JT: GOJ Cabinet approves new NJ worker visa categories. Small print: Don’t bring your families. Or try to escape.

mytest

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Hi Blog. As per the JT article below, the next wave of NJ temp labor has been officially approved by the Abe Cabinet. The new statuses mostly still have the caveat of being temp, unrooted labor (bringing over families is expressly verboten).  And you can qualify for something better if you manage to last, oh, ten years — around one-fifth of a person’s total productive working life.  Because, as the JT reported in a follow-up article days later, time spent working under these visa statuses in particular does NOT count towards their required “working period” when applying for Permanent Residency.

Another interesting part of this article is the bit about how many Indentured “Trainee” NJ workers had “gone missing” from their generally harsh modern-slavery working conditions (4,279) so far this year, and how it might even exceed last year’s record total of 7,089.  Anyway, with the news below, the GOJ looks set to invite in even more people, in even more work sectors, and with the regular “revolving-door” work status (i.e., not make immigrants out of them).

Some people have gotten wise to this practice and are staying away from Japan, but I bet many won’t.  Unless we let them know in venues like Debito.org.  Dr. Debito Arudou

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Japan’s Cabinet approves bill to introduce new visa categories for foreign workers, to address shrinking workforce
BY SAKURA MURAKAMI AND TOMOHIRO OSAKI STAFF WRITERS
The Japan Times, Nov 2, 2018, courtesy of JDG (excerpt)
Courtesy https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/02/national/major-policy-shift-japan-oks-bill-let-foreign-manual-workers-stay-permanently/

The Cabinet approved a bill Friday that would overhaul the nation’s immigration control law by introducing new visa categories for foreign workers, in an attempt to address the graying population and shrinking workforce.

“Creating a new residence status to accept foreign workers is of utmost importance as the nation’s population declines and businesses suffer from lack of personnel,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference on the day.

Although details remain hazy, the new bill marks a departure from previous policy in allowing foreign individuals to work in blue-collar industries for a potentially indefinite amount of time if certain conditions, such as holding a valid employment contract, are met.

Yet amid concerns over whether the nation has the infrastructure and environment to accommodate an inflow of foreign workers, the government has categorically denied that the overhaul will open the doors to immigrants.

“We are not adopting a policy on people who will settle permanently in the country, or so-called immigrants,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Lower House Budget Committee on Thursday. “The new system we are creating is based on the premise that the workers will work in sectors suffering labor shortages, for a limited time, in certain cases without bringing their families.”…

The overhaul, which would come into effect in April if passed during the current extraordinary Diet session, would create two new residence status types for foreign individuals working in sectors suffering labor shortages.

The first category would be renewable for up to five years and would require applicants to have a certain level of skill and experience in their fields. As a general rule, workers in this category would not be allowed to bring family members into the country.

The second category would be renewable indefinitely for workers with valid employment contracts. This category would require a higher level of skills than the first category and would allow workers to bring along spouses and children.

Regardless of the category, the foreign workers would be required to work in designated sectors that face labor shortages. Some 14 sectors are being considered for designation in the first category, whereas five are being considered for the second, media reports have said. Those sectors include the construction, agriculture and hotel industries.

Opposition lawmakers have slammed the apparent haste with which the government is trying to pass the amendment, proposing that it prioritize rectifying the current Technical Intern Training Program — which is rife with allegations of human rights violations and abuse — before further expanding avenues for foreign labor.

Speaking to the same Lower House Budget Committee on Thursday, Justice Minister Yamashita revealed that a total 4,279 trainees under the program had gone missing in the January-July period this year.

“This is an extraordinary figure,” said lawmaker Akira Nagatsuma of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, adding that the pace suggests the number of missing interns in 2018 could exceed last year’s record — 7,089 — by year-end.

Nagatsuma also said that the whereabouts of many of these trainees who disappeared from work remain unknown, with Justice Ministry data showing that there were 6,914 such individuals staying somewhere in the country, under the radar, as of January this year. “I believe that this year will also see a substantial number of missing trainees in total, but I don’t think we should blame the foreign nationals who ran away in all of these cases. I’m sure there are lots of cases where the trainees felt they had to get away, or even thought they might die if they stayed,” Nagatsuma said, citing examples of trainees being harassed or bullied, cooped up in a cramped apartment and consigned to menial jobs that require no technical skills.

“I think it’s very irresponsible of the government to try to open more doors for foreign workers while turning a blind eye to these existing problems under the trainee program,” he said.

Opposition lawmakers also say the government’s claim that it will set rigid, high-bar criteria for transition from the first visa type to the second — lest the system be misconstrued as Japan shifting toward accepting immigrants — might not sit well with the nation’s business community.

In a hearing with multiple ministries earlier this week, Kazunori Yamanoi, a lawmaker for the opposition Democratic Party For the People (DPFP), raised a hypothetical, but highly likely, situation in which trainees recruited under the existing internship program switch to the new visa framework after up to five years of their apprenticeships.

Under this scenario, these foreign workers will have stayed in Japan for a total 10 years by the time their visa expires after another five years. “By then, those foreign workers with 10 years of experience in Japan will have developed such seasoned skills that they may even hold critical positions in their companies … and I would imagine company employers wanting them to transition to the second-category visa so they can stay on,” Yamanoi said.

A Justice Ministry official, when contacted by The Japan Times, said it is “theoretically possible” that these workers with 10 years of experience in Japan would qualify for permanent residency, but how the reality will play out is still uncertain…

Full article at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/02/national/major-policy-shift-japan-oks-bill-let-foreign-manual-workers-stay-permanently/

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41 comments on “JT: GOJ Cabinet approves new NJ worker visa categories. Small print: Don’t bring your families. Or try to escape.

      • You know, this whole schizophrenic attitude to NJ (we need your skills! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!) kind of reminds me of the end of Atlas Shrugged, where the corrupt vested interest guys have got John Galt in the electric chair and threaten to kill him if he doesn’t save them; he’s got no incentive to do so, and they are screwed if they do but unable to reason that point.

        Reply
        • They just want our stuff, not us per se. Local clueless “creative” agencies want our ideas, for free is possible. And then come up with an imitation so they can say “look! we Japanese can do the same thing! We are members of your (G7) Crub! In fact we are leader in this field, stop laughing shut up”
          Remember this book, “Working in Japan” (1990) said “just because the Japanese like western culture, products and music does not mean they will like or need you, the westerner”. Coleman (Black Tokyo, Japan Times) came to the same realization when he felt a Hip Hop shop didn’t give him the respect he felt due.

          Its all about the stuff, not the Human Rights.

          Reply
  • Ughh, I’m rolling my eyes so hard right now.
    Japan needs NJ slaves desperately, but…oh! What about the noise? What about the garbage disposal? Who’s going to indoctrinate them into Japanese ‘ways’? Again!
    Balancing those concerns against Japan’s economic and demographic timebomb…well, it’s obviously a much harder decision that I’d thought.

    https://japantoday.com/category/national/Hope-anxiety-in-Japan-over-opening-up-to-more-foreign-workers

    Reply
    • If history is anything to go by, then the Japanese psych is extremely hard to change. That is, Japan will more likely than not, will wait for sometime until and after the demographic and economic timebomb implodes itself. I am assuming that Japan will just try to “deal with it”, given their often fatalist view of life.

      I don’t have high hopes for Japan to change their approach to NJ immigration.

      They also have this mentality of preferring to stay on route and enduring rather than picking a different path. Such is the mentality that surrounds the “gaman” attitude. Kind of like their soccer game performance, that is, to play to lose rather than plan a winning strategy.

      Thinking back to Japan’s war-time era I remember seeing some old WWII footage on History Channel a while back about where Hirohito was infamous for making the saying “To bare the unbearable” in his speech when Japan decided to finally surrender. Facial expressions and body language of commoners listening to the surrender speech was also shown, and I get the feeling that they feel more hurt by Japan having to surrender rather than by the threat of total annihilation.

      Some nationalists where caught trying to assassinate the emperor in hopes of preventing Japan’s surrender. On top of that you have the occasional soldier that continues to fight, the stragglers that refused to surrender and people committing suicide.

      It seems that survival was not a priority for some, and people with this mentality will not give a damn about about a demographic and or economic timebomb waiting to implode anytime and cannot be persuaded by any logic or reasoning.

      If anything, Japan’s willpower and endurance to hardship is truly a force to be reckoned with. In a metaphorical sense, Japan is kind of like the black knight from Monty Python’s holy grail. As in, even if Japan’s economy collapses, they will only brush it off as “tis just a mere flesh wound”, or at least try to anyway. Many Japanese will just gaman for the sake of gaman and are unlikely going to think about other alternatives.

      As such, I am always a bit curious as to what the possibilities are for the Japanese had Commodore Perry not visited Japan. Will the peasants try to storm Edo Castle via French Revolution style or will they just suck it up regardless of how bad things will get?

      Of course given modern lifestyle even at its current state is better than the Edo era lifestyle at its worse, it will probably take a lot more hardship and pain to convince Japan to change progressively in anyway. A demographic or economic timebomb or two just isn’t going to convince them.

      In my opinion, I believe that an economic collapse isn’t enough to convince Japan to change, just like Japan’s surrender isn’t enough to stop some Japanese from fighting, especially the wartime stragglers, like the infamous Hiroo Onoda. If anything we can learn from this, is that Japan’s willingness to endure any hardship even if its for a pointless cause, is something that we should never underestimate.

      Maybe some people will say its not fair to compare Japan during wartime with “modern” Japan, but in Japan’s case I feel it is because the country never went through the same de-nazification process as Germany did. Moreover, you have war criminals and or descendants of war criminals that were put back in power in all faucets of Japanese society to ensure that the mentality of old stays.

      In fact maybe the nationalists will use the economic crisis of their own making to justify “taking back japan” to its past of militarist rule. Even though the great depression of 1929 wasn’t of Japan’s making, the ultra-nationalists used it as an excuse to blame democracy and capitalism for Japan’s failure.

      The J-media does romanticize the Edo era a lot, maybe to soften up the populace for a militarist style rule?

      Reply
    • Post (soft) Fascism again. Kempetai style arbritary arrests on suspicion, but this time balanced with a softly softly approach due to international pressure (tho presented as homegrown humanitarians) as we heard at the UN, “Japan is one of the leaders in Human Rights/ Stop laughing, shut up”.

      Reply
    • Indeed, this is just the Japanese version of the recent Canadian arrest of a Chinese business person; possibly politically motivated. Its increasingly being used as a weapon.

      Reply
  • Very interesting article;

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/12/15/national/japan-wants-foreign-workers-may-not-want-japan-poll/

    NJ don’t want to work in Japan according to survey. Even if there were no visa requirements, no language requirements and freedom of movement, NJ coming to Japan would only increase total population of Japan by 1%.

    Interesting is that almost 60% of Japanese think the current level of NJ working in Japan is ‘just right’. I imagine that’s almost the same 60% that would say there are ‘too many’ NJ in Japan even if Abe could put together an attractive package for NJ workers.

    Reply
  • The Carlos Ghosn case really deserves its own Debito.org post. It’s an astounding abuse of human rights for ulterior motives.

    Firstly, he is detained for a crime with a statute of limitations of 7 years, which occurred 10 years ago. But the prosecutors are arguing that ‘time spent outside of Japan doesn’t count’- one rule for them, a different rule for NJ.

    Secondly, this was all a corporate coup to take Nissan out of NJ control. It’s beyond credibility that Ghosn, who is illiterate in Japanese, could have committed these alleged crimes without (at least) tens of Japanese Nissan executives and accountants putting it into action on his behalf. Why are they not in detention?

    And thirdly, it’s no coincidence that this is happening, with all the accompanying leaks of details to tar his name and fill the news cycle, is taking place exactly at the same time the Abe regime is putting its ‘not an immigration policy, immigration policy’ into effect (due to be passed into law on the 28th of this month). Clearly, whilst allowing back-door immigration, ‘Japan’ wants to show its domestic audience that, ahem, ‘Japan’ is tough on foreigners.

    This case encapsulates several of Japan’s NJ discrimination problems at the same time.

    — I agree. It deserves its own blog post. But I started out in November with a “wait-and-see” attitude, as I wasn’t terribly sympathetic to Ghosn’s predicament given his perpetual elite status in Japanese society. At the time I was thinking he would probably be sprung soon — i.e., differential treatment in favor of an elite NJ who never had to fight for much of anything in Japan, and never used his elite status to advocate for fellow NJ in Japan, either.

    Having waited and seen (especially with his recent re-arrest), I now see (as you point out) there’s definitely differential treatment due to the fact that he’s a NJ, elite or no. Thing is, plenty of other people are writing about his case now too, giving Japan’s “hostage justice” system a good critique. So after a few abortive starts of writing a definitive blog post, I’m at the same situation of wondering where to start. (That, and the fact that I’ve just emerged from the most rigorous semester of teaching and grading I’ve ever had.) Sorry for the delay. His case definitely makes my Top Ten of 2019.

    Reply
  • >So after a few abortive starts of writing a definitive
    >blog post, I’m at the same situation of wondering
    >where to start.

    How about a quote from Horie Takafumi’s book 「徹底抗戦」 regarding Japan’s hostage justice system?

    Reply
  • OMG, Only the Japanese have fired Ghosn, the French (Renault, the French Govt) retain him and want to see more evidence: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/13/renault-keeps-carlos-ghosn-at-helm-despite-financial-misconduct-charges

    “Nissan, which operates in a tripartite alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi”…err not for long, methinks!

    “Hiroto Saikawa, Nissan’s chief executive, had previously called for a change in the balance of power within the alliance with Renault. Renault currently owns 43.4% of Nissan’s shares, while Nissan owns 15% of Renault and 34% of Mitsubishi.”
    The REAL reason for the power grab…
    “prosecutors have also indicted Nissan itself, as the company submitted the official documents that underreported the income.”
    Seems like the Japanese staff were equally duplicit, or inept.

    Reply
    • I just remembered! This is the same doctor that lost his US accreditation this year (?) for his comments supporting Nazis! Scumbag.

      It’s really frightening to see this shrill hysteria. I married a Japanese woman. She wanted me. She didn’t want this old nut job. Why is he obsessing over NJ’s Japanese wives? It’s creepy.

      Reply
      • Because deep down, this insecurity is what is has always been about among a certan (male) subsection of the J populace, ever since a GI licked Ishihara Shintaro’s ice cream.when he was a kid.

        They always bring it up in their cups in bars, ramen shops, even inappropriately in business meetings, English lessons.

        And I refuse to even acknowledge it.

        Reply
  • A Doctor huh? Erai ne..not. Might as well ask a taxi driver for their opinions on immigration; this guy isn’t an expert, why give him an undeserved media voice?
    ‘His somewhat rambling column.” Indeed.
    Reminds me of this doctor who came into the school to complain that his wife wasn’t placed in a higher English level because….wait for it….
    Because he was a Doctor at Keio University. Oh Erai Hito, sorry, we will put your wife at upper advanced level just to reflect her social standing.
    This isn’t fair, it is not logical and it is not even unique; it resembles Korea’s stifling Neo-Confucian hierarchy, if anything.

    Reply
    • Ah how I missed the times when NJ tourists where just treated as tourists a while back because the Japanese knows that tourists are just paying customers and are not here to stay.

      A common opinion among NJ I hear is that you need to stay in Japan for some time to see the “real” Japan as the real Japan is often concealed. And because the Japanese know tourists will leave soon they usually wouldn’t think too much.

      The NJ elites were given a pass “sort of” and its often the average NJ residents, the teachers, salaryman and laborers that bore the brunt of Japan’s xenophobic aggression and microaggressions.

      And I don’t remember much about the J-media making tourists out to be a threat back then. The customer was the king whether you are NJ or not.

      But it seems that times have changed and there is no more free lunch and it doesn’t matter if you are an elite NJ, a rich NJ or a just a mere tourists.

      From the mere tone of Japan’s recent articles and concern of NJ tourists it seems as if NJ tourists are now portrayed as an invading enemy force trying to rob, terrorize and pillage the locals and it seems like many xenophobic Japanese. So rather than putting a positive spin on NJ tourism to Japan, the J-gov and their media are portraying tourism as if it is some sort of national crisis.

      Gone are the days where NJ tourists are portrayed as Japan loving, fun loving and genki folks where are just here in Japan for a good time. And the Japanese locals would try their best to conceal the “real Japan” from NJ as long as you are a tourist. And with the increasing presence of “no gaijin” signs or even signs that outright tell the tourist to “fuck off”, it seems you don’t even need to be a resident in Japan anymore to see the real Japan.

      So in short, Japan now views tourists just like North Korea views its tourists, as potential enemy belligerents that must be very closely watched and their every movement be monitored. No more fun and games anymore, even if you are just a passing traveler, the many microaggressions of late will no doubt make people’s Japan experience a bit sour.

      No more free lunch now even if your are a tourist now that any and all NJ are officially up for ragging and persecution with extreme prejudice now.

      I wonder what made Japan do a u-turn with their treatment of tourists, given that tourism is such a grand opportunity to profit and to market their propaganda to the outside world. Antagonizing and portraying tourists and enemy belligerents, I believe, is a foolish mistake. Japan’s economy and their reputation will pay dearly in the long run.

      Reply
      • Jim Di Griz says:

        Interesting question.
        I don’t know. But maybe it’s got something to do with the stress of having to keep up the tatemae?
        It’s pretty easy to do when see a couple of obviously NJ white or black tourists wandering around wide-eyed and unable to speak Japanese, I guess. There’s the ‘cute’ NJ factor combined with the feeling of superiority in the face of their phrasebook Japanese language skills. The tourists are falling over themselves to be ‘polite’ because Japan was so famous for its ‘politeness’. And needless to say, since those tourists had next to zero language skills, it was pretty safe to bad mouth them and laugh at them.
        But now it’s all a little different. 30 million tourists the majority of which by and large don’t care about your ‘culture’ because they are here for the shopping, requires too much tatemae. The stress of constantly maintaining that front has maybe reached its limits?
        And to put this in context, it’s 30 million visitors to the whole country. Paris gets 80 million. Can you imagine what would happen with that level of tourism?
        Also, I think some of the Japanese, fed endless NJ scaremongering, are actually frightened when they see a group of Asian NJ talking, laughing, and getting along by themselves. They are a world apart from the image of the white, blonde, professional American (or European) couple bumbling their way through a Japan trip, who represent the target demographic of the outside world that Japan wants to receive recognition and praise from.

        Reply
  • I came to Japan because it was cool, and rich. In the 80s. It seemed a land of opportunity and was spun as so.
    Now Japan aint rich, or cool. Taro Aso may try to spin it as such but he aint cool himself, so no one is buying it, except the niche hardcore anime fans, who may not have the skills Japan desires and needs.

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Exactly zero Nikkei-Jin Brazilians have applied to work in Japan since the government reversed its policy to them;
    https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japanese-Brazilians-snub-Tokyo-s-diaspora-residency-program

    Only 3 applicants from Myanmar come to Japan to do care work (but hey, like the O-yaji fantasize, they are all women in their 20’s);
    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/07/national/first-nursing-care-trainees-myanmar-arrive-begin-work-hokkaido/

    And then there’s Carlos Ghosn, led around handcuffed on a rope, for crimes Japanese can get away with with just a deep bow and a ‘there is no excuse’. Certain to attract top international talent…not;
    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/08/national/crime-legal/ex-nissan-chief-carlos-ghosn-make-first-tokyo-court-appearance-since-november-arrest/

    NJ are ‘Japan passing’, and why not? After all, even NJ elite like Ghosn can be dumped on all over, so what chance has a regular working Joe got?

    The desperate Abe regime’s ‘not an immigration policy, immigration policy’ was a recognition that the much trumpeted A.I. and automation/robotics ‘revolution’ wasn’t going to happen in any meaningful way, and the laughable response to Japan ‘opening its borders’ should be causing genuine panic at all levels of society; NJ immigration was the only realistic option to avert Japan’s demographic and economic timebomb, and it’s not coming through.

    Now is the time for us guys to say ‘told you so’.

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Carlos Ghosn’s interrogations stopped due to illness;

    https://japantoday.com/category/crime/ghosn-suffers-fever-in-japan-jail-skips-questioning-media

    Perhaps they hope he will die before trial, after all, they have a record of denying NJ detainees medical care resulting in death.

    It’s save the prosecution the loss of face of him winning a trial, and they won’t have to bother ‘building a case’ (which you’d have thought they’d have done before arresting him).

    His refusal to confess has put them in quite a pickle, hasn’t it?

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Just out of interest, there’s something interesting going on at Japan Today’s site today. Earlier today they put up a story about an NJ Nissan exec resigning from Nissan in the wake of Ghosn’s detention in the ‘crime’ section. Several commentators pointed out that it should be in the ‘business’ section. They said that the story had no explicit mention of any complicity with Ghosn’s alleged crimes, and therefore represented a morally dubious attempt to infer that the NJ manager in question was guilty of some kind of offense, and likening this behavior and justice system to something from totalitarian states. The moderator has been retroactively deleting their comments all afternoon, and closed the comments section this evening. Whereupon the smart commenters are referencing Japan’s discrimination against NJ in legal matters on a variety of other threads.
    Given that Japan Today is owned by rightwing Sankei group, and Japan Times is owned by a war crime denying friend of Abe, it’s been interesting to watch the vested interests attempt to strangle NJ ‘dissent’ in real time this afternoon.
    The Japanese English language news media has really lost all credibility right now. It functions as a propaganda tool of the regime.

    Reply
    • “The Japanese English language news media has really lost all credibility right now. It functions as a propaganda tool of the regime.”

      If Japanese propaganda is ONLY limited to Japanese media that is then there will still be a chance that real Japanese news will still end up in foreign media.

      Unfortunately, with many foreign media including major ones like BBC and Financial Times being brought out by Japan INC to a certain extent, now nobody will get any real news out of Japan, irregardless of where you live or what you read.

      The only place where any truth about Japan exists can now only be found in historic news archives, documentaries and textbooks located in libraries and universities outside Japan. Although Japan hasn’t had any success with changing textbooks outside Japan, we can only hope Japan doesn’t succeed in revising any academic material found outside Japan.

      I don’t recall any totalitarian regime that has succeed controlling the world’s media to such an extent. Any totalitarian regime must be mouth watering with jealousy by now.

      Reply
      • Yes, that AssociatedPress article was deleted by both JapanTimes & JapanToday, here is the archived evidence:

        https://tinyurl.com/JapanTimesCensorship
        https://tinyurl.com/JapanTodayCensorship

        “…the allegations were unfounded, since the suspected unreported pay was deferred income he had not yet received.”

        This “we’ll pay you later gaijin-san, trust us” Deferred-Pay-Plan was indeed signed by the coup leader current Nissan President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa:

        “Investigators at the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office … obtained a paper listing the pretext for the deferred payment that bore the signatures of … Nissan President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa”

        https://tinyurl.com/SaikawaSignedDeferredPayPlan

        So, it turns out the whole “lying about income” charge which was used to arrest Ghosn in the first place was always absolutely illogical since: one does NOT have to pay tax for money one has NOT received.

        The correct time to report and pay any income is: the March AFTER one has actually received that actual income.

        One does NOT need to pay taxes many years in advance based on some company merely promising, “we’ll pay you billions of yen many years in the future gaijin-san, after you retire, trust us.”

        Which is why the “lying about income” charge which was used to arrest Ghosn in the first place HAD to be dropped.

        (And thus, during the unlawful jailing for that first dropped-charge, two other charges have been subsequently drummed up instead.)

        Oh, and here’s an extra footnote: even though Saikawa’s Nissan NEVER DID pay those billions of “deferred payments” to Ghosn, and even though Saikawa’s Nissan probably NEVER WILL pay those billions of “deferred payments” to Ghosn, Saikawa’s Nissan is now illogically “cleaning up their books” by placing those (absolutely NOT paid) billions into the March 2019 “expense” column, thus illogically & illegally reducing the company’s tax obligation, and strangely (but not surprisingly) Japan is allowing this action to be done by Saikawa’s Nissan:

        https://tinyurl.com/UnpaidYetExpenseClaimMarch2019

        Reply
      • So J-media is trying to avoid talking about the Ghosn scandal in hopes that people will forget about it eh?

        And this is all happening with while the J-media and NJ media (who are guilty of kowtowing to J-exceptionalism) keeps on reporting daily about the Canadians that are detained in China and how the rights of the detainees are violated.

        Yet not a single article out there that can even remotely draw the parallel similarities between how China treats its detainees and how Japan treats its detainees.

        And given that China is always a very hot button issue on J-media, there is always the flurry of saber-rattling J-Nationalists and Japanophiles ragging against China which often extends to outright racist Sinophobia rants by apologists.

        Lady Luck must surely on the side of Japan’s erai hito this time, the whole Huawei scandal and the Canadian detainees situation could not have come at a better time for Japan to cover up the Ghosn scandal.

        While the Ghosn articles are deleted on J-today and JTimes, the recent flurry of articles involving China and the US over the Huawei scandal has came in just in time to rile up the apologists into sinophobic racist furor and to keep the rest of the readers distracted.

        Now J-Today and JTimes can use the Huawei scandal as a “Look!! China does it too!!!”. And unfortunately do to prevalent J-exceptionalism amongst apologists and many average joes alike the sheeple always fall for this trick and ignore Japan’s appalling similarities to China when it comes to detainee abuse.

        Japan always seems to have a card in hand when caught up in some scandal, just like when the infamous Fukushima meltdown that made headlines around the world. Japan’s embarrassing incompetence in handling the meltdown was saved last minute when J-Nationalists like Ishihara “blinky” Shintaro ended up diverting the world’s attention to the senkakus to make people stop talking about Fukushima.

        I am thinking the situation is similar here where Japan plans to use the Huawei scandal to silence any and all discussion about Ghosn and how Japan treats its detainees.

        And as of current, it seems the whole Ghosn scandal is now virtually unknown in the western media. Such an appalling display of J-exceptionalism by both the J-media and the mainstream media out there as nobody seems to stop and think: “hey wait a minute, isn’t Japan treating its detainees the same as China treating its detainees?”

        — Well, there is this article out from Jeff Kingston two days ago in the Washington Post on Ghosn etc. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/17/brand-japan-is-taking-hit/. Kudos to Jeff.

        Reply
        • Jim Di Griz says:

          Dr. Debito, thanks for the link to the Kingston article. It’s always ‘nice’ when someone I have no professional nor social contact with, looks at the same information I see, and draws exactly the same conclusions independently.

          Reply
          • Yeah, the misunderstanding being Japan was thought to be “western” and civilized, when in fact it has more in common with Russia or China than it cares to admit You know, that image thing.

            “All this criticism is based on misunderstanding, I think,” said Shuji Yamaguchi, a partner at Tokyo-based law firm Okabe & Yamaguchi. “Our system is quite modernized, however there are some people who believe differently.”
            You think?
            Echoing the Japanese rep at the UN who got laughed at for saying Japan was a “leader in human rights”.

            They laughed because its a laughable claim.

            But I am never going back there.They spy on you and one day may just arrest NJ. because they can.

  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Flyjin, it’s why I posted this on another thread;

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/21/national/operator-popular-reward-program-t-card-supplying-clients-personal-information-police-prosecutors/

    In functioning democracies, the police start with a crime having been committed, and the ‘detect’ the criminal with something called an ‘investigation’.
    In Japan however, the police simply desire to scoop up whatever information they can on whoever they can, and then see what crimes they might be guilty of. It’s a perfect example of ‘guilty until proven guilty’.
    This is proper cold war Stalinist state stuff. If anyone else contacted a private business asking for my personal details, it’d be not only an invasion of my privacy to give them out, but also stalking on the part of the asker. No wonder the Japanese police have an appalling record of dealing with stalkers; they don’t understand the crime.

    Reply

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