Thoughts on DPJ rally Sat Jun 27, 2009, Sapporo

Posted on June 29, 2009June 29, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

What follows is a synopsis of a political rally for the opposition party, DPJ, which featured possible next PM Hatoyama Yukio as a speaker. Taking place in DPJ stronghold Hokkaido (which Hatoyama represents), I give a quick overview (with analysis, even pictures) of the speaking styles of Hatoyama, croaking Suzuki Muneo, Hokkaido political superman Yokomichi, and the far-Right Happiness Realization Party, who gave the best speeches of the day as they took DPJ left-of-centrism into Re-Arm Against North Korean Missiles territory.

Opening paragraph: In case you haven’t heard (the J press has been making headlines of it), we’re amidst a “Hatoyama Boom”. Hatoyama (Yukio, aka Hatopoppo) being the current leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), replacing Ozawa Ichiro (whose old-school J politics still include accepting bribes, directly or indirectly). With the anticipated boost in PM Aso’s approval ratings (after a lot of hay was made of Ozawa’s associates’ corruption) petering out to nothing, and an election required by law by October at the latest, there are a number of rumors floating around that other contenders may rise to fill the soulless golem of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP the party essentially in power in Japan for more than five decades, whose policy platform is essentially just staying in power). A couple of prefectural governors (Osaka’s Hashimoto, Miyazaki’s Higashikokubaru) are rumored to have designs on future local and national governance. But so far, Hatoyama seems to be outdistancing them all, riding the crest of his “boom” on a nationwide whistle-stop tour with stern-faced posters and constant public speeches.

All caught up now? Well, Hatoyama gave a speech at a DPJ rally last Saturday, June 27, in Sapporo’s Odori Kouen. I was there in the front row wearing a lot of sunscreen, enjoying a lot of old people’s company. Let me give you the scene:

Admin note: Debito.org Twitter handle: arudoudebito

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Just let you know: I joined Twitter today (twitter.com). If you want quick updates in text on your phone and somesuch (how it works, article here, courtesy Rick, who introduced me to the service), join or sign up. It’ll probably be just quick links in real time to what’s been blogged, or announcements of important rallies and such, but we’ll see. Only been a member for a couple of hours now and already have 39 “followers” (odd term, but that’s how it’s rendered). FYI.

Japan Times IC Chip Gaijin Card Pt 3: View of Bureaucrats: Control of NJ at all costs

Posted on June 28, 2009June 28, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

The Japan Times scoops again. After two articles exposing approaches of the LDP (their slavish obeisance to the policing MOJ, who fed them the law) and the DPJ (who took the LDP’s nonsense evidence about policing of foreigners in other countries at face value), Matsutani-san now gets the viewpoint of those bureaucrats who designed the new Gaijin Cards and NJ policing regime. And it ain’t pretty. Strikes me as pretty paranoid. Sounds even like they’d police everyone if everyone were in such a weak position in society as foreigners; more on that tomorrow. Meanwhile, it also seems clear that the original proposal has been watered down a bit thanks to public outrage, but there is still no consciousness within the bureaucratic mien of how these laws, once put in the hands of the police, can further encourage racial profiling and targeting (current laws with more lax policing than now already do that, and there are no real safeguards to protect human rights as ever).

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER JUNE 27, 2009

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

IC CHIP GAIJIN CARDS
1) Japan Times: New Gaijin Cards bill looks set to pass Diet
2) Japan Times: New IC Chip Gaijin Card passes Lower House, expected to pass Upper too
3) Text of proposed amendments to new Immigration Law, including IC Chip Gaijin Cards
Plus NEWS FLASH on upcoming Japan Times articles
4) MMT on Aso Admin’s plans for “secure society”: reforms in five areas. But not immigration.

J MEDIA SPOILS PUBLIC IMAGE OF NJ
5) NHK’s “Cool Japan” keeps their guest NJ commentators naive and ignorant
6) Japan Today feature on how media focus on crime negatively impacts upon NJ
7) NPR’s Geoff Nunberg on semantics and their control over public debate

INJUSTICE
8 ) Kyodo: 34 NJ “Trainees” died FY 2008, 16 from suspected overwork, up from 13 FY 2007
9) Anonymous re Scott Tucker, killed in a Tokyo bar by a man who got a suspended sentence.
10) Tangent: Japan Times on crackdowns on students at Hosei University

GOOD NEWS?
11) Bernama.com on new proposed “points system” for NJ work visas
12) Teigaku Kyuufukin: Have you collected your 12,000 yen tax kickback yet?

… and finally… JUST FOR FUN
14) Japanpodshow: Podcast on Arudou Debito by Joseph Tame
15) Sapporo Source DEBITO Column June 2009 on Hokkaido Winters

Japan Times updates on new IC Chip Gaijin Card bill — in fact drafted by MOJ

Posted on June 27, 2009June 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

The Japan Times is following the story of the new deluxe Gaijin Cards, complete with IC Chip and more punitive policing of most foreigners. And it is now clear from the articles below that the bills were actually drafted by the Ministry of Justice. Meaning it’s all been created in favor of policing, not assimilating, NJ — and under the all-consuming need to keep track of potential “illegal foreign overstayers” by policing everyone (anyone else smell a kind of a witch hunt?).

Got a call from the reporter Mr Matsutani this evening. He notes that there will be a series of articles on this over the next few days (below are the two camps within the LDP and the DPJ, then on successive days an opponent from the left, and then an opponent from the extreme right). So keep reading the Japan Times — the only paper that cares to give you the straight poop, and do some investigative journalism on topics that matter to its NJ readers. Excerpts follow:

Next Diet protest of proposed IC Chip Gaijin Cards Thurs July 2, noon – 1PM, Diet Upper House

Posted on June 27, 2009June 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Assemble on July 2 (Thu), 12:00 – 13:00
We won’t accept the reforms to the Immigration Law or the Basic Resident
Registration Law!

LISTEN TO US!

Date/time: July 2 (Thu) 12:00 – 13:00
Place: Upper House Diet members office building
(A gate pass will be provided at the entrance.)
Organizer: NGO Executive Committee to say NO to the new residency
(zairyu) card system
Programme: – Comments by asylum seekers, foreign nationals
– Comments from diet members, etc.

Bernama.com on new proposed “points system” for NJ work visas

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Bernama: The government is expected to study simplifying procedures for residency permits and reentry, extending the maximum duration of residency permits from three years at present and shortening the period of residency required before securing the right to permanent residency from 10 years in principle…

Similar point systems have been introduced in Britain and Canada. In Britain, the system is applied to scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers and teachers, who can obtain the right of permanent residence in five years if they are recognised as experts with advanced expertise.

Kyodo: 34 NJ “Trainees” died FY 2008, 16 from suspected overwork, up from 13 FY 2007

Posted on June 23, 2009June 23, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Kyodo: Thirty-four foreign trainees died in Japan in fiscal 2008 through March this year, up 13 from the previous year to hit a record high, a survey by a government-linked body promoting a training program showed Monday.

The leading causes of their deaths were brain and heart diseases, which claimed the lives of 16, while five were killed in accidents at work and four in traffic accidents. Supporters of foreign trainees said they suspect those who died from brain and heart disorders actually died from overwork. As of late 2007, about 177,000 foreigners have been staying in Japan under the government’s industrial training and technical internship program.

Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer supporting foreign trainees and interns, pointed out that many trainees have been forced to work long hours for lower wages and said he suspects they had died from overwork…

Ding Jianhui, 35, who came to Japan in September 2006 on the training program, said he had to work overtime for 100 to 130 hours a month at his job selling scrap metal and only received 110,000 yen per month after tax.

Text of proposed amendments to new Immigration Law, including IC Chip Gaijin Cards

Posted on June 22, 2009June 22, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

I asked the author of the recent Japan Times articles (here and here) on the passage of the new laws on IC Chip Gaijin Cards et al. to send me his source materials. He very kindly complied. Thanks very much!

These are fifteen pages of very thick and oddly-formatted pages of legal changes. It’s cumbersome wading through it. So rather than wait until I read everything before commenting, I might as well put these up so we can all read them at the same time.

Revisions to the Juumin Kihon Daichou Hou (which governs how people are registered with local governments, as in juuminhou), followed by the interestingly-titled “shutsu nyuu koku kanri oyobi nanmin nintei hou oyobi nihonkoku to no heiwa jouyaku ni motozuki kokuseki o ridatsu shita mono tou no shutsu nyuu koku kanri ni kansuru tokurei hou no ichibu o kaisei suru tou no houritsu an ni taisuru shuusei an” (draft of the revisions for one part of the draft of the laws governing administration of immigration, administration of recognized refugees, and the special law governing administration of immigration of people who have renounced their Japanese citizenship from countries with a peace treaty with Japan).

What a mouthful. I’m wondering what inspired the special-law conceit about having a peace treaty (does this weed out Russians and North Koreans?). Any ideas out there?

Japan Times: New IC Chip Gaijin Card passes Lower House, expected to pass Upper too

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

The Lower House passed bills Friday making it easier for the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau to keep tabs on foreigners who have overstayed their visas as well as others residing legally in the country.

The Upper House is also expected to pass the bills, which have the support of both the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc and the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party…

MMT on Aso Admin’s plans for “secure society”: reforms in five areas. But not immigration.

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Japan Today: A government expert panel proposed to Prime Minister Taro Aso on Monday that Japan needs to reform five areas centering on employment in order to construct a ‘‘secure’’ society amid widening social and financial disparities…

To realize a secure society, the panel called for reforms in five areas—employment, child rearing, education, medical care and pensions, with employment being the central axis in a coordinated reform of all five areas.

COMMENT: But not immigration. Still taboo. The semi-official taboo now looks pretty official to me.

Japan Times: New Gaijin Cards bill looks set to pass Diet

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

The revised bills, expected to be passed Friday by the Lower House, will abolish the Alien Registration Act and revise the immigration control and resident registration laws with sweeping changes that put information on foreign residents completely in the hands of the central government.

According to the draft, authority for managing foreign residents will shift from municipalities to the Immigration Bureau, allowing it to consolidate all personal information collected from foreign residents, including type of visa and expiration date…

“We need these bills to be enacted. We need to know how many foreigners there are and where they live. So consolidating information into the Justice Ministry is necessary,” Hosokawa said.

The bills also have a provision to prevent the ministry from using that data improperly, a decision that was made to ward off criticism that “the minister” could abuse the zairyu card number to violate foreigners’ privacy. But no penalty for such abuse was listed.

The practice, dubbed data-matching, was outlawed by the Supreme Court in regard to its use on Japanese citizens.

The provision says “the justice minister” must limit the use of foreign residents’ personal information to the minimum required for managing such residents and that the information must be handled with care to protect the rights of individuals. But no penalties or methods for enforcing such compliance are listed in the bills.

Teigaku Kyuufukin: Have you collected your 12,000 yen tax kickback yet?

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Friend Olaf suggested to me yesterday that we ask readers of Debito.org how things are going with their collecting the Supplementary Income Payment (teigaku kyuufukin), the Aso Administration’s answer to financial stimulus (where every adult gets 12,000 yen, plus 8000 yen for oldies and dependents). And yes, NJ residents get it too, so if you haven’t yet received word from your local government with forms (see below), get in touch with your local ward office or town hall and get your kickback.

I got mine a couple of weeks ago (the Sapporo City Govt sent everyone’s by registered mail — just try to imagine the costs incurred the taxpayer) and sent it in last week. Still haven’t been paid yet, but how are things going for everyone else? How do you plan to spend your loot?

I still say we could have had more universal stimulus at a lot less administrative cost if we had just given people a holiday, for however long, from the 5% consumption tax. But I’m not a policymaker; what do I know?

Sapporo Source DEBITO Column 1 June 2009 on Hokkaido Winters

Posted on June 17, 2009August 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

A new “free paper” came out last week in Sapporo. Called SAPPORO SOURCE (get a copy in pdf format at http://www.sapporosource.com), it contains the first of my regular monthly columns, where I talk about offbeat topics (meaning non-human-rights stuff; we got government sponsors). The first one is about the weather. Yes, the weather.

And let me add that it’s taken some time for Japan’s #5 City to come up with a free paper of this quality (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka have all had their own for quite some time). The longstanding paper, “What’s On In Sapporo?“, is a milquetoast flyer put out by Sapporo City Government bureaucrats (who can’t even spell “calendar” correctly). SAPPORO SOURCE’s predecessor, XENE, gave it a good go — until it succumbed to market temptations that contradicted its mandate as an international paper: 1) putting out damage-control advertising (see my protest letter here), sponsored by the Otaru City Government, that denied that the Otaru Exclusionary Onsens Issue actually existed, and 2) translating exclusionary signs for xenophobes in the Susukino party district, for the 2002 World Cup (some are still up to this day), that effectively said “JAPANESE ONLY” (which XENE decided to render as “MEMBERS ONLY” in five languages, but not Japanese, as if that made things all better; their letter of apology here). XENE folded a couple of years ago, and not before time. It really had no idea how to serve an NJ audience.

Now it’s SAPPORO SOURCE. I had a read of it, and it’s a professional job with a good tone and a lot of useful information. See for yourself.

Cover page and scan of my column follows…

Anonymous re Scott Tucker, killed in a Tokyo bar by a man who got a suspended sentence.

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Anonymous on Scott Tucker, murdered in a bar by a Tokyo DJ who got a suspended sentence:

“Now, this is why I’m writing this addendum. Clearly, I knew Scott Tucker. I knew him very well. I drank with him, Japanese-style, at least a hundred times. We drank beer, we ate very good sushi and drank sake; we drank expensive whiskey most foreigners couldn’t, or wouldn’t afford–in keep bottles at very nice, exclusive clubs and snacks in central Tokyo. I never, ever, ever, saw Scott Tucker get belligerent. I never saw him get argumentative, even after polishing off a full bottle, with my help, of pricey Japanese whiskey. The implication that somehow, because of his drunkenness, he was threatening enough to pose a danger to a 154-pound disk jockey is so absurd that it leaves me livid. If I were there, and I were tanked up, and the disk jockey decided to come down and take charge of things, it would make sense. I am not a diplomat: when I’m drunk and unhappy and things are waxing ridiculous, I will throw a few people around. But Scotty, no. No, I’m sorry. Whatever the official account, he was a diplomat. Again, I never saw him belligerent, ever, and I knew him for many, many, years. This is what bothers me about the whole “Official” account; it is simply not accurate, and is stilted towards character assassination and implication that is wholly unjustified and clearly driven by agenda. To think that someone can get a probationary sentence for what amounts to ‘sucker-punching’ a neighbor to death just rubs me the wrong way. It doesn’t surprise me–as I say, I spent the better part of my life in Japan, and I never assumed for a moment that justice would err in my favour were I to be caught out for an indiscretion–but I feel compelled to to say something on Scotty’s behalf.

I feel compelled for this reason: were a wealthy Japanese property owner from Azabu, with a famous, elegant wife, to go into a club next door, a club operating in violation of city ordinance, and get into a row with the owners, or the disk jockey, and be killed–and were that disk jockey to be a non-Japanese–the media would have a field day with it. And were the non-Japanese disk jockey–an American, or a Brit, or an African– to claim he had asphyxiated the wealthy Japanese neighbor out of fear or his own life–he would be hung from the highest tree in Japan, on national tv, as a murderer, and a fiend, and a crazed violent foreign interloper. But if it’s just a guy who blindsided Scotty, by all means, give him a suspended probationary sentence. A simple self-defense accident.”

Sit-in Protest of New IC Chip Gaijin Cards, Every Tues morning, Diet Building, all welcome

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

SAY NO TO THE IMMIGRATION CONTROL BILLS
2009.6.19 Tuesday
SIT-IN PROTEST @ Diet Members’ No. 2 Office Building of the Lower House

The “NGO Committee against the Introduction of the ‘Zai-ryu’ Residence Card”
calls on people living in Japan, both citizens and foreign residents, to join together to
oppose discriminatory reforms to immigration law.
Speak out ＮＯＷ!

Date 09：30〜12：30 Tuesday, June 16 (no protest when raining)
* Just a 30 minutes or one hour protest is welcomed.
At Diet Members’ No. 2 Office Building of the Lower House
The nearest station: ‘Kokkai Gijido Mae’ or ‘Nagata-cho’ station of Metro.

Japanpodshow: Tokyo Podcast on Arudou Debito by Joseph Tame

Posted on June 15, 2009June 16, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

In this interview Debito talks about:

The first few years of his life in Japan

The Otaru Onsen Case
The new Gaijin cards and associated human rights issues, and what you can do to stop their introduction
Foreigners who defend discrimination against other foreigners claiming that ‘We are guests in Japan’
Has the situation improved for foreigners in Japan in recent years?
His public image, and new beard, Arthur.
I have also created a page just for you on my site, which should help get the interview to the first page when people do Google searches on you.

The page can be found at

http://pokya.jp/japanpodshow/guests/arudou-debito/

Back from lovely trip to Tokyo: Quick update for tonight

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Hi Blog. Just a quick word this evening before midnight. It was a lovely time again in Tokyo this trip. Fri and Sat were lovely days, no rain despite forecasts. Went out on a catamaran with friend Chris, had a lovely afternoon playing petanque, a French boules game (which, after six hours or so, gives …

Tangent: Japan Times on crackdowns on students at Hosei University

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Japan Times: Illegal arrests, forced expulsions, “kidnappings” by security police and beatings by hired thugs. No, it’s not another dispatch from a violent banana republic. Those accusations come from the leafy back-streets of Ichigaya, Tokyo, home to a branch campus of the prestigious Hosei University.

Student Reiko Goto says she was assaulted during her six-month detention by police after being charged under the prewar Law Concerning Punishment of Physical Violence. DAVID MCNEILL PHOTO
Hosei authorities and a group of students are locked in a poisonous struggle that has turned the campus into something resembling a low-security prison.

Entrances are guarded by newly installed CCTV cameras and jittery guards equipped with Bluetooth headsets. Notices have been published at many sites naming and shaming “troublemakers” who have been expelled, and the police are on call in case things get out of hand.

A provisional injunction forbids students from “loitering, putting up banners and making speeches within 200 meters” of the campus.

Since the dispute began three years ago, 107 students have been arrested and 24 indicted, some of whom awaited trial in detention centers for up to six months. Last Friday, five more students were formally charged with offenses including trespassing and obstructing the police. Another is being kept in detention for at least two more weeks.

Supporters say some have been framed using a prewar law designed to crush labor protests…

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 12, 2009June 12, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

IMMIGRATION AND JAPAN’S FUTURE
1) DIJ Tokyo Symposium 2009: Japan’s Demographic Science overtaken by anti-immigration politics
2) Tokyo Trip June 2-5 overview, plus report on NJ nurses and caregiver program talks at DIJ
3) Asahi: More NJ “trainees”, “interns” face dismissal
4) Mainichi: Foreign researchers, tech experts may get preferential immigration treatment
5) Asahi on future of Japanese pension plans: oldies below poverty line
6) Sunday Tangent: Shinjuku-ku issues its own quadralingual guidebook to life in Tokyo
7) Protest IC Chipped Gaijin Cards every Tuesday anytime between 9AM-12:30PM, Diet Building, Tokyo

TANGENTS
8 ) Sunday Tangent: DPJ submits bill to limit seshuu seijika (hereditary politicians)
9) Japan Today Kuchikomi: Oddly includes NJ stats in article on gang rape at Kyoto U of Education
10) Sugaya Case: M-J on policing and Japanese jurisprudence

FOLLOW-UPS
11) Bankrupt Eikaiwa NOVA’s Saruhashi admits wrongdoing in court
12) Sumo Stablemaster gets his for Tokitaizan hazing death
13) More on fingerprinting, tracking people electronically, and RFID technology

… and finally…
14) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column Jun 2 2009: “The issue that dares not speak its name” (full text)

Follow-up: More on fingerprinting, tracking people electronically, and RFID technology

Posted on June 11, 2009November 23, 2012 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Update Three this week. I put out an article three weeks ago that sparked some controversy, about the prospects of the new Gaijin Cards with IC Chips within them being used to track people and ferret out the foreigners with more effectiveness than ever before. I was accused of scaremongering by some, but oh well.

As a followup, here are some responses and links to germane articles from cyberspace, pointing out how my prognostications may in fact be grounded in reality. Along with a critique at the very bottom from friend Jon Heese, Tsukuba City Assemblyman, of that controversial article.

Follow-up: NOVA’s Saruhashi admits wrongdoing in court

Posted on June 10, 2009June 10, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Former Eikaiwa boss Saruhashi finally admits he done wrong. But neglects to mention how all the unpaid teachers left in the lurch will still be left in the lurch. This was once the largest employer of NJ in Japan? Saru mo ki kara ochiru, as they say. But this is a mighty fall by a money skimmer with a money spinner. And a shady company from start to finish anyway, setting the business model for other eikaiwas out to screw over both their students and their teachers. Throw the book at this guy, and make him cough up what he owes to his teachers. So that others don’t do the same and think it’s “just regular business practice”.

Follow-up: Sumo Stablemaster gets his for Tokitaizan hazing death

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

A bit of follow-up on a case that Debito.org took up some months ago due to the politics of Sumo (and our perceived need for the Association to divert attention from its own excesses by bashing the foreigners). The stablemaster whose orders resulted in the death of Sumo wrestler Tokitaizan two years got his: Seven years in the clink. Good. But it’s now on appeal, and who knows if it’ll be lessened to the degree where it does not become a deterrent for future leaders to order and carry out the bullying and hazing of its underlings.

Next screening of documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES Sun June 14, Tokyo Univ Komaba Campus

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

In case you missed a chance to see documentary SOUR STRAWBERRIES, here’s your next chance. Drop by Tokyo University Komaba Campus this coming Sunday afternoon and take in a screening. It’s part of a Linguapax Asia Symposium this year. Details and schedule as follows. More on the documentary here.

2009 Linguapax Asia Symposium
Theme: Human Trafficking
June 14, 9:00 – 16:30
University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus, Bldg. 18,
4th Floor, Communication Room No 3

With an estimated 900,000 victims annually, human trafficking is perhaps the major human rights issue of the 21st century. The 2009 Working Session of Linguapax Asia will discuss the connection of language with human trafficking and will explore the following:

• How can language define the socio-political contexts of human trafficking?
• How has human trafficking (both labor and sexual) been described historically (e.g. biblical sources and slave narratives)?
• How have literary works described human trafficking?
• How has human trafficking been portrayed by visual media?
• How can the language of human experience explore human trafficking and the sex industry?…

14:40 Debito Arudou, Hokkaido Information University, Documentary film: Sour Strawberries: Japan’s Hidden Guest Workers (2008, Tilman König and Daniel Kremers)

Sugaya Case: M-J on policing and Japanese jurisprudence

Posted on June 7, 2009June 8, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Big news last week was Sugaya Toshikazu’s acquittal after nearly two decades in prison. It describes well what’s really sick about Japan’s judicial system (primer on that here), which you had better pay attention to because as NJ you’re more likely to be stopped, prosecuted, and convicted in Japan (primer on that here) by the police forces.

Here’s what the Mainichi had to say last week about the Sugaya Case, followed by an appraisal of the situation by reader M-J…

Sunday Tangent: DPJ submits bill to limit seshuu seijika (hereditary politicians)

Posted on June 7, 2009June 7, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Here’s the best reason I can see for voting for (and urging your relatives to vote for) the opposition DPJ yet. And no, it’s not a NJ issue. It’s the issue of seshuu seijika, or politicians with inherited Diet seats.

In my view, inherited seats and political dynasties to this degree are the biggest reason we have so much rot in Japan’s democratic institutions: gormless politicians who neither understand how the other (poorer) half of Japan lives, nor have any reason to rock the boat and institute any real reforms of the status quo — because they’re a political elite with their future estates sewn up for life.

For example, either way the next election swings, we’ll have Aso (grandson of former PM Yoshida Shigeru and son of a former Dietmember) or Hatoyama Yukio (grandson of former PM Hatoyama Ichiro and son of a former Dietmember too). All thoroughbreds. As have most PMs been in the past couple of decades.

I talk more about this in the context of just how myopic Japan’s policymaking is in a Japan Times article back in December 2007. I also enclose in this blog entry three articles from the Japan Times.

Any political party willing to limit the powers of its own politicians is worth a second look. I say get ready to vote DPJ.

Japan Today Kuchikomi: Oddly includes NJ stats in article on gang rape at Kyoto U of Education

Posted on June 6, 2009June 6, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Here’s something pointed out this morning in a comment on Debito.org by E.P. Lowe, about a ponderous essay on Japan Today.com why students do the things they do, such as gang rapes in Kyoto University of Education. And then, with no particular need whatsoever, we get stats on how many foreign students are attending. Not sure why that’s materiel for this article, especially given the tendency by elements in this country to drag foreigners into reports and policy proposals on crime, even when they are unconnected to the crime being discussed. Unprofessional, Japan Today.

Tokyo Trip June 2-5 overview, plus report on NJ nurses and caregiver program talks at DIJ

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Here’s a brief overview of what happened to me the past few days during my most recent Tokyo trip, including speaking in front of the Diet building against the IC Chips in Gaijin Cards and helping Trans-Pacific Radio out with their live podcast at the Pink Cow Shibuya. But it’s not all personal stuff. There is also a summary of two talks on international migration I found informative. Excerpt:

International migration has produced 195 million migrants. They now number as a proportion of population 1 in 10 in industrialized countries, and 1 in 35 of the world labor force. There are now 195 million migrants, 50% of them now women. When it comes to the proposed import of nurses and caregivers from Indonesia and the Philippines, as per bilateral agreements with Japan under “Economic Partnership Agreements”, the goal is, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, of 1.5 million NJ caregivers in Japan by 2040. But the program has gotten off to an inauspicious start.

Only in its second year, the EPAs have had goals of only 1000 total NJ health care workers imported. They would be trained in Japanese for six months (at the hiring company’s expense, of around 600,000 yen, then work the remaining four and a half years in the health sector getting their skills and standards up to speed. The course is harsh, as it is a “tenure system”, as in “up or out”. If they don’t pass the same caregiver and nurse tests that Japanese natives pass within five years, they lose their visas and get sent back home. This test, by the way, has a 50% fail rate for native Japanese. And salaries are not all that great for anyone working the severe hours required in this business sector (which may account for why there is a shortage of nurses and caregivers in Japan in the first place)…

Asahi on future of Japanese pension plans: oldies below poverty line

Posted on June 2, 2009June 2, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Asahi: The average household that starts receiving public pension benefits this fiscal year will see the payment level drop to about 40 percent of average working household incomes in 20 years, the welfare ministry said.

The ministry’s latest estimates include changes in annual benefits over 20 years
. If the average household begins receiving benefits in fiscal 2009 when the couple reach the age of 65, the payments will be 223,000 yen a month, or 62.3 percent of the average income of working households.

When the couple become 85 years old, the pension amount will be 199,000 yen in terms of current values, or 43.2 percent of the average working household income.

COMMENT: Here is the proposed future for those of us paying into our nation’s pension plan. Read and weep. Considering Japan’s unofficial poverty line is about 200,000 yen a month, people who retire are forecast to become just that: impoverished.

Get Japan Times tomorrow (Tues), and I’m in Tokyo Tues-Friday

Posted on June 1, 2009June 1, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Just to let you know, two things:

1) Please keep an eye out tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 (Wednesday in the ruralities) for my next Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column.

Topic: How the GOJ and media avoid the very term “racial discrimination” in public debates for political reasons. Enjoy!

2) I’ll also be in Tokyo from Tuesday morning until Wednesday noon attending the German Institute for Japanese Studies three-day Tokyo symposium on Japan’s imploding population and demographic challenges.

Sunday Tangent: Shinjuku-ku issues its own quadralingual guidebook to life in Tokyo.

Posted on May 31, 2009May 31, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Mainichi: The municipal government of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward has released the “Guide to Living in Shinjuku,” a daily life manual in four languages aimed at new foreign residents.

The illustrated guide is in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese with furigana phonetic readings above the kanji characters for easy reading. The guide covers details of moving into an apartment, such as the deposit and so-called “key money,” as well as etiquette such as polite greetings to neighbors after moving in, not playing music too loudly at night, and making sure to check with the landlord before getting a pet.

The 74-page manual also covers practicalities of everyday living in the ward, such as separating garbage, procedures to follow in case of a natural disaster, bicycle manners and making it clear that smoking is prohibited on the streets.

COMMENT FROM JK: I don’t suppose Shinjuku-ku would be kind enough to release a “Guide to Living with Foreigners,” in Japanese aimed at the existing residents of the Ward….

IMO「新宿生活スタートブック」 = ‘Read This Book, Become A Good Gaijin, And Don’t Cause Us Any Trouble”.

DEBITO: I’m not quite that negative about it. Sample scans of the book enclosed.

Asahi: More NJ “trainees”, “interns” face dismissal

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Asahi: During the five months until February, more than 1,500 trainees and interns returned to their countries without spending the full three years here.

These difficulties highlight the program’s lack of a sufficient safety net. Interns are required to pay for unemployment insurance, but they often find it hard to receive benefits…

According to Zhen Kai, who gives advice to foreign trainees and interns at the Gifu Ippan Rodo Kumiai, a Gifu-based labor union for workers at small businesses, an increasing number of interns are refusing to be let go before the end of their three-year stints.

They remain at corporate dormitories without pay while negotiating with their employers to have their dismissals reversed.

“The situation is grave,” Zhen said.

Canceling a worker’s training or internship in the middle is allowed only when a business goes bankrupt or is in serious trouble. Because of visa restrictions, interns technically work under an arrangement with organizations, such as local chambers of commerce and industry, that accept them for member companies.

This means that if fired at the midpoint in their training, they are not eligible to work for ordinary companies or receive new job information at Hello Work public job placement centers.

While a Justice Ministry guideline urges groups and businesses to find new jobs for their dismissed interns, in practice help is rare.

Mainichi: Foreign researchers, tech experts may get preferential immigration treatment

Posted on May 29, 2009May 29, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Mainichi: A government committee has released a draft report recommending that a skill- and experience-based point system be established to ease acquisition of residency and permanent residency for foreign researchers and technical experts.

The high-grade worker acceptance promotion committee report calls for points to be awarded to Japan-bound candidates for experience and good academic and research records in potential high-growth fields such as information communications, energy and biotechnology, as well as for Japanese language ability.

Should a candidate receive a set number of points, he or she would qualify for Japanese residency, benefit from simplified residency status renewal procedures, receive extended periods of stay, and be given preferential treatment when applying for permanent residency.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MAY 29, 2009

Posted on May 29, 2009May 29, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

THE SHADOW OF BIG BROTHER
1) Metropolis & Japan Today: “Proposed NJ resident registry card creates Big Brother concerns”
2) Japan Times on May 24 2009 new IC Chip Gaijin Card protest
3) Brazilian MTV on May 24 Protests on proposed IC Chip Gaijin Cards
4) Kyodo: GOJ proposes GPS tracking of criminals. SITYS.
5) Charles McJilton on how visa overstayers too get Gaijin Cards
6) Various respondents: Police crackdowns in Roppongi and elsewhere, Olympic Bid cleanup?
7) Sankei: Police “cleaning up” Roppongi of shitsukoi NJ

TANGENTS
8 ) Kyodo: 2 NJ defendants among first 13 new lay jury cases
9) NYT: Japanese Fans Mobilize to Keep Valentine as Their Manager
10) Sunday Tangent: America’s Japan Society now led by a Japanese
11) Sunday Tangent: Economist on UN racism conference fiasco, April 2009

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
12) Monty DiPietro’s new play “Honiefaith”, June 5, 6, 7, Tokyo Shinjuku
13) Trans-Pacific Radio’s Live Seijigiri June 4 7:30 PM Shibuya Pink Cow

… and finally…
14) Japan Times May 19, 2009: “IC you: Bugging the Alien” article on new Gaijin Cards, full text

Asahi: Foreign nursing trainees face unfair hurdles

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Asahi: At hospitals and nursing homes for the elderly across the nation, 208 Indonesians have commenced work. They are trainees who came to Japan hoping to become nurses and certified care workers under the economic partnership agreement (EPA) signed between Japan and Indonesia. Having finished a six-month Japanese-language study program, they started working in January and February. All of them are qualified to work as nurses in their home country and many of them have a lot of nursing experience. But most of those I met expressed anxiety and frustration.

This is because of the system that requires them to pass Japanese state exams within specified periods. If they fail, they must return to their home country. Would-be nurses have three chances to sit for the exams in three years of their stay. Conditions are tougher for aspiring care workers. Since foreign trainees are required to have actual working experience in Japan for at least three years before they can take the exam, they only have a single chance to pass in four years…

COMMENT: What does the GOJ want? Easy. Revolving-door cheap foreign labor, which won’t stay and get expensive or start demanding its own rights. Unfortunately, that’s not how immigration works, even though with its aging society, immigration is what Japan needs. We’ve said this umpteen times before, but lemme just repeat it for the noobs, sorry. What the GOJ wants and what it needs are working against each other. Its unforgiving and inflexible policies such as these that are hurting Japan’s future.

Brazilian MTV on May 24 Protests on proposed IC Chip Gaijin Cards

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

In my first attempt at embedding a video on Debito.org, here’s Brazilian MTV devoting seven minutes to the May 24 march against the proposed IC Chip Gaijin Cards. In Portuguese, Japanese, and English.

Sankei: Police “cleaning up” Roppongi of shitsukoi NJ

Posted on May 27, 2009May 27, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

An interesting article from May 26’s Sankei, reporting about how enjoyment of Tokyo’s Roppongi party district is being spoiled by over-persistent street touts (a sentiment I somewhat agree with, but…), who lead people to bars that even the US Embassy is cautioning against. So we have the new “Clean Town Roppongi Action Group” launching into the breach, putting up cautionary billets in English and Japanese (advertising “punishments”), organizing patrols and volunteer policing groups, and advocating “safety for each resident” (fortunately rendered as juumin, not kokumin). All this, says the article, justifiable under the new controversial Tokyo City ordinance banning “public disturbances”, passed last April.

Kyodo: 2 NJ defendants among first 13 new lay jury cases

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Kyodo: Prosecutors nationwide indicted on Friday nine criminal suspects, including two murder suspects, to be tried under the newly introduced lay jury system, bringing the total number of such cases to 13. A day after the introduction of the system, the two murder suspects were indicted by Tokyo and Fukuoka prosecutors. Suspects in other serious crimes such as robbery resulting in injuries or attempted arson were indicted the previous day, but murder suspects were not included.

COMMENT: That was quick! Two days into the new system, and two of the first thirteen indictments are foreign? That works out to a fifteen percent NJ crime rate…

Japan Times on May 24 2009 new IC Chip Gaijin Card protest

Posted on May 25, 2009May 25, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Got a call from friends Aly and Yumi yesterday, right after they attended the protest against the proposed IC-Chipped Gaijin Cards, who told me the vibe was great and inspiring of future public action.

Here’s how it turned out in the Japan Times. If you see any more articles, please feel free to include them in the Comments section below with text and links:

Kyodo: GOJ proposes GPS tracking of criminals. SITYS.

Posted on May 25, 2009November 23, 2012 by Dr. Debito Arudou

Kyodo: The Justice Ministry will begin research on how other countries employ satellite-based global positioning systems to locate people released from prison and to see if the systems work at discouraging repeat offenders.

COMMENT: I posted this on Facebook last night, and got people saying GPS and RFID are two separate technologies, so it doesn’t matter. Those who wish to discuss that here, go ahead. My point remains that the political will is there to bell the cat, er, the criminal. And given the GOJ’s propensity to treat foreigners as criminals (as opposed to immigrants), and to give the police free reign to rein in crime, to me it’s only a matter of time before fitting the transponders in the new proposed IC Chip Gaijin Cards leads to tracking them.

Sunday Tangent: America’s Japan Society now led by a Japanese

Posted on May 24, 2009May 24, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

AFP: As Japanese culture seeps into the American mainstream, a key US institution devoted to Japan has crossed a threshold — its new head is Japanese. And he is out to make sure Japan’s influence gets noticed.

Motoatsu Sakurai, a former executive and ambassador, took over last month as president of the Japan Society — founded in 1907 by members of New York high society intrigued by a nation then completely foreign to most Americans.

He conceded that his appointment presented an intriguing cross-cultural question — while plenty of Japanese and Americans study each other’s country, how does a Japanese lead Americans in their dealings with Japan?

“I don’t think it would be unnatural,” Sakurai said with Japanese understatement when asked whether it made sense for a Japanese to run the Japan Society.

“In many ways, Japanese and Americans see the same things in a different way,” he told AFP.

“I think it is good for the Japan Society — since its inception an American institution — to have an injection of new ideas, especially as the Japanese are one partner in this bilateral relationship.”

“This was not a political statement saying, ‘Gosh, what an amazing thing, we’re picking a Japanese as the head of the Japan Society,'” Heleniak said. “New York is an international city so nationality doesn’t matter.”

COMMENT: Nice if that logic applied more on the Japan side of the equation.

NYT: Japanese Fans Mobilize to Keep Valentine as Their Manager

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

NYT: With over 50,000 signatures on a petition to keep [Bobby] Valentine, this is a struggle, the fans believe, that goes to the heart of Japanese baseball. They see Valentine as a positive influence who is leading the team and the sport toward a more viable future by promoting more access to players and more fan-friendly marketing concepts.

At the same time, they view the current front office, led by the team president, Ryuzo Setoyama, as more interested in the old status quo, when, they contend, fans were treated less as coveted customers and more as people expected to attend games out of a sense of duty. Although the team insists that Valentine simply makes too much money to be retained in 2010, the fans believe other factors may be in play.

“This problem is more than Japanese baseball itself; it’s about the Japanese society,” Kazuhiro Yasuzumi, a 39-year-old Marines fan and leader of the protest, said through an interpreter. He said that people with power and influence in Japan did not necessarily appreciate someone like Valentine, who has never been bashful about offering his opinion.

Valentine is indeed paid a lot of money: $3.9 million per season. When, and if, he goes, he will take with him some significant accomplishments, starting with the championship he won in 2005, the Marines’ first in 31 years. It was after that feat that he became the only foreigner to win the prestigious Shoriki Award for contributions to Japanese baseball.

「新たな在留管理制度」導入に抗議する5.24集会・デモ　ご賛同のお願い

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

4月24日、衆議院法務委員会で、「新たな在留管理制度」を導入する入管法・
入管特例法改定案の審議がスタートしました。しかしその法案の対象となる外
国籍者のほとんどは、法改定について知らされていません。入管法・入管特例
法は、対象となるのが選挙権を持たない外国籍者であり、「自己決定」という
民主主義の原則から外れた法律です。しかしだからこそ、対象となる当事者か
ら意見を聴取する場が求められるのではないでしょうか。

また今回の法改定の目的の一つとして利便性の向上が謳われていますが、本当
にそうなのでしょうか？　たとえば「新たな在留管理制度」では、対象となる
外国籍者に、住居地や配偶者との関係などの届け出義務を罰則（刑事罰）や処
分（在留資格取り消し処分）つきで課しています。しかしもし本当に便利な制
度なら、過剰な罰則や処分をつける必要が、なぜあるのでしょうか？

私たちは、当事者の意見を聴かずに進められる法案審議に抗議する集会とデモ
を下記のように開催します。当日は、参加者のリレートークを中心にすすめま
す。外国籍住民の声、「多民族・多文化共生社会」を求める街からの声を、国
会に届かせましょう！

◆日時：5月24日（日）
14:00-15:30　集会
16:00-17:00　デモ（新橋－銀座）
◆場所：交通ビル地下１階（東京都港区新橋5-15-5）
JR新橋駅（烏森口）より徒歩6分
http://www.kokuro.net/kaika004.pdf
◆資料代：500円（日本人のみ）
◆集会内容：法案の概要説明・参加者のリレートークなど
※通訳：英語・スペイン語
※デモでのプラカードやバナー持参大歓迎！

Reminder: Protest against new IC Gaijin Cards May 24 Shinbashi Tokyo

Posted on May 22, 2009May 22, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

STOP! PROPOSALS TO CRACK DOWN ON FOREIGN RESIDENTS!
Rally Against Reforms to the Immigration Law

The “NGO Committee against the Introduction of the ‘Zai-ryu’ Residence
Card” calls on people living in Japan, both citizens and foreign
residents, to join together to oppose discriminatory reforms to
immigration law.

Date: May 24 (Sun) 14:00-15:30 Assembly
16:00-17:00 Rally

Location: Koutsu Biru in Shimbashi (Minato-ku, Shimbashi 5-15-5)
(6 minutes walk from JR Shimbashi Station, Karasumori Exit)
For leaflet and map:
http://www.repacp.org/aacp/pdf/MultiLang/20090420LeafENv01.pdf

Monty DiPietro’s new play “Honiefaith”, June 5, 6, 7, Tokyo Shinjuku

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Dr. Debito Arudou

When a Filipino hostess’ dismembered body is discovered in a Tokyo coin locker, Manila newspaper reporter Victor Balmori is dispatched to Japan. Balmori is looking for a story, he finds a nightmare.

Written by long-time Tokyoite Monty DiPietro, “Honiefaith” is a three-act play about people pushed into extraordinary circumstances demanding difficult choices. The premiere of “Honiefaith” opens the Tokyo International Players’ new “Second Stage” series, and is being directed by TIP president Jonah Hagans.

June 5,6,7, 2009 at Our Space Theater:

The venue, Our Space, is located off the north side of Koshu Kaido street, a three-minute walk from Hatagaya Station, or a five-minute taxi from Shinjuku Station’s south exit. More information, map, links, and press releases here at Debito.org.