月１１４人▽１１月１５４人▽１２月２５０人▽今年１月４８９人。

　理由は受け入れ企業の事業縮小や経営悪化が９２１人、企業の倒産が８６人だった。

　入国管理局によると、０７年に企業が受け入れた研修生は１０万２０１８人。制度変更では、労働基準法の適用外になっている研修生の身分保障などが検討されている。

　「外国人研修生権利ネットワーク」（東京都台東区）の高原一郎さん（５７）は「実習生らの多くは来日するため７０万～１００万円程度の借金をしており、途中で帰ると借金しか残らない。国は何らかの対策を打つべきだ」と指摘している。【松井聡】

毎日新聞　2009年4月7日　2時30分 

ENDS

Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE: Apr 7 2009: ‘Golden parachutes’ for Nikkei only mark failure of race-based policy

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog. This month’s JUST BE CAUSE column was a challenge because of the news cycle.  I had originally written this month’s JBC about three weeks ago, before I went on the SOUR STRAWBERRIES movie tour.  Here I was thinking I was Mr. Prepared and all that.  However, I arrived back in Sapporo on April 1 to hear  news of this special GOJ bribe for Nikkei, and realized that story took precedence.  But my first draft of the JBC column was due April 2, so within 24 hours I pounded out something of hopefully passable quality.  It was, and the next three days were spent refining the original 1150-word draft into the 1550-worder you see below.  Not too dusty.  I feel fortunate to be a columnist with time to think, as opposed to a reporter with a much stricter set of news deadlines…  Arudou Debito in Sapporo
justbecauseicon.jpg
JUST BE CAUSE
‘Golden parachutes’ mark failure of race-based policy
By DEBITO ARUDOU

Japan Times, April 7, 2009
 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090407ad.html

Japan’s employment situation has gotten pretty dire, especially for non-Japanese workers. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reports that between last November and January, more than 9,000 foreigners asked the Hello Work unemployment agency for assistance — 11 times the figure for the same period a year earlier.

The ministry also claims that non-Japanese don’t know Japan’s language and corporate culture, concluding that they’re largely unemployable. So select regions are offering information centers, language training, and some degree of job placement. Good.

But read the small print: Not only does this plan only target 5,000 people, but the government is also trying to physically remove the only people they can from unemployment rosters — the foreigners.

Under an emergency measure drawn up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party only last month, from April 1 the Japanese government is offering nikkei — i.e. workers of Japanese descent on “long-term resident” visas — a repatriation bribe. Applicants get ¥300,000, plus ¥200,000 for each family dependent, if they “return to their own country,” and bonuses if they go back sooner (see www.mhlw.go.jp/houdou/2009/03/dl/h0331-10a.pdf ).

History is repeating itself, in a sense. These nikkei beneficiaries are the descendants of beneficiaries of another of Japan’s schemes to export its unemployed. A century ago, Japan sent farmers to Brazil, America, Canada, Peru and other South American countries. Over the past two decades, however, Japan has brought nikkei back under yet another wheeze to utilize their cheap labor. This time, however, if they take the ticket back “home,” they can’t return — at least not under the same preferential work visa.

Let this scheme sink in for a minute. We now have close to half a million nikkei living here, some of whom have been here up to 20 years, paying in their taxes and social security. They worked long hours at low wages to keep our factories competitive in the world economy. Although these policies have doubled Japan’s foreign population since 1990, few foreigners have been assimilated. Now that markets have soured, foreigners are the first to be laid off, and their unassimilated status has made them unmarketable in the government’s eyes. So now policy has become, “Train 1 percent (5,000) to stay, bribe the rest to be gone and become some other country’s problem.”

Sound a bit odd? Now consider this: This scheme only applies to nikkei, not to other non-Japanese workers also here at Japan’s invitation. Thus it’s the ultimate failure of a “returnee visa” regime founded upon racist paradigms.

How did this all come to pass? Time for a little background.

Japan had a huge labor shortage in its blue-collar industries in the late 1980s, and realized, with the rise in the value of the yen and high minimum wages, that Japan’s exports were being priced out of world markets.

Japan’s solution (like that of other developed countries) was to import cheaper foreign labor. However, as a new documentary entitled “Sour Strawberries: Japan’s Hidden ‘Guest Workers’ ” ( www.cinemabstruso.de/strawberries/main.html ) reveals, Japan’s policy was fundamentally different. Elites worried about debasing Japan’s supposedly “homogeneous” society with foreigners who might stay, so the official stance remained “No immigration” and “No import of unskilled labor.”

But that was all tatemae — a facade. Urged by business lobbies such as the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Japan created a visa regime from 1990 to import foreign laborers (mostly Chinese) as “trainees,” ostensibly to learn a skill, but basically to put them in factories and farms doing unskilled “dirty, difficult, and dangerous” labor eschewed by Japanese. More importantly, trainees were getting paid less than half minimum wage (as they were not legally “workers” under labor law) and receiving no social welfare.

Even the offer of competitive wages was tatemae. Although some trainees were reportedly working 10 to 15 hours a day (one media outlet mentioned 22-hour days!), six to seven days a week including holidays, they found themselves receiving sums so paltry they beggared belief — think ¥40,000 a month! A Chinese trainee interviewed in “Sour Strawberries” said he wound up earning the same as he would in China. Others received even less, being charged by employers for rent, utilities and food on top of that.

Abuses proliferated. Trainees were harassed and beaten, found their passports confiscated and pay withheld, and were even fired without compensation if they were injured on the job. One employer hired thugs to force his Chinese staff to board a plane home. But trainees couldn’t just give up and go back. Many had received travel loans to come here, and if they returned early they would be in default, sued by their banks and ruined. Thus they were locked into abusive jobs they could neither complain about nor quit without losing their visa and livelihoods overseas.

As labor union leader Ippei Torii explains in “Sour Strawberries,” this government-sponsored but largely unregulated trainee program made so many employers turn bad that places without worker abuses were “very rare.”

But trainees weren’t the only ones getting exploited. 1990 was also the year the long-term resident visa was introduced for the nikkei. However, unlike the trainees, they were given labor law protections and unlimited employment opportunities — supposedly to allow them to “explore their heritage” (while being worked 10 to 15 hours a day, six days a week).

Why this “most-favored visa status” for the nikkei? Elites, in their ever-unchallenged wisdom, figured nikkei would present fewer assimilation problems. After all, they have Japanese blood, ergo the prerequisite understanding of Japan’s unique culture and garbage-sorting procedures. So, as LDP and Keidanren policymakers testified in “Sour Strawberries,” it was deemed unnecessary to create any integration policy, or even to make them feel like they “belong” in Japan. It was completely counterproductive and demoralizing for an enthusiastic workforce. A nikkei interviewed in the film mentioned how overseas she felt like a Japanese, yet in Japan she ultimately felt like a foreigner.

So over the past 20 years Japan has invited over a million non-Japanese to come here and work. And work they did, many in virtual indentured servitude. Yet instead of being praised for all their contributions, they became scapegoats. They engendered official opprobrium for alleged rises in crime and overstaying (even though per-capita crime rates were higher among Japanese than foreigners, and the number of visa overstayers has dropped every year since 1993). They were also bashed for not learning the language (when they actually had little time to study, let alone attend Japanese classes offered by a handful of merciful local governments) — nothing but disincentives toward settling in Japan.

The policy was doomed to failure. And fail it did on April Fool’s Day, when the government confirmed that nikkei didn’t actually belong here, and offered them golden parachutes. Of course, it was a race-based benefit, unavailable to wrong-blooded trainees, who have to make it home on their own dime (perhaps with some fines added on for overstaying) to face financial ruin.

It’s epiphany time. Japan’s policymakers haven’t evolved beyond an early Industrial-Revolution mind set, which sees people (well, foreigners, anyway) as mere work units. Come here, work your ass off, then go “home” when we have no more use for you; it’s the way we’ve dealt many times before with foreigners, and the way we’ll probably deal with those Indonesian and Filipino care workers we’re scheming to come take care of our elderly. Someday, potential immigrants will realize that our government is just using people, but the way things are going we eventually won’t be rich enough for them to overlook that.

What should be done instead? Japan must take responsibility. You invited foreigners over here, now treat them like human beings. Give all of them the same labor rights and job training that you’d give every worker in Japan, and free nationwide Japanese lessons to bring them up to speed. Reward them for their investment in our society and their taxes paid. Do what you can to make them more comfortable and settled. And stop bashing them: Let Japanese society know why foreigners are here and what good they’ve done for our country. You owe them that much for the best part of their lives they’ve given you.

Don’t treat foreigners like toxic waste, sending them overseas for somebody else to deal with, and don’t detoxify our society under the same race-based paradigms that got us into this situation in the first place. You brought this upon yourselves through a labor policy that ignored immigration and assimilation. Now deal with it here, in Japan, by helping non-Japanese residents of whatever background make Japan their home.

That’s not a radical proposal. Given our low-birthrate, aging-society demographics, experts have been urging you to do this for a decade now. This labor downturn won’t last forever, and when things pick up again you’ll have a younger, more acculturated, more acclimatized, even grateful workforce to help pick up the pieces. Just sending people back, where they will tell others about their dreadful years in Japan being exploited and excluded, is on so many levels the wrong thing to do.

Debito Arudou is organizing nationwide screenings of “Sour Strawberries” in late August and early September; contact him at debito@debito.org to arrange a screening. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community Page of the month. Send comments and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp

ENDS

Review of documentary Sour Strawberries by an attendee, next showing Sapporo Apr 23

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog. A review from Japan Visitor Blog on documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES.

http://japanvisitor.blogspot.com/2009/04/arudou-debito-and-sour-strawberries.html

Excerpt:

“…I attended a meeting in Tokyo at the end of last month, part of a 10-day tour of the Kanto and Kansai regions by Arudou Debito, where he promoted the documentary Sour Strawberries – Japan’s hidden guest workers. 

Sour Strawberries is a 60-minute film shot in Tokyo in March 2008 by a German-Japanese film crew that focuses on the issue of discrimination in Japan, mainly as it affects foreign workers from other Asian countries.

Numerous interviews in the film reveal the blatancy of discrimination in Japan, with foreign workers treated very much like slaves, most notably the workers who inspired the film’s title: strawberry pickers from China who worked days of at least 12 hours, 365 days a year, and whose passports were taken from them by their employer.

Union activism in defense of victims of discrimination in Japan is also liberally documented, the most startling example being the story told by a Japanese union activist, Torii Ippei of the Zentôitsu Workers Union, who, in response to his efforts in one case involving foreign workers, was doused in gasoline and set alight by the infuriated employer….”

 

 

 

 

Go check out the site. There’s even an awful picture of me. The things I do to show off “Japanese Only” T-shirts…

If you’d like a showing in your area like the one mentioned above, be in touch with me at debito@debito.org.  Planning another nationwide tour between late August and early September.

Next showing:

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

THURS APRIL 23, 2009.  7PM

Sapporo L-Plaza for Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA)

Sapporo Chuo-ku Kita 8 Nishi 3

http://www.danjyo.sl-plaza.jp/information/index.html

(just off JR Sapporo Station’s North Exit (kitaguchi), follow the underground exits to the very end).  

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Mainichi: Lawson hiring more NJ, offering Vietnamese scholarships

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog.  On the heels of yesterday’s post, depicting Japan’s latest wheeze to cover up it’s failed Nikkei import labor policy, here’s a bit of good news:  Somebody trying to do their bit to help keep unemployed NJs’ heads above water.  Lawson convenience stores.

I smiled until I saw how small the numbers being employed full time were, despite the “quadrupling” claimed in the first paragraph.  But every little bit helps.  So does Lawson’s offer for scholarships for Vietnamese exchange students (see Japanese below).  

Many times when I go into convenience stores in the Tokyo area, I’m surprised how many Chinese staff I see.  Anyway, patronize Lawson if they’re trying to do good by the stricken NJ community.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=================================

Lawson boosts number of foreign fulltime employees

(Mainichi Japan) April 2, 2009, courtesy of Jeff K.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090402p2a00m0na003000c.html

Japanese convenience store chain Lawson almost quadrupled the number of fulltime foreign employees it hired this spring as it searches for a new growth path amid stagnant consumption and fierce competition in the industry.

“Let’s create innovative ideas by fusing diverse views and different cultures,” said Takeshi Niinami, the president of Lawson, Inc. The company started hiring foreigners as regular employees last spring.

Compared to last year’s 10 new foreign employees, the convenience store giant hired 39 new workers, who studied in Japan, among a total of 122 regular employees this spring, made up of 28 Chinese, four South Koreans, three Taiwanese, two Vietnamese and one each from Indonesia and Bangladesh.

According to the company, like their Japanese counterparts, the foreign employees will work at directly-managed stores across Japan for about three years.

ENDS

==================================

ローソン新入社員：３割超はアジアの外国人…多彩な価値観

毎日新聞　2009年4月1日

http://mainichi.jp/select/biz/news/20090402k0000m040057000c.html

　大手コンビニエンスストア、ローソンに１日入社した１２２人の新入社員のうち、日本に留学した中国などアジア出身の外国人が３割超の３９人を占めた。消費低迷と競争激化で国内市場が頭打ちとなる中、異なった価値観を持つ人材をそろえ、新たな成長の糸口をつかむのが狙いだ。

　３９人の出身地は中国２８、韓国４、台湾３、ベトナム２、インドネシア、バングラデシュの各１人。初の外国人採用となった昨春の１０人から、一気に３倍以上に増えた。

　新浪剛史社長は東京都内で行った入社式で「多様な考え、異なる文化を持った新入社員が交ざり合い、わくわくするような新しい発想を生み出していこう」と激励した。

　同社によると入社後は外国人社員も日本人と同様、３年前後、全国の直営店で接客業務をこなす。０８年の新入社員では、おせち料理の予約数で日本人以上の好成績を上げた人材もいたという。

ENDS

============================

ローソン、ベトナムの留学生向け奨学金制度を設立

平成２１年３月２５日　毎日オンライン

http://mainichi.jp/select/biz/release/01/news/20090325p0400a021017000c.html

　ローソン（東京品川区：代表取締役社長ＣＥＯ　新浪剛史）は、２００９年４月より、日本に留学を希望するベトナムの学生のための奨学金制度を設立し、人材育成に民間レベルで貢献いたします。

　一期生２名が３月に来日し、４月より日本の学校に入学いたします。

　ローソンは商品の原材料調達の縁を発端に、ベトナムとの関係を築いてまいりました。

　ベトナムの学生は勤勉で、多くの学生が日本への留学を希望していると知り、今回の制度を設立致しました。この制度がベトナムの発展に寄与し、日本との友好がさらに深まることを期待しています。

＜年間募集人員＞

　２００９年度を初年度とし、毎年新たに２５名を募集致します。

　特待生：５名

　一般生：２０名

　（４月入学の２名を含み、今年度合計２５名となります。）

◎給付内容

▼対象者

　日本の大学に留学を希望するベトナムの２５才以下の男女

▼給付期間

　日本に在留し学校で学んでいる期間（最大６年：一年毎に更新面談）

▼給付金額

　特待生（２０才以下）：年間１２０万円　住宅補助月３万円

　一般生（２５才以下）：年間３０万円　住宅補助なし

◎選考フロー

▼１０月入学

　４月ベトナム国内にて説明会　→　５月・７月に選考　→　合否通知

▼４月入学

　１０月ベトナム国内にて説明会　→　１１月・１２月に選考　→　合否発表

　（募集に関する説明会をハノイ市とホーチミン市にて実施）

◎その他

　奨学金の返済は不要です。但し、中途退学および成績不良の場合は返済義務が発生します。

■問い合わせ先■ローソン[2651.T]

※発表日　２００９年３月２４日

以　上

2009年3月25日 ends

GOJ bribes Nikkei NJ with Golden Parachutes: Go home and don’t come back

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
Hi Blog.  Here’s the ultimate betrayal:  Hey Gaijin, er, Nikkei!  Here’s a pile of money.  Leave and don’t come back.  So what if it only applies to people with Japanese blood (not, for example, Chinese).  And so what if we’ve invited you over here for up to two decades, taken your taxes and most of your lives over here as work units, and fired you first when the economy went sour.  Just go home.  You’re now a burden on Us Japanese.  You don’t belong here, regardless of how much you’ve invested in our society and saved our factories from being priced out of the market.  You don’t deserve our welfare, job training, or other social benefits that are entitled to real residents and contributors to this country.

Why did I have the feeling this was coming?  Arudou Debito back in Sapporo

=========================

(Article courtesy of lots of people, thanks!)

Original Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare proposal in Japanese, courtesy of Silvio:

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/houdou/2009/03/dl/h0331-10a.pdf

====================

Japan gives cash to jobless foreigners to go home

(Mainichi Japan and Japan Today) April 1, 2009

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090401p2g00m0dm008000c.html

and

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/govt-to-pay-travel-costs-of-returning-workers-with-japanese-ancestry

TOKYO (AP) — Japan began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials said posed a serious unemployment problem.

Thousands of foreigners of Japanese ancestry, who had been hired on temporary or referral contracts, have lost their jobs recently, mostly at manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and its affiliates, which are struggling to cope with a global downturn.

The number of foreigners seeking government help to find jobs has climbed in recent months to 11 times the previous year at more than 9,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

“The program is to respond to a growing social problem,” said ministry official Hiroshi Yamashita.

Japan has tight immigration laws, and generally allows only skilled foreign workers to enter the country. The new program applies only to Brazilians and Peruvians of Japanese ancestry who have gotten special visas to do assembly line and other manufacturing labor. It does not apply to other foreigners in Japan, Yamashita said.

The government will give 300,000 yen ($3,000) to an unemployed foreigner of Japanese ancestry who wishes to leave the country, and 200,000 ($2,000) each to family members, the ministry said. But they must forgo returning to Japan. The budget for the aid is still undecided, it said.

The visa program for South Americans of Japanese ancestry was introduced partly in response to a labor shortage in Japan, where the population is shrinking and aging. But the need for such workers has dwindled in recent months after the global financial crisis hit last year. The jobless rate has risen to 4.4 percent, a three-year high.

Tokyo has already allocated 1.08 billion yen ($10.9 million) for training, including Japanese language lessons, for 5,000 foreign workers of Japanese ancestry.

Major companies traditionally offer lifetime employment to their rank and file, and so workers hired on temporary contracts have been the first to lose their jobs in this recession.

(Mainichi Japan) April 1, 2009

ENDS

==============================

Japan government gives cash for jobless foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home

Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Yahoo Finance Wednesday April 1, 2009, 10:34 am EDT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is offering $3,000 for a plane ticket home to some foreigners who have lost their jobs, a sign of just how bad the economic slump has gotten.

The program, which began Wednesday, applies only to several hundred thousand South Americans of Japanese descent on special visas for factory work. The government’s motivation appears to be three-fold: help the workers get home, ease pressure on the domestic labor market and potentially get thousands of people off the unemployment rolls.

“The program is to respond to a growing social problem,” said Hiroshi Yamashita, an official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, referring to joblessness, which has climbed to a three-year high of 4.4 percent.

But there may not be too many takers for the 300,000 yen ($3,000) handout, plus 200,000 yen ($2,000) for each family member. The money comes with strings attached: The workers cannot return to Japan on the same kind of visa.

Given Japan’s strict immigration laws, that means most won’t be able to come back to work in Japan, where wages are higher than in Latin America.

“It is not necessarily a totally welcome deal,” said Iwao Nishiyama, of the Association of Nikkei & Japanese Abroad, a government-backed organization that connects people of Japanese ancestry.

The government’s offer — as well as the backdrop of history that has given birth to a vibrant community of South Americans of Japanese ancestry here — highlight this nation’s complex views on foreigners and cultural identity.

Many Japanese consider their culture homogenous, even though there are sizeable minorities of Koreans and Chinese, as well as Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan.

In the early 1990s, Tokyo relaxed its relatively tight immigration laws to allow special entry permits for foreigners of Japanese ancestry in South America to make up for a labor shortage at this nation’s then-booming factories.

They took the so-called “three-K” jobs, standing for “kitsui, kitanai, kiken” — meaning “hard, dirty, dangerous” — jobs Japanese had previously shunned.

Before their arrival, many such jobs had gone to Iranians and Chinese. But the government saw their influx — much of it illegal — as a problem and was eager to find a labor pool it felt would more easily adapt to Japanese society, said Nishiyama of Japanese Abroad association.

So by virtue of their background, these foreigners of Japanese descent — called “Nikkei” in Japanese — were offered special visa status.

“They may speak some Japanese, and have a Japanese way of thinking,” Nishiyama said. “They have Japanese blood, and they work hard.”

The workers are mainly descendants of Japanese who began emigrating to Latin America around the turn of the last century.

Brazil has the biggest population of ethnic Japanese outside Japan, numbering about 1.5 million. Last year marked the 100th year of Japanese immigration to Brazil. Initially many ventured to toil in coffee plantations and other farms.

Brazilians are the most numerous of such foreigners in Japan, totaling about 310,000 overall in 2007, the latest tally available. Peruvians are next at 59,000. Those from other South American nations were fewer at 6,500 Bolivians, 3,800 Argentineans and 2,800 Colombians.

Nearly all work manufacturing jobs, many through job referral agencies. Major companies, like Toyota Motor Corp., have relied on contract employees to keep a flexible plant work force.

Foreign workers in Japan are entitled to the basic unemployment and other benefits that Japanese workers get. Though rates vary, Japan provides about 7,000 yen ($71) a day in unemployment — which would equal about $2,100 per month.

Still, Nikkei are sometimes victims of discrimination in Japan, as they are culturally different and aren’t always fluent in Japanese. As a result, many have had a hard time blending into Japanese society.

Now, as the economy worsens, many find themselves out of jobs.

The government doesn’t track the number of jobless foreigners, but the number of foreigners showing up at government-run centers for job referral has climbed in recent months to 11 times the previous year at more than 9,000 people, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Overall, the government estimates that some 192,000 temporary workers who had jobs in October, including Japanese, are expected to be jobless by June. Experts fear such numbers are growing.

In addition to the handout offer the government is also helping Nikkei find jobs in Japan.

“These are like two sides of the same effort to assist people of Japanese ancestry,” said Yamashita of the labor ministry.

Tokyo has already allocated 1.08 billion yen ($10.9 million) for training, including Japanese language lessons, for 5,000 foreign workers.

Fausto Kishinami, 32, manager at a Brazilian restaurant in Oizumimachi, a city with a large Japanese-Brazilian population, said none of his friends are applying for the government money because of the no-return condition.

“I don’t think people should take that money,” he said, adding that he hasn’t gone home in eight years, and is focused on his work in Japan.

Some 20 percent to 30 percent of the South American foreigners of Japanese ancestry are estimated to have already returned home, said Nishiyama. They have paid their own way back and may return, once a recovery brings fresh opportunities, he said.

ENDS

Audience reactions to documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES roadshow March 21-April 1

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog.  I was asked a few days ago in the Comments Section to give you an update on how the documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES Spring Tour was going.  I’m in Okayama at the moment, fresh out of two screenings (one more to go, in Kumamoto), and a couple of hours in an internet cafe getting mentally prepared for an evening of partying, so here you go.   A quick summary:

First, the executive summary at the very top.  The response to this movie, about Japan’s hidden NJ migrant workers, has been remarkable.  I have never sold so many DVDs and books ever on a tour (we sold out so fast — you can buy your own copies by clicking on the avatars above — that I had to have my stocks replenished twice on the road by post).  Sixty DVDs and 40 books sold later, I think it’s prudent to plan yet another tour.  I’ll be working down at Nagoya University the second week of September, so that takes care of the airfare costs to and from Hokkaido.  For places that missed me this time, how about planning something late August/early September?  If you’d like to schedule an event, please contact me at debito@debito.org. 

Now for some tour highlights (directors Koenig and Kremers, please feel free to comment or answer questions if you’re reading this):

The first showing was at Second Harvest Japan, a very nice public service provided by Charles McJilton and company to provide homeless people with food that supermarkets decide not to sell.  A capacity crowd (eating, you guessed it, leftover strawberries beyond the supermarket sell-by date) asked poignant questions about why the film covered the Trainees and Nikkei workers so well but didn’t mention those being human trafficked on “Entertainer” visas.  I didn’t have the answer (I’m a promoter, Jim, not a producer or a director), but Patricia Aliperti, a scholar of human trafficking in Japan who serendipitously happened to be in attendance, gave us a firsthand account of how Japan was listed as a Tier-Two Human Trafficker by the US State Dept in 2004, promised to abolish its state-sponsored sexual slavery, reduced the number of NJ visa-ed women in the water trades on this visa by about 75%, then neglected to abolish the visa status completely.   Seems to me within character. 

One attendee of the first screening offered her thoughts here.  http://hinoai.livejournal.com/716510.html

Other screnings were equally well-attended, with Amnesty International at Ben’s Cafe Takadanobaba pulling in at least 50 viewers and the Blarney Stone in Osaka pulling in close to the same.  Smaller screenings in Tsukuba and Shiga had interested commentary from viewers asking about how the directors came to choose this subject, and why it took itinerant Germans to finally produce a movie of outstanding quality about this issue.  The Nagoya University Labor Union screening was so full of Nikkei (as was the Okayama screening) that we decided the lingua franca for the Q&A would be Japanese language, and everyone, however haltingly for some, put their thoughts into Japanese. 

Further sundry thoughts:  Two Nikkei participants in the Okayama screening had lost their jobs at the end of January, were on unemployment, and were thinking they would probably have to return to Brazil when the dole money ran out in three months.  I made sure they got a free copy of the DVD and of the HANDBOOK to show around, if that would help.  Participants were nearly unanimous in both the power and necessity of labor unions to inform and enforce labor rights.   The audience’s outrage was palpable over the GOJ’s negligence at inviting all these people here, neglecting the schooling of both them (the Okayama Nikkei, for example, worked 11 hours a day, six days a week, and had no time to study Japanese) and their children, and telling them to go home now that they “weren’t necessary”.  After all their time spent here paying taxes, living here for years if not decades, and saving Japanese industry from being priced out of the market.

Rumor has it the GOJ has advised Hello Work to consider three Japanese for every non-Japanese applicant.  It’s unconfirmed, but if true, that means nationality once again has become a job qualification, one should think in violation of Labor Standards Law.

Moreover, 2HJ’s Charles also told us that visa overstayers in Japan are actually being issued with Gaijin Cards from local governments (yes, stating that they are overstaying).  That’s why they’re centralizing the Gaijin Card system behind the new Zairyuu Cards, to remove the local government’s discretion in these matters (so much for chihou bunken, then!).  I’ll have more information later on in the blog after some confirmations.

In sum, SOUR STRAWBERRIES may be a testiment to the last days of Japan’s internationalized industrial prowess, as people are being turfed out because no matter how many years and how much contribution, they don’t belong.  Have to wait and see.  But to me it’s clear the GOJ is still not getting beyond seeing NJ as work units as opposed to workers and people.  Especially in these times of economic hardship.  I’m seeing it for myself as the movie tours. 

Call me out for another movie tour by the end of the summer.  I might by then be able to get FROM THE SHADOWS movie about child abductions after divorce as well.  Arudou Debito in Okayama

Ekonomisuto March 10 2009 re worsening job and living conditions for Nikkei Brazilians et al.

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar

Hi Blog. Shuukan Ekonomisuto Weekly (from Mainichi Shinbun presses) dated March 10, 2009 had yet another great article on how things are going for Nikkei NJ et al.

Highlights: Numbers of Nikkei Brazilians are dropping (small numbers in the area surveyed) as economic conditions are so bad they can’t find work. Those who can go back are the lucky ones, in the sense that some with families can’t afford the multiple plane tickets home, let alone their rents. Local NGOs are helping out, and even the Hamamatsu City Government is offering them cheap public housing, and employing them on a temporary basis. Good. Lots of fieldwork and individual stories are included to illustrate people’s plights.

The pundits are out in force offering some reasonable assessments. Labor union leader Torii Ippei wonders if the recent proposals to reform the Trainee Visa system and loosen things up vis-a-vis Gaijin Cards and registration aren’t just a way to police NJ better, and make sure that NJ labor stays temp, on a 3-year revolving door. Former Immigration Bureau bigwig Sakanaka Hidenori says that immigration is the only answer to the demographic realities of low birthrate and population drop. The LDP proposed a bill in February calling for the NJ population to become 10% of the total pop (in other words, 10 million people) within fifty years, as a taminzoku kyousei kokka (a nation where multicultures coexist). A university prof named Tanno mentions the “specialness” (tokushu) of nihongo, and asks if the GOJ has made up its mind about getting people fluent in the language. Another prof at Kansai Gakuin says that the EU has come to terms with immigration and labor mobility, and if Japan doesn’t it will be the places that aren’t Tokyo or major industrial areas suffering the most. The biggest question is posed once again by the Ekonomisuto article: Is Japan going to be a roudou kaikoku or sakoku? It depends on the national government, of course, is the conclusion I glean.

And of course we have the raw numbers: From 1991 to the end of 2007, the number of NJ total have increased from around 1,220,000 to 2,150,000. Of those, Brazilians have gone from 120,000 to 320,000, Chinese from 170,000 to 610,000, Filipinos/pinas from 60,000 to 200,000. Not included in the article is this prognostication (mine), but could the total number of registered NJ actually DROP for the first time in more than four decades in 2009? We’ll have to wait quite some time to see, but the Ekonomisuto article doesn’t paint a rosy picture. Here are the four main pages of the tokushuu. Enjoy. Go to your local library and see the other four pages of EU immigration trends and the lessons for Japan. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

ekonomisuto031009001

ekonomisuto031009002

ekonomisuto031009003

ekonomisuto031009004

ENDS

SOUR STRAWBERRIES「知られざる日本の外国人労働者」ドキュメンタリー 全国ロードショー（プレスリリース）

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
========= プレス　リリース =============

DEBITO.ORG 号外 2009年３月１３日発行　（転送歓迎）

／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／
「サワー・ストロベリーズ 〜知られざる日本の外国人労働者〜」
ドキュメンタリー全国ロードショー
／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／

３月２１日〜３１日（東京・筑波・名古屋・彦根・大阪・岡山・熊本ないし４月札幌）
ご出席・ご取材大歓迎

　2008年３月に東京で撮影された、日独合作のドキュメンタリー映画（６０分）。日本で自らの人権のために戦う外国人労働者たちが、その体験を語っている。日本で暮らす外国人労働者や移民たちを様々な角度から捉え、異なる国籍・階級を持つ人びとの運命を３部構成で照らしだす。
　また、政治・経済界の専門家や関係者たちにインタビューをおこない、移民問題の実情も紹介している。
インタビュー出演者：
●　ガブリエル・フォーグト（ドイツ・日本研究所）
●　河野太郎（自民党・衆議院議員・元法務副大臣）
●　井上洋（日本経団連産業本部産業基盤グループ長）
●　マルテイ・ツルネン（民主党・欧米出身の日本国籍取得者では初の参議院議員）
●　有道　出人（意識高揚家、著者、英字新聞ジャパンタイムズのコラムニスト） ほか
写真、プロモーションはこちらです：
http://www.debito.org/SOURSTRAWBERRIESpromo.pdf
 映画の予告編（和英・３分）
http://www.vimeo.com/2276295
 　ロードショーの上映前後、司会有道　出人は各場所でディスカッション（和英）を指揮します。映画は和英音声・字幕。
（もっと詳しくは上映日程の後）

========= ========= ========= =========

上映日程（行き方はリンク先をご参考に）

========= 関東地方 =========

秋葉原: Sat March 21, 5PM Second Harvest Japan Offices
http://www.2hj.org
 スポンサー：　Second Harvest Japan

筑波: Sun March 22, 夕方上映（市議会議員ヒース氏の打ち合わせ中）
スポンサー：　筑波市議会議員　Jon Heese (http://aishiterutsukuba.jp/)

東京新橋: Mon March 23, 7PM at NUGW 本部
http://nambufwc.org
 スポンサー：　National Union of General Workers

高田馬場: Tues March 24, 7:30 PM at Ben’s Cafe
http://www.benscafe.com
 スポンサー：　Amnesty International AITEN
http://www.amnesty.or.jp/
 http://groups.google.com/group/aiten

========= 中部地方と関西地方 =========

名古屋: Weds March 25, 6PM 名古屋大学
18：00〜　映画の上映「サワー・ストロベリーズ 〜知られざる日本の外国人労働者〜」_19：00〜　有道先生を司会として質疑応答・懇談_20：00　終了予定◎ 会場 ◎　名古屋大学職員組合事務局会議室。 名古屋大学内工学部二号館北館３３２号室 TEL　０５２−７８９−４９１３（内線　４９１３） 地下鉄名城線「名古屋大学」駅下車３番出口よりすぐ。キャンパスマップ30番の建物です。→　
http://www.nagoya-u.ac.jp/camp/map_higashiyama/
 スポンサー：　名古屋大学職員組合

彦根: Thurs March 26, 1PM to 3PM, 滋賀大学
(連絡先： Dr Robert Aspinall at aspinall_robert AT hotmail DOT com)

大阪: Thurs March 26, 7:30PM The Blarney Stone, Osaka
http://www.the-blarney-stone.com
 スポンサー： Osaka Amnesty International, Osaka JALT, Democrats Abroad Japan, EWA Osaka

========= 中国地方と九州 =========

岡山: Sat March 28, 日本語講演 (1:30PM) then English (3:30PM),
岡山市表町三丁目14番1-201号(アークスクエア表町2階).
http://www.city.okayama.okayama.jp/shimin/danjo/center/
 スポンサー： Okayama JALT.

熊本: Tues March 31, 2PM, 熊本学園大学　第１４ビル, 1411 （１階）
スポンサー：熊本学園大学

========= 北海道 =========

札幌：April 2009, 北海道国際ビジネス協会 (HIBA)（取り合わせ中、日程は後日発表）

=============================================

　皆様にご連絡：監督らにプロダクション費用を若干相殺するために、各上映はカンパの形態で５００円をお願いいたします。それに、この映画を教材にしたければ、現場でDVD５０枚を発売しております。１５００円（税込み）
　監督　Tilman Koenig氏 と　Daniel Kremers氏 は当日欠席ですが、直売・上映・放送ライセンシングなど、直接ご連絡の場合、 email koenigtilman@googlemail.com　と　daniel.kremers@gmx.de　（日本語可）
司会有道　出人（あるどう　でびと）はdebito@debito.org　まで、携帯：090-2812-4015
　上記の場所以外の上映は大歓迎。ご連絡下さい。

See you in late March! 宜しくお願い致します。
Arudou Debito in Sapporo

もっと詳しく
=============================================
「サワー・ストロベリーズ 〜知られざる日本の外国人労働者〜」の主旨

　第１部ではペルー人女性とボリビア人男性を例に、日系人が置かれている特別な状況を取り上げる。日系人には1990年以降、無期限で日本に滞在し働くことが許可されている。しかし彼らの多くは、日本人が就きたがらない職業に非正規雇用として従事しており、日本社会での立場も「ゲスト」のままだ。

　第２部。撮影チームは有道出人の案内で、新宿へとやって来る。日本のあちこちで近年増えているのが、外国人の遊技場やプールなどへの入場を拒む看板。有道は「Japanese Only」と書かれた看板をめぐって、ある性風俗店のマネージャーに疑問を投げかける。

　第３部では、労働組合の活動に携わる鳥井一平が登場する。鳥井が書記長を務める全統一労働組合には2000人を超える外国人が加入しており、その多くはオーバーステイだ。鳥井は、交渉相手に瀕死の火傷を負わされた事件や、ときには警察や組織的な犯罪にも立ち向かう全統一の活動を語る。

　鳥井の紹介で撮影チームは、研修先から逃げ出した３人の中国人研修生と知り合う。彼らに話を聞くうちに、かつての雇用主が彼らを「国外追放」しようとした事実が明るみに出る。全統一メンバーは、成田空港でこの模様を撮影していた。本作品の終わりでは、この映像が効果的に使用されている。

企画・脚本・編集：ティルマン・ケーニヒ、ダニエル・クレーマース
撮影：ティルマン・ケーニヒ、松村真吾、アレクサンダー・ノール
録音：松村真吾、アレクサンダー・ノール
コーディネーター：松村真吾
音楽：坂本弘道
広告デザイン：ガブリエレ・ラーダ、フィリップ・ヴァインリヒ
字幕：鈴木智（日本語）　フランク・アンドレス、余晴（中国語）
ドイツ語・日本語・英語（日本語字幕）／60分

PRESS RELEASE ENDS

Documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES, on Japan’s NJ labor, screening schedule Mar 21-31 Tokyo Nagoya Osaka Okayama Kumamoto

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japansourstrawberriesavatar
========= PRESS RELEASE =============

DEBITO.ORG SPECIAL EDITION MARCH 13, 2009
INFORMATION ABOUT NATIONWIDE SCREENINGS
OF “SOUR STRAWBERRIES” MARCH 21 TO MARCH 31

A documentary by Daniel Kremers and Tilman Koenig, Leipzig, Germany
on “Japan’s Hidden Workers” and human rights

Hi all. An hourlong documentary, on how NJ workers are being treated as part of Japan’s labor force, will be shown nationwide, from Tsukuba to Kumamoto, with stops in Tokyo, Nagoya, Shiga, Osaka, and Okayama.

========= WHAT THE MOVIE IS ABOUT =========

The documentary “Sour Strawberries – Japan’s hidden guest workers” was shot in March 2008 by a German-Japanese film crew in Tokyo. The movie shows migrants fighting for their rights as workers and citizens. The persons concerned are always at the centre of interest. While describing their situation, they are the protagonists of the movie. Contains interviews with NJ workers on their treatment, with input from people like migration expert Dr Gabriele Vogt, Dietmember Kouno Taro, Keidanren policymaker Inoue Hiroshi, labor rights leader Torii Ippei, Dietmember Tsurunen Marutei, and activist Arudou Debito, who gives us an animated tour of “Japanese Only” signs in Kabukicho.

More information and stills from the movie at
http://www.debito.org/SOURSTRAWBERRIESpromo.pdf
A three-minute promo of the movie at
http://www.vimeo.com/2276295

May I add that I have seen the movie, and it is excellent.
========= ========= ========= =========

In lieu of the directors, Arudou Debito will host the movie screenings at each of the venues below and lead discussions in English and Japanese. (The movie is subtitled in both English and Japanese simultaneously.)  Screening schedule as follows (with information on how to get there from adjacent links):

========= TOKYO AND KANTO AREA =========

AKIHABARA: Sat March 21, 5PM Second Harvest Japan Offices
http://www.2hj.org
 Sponsored by distributor of food to the homeless Second Harvest Japan

TSUKUBA: Sun March 22, evening screening
(venue still being arranged, please contact Debito at debito@debito.org if you are interested in attending)
Sponsored by City Assemblyman Jon Heese (http://aishiterutsukuba.jp/)

SHINBASHI: Mon March 23, 7PM at NUGW Main Office
http://nambufwc.org
Sponsored by the National Union of General Workers

TAKADANOBABA: Tues March 24, 7:30 PM at Ben’s Cafe
http://www.benscafe.com
Sponsored by Amnesty International AITEN group

========= CHUBU AND KANSAI AREA =========

NAGOYA: Weds March 25, 6PM Nagoya University Kougakubu Building 2 North Building Room 332
Number 30 on the map at http://www.nagoya-u.ac.jp/camp/map_higashiyama

HIKONE: Thurs March 26, 1PM to 3PM, Shiga University
(please contact Dr Robert Aspinall at aspinall_robert AT hotmail DOT com for venue)

OSAKA: Thurs March 26, 7:30PM The Blarney Stone, Osaka
http://www.the-blarney-stone.com
Sponsored by Osaka Amnesty International, EWA Osaka, Democrats Abroad Japan, and Osaka JALT.

========= FARTHER SOUTH =========

OKAYAMA: Sat March 28, Japanese screening (1:30PM) then English (3:30PM),
Sankaku A Bldg 2F, Omotecho, Okayama. Sponsored by Okayama JALT.
http://jalt.org/events/okayama-chapter/09-03-28

KUMAMOTO: Tues March 31, 2PM, Kumamoto Gakuen Daigaku, Bldg 14, Rm 1411 on the first floor.

========= HOKKAIDO =========

April 2009, Sapporo SOUR STRAWBERRIES screening for the Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA) (BEING FINALIZED)

=============================================

Please note that all screenings will have a voluntary contribution of 500 yen per person. (The directors went to great time and expense to create this documentary; let’s do what we can to compensate them.)

Fifty copies of the movie will also be on sale at the venue for 1500 yen each. If you would like to contact the directors directly, email daniel.kremers@gmx.de and koenigtilman@googlemail.com.

See you in late March!
Arudou Debito in Sapporo
PRESS RELEASE ENDS

Fun Facts #13: National minimum wage map

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog.  Have you ever wondered what the minimum wage is in Japan?  Well, guess what, it depends.  On the prefecture.  On the industry.  On the industry within the prefecture too.

Now, before you throw up your arms in anguish and wonder how we’ll ever get an accurate measure, along comes the GOJ with a clickable minimum wage map by prefecture and industry.  You can have a look and see where people on the bottom rung of the ladder are earning the least and most.  Found this while researching the PhD.  To quote Spock, “Fascinating.”

MHLW sponsored minimum wage prefectural map at http://www.saiteichingin.com/linkMap.html

Here’s a partial screen capture of it.  It’s very well organized.  They’ve made it real easy even in terms of language.  See, when the GOJ really wants you to have the information, they do a pretty good job of it.

saiteichinginmap

http://www.saiteichingin.com/linkMap.html

If you want to see more about their definitions and science, click here:
http://www.saiteichingin.com/about.html

Of course, when I say “on the bottom rung of the ladder”, I mean citizens.  There are however, tens of thousands of people (i.e. NJ “Trainees”) who don’t qualify for the labor-law protections of a minimum wage.  They get saddled with debts and some make around 300 yen an hour, less than half the minimum minimum wage for Japanese.  See more here, here, and here.

FYI.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

NJ company “J Hewitt” advertises “Japanese Only” jobs in the Japan Times!

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog.  In what came as a shock to me, alert reader Rob sent me scans of yesterday’s (March 9, 2009) Japan Times Classified Ads, with three sections advertising for “Japanese Only” applicants!  See scans:

japaneseonlyjapantimesjobad2009309

Sounds a bit like a forklift operator.  But Japanese Only?

japaneseonlyjapantimesjobad20093092

“Must be bilingual”.  So then why Japanese Only?

japaneseonlyjapantimesjobad20093093

Selling soap and ear piercing products.  Okay, again, why Japanese Only?  

Nice company, this J. Hewitt KK (http://www.jhewitt.co.jp/).  Seems to be run by a NJ named Jon Knight.  Feel free to drop the company a line to say how you feel at info@jhewitt.co.jp

Rob also sent a message of complaint to the Japan Times.  (You can too.  Classified Ads Dept at jtad@japantimes.co.jp, and all other departments at  https://form.japantimes.co.jp/info/contact_us.html).

For by their own guidelines:

japaneseonlyjapantimesjobad20093094

Advertising jobs that discriminate by nationality may not be “offensive” to some, but they certainly may easily be construed to be illegal.  They violate Japan’s Labor Standards Law Article 3:  “An employer shall not engage in discriminatory treatment with respect to wages, working hours or other working conditions by reason of the nationality, creed or social status of any worker.”  That’s before we even get to the Japanese Constitution Article 14…

I shouldn’t have to be barking about this.  I expected more from the Japan Times when it comes to promoting equality in the workplace.  Shame on them, and especially on their client.  

JT, screen your advertisements and stop abetting discrimination.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

NUGW labor union “March in March” Sunday March 8, 3:30 Shibuya

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Forwarding:  Debito

NUGW “MARCH IN MARCH” SUNDAY MARCH 8, 2009, TOKYO SHIBUYA, ALL WELCOME.  ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING TOMORROW, SUNDAY MARCH 1, 2PM.
POSTERS OF THE EVENT IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE IN PDF FORMAT HERE. (ENGLISH) (JAPANESE)

Sisters and Brothers,  Please forward this email to all your friends and family.  So that I can track the progress of this email, please put me on the list when you forward it.
 
    If you are reading this email it means you are welcome to join us at the Fifth Annual Tokyo March in March for job security and equality.  Come to Miyashita Park in Shibuya, an 8-minute walk from Hachiko behind the tracks on the way to Harajuku at 3:30pm on Sunday, March 8, 2009.  March departs at 5pm.
 
   Each year we hold the March in March to appeal to the thousands of people in Shibuya on a Sunday afternoon with a message of strength and solidarity.  We demand that employers and the government cooperate to ensure job security and an equal society for all workers in a Japan that is increasingly multiethnic.   Dance, music, performances from areas around the world, colors, costumes, and huge placards make March in March a protest parade you will never forget.  This year we are going national, with March in Marches slated to take place in other cities around Japan as well.
 
    Bring your friends, family, coworkers.  March in March would make a memorable first date.  Or a second one.
 
    Make a difference and have fun at the same time.   That is the March in March.
 
For questions, please contact me at nugw.carlet@ezweb.ne.jp     See you there!
 
In Solidarity,
Louis Carlet
NUGW Tokyo Nambu

=========================

UPDATE

We need help preparing for the March in March! Come to the Shimbashi office this Sunday March 1, starting at 2pm, to lend a hand.

Specifically, we need people to
1) make posters (make your own picket sign!)
2) help build the huge mushirobata signs that we carry each year
3) pick up flyers and take them to various spots in Tokyo
(e.g. your favourite English bookstore, or neighbourhood
pub.)

If you cannot come in, but would like us to send some
flyers for you to distribute, please send us your land
address.

And, of course, come to the March in March, Sunday, March 8, 2009.
Where: Miyashita Park in Shibuya, an 8-minute walk from
Hachiko beside the JR tracks on the way to Harajuku.
When: From 3:30 on. March departs at 5pm.

This is the 5th annual March in March, a parade for job
security and equality for all. Featuring performances of
Peruvian music, capoeira, and huge multi-lingual banners,
the march winds through the crowded streets of Shibuya,
passing in front of the station, and is watched by
thousands of passers-by. Be a part of it! Photos from last
year can be seen on the following websites:

http://www.mkimpo.com/diary/2008/march_in_march_08-03-09.html

March in March 2009

For questions, please contact Louis Carlet at
nugw.carlet@ezweb.ne.jp See you there!

In Solidarity,

Catherine Campbell
NUGW Tokyo Nambu

ENDS

==================================

UPDATE TWO

Only four poster-painting days left til the March in March!

Sunday, March 8, 4:00 pm in Miyashita Koen, near Shibuya Station.

We’re expecting capoeira performers, Peruvian musicians,
the NOVA bunny, maybe some samba dancers, along with
hundreds of workers from around the world and Japan:
eikaiwa teachers, factory workers, salarymen, temp staff,
freeters, university professors, parents, children, and
labour organizers, united behind the banner “Job Security
and Equality for All.”

Come by the Nambu office in Shimbashi on Saturday evening
to make a poster about your workplace, or just to lend a
hand with the preparations.

For more information, and photos from last year, see the
following sites:

Grupo Bantus Capoeira Japão


http://nambufwc.org/
http://www.mkimpo.com/diary/2008/march_in_march_08-03-09.html

MINISTRY NEGOTIATIONS

The following day, Monday, March 9, Nambu and other unions
will be negotiating with the ministries of education,
labour, and justice, on issues related to foreign
workers’ rights.

Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Place: Sangiin Daigiin Kaikan (House of Representatives
Hall)
(Kokkaigijidomae Station, Exit 1, turn right, cross the
street, and walk past the Shugiinkaikan 1 and 2)

10:00〜11:30 General policy
11:30〜13:00 Lunch break
13:00〜15:00 Language schools, dispatch, subcontracting
　　
15:00〜17:00 Intern system

See you all there,

Catherine Campbell
NUGW Tokyo Nambu
ENDS

Fun Facts #11: Ekonomisuto estimates 35% of Japan’s population will be over 65 by 2050

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. Today’s entry is part of an occasional series called “Fun Facts”, where I come across a statistic so unzipping of reality that it bears memorizing. True “Fun Facts” are fun both in their predictive power and in describing how things got to where they are today. See what I mean by looking at previous Fun Facts on this blog.

The facts I will talk about today are about the future. While researching stuff on Debito.org, I realized that one source I quote often in my powerpoint presentations has never been blogged: An Ekonomisuto Japan article, dated January 15, 2008, with an amazing estimate.

ekonomisuto01150816

UPDATE:  Some corrections made, courtesy James Annan.  Incorrect text crossed out.

The yellow bar (left-hand scale) indicates the population of people aged 65-74 in given years. The orange bar (same scale) indicates population of people aged 75 and up. The dotted line (right-hand scale) indicates percentage of population those people aged 65-74 would take up in those given years. The red line same for people aged 75 and up ([including the 65-74 age bracket]).

[Thus] The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimates that well more than half of the J population (57.2%, as in 21.5% +35.7%) well over a third of the Japanese population (35.7%) will be over 65 years of age by 2050, and the majority of those oldies will be well beyond a working age. Can you imagine over a third of a population above 75 65 years of age? Who works and who pays taxes, when most this many people are retired on pensions or should be? That’s if trends stay as they are, mind. That’s why the GOJ has changed its tune to increasing the NJ population. We’re talking a demographic juggernaut that may ultimately wipe out this country’s productivity and accumulated wealth.

Although this is more estimate than “fun fact”, it is still the MHLW’s estimate, and as such worthy of consideration. But if you want more fun, consider these numbers about NJ working visas from the same Ekonomisuto article of last January. Their source: MOJ Immigration Bureau, as of the end of 2006.

Topping the list of people who can work in the top left-hand column are the “Specialist in Humanities/International Services” (i.e. language teachers). Then we have “Engineers” (as in System Engineers) , “Entertainers” (as in, in many cases, human trafficking), “Skilled Laborers” (contract workers in factories, but not Trainees), and on down. The numbers are for numbers of individuals.

ekonomisuto01150821

The right-hand column is for people who cannot work, topped by “Exchange Students”, “Dependents”, “Trainees” (who do work but aren’t counted as “laborers”, as they are not covered by labor laws) on down. Below that are the six-digit numbers for people who can work without restrictions: The Zainichis (Special Permanent Residents), the Regular Permanent Residents (immigrants, fast gaining), the Long-Term Residents (as in the Nikkei Brazilians etc.), Spouses of Japanese Nationals etc.

What I don’t get is that the media reports that “The number of people entering Japan to become trainees had been increasing since the foreign trainee system started in 1993, topping 100,000 in 2007.” So, well, where are they in the numbers above? I only see 70,519. Anyway, companies are slashing their Researcher and Trainee numbers, so I think we might even see a fall in the number of NJ residents in Japan for the first time in four decades

Illegal overstayers are estimated at 170,839, but their numbers keep dropping.

Who’s here from what country is in the pie chart, sourced from Immigration. The numbers (2006) are indeed now historical, as the Chinese surpassed the Koreans to become the number one ethnic minority in Japan for the first time in 2007. Third are Brazilians, then The Philippines, Peru, the US, and then a whopping number of “others”.

NOTE: the top numbers (visas) and the bottom numbers (pie chart) don’t add up to each other (they’re not counting some of the more obscure visa statuses, like Diplomat). I’m not sure what the American military on their bases in Japan are counted as.

There are some estimates and Fun Facts. A bit historical, but they give some idea of scale. Have fun. Arudou Debito in Sapporo.

Free Legal Consultation for NJ workers March 1, Sapporo

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. Here’s a PSA from my lawyer. Upcoming free legal assistance in Hokkaido at the beginning of next month. Not everyone can attend this, I know. But FYI.  Debito in Sapporo

==Free Legal Consultation for NJ Workers==

The legal service network for non-Japanese, a group of experienced lawyers dedicated to supporting non-Japanese residents, will provide free legal consultation to NJ working and living in Hokkaido on labor issues such as wrongful termination, unpaid wages, discrimination, harassment, and injury in the workplace. If you would like to seek legal advice about what course of action to take, please feel free to give us a call or come in for a consultation.

Date: March 1st, 2009 (Sun) 10:00-15:00

How to Request a Consultation

– Consultation by Telephone
Please call 011- 272-8871 (The number is valid only for the day of consultation.)

– Consultation by Face to Face Meeting
Please come to the following place on the day. Reservations are not necessary.

Sapporo Bengoshi Bldg. 5F
Kita 1 Nishi 10, Chuo-ku, Sapporo
(3 min. on foot from Exit 4, Nishi 11-chome Subway Station)

Languages: Japanese, English and Chinese are available.
(For other languages, please be accompanied someone who can speak Japanese or English.)

Fees: Consultation is free of charge.
(If you choose to retain a lawyer, ensuring fees will be discussed at the time of retainment. For those who cannot afford a lawyer for financial reasons, Legal Aid is available.)

Contact:
The legal service network for foreigners
c/o Hokkaido Godo Law Offices
Odori Nishi12, Chuou-ku, Sapporo
TEL 011-204-9535 FAX 011-204-9545

———————————————-

外国人のための労働相談会
〜北海道で働く外国人の労働者の皆さんへ〜

あなたは、理由のない解雇、給料・残業代の未払い、職場での差別や 嫌がらせなどで悩んでいませんか？

私たち、外国人法律支援ネットワークの弁護士が、雇用・労働に関する 皆さんからの相談をお受けし、適切なアドバイスをさせていただきます。 お気軽にお電話またはご来場ください。

● 日時　2009年3月1日（日）10時〜15時

【電話相談】　当日、時間内に下記番号にお電話をください。

011-272-8871 (当日のみの専用電話です)

【面接相談】　当日、下記の場所までお越しください（予約不要）。

札幌弁護士会館　５F（札幌市中央区北１条西１０丁目）
（地下鉄西１１丁目駅下車地下鉄東西線「西11丁目駅」下車4番出口から北へ200m）

● 対応可能言語　　日本語・英語・中国語
他の言語の場合は、大変申し訳ございませんが、日本語の通訳をご同伴ください。

● 相談料　　無料
但し、具体的に事件処理を行う場合は別途費用が必要です。 なお、法律扶助制度がありますので、お金がないから弁護士に 依頼できないということはありません。

主催：外国人法律支援ネットワーク

お問い合わせ：
外国人法律支援ネットワーク（担当：芝池・加藤）
札幌市中央区大通西12丁目　北海道合同法律事務所内
TEL 011-204-9535FAX 011-204-9545
ENDS

Yomiuri on new “Zairyuu Cards” to replace “Gaijin Cards”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. The new policing system for NJ is slowly materializing.  In what looks to be a pivy leak to the Yomiuri (scooping almost all the other newspapers according to a Google News search; distracted by a drunk Nakagawa and Hillary’s visit?), yesterday’s news had the GOJ proposal for new improved “Gaijin Cards”.  

Yomiuri says it’s to “sniff out illegals” and to somehow increase the “convenience” for foreigners (according to the Yomiuri podcast the same day).  It’s still to centralize all registration and policing powers within the Justice Ministry, and anyone not a Special Permanent Resident (the Zainichis, which is fine, but Regular Permanent Residents who have no visa issues with workplace etc.) must report minute updates whenever there’s a lifestyle change, on pain of criminal prosecution.  Doesn’t sound all that “convenient” to me.  I’m also not sure how this will be more effective than the present system in “sniffing out illegals” unless it’s an IC Card able to track people remotely. But that’s not discussed in the article.

I last reported on this on Debito.org nearly a year ago, where I noted among other things that the very rhetoric of the card is “stay” (zairyuu), rather than “residency” (zaijuu).  For all the alleged improvements, the gaijin are still only temporary.

One bit of good news included as a bonus in the article is that NJ Trainees are going to be included for protection in the Labor Laws.  Good.  Finally.  Read on.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=========================

Govt to issue new ID cards to sniff out illegals

The Yomiuri Shimbun Feb 17, 2009  Courtesy of Ben, Jeff and MJ.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090217TDY01304.htm

The government intends to strengthen its efforts to prevent foreigners from staying here illegally by unifying administrative systems for foreign residents in the nation, according to a draft bill to revise the immigration law obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday.

The draft legislation to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law states that the justice minister will issue new residence cards to aliens staying in Japan for mid- to long-term periods of time.

The current alien registration certificates issued by municipal governments will be abolished, and foreigners will instead use the new cards as identification.

The draft bill also includes provisions to imprison or deport people who forge the envisaged cards.

The government plans to submit the bill during the current Diet session, according to sources.

The new residence cards will carry the foreigner’s name, date of birth, gender, nationality, address, status of residence and period of stay. The cards will be issued to aliens staying in Japan legally.

The cards will enable authorities to detect illegal stayers by checking whether they possess the cards.

The draft bill will require foreign residents to report to the Immigration Bureau any changes such as to their place of employment, school or address. Under the current law, foreign residents are required to report such changes only to municipal governments. However, this system has bogged down attempts by the Immigration Bureau to keep a comprehensive track of foreign residents.

The revised law also will allow the bureau to investigate, on a voluntary basis, institutions and other bodies that are responsible for helping foreigners enter the country.

So-called special permanent residents–Koreans living in Japan–will not be required to acquire the envisaged residence cards. Instead, new identification certificates will be issued to them.

To reduce the time and paperwork involved in renewal procedures, the draft bill calls for extending the period of stay to five years for aliens who are currently allowed to stay in Japan for up to three years.

The draft legislation also includes a provision to create a new status of residence for aliens coming to Japan on the government’s foreign trainee system. It stipulates that the Minimum Wages Law and other labor-related laws will be applied to such foreign trainees.

The foreign trainee system is aimed at transferring Japan’s technical expertise to other countries. Under the system, foreign trainees participate in workshops and training programs at companies for up to three years.

However, the system has been criticized because some companies take advantage of these trainees by making them work excessively long hours for low pay. For the first year of their stay, the foreign trainees are not officially recognized as laborers, and therefore they fall outside the reach of labor-related laws.

Meanwhile, the status of residence for international students will no longer be divided into “college students,” who attend a college or advanced vocational school, and “pre-college students,” who attend a high school or Japanese language school. Under the envisaged new system, the two categories will be integrated to allow foreign students to skip procedures to change their status of residence when they go on to higher education.

(Feb. 17, 2009)
================================
Here’s the corresponding Yomiuri article in Japanese, with a lot less detail:

外国人に「在留カード」…偽造行為に罰則、国が一元管理へ

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20090216-OYT1T01221.htm
 　政府が今国会に提出する出入国管理・難民認定法改正案の概要が１６日、明らかになった。

　中長期に日本に滞在する外国人に対し、身分証となる「在留カード」を法相が発行し、在留管理を国に一元化する。これに伴い、市区町村が発行している外国人登録証明書は廃止する。カードの偽造行為には懲役刑や強制退去処分の罰則規定を設ける。

　カードには氏名や生年月日、性別、国籍、住所、在留資格、在留期間を記載。勤務先や住所などに変更があった場合は、入国管理局に届け出ることを義務づける。

　「特別永住者」と呼ばれる在日韓国・朝鮮人は在留カードの対象から外し、新たな身分証明書を発行する。原則３年が上限の外国人の在留期間を５年に延長することも盛り込んだ。

（2009年2月17日03時22分 読売新聞）

Japan Times Zeit Gist on Berlitz’s lawsuit against unions for “strike damage”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  Here’s a landmark case, dismissed by activists as a “frivolous claim”, which will affect unions profoundly in future if the right to strike (a right, as the article notes, which is guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution Article 28 under organization and collective bargaining) is not held sacrosanct by a Japanese court.

Language school Berlitz, shortly after a request was filed with the authorities for an investigation of its employment practices, sued Begunto labor union for damages due to strikes.  Although the article stops short of saying the epiphany-inducing words “union busting activities”, Berlitz below seems to playing for time in court, not even offering their reasons for their lawsuit by the appointed court date.  

Keep an eye on this case, readers. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Next Labor Commission Begunto hearing date Feb 20 in Tokyo.  Directions from the union:

Berlitz Labor Commission Hearing Number 2    Friday, Feb. 20, at 1:30pm at Tokyo Labor Commission
 
Take Oedo Line to Tochomae Station, exit A3, up two sets of escalators, pass passport office, up stairs, take elevator bank H up to 34th floor and find “roh” (labor) room for Life Communications (company name).

  Let’s show the commission how much support our Berlitz sisters and brothers continue to have in their fight for the right to strike.  Their strike began in Dec. 2007 for a 4.6% base-pay hike and a one-month bonus.  The strike escalated in autumn of 2008 and management rather than yield to the demand decided to cheat — threatening strikers and suing all the executives for 110 million yen each.  Come on out and support Begunto (Berlitz General Union Tokyo).

News photo
Van hailing: Members of the Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) and the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) Tokyo Nambu make their voices heard atop a sound truck outside the Berlitz school in Yurakucho, Tokyo. COURTESY OF BEGUNTO

THE ZEIT GIST

Berlitz launches legal blitz against striking instructors

By JAMES McCROSTIE

The Japan Times: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090217zg.html
 It has been 14 months since members of the Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) first downed chalk and launched rotating strikes against the language school Berlitz Japan.

The strike has grown into the longest and largest sustained strike by language teachers in Japan. While about 500 Nova teachers struck during that firm’s collapse in 2007, the action only lasted a day.

The dispute entered a new phase on Dec. 3 when, after nearly a year of strike action by union members, Berlitz Japan served notice they were suing the five teachers who serve as volunteer Begunto executives, as well as two officials of the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) Tokyo Nambu: President Yujiro Hiraga and Louis Carlet, the deputy general secretary and case officer for Begunto. The suit also names NUGW Tokyo Nambu and its Begunto branch as defendants.

Claiming the strike is illegal and that the union is trying to damage the company, Berlitz Japan is suing for ¥110 million in damages from each defendant.

“I first heard officially about the suit when a subpoena was delivered to my door in early December,” recalls Catherine Campbell, Begunto Vice President. “It was a shock to see myself and the others named individually as defendants.”

“The amount of money is so large that it didn’t seem real to me,” says Campbell. “It’s obvious that no English teacher has ¥110 million lying around, so I find it hard to believe that financial compensation is the real objective of their suit. The real objective is to intimidate and weaken the union.”

For Carlet, the suit also came as a surprise. “We were shocked because we make every effort to follow all Japan’s laws. We also felt frustrated that rather than concede the union’s strength and make meaningful concessions, Berlitz Japan has decided to spend a lot of money to sue us based on a frivolous claim that the strike is illegal.”

The company’s resort to the courts is unusual, explains Takashi Araki, a law professor at the University of Tokyo. “It’s not often that Japanese employers sue striking workers for illegal actions. An employer must bear the burden to prove the illegality of the strike, the amount of damages and causal relationship between the illegal strike and the damages. It’s not easy.”

On precedents for this kind of action, Timothy Langley, an American lawyer working in Tokyo, called the suits “very unusual,” adding, “but once again, it’s a tactic.” Langley predicted that like the vast majority of civil court cases in Japan, the Berlitz dispute would be settled out of court through negotiation.

The Begunto strike began on Dec. 13, 2007. Seeking the first across-the-board pay raise for Berlitz Japan teachers in 16 years, the union had a list of nine demands, including a 4.6-percent raise for all employees (teachers and staff), a one-time bonus equal to a month’s pay, and enrollment in Japan’s health insurance and pension system.

Inequalities between old and new teachers influenced the decision to strike. According to Begunto’s Web site, the number of lessons taught has increased from 30 per week for teachers hired in the early 1990s to 40 lessons a week for teachers hired after 2005, with no corresponding increase in the ¥250,000-a-month starting salary.

“The strike was an inevitable result of the new contracts introduced in 2005,” says Campbell. “Berlitz has had a history of slowly reducing conditions for new hires every once in a while, and up until now the changes have been small enough and incremental enough not to inspire a major backlash. This time they simply went too far, and created a pool of new hires working alongside teachers on older contracts who had obviously better conditions; teachers old and new felt the unfairness of this.”

The financial health of Benesse Corp., Berlitz Japan’s parent company, also influenced the timing of the strike. In their annual report for the financial year ending March 31, 2008, Benesse recorded their highest-ever earnings. Operating income grew 11.4 percent and Berlitz International Inc. achieved its best result since being bought by Benesse. Operating income for Benesse’s language company division rose 36 percent from the year before to ¥6.35 billion, in part due to higher revenues and profits at Berlitz International, which benefited from “an increase in the number of lessons taken worldwide, particularly in Japan and Germany,” according to the report.

Since the start of the strike, more than 100 English, Spanish, and French teachers have participated in spot strikes of almost 3,500 lessons. Carlet explained how the strikes work: “Nambu and Begunto notify management who will strike and from what time to what time. Sometimes they last only one lesson, other times several lessons.” During the strike, 32 of 46 Kanto-area schools have had teachers walk out.

In addition to the traditional Japanese labor-dispute staples, such as sound trucks and leaflet hand-outs, Berlitz’s striking teachers have also been taking advantage of what every hip industrial action requires nowadays: a Web site and YouTube videos.

“Internet technology has given us a chance to go almost head to head with the company, which has far greater financial and public relations resources to construct a positive self-image,” says Carlet. “We have used our site — www.berlitzuniontokyo.org — for general information and YouTube for visuals on our public appeals for support for the strike.”

Early in the strike the union made several concessions, reducing their list of demands down to two: a 4.6 percent base-pay raise for all teachers and staff and a bonus equal to one month’s salary. “If management makes a serious concession we will consider moving on our side even further than we have already,” says Carlet.

Management offered a raise of less than 1 percent at the end of September. Union members rejected that offer and, according to Carlet, “The union escalated their actions in October, including more strikes.” Begunto members also stepped up the number of leafleting sessions outside Berlitz schools and demonstrated in front of Berlitz’s Aoyama headquarters. “We also asked Benesse, Berlitz Japan’s parent company, to meet for talks. Berlitz began sending protests and threats of litigation soon after that.”

When reached by phone, Berlitz Japan representatives declined to comment on either the lawsuit or the strike.

The first court date for Berlitz Japan’s lawsuit on Jan. 26 proved anticlimactic. The more than 30 union members and supporters — as well as a contingent of Berlitz Japan managers — who came to the hearing at the Tokyo District Court didn’t have the chance to hear any legal arguments of substance.

The lawyers for Berlitz Japan failed to submit their written arguments for why the strike was illegal. They informed the judge that it would take until March to prepare because of the time required to translate documents between English and Japanese. Ken Yoshida, one of the lawyers for the teachers, expressed surprise that a language school would offer such an excuse for the delay.

Problems also arose because Berlitz Japan had failed to properly serve three of the defendants with notice of the lawsuit. The 20-minute hearing ended with the second court date scheduled for April 20. Addressing union members and supporters after the hearing, Yoshida said that the Berlitz lawyers were “obviously stalling” and wanted a protracted court fight.

The burden of proof for the case lies with Berlitz Japan, says professor Araki. “Since Japan’s Constitution and Labor Union Act guarantee the workers’ right to go on strike, employers cannot claim damages caused by legal strikes. Thus, generally speaking, it is an employer who must prove the illegality of the strike.”

However, unions must follow rules when striking. According to Hideyuki Morito, an attorney and Professor of Law at Sophia University, “There are four checkpoints as to propriety of the strike.” The striking union must be a qualified union under the Labor Union Act and the strike must be related to working conditions. The means of the strike must also be legal, so striking union members can’t occupy offices or interfere with operations. “In short, all they can do is not work ,” says Morito. Finally, unions must “try to bargain collectively with the employer before deciding to go on a strike and give a notice in advance when they will strike.”

Tadashi Hanami, professor emeritus at Sophia University, outlined what the company must prove to win. “The outcome of the court judgment depends almost entirely on whether the company can provide enough evidence to convince the judge that some of the union activities were maliciously carried out in order to intentionally cause undue damage, by disturbing normal running of day-by-day school business, thus exceeded the scope of legally protected bona fide collective actions as a kind of harassment.”

Begunto and NUGW Nambu launched their own legal challenge to Berlitz Japan, filing an unfair labor practices suit for violations of Trade Union Law on Nov. 17. The suit asked the Tokyo Labor Commission to investigate unfair labor practices by the company.

Union representatives argue that memos posted at all Berlitz Japan language schools in November that declared the strike illegal and letters sent to union members telling them to end the strike are illegal interference. “Since nothing about our strike was the slightest bit illegal, the memos and warning letters themselves are illegal interference in the strike,” says Carlet.

The unions’ suit also asks the Labor Commission to investigate Berlitz Japan’s refusal to meet the union’s pay demands and failure to provide any data on the company’s finances to the union. According to Carlet, “Management has a responsibility to explain to the union why it can’t meet our financial demands. It makes no such effort.”

As the company and the unions gear up for what could be a drawn-out fight, Campbell describes a surreal existence as the sued teachers wait for the lawsuits to wind through the legal system. “Now it just feels strange to be going to work as usual, teaching Berlitz lessons, while at the same time being accused of deliberately damaging the company.”

The next stage in the legal battle will be an open hearing at the Tokyo Labor Commission on Feb. 20 at 1:30 p.m.

Send comments on this issue and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp
The Japan Times: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009
ENDS

============================

Berlitz Labor Commission Hearing Number 2    Friday, Feb. 20, at 1:30pm at Tokyo Labor Commission
 
Take Oedo Line to Tochomae Station, exit A3, up two sets of escalators, pass passport office, up stairs, take elevator bank H up to 34th floor and find “roh” (labor) room for Life Communications (company name).

  Let’s show the commission how much support our Berlitz sisters and brothers continue to have in their fight for the right to strike.  Their strike began in Dec. 2007 for a 4.6% base-pay hike and a one-month bonus.  The strike escalated in autumn of 2008 and management rather than yield to the demand decided to cheat — threatening strikers and suing all the executives for 110 million yen each.  Come on out and support Begunto (Berlitz General Union Tokyo).

Japanese stewardesses sue Turkish Airlines for discrim employment conditions

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. Here’s something that didn’t make the English-language news anywhere, as far as Google searches show. Japanese stewardesses are suing Turkish Airlines for unfair treatment and arbitrary termination of contract.  They were also, according to some news reports I saw on Google and TV, angry at other working conditions they felt were substandard, such as lack of changing rooms.  I even saw the headline “discrimination by nationality”.  So they formed a union to negotiate with the airline, and then found themselves fired. 

Fine.  But this is definite Shoe on the Other Foot stuff, especially given the conditions that NJ frequently face in the Japanese workplace.  Let’s hope this spirit of media understanding rubs off for NJ who might want to sue Japanese companies for the same sort of thing. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

(Text of article below follows, quickly translated by Arudou Debito)

===================================

Dispatch stewardesses sue Turkish Airlines, demand acknowledgment of their status within the company

Sankei Shinbun January 29, 2009

「直接雇用してもらいたい」。会見で訴えるトルコ航空ユニオンの船田明子さん（右）らメンバー＝２９日、厚労省

PHOTO CAPTION:  “We want to be directly employed.”  So charged Funada Akiko (R), member of the Turkish Airlines Union at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare.

On January 29, 13 Japanese women contract workers under dispatch company “TEI” (Tokyo), who were working as flight attendants for Turkish Airlines, filed suit at Tokyo District Court.  “We were effectively working under the same conditions as if we were directly employed by the airline,” they said, and demanded recognition of this status in their contracts from both companies.

The litigants were members of the “Turkish Airlines Union”, led by Funada Akiko (34).

According to the lawsuit filed, the women were dispatched from TEI. Nevertheless, they were treated as if they were workers under a contract with Turkish Airlines.  They were given essential training as flight attendants from Turkish Airlines, and had employment time slots as per Turkish Airlines flight plans.   Each fulfilled their duties as a Japanese flight attendant, supervised by the airline.

At the press conference after filing suit, Ms Funada claimed that TEI would issue a notice dated February 28 that Japanese flight attendant contracts would be terminated.  “The contract period would last until June.  We are furious at how one-sided this termination of contract was.  We want to be employed directly as Japanese flight attendants.”  

She continued, “There was an invisible division between us and the Turkish flight attendants, in terms of differential treatment and salary.  We want to highlight this as a social problem, so that there won’t be any more second- and third-class treatment of staff in the airline industry.”

In September 2008, the 13 Japanese flight attendants formed a union of supporters.  They filed for group negotiations with Turkish Airlines to demand direct employment.  However, the airlines still apparently refuses to meet.

A 33-year-old woman who attended the press conference spoke strongly, “If there are no Japanese flight attendants in the airplane, what happens if there’s an emergency?  How will Japanese passengers be attended to?”

The Japan branch of Turkish Airlines said in a statement, “We haven’t seen the legal brief yet, so we cannot comment at this time.”  TEI:  “We haven’t received the brief, so we will reserve official comments for now.” ENDS

==============================

派遣乗務員、地位確認求め提訴　トルコ航空など相手取り

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/trial/090129/trl0901292005011-n1.htm

2009.1.29 20:01

「直接雇用してもらいたい」。会見で訴えるトルコ航空ユニオンの船田明子さん（右）らメンバー＝２９日、厚労省「直接雇用してもらいたい」。会見で訴えるトルコ航空ユニオンの船田明子さん（右）らメンバー＝２９日、厚労省

　派遣・請負会社「ＴＥＩ」（東京）の契約社員で、派遣先のトルコ航空の客室乗務員として働く日本人女性１３人は２９日、「実質的には航空会社から直接雇用の状態で働いていた」などとして、２社に対し雇用契約上の地位確認などを求め、東京地裁に提訴した。

　提訴したのは、「トルコ航空ユニオン」委員長の船田明子さん（３４）ら。

　訴状などによると、女性はＴＥＩから派遣されているにもかかわらず、トルコ航空が設けた契約に基づいて労務管理が行われていた。トルコ航空によって乗務に必要な教育訓練も実施され、飛行機の割り振りといった勤務時間も調整して決定。トルコ航空の指揮監督下で、日本人乗務員は各業務をこなしてきたとしている。

　提訴後の会見で、船田さんは、ＴＥＩから、契約する日本人客室乗務員全員に、２月２８日付での解約予告通知書が届いたことを明らかにした上で、「契約期間は６月まであった。一方的な契約解除には憤りを感じる。日本人客室乗務員を直接雇用してもらいたい」と主張。「トルコ人の客室乗務員と、（給与面など待遇に差があるといった）目に見えない分断線があった。第２、第３の人員整理が航空業界で行われないよう、社会問題化してもらいたい」と訴えた。

　昨年９月、日本人客室乗員員の有志１３人がユニオンを結成。トルコ航空に直接雇用などを求める団体交渉を申し入れていた。しかし、会社側は拒否し続けているという。

　会見に出席した別の女性（３３）は、「機内から日本人の客室乗務員がいなくなれば、緊急事態の発生時に日本人の客に不安を与えかねない。客室の安全とサービスが落ちかねない」と語気を強めた。

　トルコ航空日本支社は、「訴状も見ておらず、コメントできない」とし、ＴＥＩは「訴状が届いておらず、正式なコメントは控えたい」と話している。

ENDS  More at:

http://news.google.co.jp/news?hl=ja&tab=wn&ned=jp&nolr=1&q=トルコ航空&btnG=検索

Japan Times/Kyodo: Decrease in NJ “Trainees”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  With layoffs numbering these in the tens of thousands in Japanese companies, germane to Debito.org is how this is affecting NJ in Japan.  Here are some stats regarding backdoor imported labor in Japan.  (The headline of “rare” is a bit exaggerated, but indeed indicative of a trend.)

A reliable source estimated to me that 40% of all Brazilian workers will leave Japan in short order.  While not usually “Trainees” (they are “Returnees” on less-restrictive “teijuusha” visas), that’s still a hell of a way to go (that means over 100,000 people), and it may lead to the first drop in NJ in Japan in more than four decades.  No stats on that yet, but when we see them, we’ll post them.

One more thing:  I saw in the Diet debates yesterday that JCP leader Shii noted how in the ten years since 1997, profits in total for companies had significantly gone up while total wages paid out to workers had gone down (don’t have exact figures; didn’t have a pencil  handy).  So now that times have gone sour, I wonder just how many of these layoffs are a convenient means to continue to keep corporate profits stable?  The overarching need to prove a business’s health through profits (and the pressure to one-up oneself by posting record profits in the past) gives all the wrong incentives, from a labor standpoint.  But that’s speculation on my part; we’ll leave it to those who know more about the subject to comment.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

———————————————
Foreign trainees at Japan firms growing rare
Japan Times/Kyodo News

The economic crisis is taking a toll on foreign trainees in Japan.

Preliminary data compiled by the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization show that the number of companies’ applications for permitting foreigners into Japan as trainees or technical interns last October fell 18.8 percent from a year earlier to 4,753.

The figure for November stood at 4,692, down 25.5 percent from a year before. The organization, jointly founded by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and four other ministries, said Japanese firms are becoming reluctant to accept new foreign trainees in the face of the deteriorating economy.

The organization said an increasing number of foreign trainees have been seeking advice, saying they may be forced to return to their countries before their terms expire.

Although many foreign trainees are hired at low wages, the recent data suggest that companies, particularly small ones, are now in bad shape and aren’t even hiring these low-wage workers, officials with the organization said.

By country, the number of new trainees from China fell 27.6 percent in November. Trainees from Indonesia were down 26.0 percent and those from the Philippines were down 41.0 percent.

The number of people entering Japan to become trainees had been increasing since the foreign trainee system started in 1993, topping 100,000 in 2007.

The Japan Times: Monday, Feb. 2, 2009

Question on Welfare Assistance (seikatsu hogo) and privacy rights

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. Got a question from TtoT at The Community today that deserves answering. In these days of mass layoffs and people on unemployment insurance, apparently the welfare offices are able to call up relatives and check to see if applicants really are financially as badly off as they say. As the poster points out below, there are privacy issues involved. Anyone know more about this? If so, comments section. Thanks. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

===================================

I’ll state from the outset that I am in strange waters on this one,
but an acquaintance from years back that remembers our old group and
the help we offered rang me up a few hours ago and asked me an
interesting question. It has had me poking around the Net and
thinking very hard. Now I turn to y’all.

She and her husband have applied for seikatsuhogo, or welfare
assistance. I knew nothing about this, so I went to the Ministry of
Health, Labour, and Welfare website and found this
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/seikatsuhogo/seikatuhogo.html

Okay, so far so good. But here’s why she called me. It seems that
one of the requirements for receiving this welfare is that the local
government will call relatives and ask about their ability to help
this lady’s family. This seems to be a big problem. Her husband now
seems to be shamed into not applying for help.

But the reason she called me was because she is wondering about a
government agency calling a *relative* and essentially providing
private information, which is that this family is in serious
financial trouble and asking for help from the government.

I just don’t have a clue here, but something does feel odd here.
There must be some sort of regulations related to government workers
passing along information to outsiders. I mean those outside the
immdediate family. The first thing that comes to mind is how they
define *relative*. And why I put it in special marks in the previous
paragraph.

Do any of you know anything about this? Do any of you know where I
can find the regulations pertaining to government responsibility in
maintaining private information? Oddly enough, I can’t find a
government document outlining their regulations, but I assume that’s
just because of my poor Japanese.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
ENDS

Wash Post on GOJ efforts to get Brazilian workers to stay

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. Long article last week about an apparent turning point in GOJ policy to try to train NJ workers to stay. Good. The only cloud I can find in this silver lining is why so much concentration on Brazilian workers? There are Peruvians, Chinese, Filipinas/Filipinos and other nationalities here that deserve some assistance too.

Did the reporter just stick to his contacts in the Brazilian communities, or is the program only directed towards the blood-tie Nikkei because they’re “Japanese” in policymaker eyes (not a stretch; that was the reason why Keidanren pushed for establishing their special “returnee visa” status)? If the latter, then we have Nikkei Peruvians that needed to be covered in this article too. Sorry, nice try, but this report feels incomplete. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=======================

Japan Works Hard to Help Immigrants Find Jobs
Population-Loss Fears Prompt New Stance
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 23, 2009; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012204150.html

UEDA, Japan — The last thing that aging Japan can afford to lose is young people. Yet as the global economic crisis flattens demand for Japanese cars and electronic goods, thousands of youthful, foreign-born factory workers are getting fired, pulling their children out of school and flying back to where they came from.

Paulino and Lidiane Onuma have sold their car and bought plane tickets for Sao Paulo, Brazil. They are going back next month with their two young daughters, both of whom were born here in this factory town. His job making heavy machinery for automobile plants ends next week. She lost her job making box lunches with black beans and spicy rice for the city’s Brazilian-born workers, most of whom have also been dismissed and are deciding whether to leave Japan.

“We have no desire to go home,” said Paulino Onuma, 29, who has lived here for 12 years and earned about $50,000 a year, far more than he says he could make in Brazil. “We are only going back because of the situation.”

That situation — the extreme exposure of immigrant families to job loss and their sudden abandonment of Japan — has alarmed the government in Tokyo and pushed it to create programs that would make it easier for jobless immigrants to remain here in a country that has traditionally been wary of foreigners, especially those without work.

“Our goal is to get them to stay,” said Masahiko Ozeki, who is in charge of an interdepartmental office that was established this month in the cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso. “As a government, we have not done anything like this before.”

Japanese-language courses, vocational training programs and job counseling are being put together, Ozeki said, so immigrants can find work throughout the Japanese economy. There is a shortage of workers here, especially in health care and other services for the elderly.

So far, government funding for these emerging programs is limited — slightly more than $2 million, far less than will be needed to assist the tens of thousands of foreign workers who are losing jobs and thinking about giving up on Japan. But Ozeki said the prime minister will soon ask parliament for considerably more money — exactly how much is still being figured out — as part of a major economic stimulus package to be voted on early this year.

The government’s effort to keep jobless foreigners from leaving the country is “revolutionary,” according to Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau and now director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, a research group in Tokyo.

“Japan has a long history of rejecting foreign residents who try to settle here,” he said. “Normally, the response of the government would have been to encourage these jobless people to just go home. I wouldn’t say that Japan as a country has shifted its gears to being an immigrant country, but when we look back on the history of this country, we may see that this was a turning point.”

Sakanaka said the government’s decision will send a much-needed signal to prospective immigrants around the world that, if they choose to come to Japan to work, they will be treated with consideration, even in hard economic times.

There is a growing sense among Japanese politicians and business leaders that large-scale immigration may be the only way to head off a demographic calamity that seems likely to cripple the world’s second-largest economy.

No country has ever had fewer children or more elderly as a percentage of its total population. The number of children has fallen for 27 consecutive years. A record 22 percent of the population is older than 65, compared with about 12 percent in the United States. If those trends continue, in 50 years, the population of 127 million will have shrunk by a third; in a century, by two-thirds.

Japan will have two retirees for every three workers by 2060, a burden that could bankrupt pension and health-care systems.

Demographers have been noisily fretting about those numbers for years, but only in the past year have they grabbed the attention of important parts of this country’s power structure.

A group of 80 politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said last summer that Japan needs to welcome 10 million immigrants over the next 50 years. It said the goal of government policy should not be just to “get” immigrants, but to “nurture” them and their families with language and vocational training, and to encourage them to become naturalized citizens of Japan.

The country’s largest business federation, the traditionally conservative Nippon Keidanren, said in the fall that “we cannot wait any longer to aggressively welcome necessary personnel.” It pointed to U.N. calculations that Japan will need 17 million foreigners by 2050 to maintain the population it had in 2005.

Among highly developed countries, Japan has always ranked near the bottom in the percentage of foreign-born residents. Just 1.7 percent are foreign-born here, compared with about 12 percent in the United States.

The Japanese public remains deeply suspicious of immigrants. In an interview last year, then-Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda suggested that the prospect of large-scale immigration was politically toxic.

“There are people who say that if we accept more immigrants, crime will increase,” Fukuda said. “Any sudden increase in immigrants causing social chaos [and] social unrest is a result that we must avoid by all means.”

Here in Ueda, a city of about 125,000 people in the Nagano region, a recent survey found that residents worried that the city’s 5,000 immigrants were responsible for crime and noise pollution.

“The feeling of the city is that if foreigners have lost their jobs, then they should leave the country,” said Kooji Horinouti, a Brazilian immigrant of Japanese descent who works for the Bank of Brazil here and heads a local immigrant group.

It is not just the residents of Ueda. The Japanese government, until this month, had done little to train foreign-born workers in the country’s language or to introduce them to life outside the factory towns where most of them work, according to Sakanaka, the immigration expert.

By contrast, the German government in recent years has offered up to 900 hours of subsidized language training to immigrants, along with other programs designed to integrate them into German society.

Japan had moved much, much more slowly.

It changed its highly restrictive immigration laws in 1990 to make it relatively easy for foreigners of Japanese descent to live here and work. The change generated the greatest response from Brazil, which has the world’s largest population of immigrant Japanese and their descendants.

About 500,000 Brazilian workers and their families — who have Japanese forebears but often speak only Portuguese — have moved to Japan in the past two decades.

They have lived, however, in relatively isolated communities, clustered near factories. Because the government hired few Portuguese-speaking teachers for nearby public schools, many Brazilians enrolled their children in private Portuguese-language schools. With the mass firings of Brazilian workers in recent months, many of those schools have closed.

Paulino and Lidiane Onuma sent their 6-year-old daughter, Juliana, to the Novo Damasco school here in Ueda, where she has not learned to speak Japanese.

Her parents, too, speak and read little Japanese, although they moved to Japan as teenagers. There has been no government-sponsored program to teach them the language or how to negotiate life outside their jobs.

“Japan is finally realizing that it does not have a system for receiving and instructing non-Japanese speakers,” said Sakanaka, the immigration policy expert. “It is late, of course, but still, it is important that the government has come to see this is a problem.”

Had they known there would be language and job-training programs in Ueda, the Onuma family might not have sold their car and bought those tickets for Sao Paulo.

“If those programs existed now,” Lidiane Onuma said, “I might have made a different choice.”

Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.

ENDS

Kyodo: Brazilian workers protest layoffs at J companies

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. I’m glad the media is picking this up. People who have been here for decades are being laid off. And instead of getting the representation that shuntou regularly entitles regular Japanese workers, they’re resorting to the only thing they have left (save repatriation): Taking it to the streets.

A reliable source told me yesterday that he expects “around 40%” of Brazilian workers to return to Brazil. They shouldn’t have to: They’ve paid their dues, they’ve paid their taxes, and some will be robbed of their pensions. They (among other workers) have saved Japanese industries, keeping input costs internationally competitive. Yet they’re among the first to go. A phenomenon not unique to Japan, but their perpetual temp status (and apparent non-inclusion in “real” unemployment stats, according to some media) is something decryable. Glad they themselves are decrying it and the media is listening. Kyodo article follows, with more on Japan Probe. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

===============================

Brazilian workers protest layoffs

Kyodo/Japan Today Monday 19th January, 06:56 AM JST, Courtesy of AW

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/brazilian-workers-protest-layoffs

TOKYO —Some 200 Brazilian workers on Sunday protested over layoffs by Japanese companies, which are forcing many of them to leave the country despite their community having been integrated in Japan for more than two decades. The demonstrators, who included mothers with their children, marched through the center of the Ginza shopping district, calling for the government’s support for stable employment.

The crowd, many holding Brazilian flags, demanded “employment for 320,000” Brazilians in Japan. “We are Brazilians!” they shouted in unison. “Companies must stop using us like disposable labor.” Since 1990, Japan has given special working visas to hundreds of thousands of Brazilians of Japanese descent, many of whom have taken up temporary positions as manual laborers in factories.

Amid the global economic downturn, however, many are being laid off and being forced to return to Brazil. They are often overshadowed by the 85,000 Japanese contract workers also said to be losing their jobs by March.

“No matter how hard we worked in Japan, we are being cut off because we are contract laborers,” said Midori Tateishi, 38, who came to Japan nearly 20 years ago. “Many of us are totally at a loss with children and a housing loan.”

Wire reports

ENDS

Documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES Japan Roadshow Feb and March 2009. Contact Debito for a screening.

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hello All. Something to announce while there’s still two months’ lead time:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
DOCUMENTARY “SOUR STRAWBERRIES”
“JAPAN’S HIDDEN GUEST WORKERS”
NATIONWIDE ROADSHOW FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2009
MAR 20-31 DEBITO ON TOUR, STOP BY YOUR AREA AND SCREEN?
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I’m planning my annual round-robin tour for the end of March. I’m booking some dates for an important documentary on Japan’s labor markets and what kind of working conditions NJ are enduring under the current “Trainee”, “Researcher”, etc. visa regime.

It’s an hourlong film that came out in Germany in late 2008 by Daniel Kremers and Tilman Koenig of Leipzig. More information from the directors below, but a trailer for the movie may be seen in Japanese, English, and German at
http://www.vimeo.com/2276295

Promo in English with stills from the film at
http://www.debito.org/SOURSTRAWBERRIESpromo.pdf

There’s a scene where I’m taking a business operator in Kabukichou to task for his “Japanese Only” sign. I’m told it’s the funniest scene in the movie. You can see an excerpt and a still from it at the above links.

So far, I will be screening and speaking on the film at the following dates:
==============================================
MON MARCH 23 NUGW SHINBASHI TOKYO
TUES MARCH 24 AMNESTY INT’L AITEN TAKADANOBABA TOKYO
THURS MARCH 26 SHIGA UNIVERSITY
==============================================
If you’d like me to screen in your neighborhood between March 20 and 31, please contact me at debito@debito.org

Director Daniel Kremers will also be touring the movie in February and March, so if you wish to contact him for a screening please see the contact details below. Thanks for considering. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

///////////////////////////////////////////////////
FROM DIRECTOR DANIEL KREMERS:
 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is Daniel from the documentary “Sour Strawberries – Japan’s hidden ‘guest workers'”. I am coming to Japan in March to present and promote our movie.
Mr. Arudou Debito was so kind to offer his help, and offer to show the movie[between March 20 and 31].

Unfortunately I cannot attend these screenings. So I would be really happy if someone could recommend some other places to show the movie before, so I could attend and answer questions from the audience. I will be in Japan from February 27th to March 20th. I would like to show the movie in as many places as possible to reach a more heterogenous audience. Please note that I am not free from the 9th to 13th of March, but anything before and after that is fine.

Attached to this email you will find an information sheet with pictures and an English synopsis.
 http://www.debito.org/SOURSTRAWBERRIESpromo.pdf
 With best regards and thanks to you all,

Daniel Kremers
http://www.myspace.com/saureerdbeeren
daniel.kremers AT gmx.de
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
ENDS

Kyodo: Special unemployment office being studied for NJ workers with PR

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. Here’s some very mixed news. The GOJ will study how to offer help unemployed NJ to make sure inter alia their kids stay in school. Thanks, but then it limits the scope to Permanent Residents. Probably a lot more of the NJ getting fired are factory workers here on visas (Trainee, Researcher, etc) that give the employer the means to pay them poorly and fire them at will already. So why not help them too? Oh, they and their kids don’t count the same, I guess. Considering how hard and arbitrary it can be to get PR in the first place, this is hardly fair. Expand the study group to help anyone with a valid visa. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

===============================

Gov’t to set up office to support foreign residents who lose jobs

Japan Today/Kyodo News Friday 09th January, 03:01 PM JST

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/govt-to-set-up-office-to-support-foreign-residents-who-lose-jobs

TOKYO —

The Japanese government will establish an office to study measures to support foreign nationals with permanent residency status who lose their jobs amid the recession, Yuko Obuchi, state minister on Japan’s declining child population, said Friday. ‘‘We would like to expedite studying measures needed based on reports from people concerned on their actual difficulties and needs,’’ she said at a press conference.

Last month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said Japan will provide support to foreign nationals with permanent residency who have lost their jobs and are suffering economic hardship amid the deteriorating economy. ‘‘Japanese people are facing difficulties under current employment conditions, and foreigners must be facing more difficulties,’’ Kawamura said, adding that the government will set up a team to tackle the issue. The measures are expected to include one to help them find jobs and another to help foreign children attend schools, Kawamura said.

ENDS

Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Jan 6 2009 reviewing 2008’s human rights advances

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Morning Blog.  Here’s my latest Japan Times column, which came out last Tuesday.  Links to sources provided.  Debito

justbecauseicon.jpg
JUST BE CAUSE
2008: THE YEAR IN HUMAN RIGHTS
By Arudou Debito, Article 11 for JBC Column
Published January 6, 2009 Draft Seven as submitted to editor.
Published version at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090106ad.html

As we start 2009, let’s recharge the batteries by reviewing last year’s good news. Here is my list of top human rights advancements for 2008, in ascending order:

As we start 2009, let’s recharge the batteries by reviewing last year’s good news. Here is my list of top human rights advancements for 2008, in ascending order:

6) The U Hoden Lawsuit Victory (Dec. 21, 2007, but close enough): The plaintiff is a Chinese-born professor at Japan Women’s University, who sued for damages on behalf of his Japanese grade-school daughter. Abused by classmates for her Chinese roots, she suffered at school and was medically diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Professor U took the parents of the bullies to court and won.

WHY THIS MATTERS: In an era when elementary schools are seeing the byproduct of Japan’s frequent international marriages, this ruling sets a positive precedent both for insensitive local Boards of Education and parents who want to protect their kids.
http://www.debito.org/?p=874

5) Strawberry Fields Forever (Feb. 11): Fifteen Chinese Trainees sued strawberry farms in Tochigi Prefecture for unpaid wages, unfair dismissal, and an attempted repatriation by force. Thanks to Zentoitsu Workers Union, they were awarded 2 million yen each in back pay and overtime, a formal apology, and reinstatement in their jobs.

WHY THIS MATTERS: This is another good precedent treating NJ laborers (who as Trainees aren’t covered by labor laws) the same as Japanese workers. It is also the namesake of German documentary “Sour Strawberries” (www.vimeo.com/2276295), premiering in Japan in March.
http://www.debito.org/?p=1018 and http://www.debito.org/?p=1221

4) The increasing international awareness of Japan as a haven for international child abductions. It’s one of Japan’s worst-kept secrets, but not for much longer: Japan’s laws governing access for both parents to children after divorce are weak to non-existent. Consequently, in the case of international breakups, one parent (usually the foreigner) loses his or her kids. As this newspaper has reported, even overseas court decisions awarding custody to the NJ parent are ignored by Japanese courts. All the Japanese parent has to do is abduct their child to Japan and they’re scot-free. Fortunately, international media this year (America’s ABC News, UK’s Guardian, and Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald) have joined Canada’s media and government in exposing this situation.

WHY THIS MATTERS: Our government has finally acknowledged this as a problem for domestic marriages too, and made overtures to sign the Hague Convention on Child Abduction (for what that’s worth) by 2010. More in upcoming documentary “From The Shadows” (www.fromtheshadowsmovie.com).
http://www.debito.org/?p=1660
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080826zg.html

http://www.debito.org/?s=child+abduction

3) Opening the 12,000 yen “financial stimulus” to all registered NJ (Dec. 20). The “teigaku kyufukin” first started out as a clear bribe to voters to yoroshiku the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Then complaints were raised about the other taxpayers who aren’t citizens, so Permanent Residents and NJ married to Japanese became eligible. Finally, just before Christmas, all registered NJ were included.

WHY THIS MATTERS: Even if this “stimulus” is ineffective, it’s a wall-smasher: Japan’s public policy is usually worded as applying to “kokumin”, or citizens only. It’s the first time a government cash-back program (a 1999 coupon scheme only included Permanent Residents) has included all non-citizen taxpayers, and recognized their importance to the Japanese economy.
http://www.debito.org/?p=2104
 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20081113a1.html

2) Revision of Japan’s Nationality Law. If a Japanese father impregnated a NJ out of wedlock, the father had to recognize paternity before birth or the child would not get Japanese nationality. The Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional on June 4, noting how lack of citizenship causes “discriminatory treatment”.

WHY THIS MATTERS: Tens of thousands of international children have lost their legal right to Japanese citizenship (or even, depending on the mother’s nationality, become stateless!) just because a man was too shy to own up to his seed, or didn’t acknowledge paternity in time. This ruling led to a change in the laws last December.
http://www.debito.org/?p=1715
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/11/21/japan-revision-of-the-nationality-law/
 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090101a1.html

1) The government officially declaring the Ainu an indigenous people (June 6).

WHY THIS MATTERS: Because it not only affects the Ainu. This finally shows how wrong the official pronouncements that “Japan is a monocultural monoethnic society” have been. It also voids knock-on arguments that enforce ideological conformity for the “insiders” and exclusionism for the foreigners. On Sept. 28, it even became a political issue, forcing an unprecedented cabinet resignation of Nariaki Nakayama for mouthing off about “ethnic homogeneity” (among other things). Even blue-blood PM Aso had better think twice before contradicting the Diet’s consensus on this issue.

Let’s see what 2009 brings. Proposals to watch: a) the possible abolition of Gaijin Cards, b) the registration of NJ residents with their Japanese families, and c) dual nationality. Stay tuned to www.debito.org, and Happy New Year, everyone!
735 WORDS

Debito Arudou is coauthor of the “Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants.” Just Be Cause appears on the first Community Page of the month. Send comments to community@japantimes.co.jp

Economist on Japanese immigration and conservatism giving way

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  Here’s a roundup from The Economist on how conservatives just don’t have the answers regarding Japan’s future anymore (with their wan and waning hope that immigration can somehow be avoided).  Good also that this article is coming from The Economist, as it has over the past eighteen months done mediocre stuff on Japan’s future demographics without mentioning immigration at all.  And when it later mentioned NJ labor in follow-up writings, it merely inserted one token sentence reflecting the Japan conservatives’ viewpoint.  It seems even the conservatism within my favorite newsmagazine is also giving ground.  Bravo.  Arudou Debito

======================================

Japanese immigration 

Don’t bring me your huddled masses 

Dec 30th 2008 | NISHI-KOIZUMI 
From The Economist print edition, courtesy of AM

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12867328

Not what the conservatives want, yet some people are beginning to imagine a more mixed Japan

 

INFLAMMATORY remarks by Japan’s speak-from-the-hip conservative politicians—among them the prime minister for now, Taro Aso—embroil them in endless controversy with neighbours over Japan’s wartime past. In their defence, conservatives often say that what really concerns them is the future, in which they want Japan to punch its weight in the world. The question is, what weight? Japan’s population, currently 127m and falling, is set to shrink by a third over the next 50 years. The working-age population is falling at a faster rate; the huge baby-boom generation born between 1947 and 1949, the shock troops of Japan’s economic miracle, are now retiring, leaving fewer workers to support a growing proportion of elderly.

Conservatives have few answers. They call for incentives to keep women at home to breed (though poor career prospects for mothers are a big factor behind a precipitous fall in the fertility rate). Robot workers offer more hope to some: two-fifths of all the world’s industrial robots are in Japan. They have the advantage of being neither foreign nor delinquent, words which in Japan trip together off the tongue. Yet robots can do only so much.

The answer is self-evident, but conservatives rarely debate it. Their notion of a strong Japan—ie, a populous, vibrant country—is feasible only with many more immigrants than the current 2.2m, or just 1.7% of the population. (This includes 400,000 second- or third-generation Koreans who have chosen to keep Korean nationality but who are Japanese in nearly every respect.) The number of immigrants has grown by half in the past decade, but the proportion is still well below any other big rich country. Further, immigrants enter only as short-term residents; permanent residency is normally granted only after ten years of best behaviour.

Politicians and the media invoke the certainty of social instability should the number of foreigners rise. The justice ministry attributes high rates of serious crime to foreigners—though, when pressed, admits these are committed by illegal immigrants rather than legal ones. Newspaper editorials often give warning of the difficulties of assimilation.

For the first time, however, an 80-strong group of economically liberal politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), led by Hidenao Nakagawa, a former LDP secretary-general, is promoting a bold immigration policy. It calls for the number of foreigners to rise to 10m over the next half century, and for many of these immigrants to become naturalised Japanese. It wants the number of foreign students in Japan, currently 132,000, to rise to 1m. And it calls for whole families to be admitted, not just foreign workers as often at present.

The plan’s author, Hidenori Sakanaka, a former Tokyo immigration chief and now head of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, envisages a multicultural Japan in which, he says, reverence for the imperial family is an option rather than a defining trait of Japaneseness. It’s a fine proposal, but not very likely to fly in the current political climate, especially at a time when the opposition Democratic Party of Japan is fretting about the impact of immigration on pay for Japanese workers.

Still, a declining workforce is changing once-fixed views. Small- and medium-sized companies were the first, during the late 1980s, to call for more immigrant workers as a way to remain competitive. The country recruited Brazilians and Peruvians of Japanese descent to work in the industrial clusters around Tokyo and Nagoya in Aichi prefecture that serve the country’s giant carmakers and electronics firms.

Now the Keidanren, the association of big, dyed-in-the-wool manufacturers, is shifting its position. This autumn it called for a more active immigration policy to bring in highly skilled foreign workers, whose present number the Keidanren puts at a mere 180,000.

It also called for a revamp of Japan’s three-year training programmes, a big source of foreign workers. These are supposed to involve a year’s training and then two years’ on-the-job experience. In practice, they provide cheap labour (mainly from Asia) for the garment industry, farming and fish-processing. Workers, says Tsuyoshi Hirabayashi of the justice ministry, are often abused by employers demanding long hours and paying much less than the legal minimum wage. Meanwhile, foreigners coming to the end of the scheme often leave the country to return illegally. Mr Sakanaka calls for the training programme to be abolished.

Japanese conservatives, and many others, point to the South Americans of Japanese descent as a failed experiment. Even with Japanese names, they say, the incomers still stand out. Yet in Nishi-Koizumi in Gunma prefecture, just north of Tokyo, a town dominated by a Sanyo electronics plant, the picture is different. In the family-owned factory of Kazuya Sakamoto, which for decades has supplied parts to Sanyo, three-fifths of the 300 workers are foreigners, mainly Japanese-Brazilians.

The town is certainly down at heel by comparison with the nearby capital, though it has a mildly exotic flavour in other respects, including five tattoo parlours on the main street. Yet without foreigners, says Mr Sakamoto, it is very hard to imagine there would be a town—or his family company—at all. His father was the first to recruit foreigners, and the town changed the hospitals and the local schools to suit: there are special classes in Portuguese to bring overseas children up to speed in some subjects. The result, says Mr Sakamoto, is that foreign workers send word home about the opportunities, and other good workers follow. In future, he thinks, the country should be much more welcoming to young people from around Asia.

What this new impetus for change will achieve in the near term is another matter. Not only is policymaking absent and reformism on the defensive but the global slump is hitting Japanese industry particularly hard, and foreign workers foremost. In November industrial output fell by a record 8.1% compared to the previous month, and unemployment rose to 3.9%.

Mr Sakamoto says he has stopped recruiting for now, but plans no redundancies. Yet sackings of Brazilians have begun at the Toyota and Sony plants in Aichi prefecture. Some workers, says a Brazilian pastor there, have been thrown out of their flats too, with no money to return home. In Hamamatsu city, south of Tokyo, demand for foreign workers is shrinking so fast that a Brazilian school which had 180 students in 2002 closed down at the end of December; its numbers had fallen to 30. Much is made of Japan’s lifetime-employment system, but that hardly applies to foreigners.

ENDS

Japan Times on NJ workers: No money for food or return flight

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. Here’s a quick word from Eric Johnston on how the recession is biting deep into the NJ workforce. From, where else, the only source that does investigative journalism on a regular basis with full-time reporters on the ground. Debito

=================================

Hard times for foreign workers
Laid off by the thousands, some don’t have money for food, let alone enough to return home
By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer
The Japan Times: Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008

First of two parts

News photo
On the street: Chago Iwasa, a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian (center) hangs out with friends in front of a Brazilian food store in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in October. Iwasa lost his job at an auto parts company. KYODO PHOTO

OSAKA — With the global economic downturn, many Japanese workers face a not very Merry Christmas or Happy New Year as they lose their jobs or see wages or hours cut.

But the bad economy is hitting the country’s foreign workers particularly hard, with nongovernmental organization volunteers warning that many who have been laid off face not only losing their homes and access to education in their mother tongue, but also that emergency food rations are now being distributed to the most desperate cases.

“Of the nearly 300 people who attend my church, between 30 and 40 of them have already lost their jobs, and I expect more will soon be laid off as companies choose not to renew their contracts. Many of those who have lost their jobs have no place to live or get through the winter,” said Laelso Santos, pastor at a church in Karia, Aichi Prefecture, and the head of Maos Amigas, an NGO assisting foreign workers and their families.

“We’re currently distributing about 300 kg of food per month to foreigners nationwide who are out of work. I’m afraid the amount of food aid needed will increase as the number of out-of-work foreigners increases,” Santos said.

Over the past few months, layoffs among foreigners nationwide, especially those who are temp workers employed by auto parts manufacturing plants in the Kanto and Chubu regions, continue to grow as Toyota and other leading automobile firms struggle with declining demand. Many now out of work would return home if they could, but the rising cost of airplane tickets due to increased fuel surcharges makes it difficult.

“A lot of Brazilians who have lost their jobs would return if they could. But a ticket back costs nearly ¥200,000, which is money they don’t have,” Santos said.

Even those who at least for the moment still have jobs and want to stay are finding it difficult.

Erica Muramoto, a Gunma Prefecture-based Brazilian who teaches Japanese as a second language, arrived in Japan with her two children in 2001, a year after her husband, a Japanese-Brazilian, found work at Nihon Seiko, a car parts manufacturer.

“My husband and the rest of the foreign staff have just gotten a two-month contract that finishes at the end of January. After that, he doesn’t know what will happen to him or to his friends,” Muramoto said.

“I’m still working, but sadly some Nikkei Brazilian (Japanese-Brazilian) families here in Gunma are in trouble, and are almost without a place to live or without food,” she said, echoing the concerns of the Aichi-based Santos.

Of Japan’s roughly 2.2 million registered foreigners, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates about 930,000 were working legally or illegally as of the end of 2006. In some towns in the Chubu region, where many Japanese-Brazilians and others work in small auto parts manufacturers, foreigners constitute a significant percentage of the total population.

Nearly 11 percent of the 55,000 residents of Minokamo, Gifu Prefecture, are registered foreigners. Most are from Brazil, the Philippines or China. Minokamo currently serves as secretariat for a group of 26 municipalities throughout the country with a high proportion of foreign residents. On Dec. 17, the group called on the central government to provide emergency employment and lifestyle assistance to their foreign workers and their families.

A few days later, the central government announced that the plan to spur consumption by handing out cash payments nationwide would include foreigners.

Fumika Odajima, a Minokamo-based spokeswoman for the 26 municipalities, said Monday there was still no word on what further assistance, if any, the central government would provide in response to the group’s aid request.

Central government money, specifically for foreign residents, is needed because the local governments say they are struggling to meet the financial needs of growing numbers of jobless Japanese residents and have neither the financial nor personnel resources to adequately handle the needs of large numbers of jobless foreigners and their families.

In the meantime, they are offering services like language assistance because improved language skills would increase the foreigners’ chances of getting a job.

“In Minokamo, from early January, we’ll offer beginning and intermediate Japanese lessons to foreign residents seeking new jobs, and try to introduce them to potential employers,” Odajima said.

But the effectiveness of such efforts in a worsening economy is questionable and does little to solve the immediate crisis facing Japan’s laid-off foreign workers.

“Of course, Japanese workers who get laid off are suffering as well. But unlike foreign workers, most Japanese have friends and relatives they can turn to for immediate financial help, at least enough to ensure they have enough to eat,” Santos said. “(The foreign workers) desperately need financial help for their daily lives now, not for things like language assistance.”

The Japan Times: Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008
Go back to The Japan Times Online
 

German movie SOUR STRAWBERRIES preview, with Debito interview

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  I’ve been interviewed for a couple of documentary movies in the past.  The first one came out in Germany a few months ago.  Entitled SOUR STRAWBERRIES, about labor migration (“Japan’s hidden ‘guest workers'”) and human rights in Japan, one of the directors, Tilman Koenig, has this to say (in excerpt):

We had a German version of the documentary already done in September, and showed it in some cinemas arround here and had some very good reviews in newspapers. At this time we are working on the English and especially the Japanese version. Daniel [one of the other directors] will come to Japan in March 2009, so we are planning to show the documentary several times in March. The documentary is 58 Minutes long (45h of raw material) in the actual version…

The five-minute coming attractions reel is here, in English and Japanese:

http://www.vimeo.com/2276295

I’m thrilled to report that the interview with me was even in the coming attractions (watch to the end from the link above), which featured a little visit to Kabukichou where we uncovered some of the JAPANESE ONLY signs.  Apparently a little tete-a-tete I had with one of the exclusionary shopkeeps was also included in full in the final cut.

If I hear word of where those screenings will be in March, I’ll let readers of Debito.org know.  Happy Xmas Eve, everyone.  Debito

Jason’s blog on next employment steps in Japan for NJ

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. A blog called “Jason’s Random Thoughts” has a thoughtful post for those NJ facing restructuring in Japan. Since it’s a recent theme on Debito.org, I thought I’d post an excerpt and a link here.

I’ve posted (a bit irreverently) before on what sort of jobs are available for NJ, particularly those of the former Eikaiwa ilk. Read that here. As for those of you seriously facing a job loss and a reassessment of your life in Japan with the economic downturn, Jason’s blog post is food for thought. Props to Sendaiben.

Excerpt:

For almost two years we have heard how companies are shutting down all over the world in response to a slowing economy. Whether this is the ultimate result of corporate greed, globalization, out-sourcing, or something that can be understood only by leading economists, one thing is clear: our current employment is no guarantee of future security. Of course, facing the prospect of unemployment is scary for everyone, but it’s particularly painful when living in a foreign country.

Here in Japan, a number of private language schools have shut down due to this slowing economy, and others are struggling. The larger companies are starting to offer discounts as high as 40%, and language instructors are beginning to lower their private lesson rates in a bid to stave off their own financial troubles. But how long can a person do this before it’s no longer realistically viable?

This aside; hundreds of thousands of foreigners will be forced to ask one or both of the following questions:

  • Is it time to go back?
  • Am I prepared to take “living in Japan” to the next level if the current job disappears?

I’ve been thinking about the second question far more than the first, as I have no intentions on leaving Japan. Reiko and I are quite happy here, and we hope to stay for at least another quarter century before considering relocating. But many colleagues and acquaintances have been leaving the country in droves since the fall of Nova. Not only has it become more difficult to find work as a language instructor, but it has become next to impossible for many to secure a nice contract position that offers a healthy completion bonus.

So what options do foreign workers have if they wish to continue to live and work in Japan?

Assessing Our Strengths

Rest at http://www.j2fi.net/2008/12/10/unemployed-gaijin/

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

NUGW’s Louis Carlet on recent labor union moves

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. I don’t usually post these notifications (which come near daily from one of Japan’s most active labor unions, the National Union of General Workers) here. But this one is meaty and timely enough to warrant everyone’s attention. Have a look and see if there’s anything here you’d like to check out. I fully support Louis Carlet and labor unions in Japan, and if you’re not in one, you’re not going to have your employment rights protected in Japan protected, full stop. More on why I can say that with such conviction here.

Over to Louis. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=======================================

From: nugw DOT carlet AT ezweb.ne.jp
Subject: [Nambu FWC] Berlitz Sues Union Execs
Date: December 9, 2008 4:52:57 PM JST
To: action AT nambufwc DOT org

Sisters and Brothers

Three weeks after we sued Berlitz for illegal strike-breaking, management has sued two Nambu executives and all five Begunto execs for damages caused by what Berlitz claims is an illegal strike.
Execs received subpoenas today to appear before court. Management prefers to pursue frivolous litigation rather than settle 2008 shunto demands for a 4.6% base-pay hike and a one-month bonus.

Management hopes to intimidate and divide us, but we will stand together to fight these suits and protect our right to strike. Email me and ask what you can do to help our Begunto brothers and sisters.

Meanwhile come to the following events.

1 Little Garden Labor Commission Talks
 Friday Dec. 12 at 10:00am at Tokyo Labor Commission

Take Oedo Line to Tochomae Station, Exit 3A, up two escalators, pass parsport office, up Elevator Bank H to 34th floor. Check bulletin board for Life Communications Corp and “roh” for room number.

The union has Little Garden on the ropes. Not only has management agreed to reinstate Joyce and pay partial back wages, they have also agreed to help with her visa, pay a penalty if she doesn’t get the visa, to deduct her monthly dues from wages, to give us a union-only bulletin board and even to let the union hold annual recruiting orientations at Little Garden.
Come and support Joyce during what may be final resolution talks. There has been a surprising new development in this case as well.

2 Govt Talks on Foreigners’ Rights

Monday, Dec. 15, 9am to 5:30pm. Upper House Bldg – Sangi-in Kaikan. Take Marunouchi Line to Kokkai-Gijidomae Station. Free simultaneous interpreting with machines provided.

Ever want to speak your mind to the government? Now’s our chance. We will talk tough directly with the various ministries (actually mid-level bureaucrats) regarding abuse of the foreign trainee/intern system as well as fingerprinting, teacher’s labor rights, and many other issues that affect foreign residents.

3 [Anonymous teacher’s] Second Court Date

Thursday Dec. 18 at 10am. Tokyo District Court – Take Marunouchi Line to Kasumigaseki Station, Exit A1. TDC is right there. Go to 13th floor. Room number to be announced.

As many of you know Anonymous Teacher’s first court date was anti-climactic because St. Mary’s management didn’t show up. They are unlikely to make that mistake again so come out and show AT your support.

4 Berlitz Labor Commission

Dec. 22 at 3:45pm at South Exit of JR Shinjuku Station

AND

Same day at 4:45pm at Tokyo Labor Commission

Take Oedo Line to Tochomae Station, Exit 3A, up two escalators, pass parsport office, up Elevator Bank H to 34th floor. Check bulletin board for Berlitz Japan and “roh” for room number.

Come on down to the first hearing in the now-famous Union vs. Berlitz strike-busting case.

Berlitz claims our historic strike is illegal. We say Berlitz strike-busting is illegal … AND unconstitutional.

Come support our heroic, striking sisters and brothers at Berlitz and watch the sparks fly (albeit in a subdued, orderly and courtroom like manner).
The hearing at the commission starts just before 5pm but we may have an action near Shinjuku Station just prior so come to both.

See You All There!

Louis Carlet
NUGW Tokyo Nambu
========================
Nambu 2008 Bonenkai/Oyster Bar
2000 yen, Nambu HQ Shimbashi
Thursday December 18 6:30pm-
—
NUGW Tokyo Nambu – Nambu FWC
http://nambufwc.org

Mainichi: Brazilian ethnic school closing due to NJ job cuts

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. Spent the afternoon asleep, feeling a bit better, thanks. Not used to being sick (only have gege illnesses once every few years or so), so it was a bit of a shock. Anyway, let me get to the article I meant to blog today:

I mentioned yesterday about how the NJ workers are the first to go in any wave of job cuts (no wonder — very few NJ ever get promotion beyond “temp”-style contract labor, despite working for years at full-time jobs). Now here’s an article in the Mainichi about how that’s having a negative impact on the NJ community, particularly the education of their children.  Ethnic schools are starting to close as tuition dries up.  What next for the NJ communities, always contributing yet kept as a mere appendage to the “real members” of this society?  Courtesy of Silvio M.

Arudou Debito convalescing.

==================================

Japan’s economic woes force Brazilian school to drop out
 Mainichi Daily News, December 5, 2008

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2008/12/05/20081205p2a00m0na006000c.html

Students at Escola Prof Benedito in Naka-ku, Hamamatsu. (Mainichi)

Students at Escola Prof Benedito in Naka-ku, Hamamatsu. (Mainichi)

HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka — A Brazilian school in Hamamatsu, a city with a large population of foreign laborers, will be closing its doors at the end of this month. Escola Prof Benedito fell into financial crisis as the sharp decline in the economy forced many of its students’ parents out of factory jobs, leaving them unable to pay tuition.

As of Thursday, Escola Prof Benedito had 30 students between the ages of four and 15. Like most Brazilian schools in Japan, it is unaccredited and receives no public funding from local and national governments, operating on a monthly tuition of approximately 26,000 yen that it collects from each student.

Unpaid tuition began to increase in September when a growing number of parents started experiencing layoffs, and by October, the school had fallen into a serious financial rut. At the end of that month, the school found that 15 of its students — or half the student population — were planning to move back to Brazil or transfer to a less costly public school next year.

Principal Benedito Vilela Garcia, 55, says about his decision to close the school, “I’ve determined that the situation will be worse next year. Closing the school at the end of December, the same time the Brazilian school year ends, will cause the least trouble for students under the circumstances.”

Garcia started the school in his apartment in Hamamatsu in 1996. At its peak in 2002, the school had around 180 students. In 2006, the school purchased and relocated to the five-story building it currently occupies.

“It makes me sad when the children ask me why we’re closing.” The principal himself is planning to sell the building and return to Brazil with his family next January.

ENDS

=========================

ブラジル人学校：年内で閉鎖…親が失業、月謝払えず　浜松
毎日新聞　2008年12月5日
http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20081205k0000m040154000c.html

　外国人労働者が多い浜松市で１２年の歴史を持つブラジル人学校「エスコーラ・プロフ・ベネジット」が、１２月末で閉鎖する。急速な景気悪化で、工場の派遣労働者などとして働く保護者の多くが職を失い、経営難に陥った。【平林由梨】

　４日現在、同校には４歳から１５歳の児童・生徒３０人が通う。ほとんどのブラジル人学校と同じく無認可で、国や自治体からの公的支援は受けておらず、生徒１人あたり約２万６０００円の月謝で運営している。

　解雇される保護者が増えた９月ごろから月謝の滞納が多くなり、１０月は深刻な赤字になった。１０月下旬、保護者に来年の予定を聞いたところ、半数の１５人がブラジルに帰国予定か、学費が安い公立学校への転入を考えていることが分かった。

　ベネジット・ビレラ・ガルシア校長（５５）は「来年はもっと悪くなると予想できた。（ブラジルの）学年末を迎える１２月末で学校を閉めるのが子供たちに一番迷惑がかからない」と閉鎖を決断した。

　ガルシア校長は９６年、浜松市の自宅アパートで学校を始めた。ピークの０２年には約１８０人の児童・生徒を抱えた。０６年には、現在地に５階建てビルを買って移転した。

　「子供たちに『なぜやめるの』と聞かれると、悲しくなる」。肩を落とす校長自身も来年１月、ビルを売って家族とブラジルへ帰国するという。
ends
 

Terrie’s Take on how NJ workers are the first to go in adverse economic conditions

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  I’ve been sitting on this information for over a month, sorry, but here’s another article from the ever-informative Terrie’s Take, regarding how the economic downturn is influencing Japanese companies’ employment decisions.

As might be expected, at the first sign of any trouble, the first to be fired are the NJ workers.  Those brought in under a questionable visa regime from 1990 to save Japanese industry from “hollowing out”, turns out the cost-cutting long-hour NJ workers have the least job security.  People might argue that laying off foreigners first happens anywhere, but Japan has stricter glass ceilings by nationality.  Employers in Japan have issues with letting foreigners (except maybe a few token high-profile bosses) actually graduate out of contract labor (as can be seen most effectively in Japan university system) into becoming “real employees”; heaven forbid if NJ in Japanese companies actually got managerial roles over fellow Japanese co-workers.  Even the Japanese Supreme Court has ruled that that kind of discrimination is legal.  Anyway, Terrie focusses upon the restructuring numbers below.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

////////////////////////////////////

From: terrie@mailman.japaninc.com
Subject: Terrie’s Take 492 — Job Cuts in Full Swing, ebiz news from Japan
Date: November 3, 2008 12:49:14 AM JST

* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E ‘S T A K E * * * * * * *
A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd.
(http://www.terrie.com)

General Edition Sunday, November 2, 2008 Issue No. 492

SUBSCRIBE to, UNSUBSCRIBE from Terrie’s Take at:
http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie

The global nature of the financial meltdown over the last 4 weeks has meant three sure outcomes for major businesses here in Japan: 1) there is no market in which to seek safe haven, 2) even the healthiest of large companies is having to batten down the hatches for a rough 2009 — this is of course what is killing the stock market, and 3), a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.

The job-cutting aspect has already started in a number of Japanese manufacturers, but looking at the employment figures put out by the government, you wouldn’t know it. This is because, we suspect, Japanese firms are cutting the easiest-to-trim sections of their workforces first, and thus the numbers won’t become apparent until the cuts go deeper into their core full-timer workforces early next year.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the nation’s jobless rate actually fell, from 4.2% in August to 4% in September — with about 2.71m people out of work. This means that the workforce currently numbers around 63.95m people.

As with most things, the USA is much quicker to reflect the reality of the current turmoil, and there the unemployment is already at around 6.1% of the workforce, with about 479,000 new jobless registering last month. This is significantly up from the 332,000 who were unemployed a year ago, although less than the peak 499,000 registering after hurricanes Ike and Gustav hit several months back. Apparently U.S. companies have already cut 760,000 jobs in the last 9 months.

So is unemployment really down in Japan? Or is this the calm before the storm?

Experts in the USA are predicting that the unemployment rate there for next year will rise to 8% or more, a surge of 30% over the current rate. Now, 400,000 newly unemployed is already considered a recessionary environment in the U.S., so with even more people set to lose their jobs, fear will increase and consumer spending will drop even further. Most Japanese exporters either make products for global consumers, or tools for companies that do, and either way they’re going to be hit by the downturn. Although the delay in layoffs may be longer, because Japanese firms are reluctant to take the PR hit that comes with layoffs, the fact is that there is already a precedent for letting people go in an acceptable manner — being set by Matsushita and others back in the late 1990’s. So we believe that the job cuts are not long in coming.

Or, more correctly, perhaps we should say that the job cuts are already happening, but the local media is downplaying the trend…

First to go have been the foreign workers in overseas plants. Two weeks ago, Nissan announced that it would cut its workforce by 1,680 people at its Barcelona assembly plant — one of two major plants the company has in Europe. This is almost 1/3 of all the people working at that facility and represents the halting of one of the 3 production shifts. Sales of vehicles in Spain have plunged 24% in the last 9 months, and when the numbers finally come out at the end of the year, we expect that sales for this current quarter might be almost non-existent. Indeed, Peugot has said that it expects a 17% fall in auto sales in Q4 in Western Europe. We think the final numbers will be worse and Japanese firms will share blood shed.

Certainly Toyota knows this, and so the company is laying off another category of “outsiders” — non-permanent workers at its factories here in Japan. Apparently the company employs 6,800 contract workers, also known as fixed-term workers, a number which is 2,000 down from March and 4,000 down from the peak of 10,800 employed in 2004. Back then, non-permanents accounted for 30% of the company’s total workforce. The thing about these contract workers is that so long as they are employed for less than 36 months, then the company can flexibility lay them off in times of hardship — as will many other companies around the country now that Toyota has set the pace.

In addition, in Q2, June-August this year, Toyota laid off an extra 8,000 temporary workers — for a total of around 10,000 redundancies so far this year. Are you seeing these numbers in the major newspapers? Not really. This is probably because Japan’s number one advertiser is sitting on an estimated JPY4trn (US$40bn) of cash reserves (not including other assets) which make it difficult for the company to defend its actions in the Japanese context of being needed to be seen to be looking after your own. In this respect, the message clearly is that you need to be a full-time employee to be considered “one of the Toyota family”. Otherwise you’re just a squatter.

Now that Toyota, a core company in the Japanese industrial complex, has been able to lay off so many people and yet has drawn no protests from the politicians, bureaucrats, or press, this portends badly for a large number of Japanese working in other companies and who are also not full-time employees. Some readers may recall that out of 64m (approx.) workers in Japan, a full 33.5% (as of 2007) are now part-timers, contract employees, temps, freeters, or otherwise non-permanent workers. For these people, the on-going downturn represents a high likelihood that many of them will be handed termination notices over the next 3-6 months.

However, they can’t afford to not work. According to a recent Reuters article, there are now more than 10m “working poor” in Japan. The term apparently refers to those earning less than JPY2m (US$20,000) a year.

Lastly, it surprised us to learn in an AP article that the government does NOT track the number of jobless foreigners. Surprising if only because we’re all paying taxes and unemployment benefits. Maybe these aren’t counted either?

So, given that there are at least 755,000 foreigners (as of 2006) working here in Japan, and probably another 350,000 or so working illegally, you can bet that this group will be another at-risk segment to lose their jobs. The AP article says that the government HELLO WORK centers used to get about 700 foreigners looking for jobs each month, but in August due to the massive layoffs by auto manufacturers, the numbers of foreign newly jobless people doubled to 1,500 a month. Local officials note that the number of Japanese applicants has not changed appreciably (yet) — so clearly Toyota, Honda, and Yamaha are dumping on their Brazilian-Japanese and Chinese workers first.

Could be a bleak Christmas for many people.

ends

JALT TLT: James McCrostie on NJ job insecurity at Japan’s universities

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  Here’s a nice short 500-word summary of one issue I’ve been covering for more than ten years now:  Academic Apartheid in Japan’s Universities.  Reprinted with permission of the author.  Arudou Debito in transit

===============================

Behind the Music: An explanation of the university shuffle
James McCrostie
Published in the April 2007 issue of JALT’s The Language Teacher
in the Job Info Center column (p. 45 – 46).

Working at Japanese universities resembles musical chairs. Every year the music starts and instructors with expiring contracts run around looking for a new job. Most universities hiring foreigners full-time offer one-year contracts, renewable three or four times. Contrary to popular belief, universities don’t cap renewals at three or four because if a teacher works long enough they can’t be fired. Schools remain safe as long as they state the number of renewals and a few have contracts renewable up to ten years.

To most thinking people, forcing instructors to leave every few years appears short sighted. Yet, university and government officials have their own reasons for preferring term-limits.

Keeping costs down is one reason. The penny pinching began in December 1992 when Ministry of Education officials phoned all the national universities and warned them against keeping foreign teachers in the higher pay brackets. Schools soon sacked foreigners over the age of 50 (most had been promised a job until retirement), replaced them with teachers on capped contracts, and refused to hire anyone over the age of 35 or 40 (Hall, 1994). Yet, despite a 1997 law allowing universities to employ Japanese faculty on term-limited contracts, the use of capped contracts to economize, while increasing, remains largely limited to foreign staff (Arudou & McLaughlin, 2001).

Attitudes towards foreign teachers reveal the more important reason for the caps. University and Ministry of Education bureaucrats regard foreigners as models of foreign culture with expiry dates stamped on their foreheads rather than real teachers who have a long-term role to play. For example, Niigata University’s president admitted wanting foreigners “churning over constantly” (JPRI Staff, 1996). In an Asahi Shimbun editorial, Shinichiro Noriguchi, a University of Kitakyushu English professor, contends “native speakers who have lived in Japan for more than ten years tend to have adapted to the system and have become ineffective as teachers” (Noriguchi, 2006).

Ministry of Education officials justified firing older foreigners from national universities by arguing younger instructors would be better examples of American culture (Hall, 1998). Nearly a decade later, Ministry bureaucrats justified term-limits by contending they “encouraged the movement of teachers to other universities which was of benefit to both teachers and the universities” (Cleary, 2001). Exactly how they benefited anyone was left unsaid.

If nothing else such attitudes are at least consistent, changing little since the Meiji Era. Viewing foreigners as disposable goes back to the 1903 sacking of Lafcadio Hearn from what is now Tokyo University.

Are the caps discriminatory? While nearly every Japanese instructor receives tenure from the day they are hired and nearly every foreigner is shown the door after a few years the Supreme Court, with a little legal legerdemain, ruled that such hiring practices don’t violate the Labor Standards Law which applies only after someone has been hired (van Dresser, 2001).

Luckily, some universities do appreciate that employing foreigners permanently can benefit a school. So what’s a foreigner in search of job stability to do? Getting a doctorate couldn’t hurt but the key is Japanese fluency. According to activist Arudou Debito “you’ve simply got to understand what’s going on around you” (Arudou, personal communication). Then again, neither provided much protection during the purge of the 1990’s.

———————-
References

Arudou, D. and McLaughlin, J. (2001). Employment conditions in the university: Update autumn 2001. JALT Kitakyushu Presentation. Retrieved January 20, 2007 from http://www.debito.org/JALTninkisei112401.html

Cleary, F. (2001). Taking it to the Ministry of Education: Round three. Pale Journal. 7(1). Retrieved January 20, 2007 from http://www.debito.org/HELPSpring2001.html#kumamoto

Hall, I. (1994). Academic Apartheid at Japan’s National Universities. JPRI Working Paper No. 3. Retrieved January 21, 2007 from http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp3.html

Hall, I. (1998) Cartels of the Mind: Japan’s Intellectual Closed Shop. New York: W. W. Norton.

JPRI Staff. (1996). Foreign teachers in Japanese universities: An update.
JPRI Working Paper, 24. Retrieved January 20, 1997 from http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp24.html

Noriguchi, S. (2006). English education leaves much to be desired. Asahi Shimbun, Sep. 15, 2006. Retrieved January 20, 2007 from http://www.asahi.com/english/Heraldasahi/TKY200609150129.html

van Dresser, S. (2001). On the employment rights of repeatedly renewed contract workers. PALE Journal, 7(1). Retrieved January 20, 2007 from http://www.debito.org/HELPSpring2001.html#vandresser
ENDS

FYI: People working for American companies in Japan are covered by US Civil Rights Law

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog.  Here’s a note on a subject that may help people working for American multinational companies.  They have double labor rights/civil rights protections — both American and Japanese.  And apparently the American government links to the civil rights authorities of other countries/unions like Canada and the EU.  More on the EEOC site.  Further, HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS, AND IMMIGRANTS has been helping people define their terms and anchor their arguments.  Happy to hear.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

================================
 
Did you happen to know that U.S. civil rights law (equal employment opportunities, or EEO) applies to U.S. citizens working abroad for U.S. multinational companies?
 
http://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeo/overview_coverage.html
 
under:  “Multinational Employers”

This is a heads up to the expat community.    Very few know that if they are working for the Japanese sub of an American company, and feel they are being discriminated or not given equal opportunities (based on a U.S. understanding of what that is!), they can go to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) in the US.

EEOC Charge mediation is confidential.

http://www.eeoc.gov/mediate/facts.html

Very few American-parent companies here tell their workers about the EEO coverage.   Basically, Congress wrote the law to hold the American parent liable for the activities of the overseas company that it controls.   So one possible remedy is filing an EEO complaint, which can be done over the internet.  Employers are supposed to tell the employees about these coverages and remedies — it says so in the 1964 act.

One thing that should also be pointed out is that there is a statute of limitations on EEOC charges.    Usually this is 300 days, but in some instances might only be 180 days.    It isn’t clear, though, that if the company does not NOTIFY you of the coverage, whether these limitations would apply.  So to be on the safe side, assume 180 days.

There is also a non-retaliation provision:   Form 5 information page states:
 
NOTICE OF NON-RETALIATION REQUIREMENTS
 
“Please notify EEOC or state and local agency where you filed your charge if retaliation is taken against you or others who oppose discrimination or cooperate in any investigation or lawsuit concerning this charge.   Under Section 704(a) of Title VII,  . . . [etc.], it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against present or former employees or job applicants, for an employment agency to discriminate against anyone, or for a union to discriminate against its members or membership applicants, because they have opposed any practice made unlawful by the statutes, or because they have made a charge, testified, assisted or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under the laws . . . “
 
HANDBOOK has been very handy in explaining Japanese labor law, since it is not exactly the subject of substantial English-language literature in other countries or languages.   In addition, letting people around Japan know about the EEO coverage, it helps anyone who is caught in a similar bind.  Japanese labor law investigators don’t seem to be all that vigilant when it comes to foreigners — not only language barriers, but also a sense that the foreign person “really isn’t supposed to be here” in the first place.

ENDS

Negative survey of NJ employers by J headhunting company “Careercross” to make “employers see their own bias”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Turning the keyboard over to member of The Community, about an issue recently uncovered:

===================================

Date: November 6, 2008 12:35:18 AM JST
From BCD at The Community

Community,

Below is a survey I just saw on Careercross.com, which, if you don’t know it, is a job placement site.

CareerCross provides information on bilingual employment in Japan for bilingual Japanese and English speakers, plus an invaluable resource for non-Japanese Living and Working in Japan.
http://www.careercross.com/

Maybe I’m just being overly sensitive or something, but something about these questions, targeted at foreign employers of Japanese seems wrong.

I can only imagine that if a similar survey were asked in any other country, where any racial group as asked to rate and compare another racial group, it would cause a hell of a fuss. Pick any two racial groups… the kinds of questions asked here seem to be in really poor judgment.

What do you guys think? Is there an unsavoury form of cultural insensitivity being displayed here or am I seeing something that isn’t there?

The questions are as follows:

1. How comfortable are you working with Japanese subordinates?
Comfortable
Somewhat comfortable
Neither comfortable, nor uncomfortable
Somewhat uncomfortable
Uncomfortable

* This question requires an answer.

* 2. Can you rely on Japanese subordinates?
I can rely on them
I can rely on them somewhat
I can not rely on them so much
I can not rely on them

* This question requires an answer.

* 3. Do you have occasions where you are not able to understand what
Japanese subordinates really think?
Frequently
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

* This question requires an answer.

* 4. Please compare Japanese subordinates with those of your
nationality. Please choose 1 answer from each of the following questions.
* 4a. Work Speed
Faster
Somewhat faster
Neither faster, nor slower
Somewhat slower
Slower

* This question requires an answer.

* 4b. Quality of work
More careful
Somewhat more careful
Neither more careful, nor more careless
Somewhat more careless
More careless

* This question requires an answer.

* 4c. Creativity
More creative
Somewhat more creative
Neither more, nor less creative
Somewhat less creative
Less creative

* This question requires an answer.

* 4d. Logicality
Logical
Somewhat logical
Neither more, nor less logical
Somewhat less logical
Less logical

* This question requires an answer.

* 4e. Risk taking
Accepts challenges
Somewhat accepts challenges
Neither accepts, nor avoids challenges
Somewhat avoids challenges
Avoids challenges

* This question requires an answer.

* 4f. Attitude in discussions
Unafraid of conflict
Somewhat unafraid of conflict
Neither unafraid, nor afraid of conflict
Somewhat afraid of conflict
Afraid of conflict

* This question requires an answer.

* 4g. Negotiation skills
Better at negotiating
Somewhat better at negotiating
Neither better, nor worse at negotiating
Somewhat worse at negotiating
Worse at negotiating

* This question requires an answer.

* 4h. Problem solving skills
Better at problem solving
Somewhat better at problem solving
Neither better, nor worse at problem solving
Somewhat worse at problem solving
Worse at problem solving

* This question requires an answer.

* 4i. Leadership skills
More willing to take leadership
Somewhat more willing to take leadership
Neither more, nor less willing to take leadership
Somewhat less willing to take leadership
Less willing to take leadership

* This question requires an answer.

* 4j. Effectiveness
More effective
Somewhat more effective
Neither more, nor less effective
Somewhat less effective
Less effective

* This question requires an answer.

* 4k. Cooperativeness
More cooperative
Somewhat more cooperative
Neither more, nor less cooperative
Somewhat less cooperative
Less cooperative

* This question requires an answer.

* 4l. Adapts to change
More flexible
Somewhat more flexible
Neither more, nor less flexible
Somewhat less flexible
Less flexible

* This question requires an answer.

* 4m. Assertiveness
More assertive
Somewhat more assertive
Neither more, nor less assertive
Somewhat less assertive
Less assertive

* This question requires an answer.

* 4n. Communication skills
Better communication skills
Somewhat better communication skills
Neither better, nor worse communication skills
Somewhat worse communication skills
Worse communication skills

* This question requires an answer.

* 5. What do you find difficult in working with Japanese subordinates?
Please choose as many as you like. If you have other examples please
write them below.
Slow work
Careless work
Lack of creativity
Lack of logic
Avoids challenges
Afraid of conflict in discussions
Poor at negotiating
Poor at problem solving
Lack of leadership
Ineffective
Uncooperative
Lack of flexibility (Poor at adapting to change)
Lack of assertiveness
Poor communication skills

Other

* This question requires an answer.

* 6. If you were to hire Japanese subordinates what qualities would you
look for? Please choose as many as you like. If you have other examples
please write them below.
Fast work
Careful work
Creativity
Logic
Accepts challenges
Unafraid of conflicts in discussion
Better at problem solving
Leadership
Effectiveness
Cooperativeness
Flexibility (Adapts to change)
Assertiveness
Good communication skills

Other

* This question requires an answer.

* 7. If you had to hire one candidate from 2 who had the same
competency, which would you hire: a Japanese candidate with fluent
English ability or a non-Japanese candidate with fluent Japanese ability?
Definitely the Japanese candidate with fluent English ability
Preferably the Japanese candidate with fluent English ability
No preference
Preferably the non-Japanese candidate with fluent Japanese ability
Definitely the non-Japanese candidate with fluent Japanese ability

* This question requires an answer.

8. Please tell us the reason for your answer of the previous question.
* 9. Do you think Japanese business people would do well globally?
Yes, they would.
They probably would.
Cannot say either way.
They probably would not.
No, they would not.

* This question requires an answer.

10. What do you think is necessary for Japanese business people to do
well globally in the future?
* 11. Finally, do you feel threatened by Japanese business people taking
your position?
Yes, I feel threatened.
Yes, I feel somewhat threatened.
No, I don’t feel very threatened.
No, I don’t feel threatened.

===========================

FURTHER COMMENTARY FROM THE COMMUNITY::

Totally agree this survey is very biased, especially question 5 as BCD pointed out. I have two Japanese subordinates – Kondo-kun tends to be a little slow in reporting changes and Adachi-kun tends not to express any opinions at meetings, but I couldn’t say anything about Japanese subordinates in general from that.  Kaoru

===========================

FOLLOWUP FROM BCD:

After having slept on it, and seeing your comments, I’m a little more convinced that the questions are inappropriate and Careercoss should probably be called on it.

Two main reasons: If such a survey were conducted in Japanese by employers of foreigners, we’d be up in arms about it. And the fact that the tone is overwhelmingly negative. Question 5 does not offer any way of opting out of a negative impression of Japanese employees, and is chock full of stereotypes.

I don’t know how to find the survey online if you are not a member. It was offered to me via email because I’ve had a resume on Careercross for a while.

The link they sent me was:
 http://www.careercross.com/en/questionnaire_screener.php
I’m considering getting in touch with them to make known that their survey is poorly executed and has the impression of bias against Japanese. If anyone has suggestions on what might be said, or what parts pointed out, please let me know.

===========================

COMMENTARY FROM GM:

Thank you for the link, because that helped me look for something that seems to me to be very important when sending out any survey — what is the purpose of the survey. I don’t see any reason given for the survey on either page.

As for Q5, what really concerns me is there is no place to check a block which is a positive response. 

“What troubles do/did you have …?” — How about allowing us the opportunity to check a box that indicates, “None.” 

All the answers are negative, unless one were to put a positive answer in “other”. I would think a “positive box” should go at the very top as a first choice. Otherwise, we get the impression that it’s a foregone conclusion that us non-Japanese folks always have negative views of our Japanese subordinates.

Okay, that’s my take on Q5, but I have other concerns about this survey, so I just called their offices about ten minutes ago. The lady I eventually spoke with indicated that the person responsible for the survey was not there to answer my question about what the purpose of the survey is and why there is no positive answer available for Q5, so I gave her an email address to let the person send me an answer. I declined the offer of a phone call. The lady seemed to understand my questions just fine, but we may yet have some problem with my questions being communicated through her to the person having to answer. *If* that person will answer.

Is that a practical good first step — some kind of initial contact with two basic questions, and then we can decide if and how to go further? I suppose it’s a bit late to ask, as I’ve already done it.

By the way, I think going much “further” is going to be necessary. For one thing, if one is to send out a survey that is essentially only going to cover negative aspects of an issue the introduction to the survey must explain why.

Let’s say I send out a survey titled, “What Don’t You Like About GM.” I think I should preface that survey with some reason why I assume all of you don’t like GM.

===========================

RESPONSE FROM CAREERCROSS.COM TO A QUERY FROM GM

date: Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 1023 AM

subject: CareerCross survey

To: GM

Thank you very much for contacting us on Friday and for taking part in our survey.
 
This survey is an important part in understanding the attitudes and perceptions of foreign employers as it applies to their Japanese hires. Actually the survey is, as you had pointed out, slightly on the negative side which we feel is important in getting straight answers about negative perceptions that a foreign boss may have. We do not think that a “fell good” survey would not bring out information of value.

Please not that it was myself and our Japanese staff, with the help of our foreign staff, that came up with these questions. We hope this survey will be useful for both employers to see their own bias as well as Japanese working at companies for a foreigner.
 
Thank you again for participating in our survey.  Best regards,
Masayuki Saito
Director COO
C.C.Consulting K.K.
Tel: 03-5728-1861 Fax: 03-5728-1862
ENDS

===========================

RESPONSE FROM BCD:

Points that I think need to be addressed in a response to the CareerCross CEO:

1. A “feel good” survey is not the only alternative to a negative one. It is entirely possible to create a merely objective survey.

2. Any market researcher knows that asking leading questions gets the answers that the respondents were led to. If they want genuine and meaningful result, then they necessarily should allow clear options for both positive and neutral responses, not only negative.

3. The old “Japanese think so too” argument is as tired as ever. Just because the boss had some Japanese people work on the survey doesn’t justify anything about it. Not only is it unclear whether or not the Japanese or non-Japanese involved honestly felt the freedom to construct the survey differently than what their higher ups wanted, in any country and culture one will find attitudes of criticism of local norms that can be exploited. Just because I can find a Canadian that says Canadians suck doesn’t make it a more accurate description of Canada.

I could rip apart this guy’s justification of this survey even more, but I’m a little tired right now.

GM, this time, before firing off any more responses to CareerCross, maybe wait a bit until we’ve had time to flesh out some consistent points. The whole advantage of a group like this is the collective wisdom.

===========================

Okay, Debito.org readers, time for some collective wisdom… Comments please.  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Japan Times Zeit Gist on PM Aso’s connection to WWII forced labor

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  If people want to become world leaders, it’s only natural that they will have their past investigated.  But according to the article below which came out yesterday in the Japan Times, PM Aso hasn’t exactly come clean about his family’s wartime past using forced labor.  Fascinating article follows from, where else, the Japan Times Zeit Gist Column.  Arudou Debito in Tokyo

===============================

The Japan Times, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008

THE ZEIT GIST

 

 

WWII forced labor issue dogs Aso, Japanese firms

By WILLIAM UNDERWOOD
Special to The Japan Times

After evading the issue for more than two years, Taro Aso conceded to foreign reporters on the eve of becoming prime minister that Allied POWs worked at his family’s coal mine in Kyushu during World War II.

 

News photo
Labor pains: Prime Minister Taro Aso was president of Aso Cement Co., the successor firm to Aso Mining, in the 1970s. Hundreds of Allied POWs and thousands of Koreans conscripts were forced to work for the firm during the war. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO

 

But Aso’s terse admission fell far short of the apology overseas veterans’ groups have demanded, while refocusing attention on Japan’s unhealed legacy of wartime forced labor by Asians and Westerners.

Calls for forced labor reparations are growing louder due to Prime Minister Aso’s personal ties to the brutal practice, as well as his combative reputation as a historical revisionist. The New York Times recently referred to “nostalgic fantasies about Japan’s ugly past for which Mr. Aso has become well known.” Reuters ran an article headlined “Japan’s PM haunted by family’s wartime past.”

Three hundred Allied prisoners of war (197 Australians, 101 British and two Dutch) were forced to dig coal without pay for Aso Mining Co. in 1945. Some 10,000 Korean labor conscripts worked under severe conditions in the company’s mines between 1939 and 1945; many died and most were never properly paid.

Taro Aso was president of Aso Cement Co., the successor firm to Aso Mining, during the 1970s and oversaw publication of a 1,000-page corporate history that omitted all mention of Allied POWs. Aso’s father headed Aso Mining during the war. The family’s business empire is known as Aso Group today and is run by Aso’s younger brother, with the prime minister’s wife serving on the board of directors. The company has never commented on the POW issue, nor provided information about Aso Mining’s Korean workforce despite requests from the South Korean government.

Newspapers in Australia and the United Kingdom vigorously reported Aso Mining’s use of POWs in 2006. But with Aso then at its helm, Japan’s Foreign Ministry cast doubt on the overseas media accounts and challenged journalists to provide evidence.

Last year The Japan Times described how, in early 1946, the Japanese government presented Allied war crimes investigators with the Aso Company Report, detailing living and working conditions for the 300 prisoners. Yet Foreign Minister Aso continued to sidestep the POW controversy even after his office was provided with a copy of the report, which is written on Aso Mining stationery and bears company seals.

Courts in Japan and former Allied nations have rejected legal claims by ex-POWs, so the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway have all compensated their own surviving POWs. Hundreds of British and Dutch POWs and family members have made reconciliation-style visits to Japan in recent years as part of the Tokyo-sponsored Peace, Friendship and Exchange Initiative. Stiffed by the U.S. government, American POWs have also been excluded from Japan’s reconciliation schemes — a situation they say Prime Minister Aso has a special responsibility to correct.

Some 700,000 Korean civilians — including teenage girls — were brought to Japan to work for private firms through various means of coercion. Hundreds of thousands of other Koreans were forced to perform harsh labor elsewhere in Japan’s empire or conscripted into the Japanese military.

South Korea’s 85-member Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization Under Japanese Imperialism began work in 2005. Legislation passed last year will provide national payments of up to $20,000 to former military and civilian conscripts and family members. The measure also calls for individually tailored compensation based on unpaid wages, pension contributions and related benefits owed to Korean workers but now held by the Bank of Japan.

Seoul needs Japanese cooperation in the form of name rosters and details about the BOJ financial deposits in order to fully implement its compensation plan. Repatriating the hundreds of sets of Korean remains currently stored in Japan, many of them belonging to military and civilian conscripts killed during the war, is another key aim of ongoing reparations work. Company records would greatly aid the process of identifying remains that have been located in temples and municipal charnel houses around the country.

The Japanese government has been cooperating fitfully on “humanitarian grounds” in the case of military conscription, supplying Korean officials with some wartime records and returning the remains of 101 Korean soldiers to Seoul last January. But the Japanese side is mostly stonewalling on civilian conscripts like those at Aso Mining.

Japanese officials contend, rather implausibly, that they do not know how many Korean civilians were conscripted or how many died in the custody of private companies because the state was never directly involved. South Korea’s truth commission criticized Aso Group and Foreign Minister Aso in 2005 for failing to supply information.

“I have no intention to explain,” Japan’s chief diplomat told a Japanese reporter at the time. Earlier this month, Diet member Shokichi Kina asked Prime Minister Aso whether any data about Aso Mining was ever given to South Korea. Aso replied that his administration will not disclose how individual corporations have responded to Korean inquiries.

Noriaki Fukudome of the Truth-Seeking Network for Forced Mobilization, a citizens group based in Fukuoka, has been centrally involved in advancing the South Korean truth commission’s work within Japan.

Aso Group, says Fukudome, “has an obligation to actively cooperate with returning remains and providing records because it was one of the companies that employed the most forced laborers. But Japanese companies are keeping a lid on the whole forced labor issue. In the unlikely event that Prime Minister Aso was to direct Aso Cement (now Aso Lafarge Cement since its merger with a French conglomerate) to actively face the forced labor problem, it would have a huge effect on all Japanese companies.”

Fukudome pointed to Japan’s conformist corporate culture as one reason why very few of the hundreds of companies that used Asians and Allied POWs for forced labor have taken steps toward reconciliation. “Even if one company has a relatively positive attitude regarding reparations, it will not take action out of deference for other companies,” he said.

Chinese were the victims of the third class of forced labor in Japan. While Aso Mining was not involved in Chinese forced labor, lack of progress for the especially compelling redress claim highlights Japan’s weak commitment to settling wartime accounts.

Postwar records secretly compiled — and then purposely destroyed — by the Japanese government and 35 companies state that 38,935 Chinese males between the ages of 11 and 78 were brought to Japan between 1943 and 1945. More than one out of six died.

Japan’s Supreme Court ruled last year that the 1972 treaty that restored ties between Japan and China bars Chinese forced labor survivors from filing legal claims. Yet the court found that plaintiffs had been forcibly transported to Japan and forced to toil in wretched conditions, and suggested they be redressed through non-judicial means. Having previously declared that the “slave-like forced labor was an outrage against humanity,” the Fukuoka High Court earlier this month similarly urged “voluntary measures” to remedy the injustice.

Kajima Corp., one of the world’s largest construction companies, set up a “relief fund” in 2000 to compensate survivors of its Hanaoka work site, where 418 out of 986 Chinese perished and an uprising took place. The move prompted expectations that Japan’s industrial sector and central government might establish a redress fund for all its victims of forced labor, similar to the “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future” Foundation enacted in Germany that same year. The $6 billion German fund eventually compensated 1.6 million forced labor victims or their heirs.

Such hopes for corporate social responsibility in Japan were dashed. On the contrary, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. defended itself in a Fukuoka courtroom in 2005 by rejecting facts about Chinese forced labor routinely recognized by Japan’s judiciary and insisting only voluntary workers were used — despite death rates of up to 31 percent at its Kyushu mines. Mitsubishi openly questioned whether Japan ever “invaded” China at all and warned judges that compensating the elderly Chinese plaintiffs would saddle Japan with a “mistaken burden of the soul” for hundreds of years.

Taro Aso, in fact, is not the Japanese prime minister most closely connected to forced labor. Wartime Cabinet minister Nobusuke Kishi was in charge of the empire’s labor programs and was later imprisoned for three years as a Class A war crimes suspect. Kishi went on to become a founder of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955 and Japan’s premier from 1957-60. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is Kishi’s grandson.

Foreign Ministry files declassified in 2002 revealed that Kishi’s administration conspired to deceive the Diet and citizens’ groups about the state’s possession of Chinese forced labor records. Kishi’s intent was to block Japanese activists from returning remains to China and publicizing the program’s true nature, as well as to head off state reparations demands from Beijing. In 2003, the Foreign Ministry searched a basement storeroom and found 20,000 pages of Chinese forced labor records submitted by companies in 1946, despite decades of denials that such records existed.

Millions of Asians performed forced labor outside of Japan during the Asia Pacific War, very often for the benefit of Japanese companies still operating today. The so-called comfort women represent a uniquely abused group of war victims forced to provide sex for Japan’s military. Last year governments in North America and Europe urged Japan to do more to right the egregious comfort-women wrong.

The Dutch foreign minister renewed that call last week, prior to a visit to Japan set to include a stop at the Commonwealth War Cemetery where hundreds of Allied POWs are buried, including two Australians who died at Aso Mining.

Days after assuming Japan’s top post, Aso apologized “for my past careless remarks” in a speech before Parliament. “From now on,” he pledged, “I will make statements while bearing in mind the gravity of the words of a prime minister.” Many are waiting for the words “I’m sorry” for forced labor.

—————

William Underwood completed his doctoral dissertation at Kyushu University on forced labor in wartime Japan. His past research is available at www.japanfocus.org and he can be reached atkyushubill@yahoo.com. Send comments on this issue and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp

Speaking at JALT this Sunday: PALE Keynote Speech

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog.  I’ll be speaking at the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT)‘s annual conference this weekend in Tokyo.  “The Professionalism, Administration, and Leadership in Education (PALE) JALT SIG — What’s Up, and What’s Next?”  

9:15 – 10:55 AM Sunday Nov 2 in Room 511 (I’m not too happy about the early hour, either).  

Download my powerpoint presentation here.

How to get there here.

If you’d like to find out more about or join our PALE SIG Group (more information on them here), please come to our Annual General Meeting on Saturday Nov 1 in Room 511, 5:25 – 6:25.  Otherwise, come down to the SIG tables in the general commons.  I’ll be there most of the time selling books and chatting (our table’s always the most fun, anyway).  

See you there!  Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Govt websites don’t include NJ residents in their tallies of “local population”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog.  Mark in Yayoi pointed out a singular thing to me the other night — that the Tokyo Nerima-ku website lists its population and households in various municipal subsections.  Then puts at the top that “foreigners are not included”.  

Screen capture (click on image to go to website) from:

http://www.city.nerima.tokyo.jp/shiryo/jinko/data/area/200810.html

etc. We already saw in yesterday’s blog entry that NJ workers are not included in official unemployment statistics.  Now NJ taxpayers are also not included as part of the “general population”?

So I did a google search using the words “人口　総数には、外国人登録数を含んでいません” and found that other government websites do the same thing!  It is, in fact, SOP.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=人口　総数には、外国人登録数を含んでいません。&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

The Nerima-ku page, BTW, does not even mention anywhere on the page I captured above that foreigners even exist in Nerima-ku — you have to go to a separate page, a separate enclave, for the gaijin.

Pedants (meaning the GOJ) will no doubt claim (as is worded at the top) that “we’re only counting registered residents, and NJ aren’t registered residents, therefore we can’t count them“.  But that doesn’t make it a good thing to do, especially when you’re using the context of “人口総数” (total population).  What a nasty thing anyway to do to people who pay your taxes and live there!  It also becomes a tad harder to complain about “Japanese Only” signs on businesses when even the GOJ also excludes foreigners from official statistics.

And it’s also harder to believe the GOJ’s claim to the UN that it has taken “every conceivable measure to fight against racial discrimination”.  How about measures like counting (not to mention officially registering) foreigners as taxpayers and members of the population?  

(I bet if any measure actually does get taken in response to this blog entry, the only “conceivable” one to the bureaucrats will be to change the terminology, using the word “juumin” instead of “jinkou sousuu”.  Solve the problem by futzing with the rubric, not changing the law.  Beyond conception.)

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

==============================

UPDATE:  And of course, don’t forget this, from Debito.org too…

Population rises 1st time in 3 years The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug 1, 2008 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080801TDY01306.htm

The nation’s population grew for the first time in three years to 127,066,178 in the year to March 31, up 12,707 from a year earlier, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Thursday.

The figure was based on resident registrations at municipal government offices and does not include foreign residents…

http://www.debito.org/?p=1860

AP: Economic downturn already resulting in NJ layoffs in Japan, but NJ not counted in unemployment figures

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  From financial market crash to job market layoffs: That was quick.  First to get canned it seems are the foreign workers who helped make Japanese industry labor costs competitive…  

The real surprise here, as it says below, the GOJ doesn’t even bother to track numbers of unemployed foreigners!  Again, I guess foreigners don’t count, even as part of the labor force, unless they need policing (as in making sure their visas are legal and they aren’t stealing bicycles).  How lopsided and ungrateful.

And political — the unemployment rate is a very political thing in Japan, as it likes to boast worldwide how (artificially) low unemployment is.  I guess it’s clear now that bringing in NJ labor has an extra benefit — not only are they preternaturally cheap, you don’t count them if they lose their jobs!  Debito in Sapporo

====================================
Foreigners laid off in Japanese downturn
By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer 
Daily Yomiuri Oct 22, 9:28 PM EDT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_FIRING_FOREIGNERS_ASOL-?SITE=YOMIURI&SECTION=HOSTED_ASIA&TEMPLATE=ap_national.html

also http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/543e7d82f9448bab9a53eb70fbf09132.htm
Courtesy Shrikant Atre and Mark W.

AP Photo
AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

HAMAMATSU, Japan (AP) — Brazilian Stenio Sameshima came to Japan last year with plans to make a bundle of money at the country’s humming auto factories. Instead, he’s spending a lot of time in line at employment agencies.

The 28-year-old is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of foreigners who are among the first laborers in Japan to lose their jobs as the global financial crisis eats into demand for cars, trucks and motorcycles, government officials say.

The layoffs are also the first evidence that the mushrooming economic crisis in the United States and elsewhere is shaking the Japanese labor market, presaging further trouble if the downturn persists or deepens.

This week Sameshima, trained as a science teacher in Brazil, sat for hours waiting to apply for a new job at a government-run job center in the central city of Hamamatsu – and he said he’d take anything with a paycheck.

“Because of the crisis, you have to accept whatever there is,” Sameshima, a descendant of Japanese who emigrated to Brazil decades ago, said as he perused an announcement of a job making boxed lunches sold in convenience stores.

The government does not track the number of jobless foreigners, but local officials, workers and employment agencies tell of hundreds of workers like Sameshima let go by companies linked to topflight producers – Toyota, Honda, Yamaha.

The Labor and Health Ministry said the numbers of foreigners showing up at government-run job centers in affected regions have doubled to some 1,500 a month as of August, while Japanese jobseekers have remained constant. And those centers handle only a small fraction of the foreign work force, officials say.

“The ethnic Japanese from abroad have been particularly hit hard,” said Tatsuhiro Ishikawa, a ministry official in charge of foreign labor. “They’re often the first ones to be fired just because they’re foreigners.”

At the core of the trend are hard times for the Japanese car industry.

No. 1 producer Toyota Motor Corp. has seen its stock slide amid reports the automaker won’t meet its global sales target. Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, announced Tuesday it was cutting domestic production.

“The number of cars being produced is decreasing, so there’s nothing for the foreigners to make,” said Masahiro Morishita, who works FujiArte, an employment agency that hires foreigners in Hamamatsu.

The layoffs are hitting a particularly vulnerable population.

Japan has begun attracting large numbers of foreign workers only in the past 15 years to meet a labor shortage as the country ages. The increase has been rapid, more than doubling from 370,000 foreigners working legally in Japan in 1996 to 755,000 in 2006.

Yet, working conditions are precarious. Foreigners are often hired through temporary employment agencies, so they can be easily fired. They live in company housing, so they lose their apartments when they lose their jobs. There hasn’t been a marked increase in homelessness, but anecdotes of foreigners having to move in with friends or relatives abound.

The outsiders also face language difficulties.

“In order to get new jobs, they need to speak Japanese,” said Alice Miho Miike at the Hamamatsu Foundation for International Communication and Exchanges. “But even Brazilians who speak, read and write Japanese are losing their jobs now.”

Hamamatsu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Tokyo, is home to more than 33,500 foreigners. More than half of them – about 19,000 – are Brazilians, many with special permission to work here because of their Japanese ancestry.

The waiting area at the government-run Hello Work job center in Hamamatsu was abuzz Tuesday with tales of joblessness and uncertainty.

Sameshima, for example, was dismissed at the end of September after working only six months at an auto-parts manufacturer outside the central city of Nagoya.

“I came to Japan to get a steady, secure job,” said Sameshima, who came from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in early 2007. “But there was a drop in production at the factory, because Toyota is the principal purchaser.”

Then he came to Hamamatsu to work at another plant – only to again lose his job after only two weeks.

The chief of the foreign worker section at Hello Work Hamamatsu, Akihiko Sugiyama, came up with two job possibilities for Sameshima – at between 20 percent to 40 percent below the 1,500-yen ($15) hourly wage he was making before.

Some foreign laborers have abandoned Japan amid the troubles, especially those from Brazil, where the currency is plummeting and workers with savings in Japanese yen see an opportunity to cash in.

Sameshima, for instance, plans to go home at the end of next year in hopes of taking a special exam that would allow him to teach science in public high schools.

Others are holding out for better times.

Daniele Tokuti, 24, came from Brazil three years ago with her husband, an ethnic Japanese. She was fired last week along with 40 other foreigners at a Yamaha factory.

But Tokuti, now six months pregnant, said she still had hopes to achieving her dream of building a significant nest egg in Japan.

“Now in Brazil, things aren’t bad,” she said. “But in Japan, I think if we can get past this crisis, and things will be even better here.”

—

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

“Japanese Only” at Tokyo Takadanobaba private-sector job placement agency

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog.  Here’s something received from a friend:  A private-sector job placement agency which explicitly says that foreign applicants cannot register (and I have telephoned to confirm, means they will not allow foreigners to apply):

The sign reads “Workers KK”.

Below, “We accept applicants for day-paid jobs, walk-ins fine.  Construction, jobs within storage facilities, transport work etc.”

And in parenthesis:  “People with foreign nationalities cannot register for our services.” 

Address (gleaned from the general website at http://www.workers.co.jp/) for this, the Takadanobaba Branch, is:

〒169-0075
東京都新宿区高田馬場3-3-9山下ビル4Ｆ

From their site:

■　高田馬場支店　■

所在地：　 〒169-0075
  東京都新宿区高田馬場3-3-9
  　　　　　　　　　　　　　　山下ビル4Ｆ
TEL: 03-3365-7701
FAX: 03-3365-7702

【登録スタッフ・登録のお問合せ専用ＴＥＬ】

TEL:　 　　03-3365-7703

登録予約可能時間　月～土　11:00～15:00
※登録は予約制になっております。

■お給料のお支払い■
作業後当日からお支払い可能です。
お支払い時間　16:00～19:00
月～金(※祝・祭日除く) 

Well, it goes without saying by now for readers of this site, but this exclusionary sign is unconstitutional and goes against international treaty.  It also goes against the Labor Standards Law (Articles 3 and 4), which does not permit discrimination of workers on the basis of nationality etc. (More on that from NUGW site here.)

I called the number on the sign today and talked to a Mr Yoshimura, who confirmed that they do in fact refuse service to foreign workers.  That includes all their branches, yes.  When I mentioned that this is in violation of the LSL, he said that they are, as of now, considering a revision (doryoku shimasu, was how he put it).  I gave him my phone number and email address should they decide to revise their rules and their sign.  Meanwhile, another entry for the Rogues’ Gallery within a few days, and I’ll let the labor unions know.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Japan Times editorial Oct 6: Japan’s foreign workers

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

Hi Blog. A lot of what we’ve been saying here all along…
——————————————
The Japan Times, Monday, Oct. 6, 2008

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20081006a1.html

Japan’s foreign workers

Japanese companies are not as Japanese as they once were. Japanese banks are taking over the assets of failed Wall Street investments firms, of course, but in addition to those economic assets, Japanese companies have been obtaining another asset — foreign workers. Statistics released two months ago by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare found that the number of foreign workers at Japanese firms took a huge leap from 2007 to 2008, rising by nearly one-third to a total of 330,000, the largest number ever. This may not constitute a large percentage overall, but it signals a large shift in attitude.

The rise in the number of foreign workers indicates the beginning of quantitative and qualitative changes in the working environment in Japan. If the attitude toward work has been changing among younger Japanese, the addition of foreign workers will surely accelerate those changes and add new ones. The government’s proposal earlier this year to progressively allow more foreign students and workers in the next few years will ensure that the nature and structure of many Japanese companies will evolve in the future to accommodate and integrate them.

Part of the upsurge in numbers can be partially attributed to new requirements in reporting employees. Finding so many more workers than expected may not have been the government’s intention when it set out to check the name, nationality, address and visa status of each foreign worker at every workplace, but it is one of the interesting results. Perhaps the numbers were vastly underreported in the past, but clearly the number of foreign workers is rising much more quickly than expected. Even with many firms not yet finalizing their reports on foreign workers, it appears that a great deal of change has already taken place.

Surveys taken in 2007 also show that even more of these workers than in the past received education in Japan. A larger percentage of foreign workers than ever now find work after graduating from a Japanese college or special training school. More and more graduates are deciding to stay on in Japan, thousands every year, with more workers going into nonmanufacturing firms and nearly a third staying on as translators and interpreters. The government proposal this summer called for increases of foreign students to nearly 1 million by 2025. Many of those future students are likely to remain to work in Japan.

The number of regular foreign employees has also leaped to its highest level ever, giving evidence that the new workers are not merely here for a few years, but intend to stay much longer.

More than one-third of all foreign workers are listed as heads of household with contract worker or temporary worker status. This suggests that many of these workers are starting to call Japan home. Workers are still coming over for short-term work, but even those short-termers are working here for increasingly longer periods of time.

Having all workers documented by companies and reported to the government signals a more responsible approach than the often-exploitative conditions for many foreign workers in the past. Though the total percentage still remains small, these workers are integrating more deeply into Japanese workplaces and society. That integration demands better conditions and a more concerted effort to find ways of successful and productive integration. Finding the right way forward on this issue is rather tricky, but can be expedited by focusing on the essentials of work and health.

First of all, it is essential that past problems with foreign workers be resolved. The importing of “trainees” and “interns,” terms often used to cover up exploitative and even illegal work practices in the past, needs closer oversight. Foreign workers should also be enrolled in social insurance, including pensions and health care, on an equal basis with Japanese workers. Contracts, too, need to be better negotiated and clearly written. When contracts are broken, on an individual or large-scale basis, foreign workers should be assured of the same rights as Japanese.

If the government is serious about letting the number of foreign immigrants rise, then internationally accepted working practices will have to be gradually introduced alongside traditional Japanese work customs. Japan is still far behind other industrialized countries in many aspects, but this will change. Estimates of a 15 percent foreign workforce in the United States and a slightly lower percentage in the European Union show that globalization of the workplace is arriving more slowly in Japan than in other countries.

That should not be cause for accelerating the process, nor for excessive caution, but should be simply understood as another stage of Japan’s economic and social development. Development brought through foreign workers will surely be to Japan’s benefit, even as the very concept of Japan becomes more diverse and participatory than in the past.

ENDS

First Aso Cabinet member resigns — tripped up (inter alia) by comments regarding Japan’s ethnic mix

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Well, well, what surprising news tonight.  Ministry of Transport etc. resigned today over comments he made, among others, about Japan’s ethnic homogeneity.  As I wrote two days ago, I’m pleased that comments like these aren’t allowed to pass any more.  

Then again, it’s probably not so surprising — given a litany of comments this twit has a habit of making, such as calling Japan’s largest teacher’s union a “cancer for Japanese education”.  See second article below.

In the longer view, however, this resignation isn’t all that earth-shattering.  This first Aso Cabinet was always meant to be a stopgap measure until the next election in a month and change.  But it can’t help the LDP’s image to have this much “thoroughbredness” (or, in my view, inbredness, the media has talked a lot about Aso and company’s relatives as political giants) — and it will (hopefully) convince the voters that the Tired Old Party needs a break from power.  Debito in Haneda

=======================================

New Japanese minister steps down
Nariaki Nakayama  

Mr Nakayama had made a series of controversial remarks

Japanese Transport Minister Nariaki Nakayama has resigned, just four days after taking the job.

BBC News, Page last updated at 08:19 GMT, Sunday, 28 September 2008 09:19 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7640197.stm

The resignation will be seen as a setback for new Prime Minister Taro Aso, who took office on Wednesday.

Mr Nakayama was criticised over a series of controversial remarks. He called Japan’s largest teachers’ union a “cancer” in the education system.

He also angered Japan’s indigenous Ainu people last week, when he described the country as ethnically homogeneous.

The remark was seen as particularly insensitive because Japanese parliament passed a landmark resolution in June recognising the Ainu as “an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture”.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said the controversy of Mr Nakayama had been “damaging”.

“We must show the people how hard the Aso government is working, and try to win back the public’s confidence. That is all that we can do,” he told a news conference.

‘Birth machines’

Mr Nakayama is no stranger to controversy, having previously angered China by saying that reports of Japanese wartime atrocities, including the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, were exaggerated.

He joins a growing line of Japanese ministers who have risked their jobs by sharing unguarded opinions.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso speaks at the UN General Assembly in New York (25/09/2008)  

Mr Aso is under pressure to call a general election

Earlier this month, farm minister Seiichi Ota resigned after admitting that his ministry had known about a rice contamination scandal but that he had seen no need to make “too much of a fuss over it”.

Fumio Kyuma resigned as defence minister in July 2007 after implying that the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 was inevitable.

And in January 2007, former health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa was sharply criticised for referring to women as “birth-giving machines” during discussions about Japan’s low birth rate.

Mr Nakayama, a former minister for education, had said he would “stand at the forefront to destroy the Japan Teachers’ Union, which is a cancer for Japanese education”.

Defending his comments, he said he had “meant to stir the interest of the Japanese people that distorted education is now conducted in schools”.

“If my remarks have made any impact on parliamentary proceedings, it would not be what I had intended,” he said.

The union’s secretary general said he was “flabbergasted” by the comments” and questioned Mr Nakayama’s judgement.

Low support

Pressure is growing on Mr Aso to call a snap election in a effort to shore up his authority.

His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated Japanese politics for more than 50 years, but is now facing a resurgent opposition.

The latest newspaper opinion polls show public support for Mr Aso at lower than 50% and the country is facing stormy economic conditions.

Last week, Japan announced its sharpest fall in economic output in almost seven years.

The last prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, resigned earlier this month after less than a year in office, frustrated by the ability of the opposition-controlled upper house of parliament to stymie his legislative plans.

ENDS

============================

 
LEAD: Nakayama calls schoolteachers’ union ‘cancer,’ dismissal calls to rise+
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93EVH8G0&show_article=1
Sep 27 05:07 AM US/EasternCourtesy of Dave Spector  
(AP) – MIYAZAKI, Japan, Sept. 27 (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE REMARKS)   

New transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, already embroiled in fallout from a series of comments seen as verbal gaffes he made since his appointment this week, called the nation’s biggest school teachers’ union “cancer” on Saturday and said it should be disbanded.

 

The latest remark, combined with others he made earlier, is expected to prompt opposition parties to intensify calls for Prime Minister Taro Aso to dismiss him.

His possible dismissal would deal a blow to Aso’s Cabinet as the prime minister is seeking to dissolve the House of Representatives at an early date for a general election.

At a meeting in Miyazaki organized by the prefectural chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Nakayama said, “I’ve been thinking Nikkyoso should be disbanded.”

Nikkyoso refers to the Japan Teachers Union, the nation’s largest union of schoolteachers and staff members.

“I have things to say about Nikkyoso. The biggest problem is that it opposes ethics education. Some of the people in Nikkyoso have taken actions that are unthinkable to me,” he said, in apparent reference to the demonstration union members staged around the Diet buildings in Tokyo in 2006.

At the time, lawmakers were deliberating revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education in an extraordinary session of parliament.

The revisions that passed the Diet and were enforced in December 2006 were aimed at instilling patriotism in classrooms and nurturing respect for the public spirit.

After Saturday’s meeting, the land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister told reporters, “I will stand at the forefront to destroy Nikkyoso, which is a cancer for Japanese education.”

He also said of his ministerial post, “I don’t mean to cling to my post saying, ‘I will never resign.’ I want to see what happens.”

In media interviews this week, Nakayama, a former education minister, said the union is to blame for the bribery scandal involving the Oita prefectural board of education.

“The woeful state of Oita Prefecture’s board of education boils down to Nikkyoso. Nikkyoso (members’) children can become teachers even if their grades are bad. That’s why the aptitude levels in Oita Prefecture are low,” he said.

In the media interviews, Nakayama also referred to the government’s policy to attract foreign tourists to Japan and called Japan “ethnically homogenous,” a description that drew protests in 1986 from the Ainu indigenous people when then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone made a similar remark.

Nakayama also said that those who have engaged in years of struggle against the construction of Narita airport near Tokyo are “more or less squeaky wheels, or I believe they are (the product) of bad postwar education.”

The series of controversial remarks have drawn complaints from lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, with the opposition camp calling for his immediate dismissal from the Cabinet post.

Nakayama has retracted the series of remarks in the media interviews and apologized.

ENDS

 

 
 

Mainichi: Female NJ Trainee Visa workers underpaid by Yamanashi company, beaten, attempted deportation

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan
Hi Blog. Pretty nasty situation here. But it’s not the first time I’ve heard of something like this going on.  Examples here and here.  Kudos to Zentoitsu again for offering a shelter and a means to get this reported. Debito in Hamamatsu

Foreign trainees injured in row with dry-cleaning firm over measly pay

(Mainichi Japan) August 27, 2008, courtesy lots of people.

KOFU — Six Chinese female trainees at a dry-cleaning company in Yamanashi Prefecture got into a row with the company when they complained that they were being paid under the minimum wage, and three of them suffered injuries including a broken bone, it has been learned.

Trouble reportedly erupted when the company, located in Showa, Yamanashi Prefecture, tried to force the six to return to China after they complained about their wages. The three injured workers are considering filing a criminal complaint over their injuries.

The workers also plan to register a complaint against the company with a labor standards inspection office, accusing it of violating the Labor Standard Law by failing to pay them the difference between their wages and the minimum wage.

The trainees said that they came to Japan in December 2005 under a program for foreign trainees and apprentices. After a period of training they started working as trainees. Their working hours were between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and their monthly wage was reportedly 50,000 yen a month. On weekdays, they often worked overtime until midnight, and frequently worked weekends. However, their overtime pay was only 350 yen per hour. This spring, the overtime wage was raised to 450 yen per hour.

A company representative speaking to the Mainichi admitted the amount of overtime pay, but said, “We paid a monthly wage of 118,000 yen.” The amount of overtime pay was much lower than the prefecture’s minimum overtime pay, which works out at about 831 yen per hour.

The six workers submitted a written request for their wages to be revised on Aug. 20. The company’s president, Masafumi Uchida, promised that he would reply two days later. However, at about 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 22, the president joined about 10 people including company employees and tried to force the six workers, who were sleeping in a company dormitory, to get into a minibus he had prepared to take them to Narita Airport.

The trainees resisted, and plans to take them to the airport were abandoned, but one of the trainees was left with a broken leg after jumping out of a window on the second floor of the dormitory. Two others suffered bruises and scratches during the row.

The three injured workers were later taken into the custody of the Zentoitsu Workers Union, which supports foreign trainees and apprentices. The remaining three were taken to Narita Airport by company officials and returned home.

Uchida visited the union on Monday and offered an apology.

“If they were Japanese I wouldn’t have done it (tried to force them to leave). I was asked for a high amount of unpaid cash and thought I couldn’t negotiate. I’m sorry for their injuries.”

A Justice Ministry official said there was a possibility the company could be punished.

“The failure to pay wages, the human rights violations and other actions constitute illicit behavior, and there is a possibility that this warrants banning the firm from accepting trainees for three years,” the official said.

(Mainichi Japan) August 27, 2008

ENDS

中国人実習生：給与改善求めトラブル…帰国無理強い

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

mytest

Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association forming NGO\「ジャパニーズ・オンリー　小樽入浴拒否問題と人種差別」（明石書店）JAPANESE ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan

中国人実習生：給与改善求めトラブル…帰国無理強い

毎日新聞　2008年8月27日

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20080827k0000m040151000c.html

　山梨県昭和町のクリーニング会社「テクノクリーン」（内田正文社長）で働いていた３０代の中国人女性実習生６人が、最低賃金を下回る給与の改善を求めたところ、同社が６人を無理やり帰国させようとしてトラブルとなり、実習生３人が骨折などのけがをしていたことが分かった。３人は傷害容疑での刑事告訴を検討。最低賃金との差額の未払いは、労働基準法に違反するとして、労働基準監督署へ申し立てる方針。【外国人就労問題取材班】

　実習生によると、６人は０５年１２月、外国人研修・技能実習制度で来日。研修後、０６年１２月から実習生として勤務した。午前８時半～午後５時半まで働いて月給５万円。平日は午前０時まで残業し、土、日に働くことも多かったが、残業代は時給３５０円（今春からは４５０円）だった。一方、会社側は毎日新聞の取材に対し、残業代の額を認めたうえで「月給は１１万８０００円払っていた」と回答。少なくとも残業代は同県の残業代の最低賃金（時給換算で８３１円）を大幅に下回っていた。

　６人は今月２０日、正規の報酬を支払うよう書面で要請。内田社長は２日後に回答すると約束した。ところが２２日午前７時半ごろ、社長は社員ら約１０人を伴い、社員寮で寝ていた６人を用意したマイクロバスに無理やり乗せ、成田空港に連れて行こうとした。実習生が抵抗し、空港行きは中止されたが、その際、実習生１人が寮の２階から飛び降り左足骨折。他の２人ももみ合いで腕に打ち身や擦り傷を負った。

　３人はその後、外国人研修・技能実習生を支援する「全統一労働組合」（東京都台東区）に保護された。残る３人は２４日、同社関係者に連れられ成田空港から帰国した。

　内田社長は２５日、同労組を訪れ「相手が日本人なら（無理に連れて行くことは）しなかった。高額の未払い金を要求されて、交渉できないと思った。けがをさせて申し訳ない」と謝罪した。

　保護されている胡菊花さん（３５）は「自尊心が傷ついた。日本人と同じように人間として扱ってほしかった」と話している。

　法務省入国在留課は「賃金未払いや人権侵害などは不正行為に該当し、３年間の受け入れ停止処分に当たる可能性がある」としている。

ENDS