Free Japanese-language courses in Sapporo sponsored by GOJ (deadline for application Oct 2)

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

From: Hokkaido Insider
Date: September 14, 2009 5:27:37 PM JST
To: Hokkaido Insider News
Subject: Free Japanese Course for International Parents

FREE JAPANESE COURSE for international parents.

This program is sponsored by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs for FY 2009.

Please visit our site for more information: http://www.myiay.com/j/b_2e.html

A very detailed explanation and schedule of the classes being offered appear at the link posted above.
Here are some of the key points as to who they are looking to serve and the general requirements.

Target Participants:
Foreign residents currently raising children from toddlers through middle school students
Those who are able to attend at least 80% of the course.
*The 2nd and 3rd Periods teach entry-level Japanese.

Term: From Tuesday, October 13th 2009 through Tuesday, December 22nd (10 Days, 3 Periods / Day)
(As a general rule, all classes are held on Tuesdays, but exceptions may be made due to staffing circumstances.)

Location: IAY
060-0061 Sapporo-shi, Chuo-ku, S1W4 – Hinode Bldg. 6F (connected directly with Odori Subway Station, Exit #10)

Tuition: No charge

Participant Limit: 20 persons (participants will be selected randomly should the applicants exceed capacity)

Application form can be downloaded from the site. (Application deadline is October 2.)

Confirmed participants will receive information by Wednesday, October 7th.

Hokkaido Insider News is free for those who wish to receive the announcements.
Permission is granted to forward this on to others who may be interested.
If you wish to have your name removed, please send a request to me to do so.
If you wish to receive job information, advertise or post something to the list,
please visit http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hokkaido/kenhartmann/index.html for details.

Eikaiwa NOVA embezzler and former boss Saruhashi gets his: 3.5 years

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Sorry to be so late in reporting this, but some good news a couple of weeks ago: Eikaiwa NOVA embezzler and former boss Saruhashi gets his: sentenced to 3.5 years in the clink. No word if the employees are going to get their money back, however.

More background details on this case here (plug in the word “sahashi”) into search engine. More on Debito.org here.

Arudou Debito in Nagoya

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

Nova boss handed 3 1/2 years
By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer
The Japan Times Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009

OSAKA — Former Nova President Nozomu Sahashi was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison by the Osaka District Court for his role in skimming off employee funds in 2007, just before the foreign language school giant’s bankruptcy that October.

Presiding Judge Hiroaki Higuchi’s severe sentence took some in the courtroom by surprise. Prosecutors had sought five years for the former president of what was once the country’s largest foreign language school chain and employer of foreign nationals. Sahashi is expected to appeal the sentence. …

Sahashi was charged with funneling nearly ¥320 million from employee benefit funds to a bank account belonging to a Nova affiliate in July 2007. He denied embezzling the funds, telling the court he used the money on behalf of his employees.

He tried to portray himself as only one of a group of senior Nova executives responsible for the decision. But the judge said that given the amount of money and his authority, Sahashi bore a heavy responsibility for the crime.

Rest of the article at

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090827a1.html

More quick thoughts on last night’s election: Looking at the numbers

Posted on August 31, 2009September 6, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Again, remote computer, on the road, so this time just a few thoughts based upon what I read in all the major newspapers this morning (just looking at the matrix of data), nothing insider or anything:

THE RAW NUMBERS: According to two major newspapers (Asahi and Mainichi, the others had slightly different numbers when they went to press), opposition parties got a total of 322 seats including Proportional Representation (308 for elected seats), gaining 195. Incumbent ruling parties got 140 (119 elected seats), losing 192. This is a landslide for the opposition no matter how you slice it, and an absolute majority of the 480 total seats in the Lower House. In terms of PR (180 seats total), The LDP dropped from 77 to 55, while the DPJ rose from 61 to 86. It was a rout.

THE AFTEREFFECTS: Former PM Aso (get used to that moniker!) almost immediately announced his resignation as party leader. But he showed just how much of an ungracious loser he is (as I mentioned in my last blog entry) when interviewed by being cold, abrupt, nasty, impolite, and pretty much impolitic when interviewed by all networks (let’s face it, Aso killed the LDP, and he’s gotta blame somebody else in his mind). And as noted yesterday in a very insightful comment, punditry was advising caution and fear (Tahara Souichiro’s opening speech in his debate program was scare-mongering; maybe it’s time to get someone younger to lead these debates) and flinty-eyed expectations of the DPJ overnight, as if we can’t quite trust the public to have spoken properly. People have just gotta get used to the LDP being clearly out of office for the first time, as the Yomiuri noted, for 55 years.

THE VOTERS REALLY DID SPEAK: Voting went up in every prefecture except Oita. The average was 69%, the highest since 1990. In terms of individual elected seats, the DPJ won in most prefectures, except for LDP strongholds in outlying Honshu (Yamaguchi, Shimane, Tottori, Fukui, Toyama, and Aomori), Kyushu (Kumamoto, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki), and Shikoku (Kouchi and Ehime). The DPJ kicked ass in the Nagoya area (all elected seats went DPJ), also seizing all seats in Shiga, Niigata, Nagano, Fukushima, and Iwate, then seizing almost all seats in Shizuoka, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hyougo, Mie, Hiroshima, Kanagawa, Chiba, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Akita, and Hokkaido. And in all Proportional Representation blocs, even those with prefectures that had LDP wins, the DPJ won more PR seats than the LDP (breaking even with Koumeitou support only in Okayama). Again, there’s no way for the LDP to put a bright face on all of this.

KINGPINS OUT. We got rid of a number of old farts that have long overstayed their welcome. Nakagawa the G8 Drunk. Sexual harasser Yamasaki. Controversial Kyuuma (from Nagasaki, who insinuated positive things about the atomic bombings), former PM Kaifu (former PMs don’t get kicked out; first time for decades), IIRC current cabinet member Fuyushiba, and a couple of others. Biggest embarrassment of the election: Koumeitou leader Ohta, who also lost his seat — and party leaders are supposed to be in safe seats; Koumeitou clearly paid a heavy price for not distancing themselves from Aso. Drawing a close second in terms of embarrassment was the number of Aso cabinet members (current and previous) who lost their seats entirely (again, Nakagawa, and his replacement Yosano). There may be more, don’t have the current cabinet list in front of me.

But with PR, many of the “zombie candidates” (who can run both in single-seat constituencies, and if they don’t get in they can stay in by PR) came out after midnight: Former cabinet ministers Machimura, Noda, Koike, and Takebe, for example. The oldest person I saw elected was 77 (Mr Fukui), the youngest 27 (a Mr Yokokume), both DPJ, both Minami Kanto Bloc.

BUT SOME STILL VOTED THE PERSON NOT THE PARTY: Former PMs Aso and Abe (and narrowly Fukuda) all maintained their seats. Former PM Mori, the kingpin with the “god’s country” remarks, just squeaked in, but in most cases when there was a close race with the LDP incumbent, the second-place opposition candidate got in with PR to balance it out. Former PM Koizumi’s son did inherit his father’s seat (which has done more to deligitimize this “reformer” in my eyes). But of the “Koizumi Children” (young LDP politicians riding K’s coattails to “reform the LDP”, and soon found themselves frozen out from this unsavable party), only two retained their seats; 65 lost. Awful but apparently popular twice-convicted crook (his case is still on appeal in the Supreme Court; he’s stalling for time) Suzuki Muneo got in again with his own party on PR.

More LDP notables: Nasty TV personality Hirasawa got back in his individual seat in Tokyo. Even nastier right-wing exclusionary xenophobe Hiranuma got in comfortably in Okayama. Daughter of former PM Obuchi (currently in the cabinet) was relected in Gunma in a landslide. BTW, anyone want to count for me the number of women that got elected this time and compare to previous? Heckuva lot!

In sum, a historic day. And it may change everything.

That’s all I time I have for now. More trends, please let the blog know, but I’m again on the road for awhile and may take a while to approve comments. Please be patient. Thanks for reading. Debito in Kurashiki

Quick update on Japan’s national election: WOW

Posted on August 31, 2009December 31, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Just a quick word from on the road on a remote computer:

Wow.

I thought the DPJ were going to win big. But not this big. Watching kingpin after kingpin fall in the LDP (not sure if they’ll be resurrected by the PR vote; results are not all in yet).

To say the least, I’m very cheered by the result. About bloody time. More than five decades of the same party is far too long for any electoral system.

And was anyone else watching former PM Aso as he was answering questions to the networks? Refusing to say hello to anyone or thanks when done, just pulling his earpiece out all surly. He really is a piece of work.

Will try to comment in more detail tomorrow when I have some numbers and newspapers in front of me. Arudou Debito in Kurashiki

TIME Magazine on McDonald’s “Mr James” Campaign

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. The “Mr James” issue even made TIME Magazine a few days ago. Starts off fine, then skates into the territory of Straw Men and Silly Arguments (“unclean”? Even I said this argument was silly when asked about it over the phone). The last paragraph (“The “cute and unthreatening” American who eagerly returns to Japan with his daughter and is driven by a hunger to eat the same burger he ate in his youth … is as much an affirmation of Japanese food by McDonald’s Japan as it is unbelievable and unrealistic as a narrative. That’s why it’s a commercial campaign.” Really?) I just don’t get, no matter how many times I read it, sorry. If someone could reinterpret that paragraph for me, I would appreciate it.

Anyway, thanks for covering the issue, Ms Masters. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

Not Everyone Is Lovin’ Japan’s New McDonald’s Mascot
By COCO MASTERS / TOKYO

TIME Magazine, Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1918246,00.html

Mr. James is lovin’ being back in Japan. The exuberantly geeky American mascot of McDonald’s Japan latest ad campaign oohs and aahs over fireworks. His smile beams from his cardboard cutouts outside McDonald’s establishments across the country.

But a growing number of non-Japanese who live in Japan are decidedly not lovin’ Mr. James. In a country known for its small foreign-born population — only 1.5% of 127 million — and restrictive immigration and naturalization policies, the new envoy for McDonald’s Japan is creating a stir among non-Japanese residents.

A doppelganger of Steve Carell’s 40-Year-Old Virgin with glasses, Mr. James is a character invented by Japanese advertising behemoth Dentsu and McDonald’s Japan for its new burger line — the “Nippon All Stars” — campaign. The purpose of the campaign, running Aug. 10 to Nov. 5, is to promote four burgers available only in Japan. On his blog, found on the McDonald’s Japan website, Mr. James describes himself as a 43-year-old Japanophile born in Ohio with a penchant for travel, who, when particularly excited, generously treats people he doesn’t even know. (That seems to be a plug for the $1,000 cash prizes for 1,000 people who submit photos of Mr. James or people imitating Mr. James.)

But elsewhere, Mr. James, dressed in his buttoned-up red polo shirt, tie and khakis, is seen as playing to Japan’s xenophobic tendencies. Annoyed expats have described the character as “white, dorky” and speaking “mangled Japanese.” The chair of The Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens’ Association of Japan, Arudo Debito — a naturalized Japanese citizen born David Aldwinckle — has officially protested the Mr. James campaign with a letter to McDonald’s Corporation headquarters in Illinois. Soon after the ads started to roll out, somebody set up an “I hate Mr. James” Facebook group, which now has 67 members.

Debito considers the characterization of “a clumsy sycophantic ‘nerd'” an embarrassment. “If this were in a different country, and we had a Japanese in a [summer kimono] and [wooden sandals] saying ‘Me like Mcflied lice, please eato,’ we’d have the same sort of anti-defamation league speaking out and saying this is disparaging to Asians or Japanese,” says Debito. He says the campaign’s portrayal of non-Japanese as “unquestioningly supportive and culturally ignorant” will only make life more difficult for foreigners in Japan.

On his blog, Mr. James posts travel plans — to places, such as Kyushu, where he visits McDonald’s restaurants — and ruminates about his favorite burgers. He bungles his attempts at written Japanese, and mispronounces words with a staccato-like butchering of the language. One online video shows him talking to himself while practicing from a phrasebook, proclaiming “horenso” (spinach) with a gesture. Mr. James has appeared in two commercials since the campaign began, in which he also mistakes words, for instance, yelling “tamago” (egg) in Japanese instead of a similar sounding word “tamaya”, which is shouted during fireworks.

McDonalds Japan spokesman Junichi Kawaminami says that there is no official response to criticism of the Mr. James campaign [UPDATE: READ OFFICIAL RESPONSE HERE]. He does, however, explain the story of the character, which appears in the first commercial. “Mr. James’s daughter was determined to go to Japan and study and so he looked at maps and got excited to go with her,” says Kawaminami. “Once he found out that McDonald’s was offering the Tamago Double Mac, it became the deciding factor.” Why? It was on the McDonald’s Japan menu years ago and became Mr. James’s favorite when he was a student in Japan. That, says Kawaminami, is when Mr. James became a great fan of Japanese culture and food.

Some of the Mr. James criticism, however, seems a little thin. One comment on Facebook says that because Mr. James wears the same clothes everyday in August might suggest that foreigners are “unclean.” If we’re going to look at the clothing choices of fast food icons, it seems fair to point out that Ronald McDonald and Col. Sanders have been wearing their famous uniforms for half a century. There’s no doubt that the spectacle of the foreigner in Japan is an everyday occurrence in media. A foreigner’s response that he or she can use chopsticks or enjoys raw fish is met with smiles and amazement because — in some ways — affirmation of Japanese culture is stronger when it comes from outside, or is a non-Japanese perspective. But there is certainly no shortage of elegant, articulate Japanese-speaking foreigners in local media, from morning television programs to magazine advertisements for Japanese products.

The “cute and unthreatening” American who eagerly returns to Japan with his daughter and is driven by a hunger to eat the same burger he ate in his youth — basically a double Big Mac with an egg on it — is as much an affirmation of Japanese food by McDonald’s Japan as it is unbelievable and unrealistic as a narrative. That’s why it’s a commercial campaign. To protest Mr. James as a stereotype of a minority population in Japan because the Ohio-native fails to speak or write Japanese fluently, dresses like a nerd and blogs about burgers only ends up underscoring the fact that there really aren’t a lot of foreigners who fit the bill running around Japan. For most foreigners in Japan who know no one like that — and who only see a burger mascot — it begs the question: Where’s the beef?

ENDS

DPJ changes its slogan from “Kokumin” to “Anata…”

Posted on August 25, 2009August 25, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. I watched the LDP and the DPJ’s respective political advertisements on NHK yesterday, and had quite a surprise:

Well, two actually. First was I thought the LDP’s was better (the DPJ’s, despite the catchy song, was too corny). But never mind. I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference, what with recent polls forecasting DPJ landslide victories.

The bigger surprise was the DPJ’s slogan in the TV spot. Their campaign slogan has been “kokumin no seikatsu ga daiichi” (the citizens’ livelihoods are the most important thing). It says as such on their Manifesto and their website.

However, in the TV spot (and on the back of the Manifesto) it was “ANATA no seikatsu ga daiichi” (your livelihoods are the most important thing).

For reasons I can’t elaborate upon at this juncture, I have been giving a lot of feedback and input to DPJ Hokkaido in recent months. One of my recommendations has been to remove the “kokumin” in favor of “shimin” or “juumin”, so that NJ are not excluded. But “anata” will do just as well. I’d like to believe my suggestions some impact.

Meanwhile, one policy issue I didn’t bring up, because I didn’t think it was tenable now, was the issue of suffrage for long-term NJ. But as we’ve seen on Debito.org, DPJ Head Hatoyama has come out in favor of that when it really wasn’t necessary in this election. That suggests some pretty nice potential changes on the drawing board after the DPJ more than likely wins.

After all, PM Aso just keeps on gaffing. His latest? Insinuating that people who don’t have enough money should not get married last Sunday. I think the remaining LDP candidates are just facepalming their way through this election.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

McDonald’s Japan “Mr James”: Reports of improvements

Posted on August 23, 2009August 23, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. I am hearing of improvements in the infamous and controversial katakana-speaking “gaijin” character “Mr James”, advertising McDonald’s hamburgers. Just wanted to confirm with Debito.org readers:

1) Peach reports the “katakana tray inserts” (meaning these):

are not being used anymore. Visited a McDonald’s in Tennouji, Osaka today and discovered this.

2) Justin commented to Debito.org:

Submitted on 2009/08/19 at 9:54pm
One interesting note about the “Mr. James” ads: There aren’t any in the McDonalds across from Kamiyacho Station, just down the hill from the Hotel Okura. This is a gaijin-heavy area, with lots of us staying in the hotel or working in the offices nearby. If the “Mr. James” ads are so inoffensive, why is McDonalds Japan keeping them out of its restaurants in foreigner-heavy neighborhoods?

3) As has been reported in the SCMP and other media outlets, the “backstory” of this character has become more sophisticated, depicting him as a tourist from Ohio, not a resident of Japan, burgering his way through Japan’s burghers (dare him to come to Hokkaido!) and blogging his experiences. Although this doesn’t excuse his being rendered in katakana. For those wishing to give McD’s the benefit of the doubt (I don’t), one could argue that this man is just a Japan otaku, not the typical gaijin. But you still got the huge billboards outside the restaurant with Mr James — you don’t even have to go inside the restaurant to get “Jamesed”, let alone take the trouble to visit online and get the backstory. Collateral effects.

4) Mr James has suddenly become a quick study in Japanese. His blog posts are no longer exclusively in katakana, although his Japanese remains a bit on the broken side (all the nouns are gaijinized in katakana) with nary a kanji to be seen.

Are others seeing these improvements? And are there any more adjustments to report?

These are all evidence that McDonald’s Japan is taking complaints about this campaign seriously. But I still say the campaign must be suspended entirely. They may be trying to make him a character with more redeeming characteristics. But he’s still, in my book, a gaijin — an epithet made flesh; that’s how he was designed, and now McDonald’s Japan, for better or worse, is saddled with him. Get rid of this albatross.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Weekend Tangent: Naturalized Caucasian Korean becomes SK’s National Tourism Org leader

Posted on August 1, 2009February 21, 2018 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. It’s the weekend and the summertime, so how about a little diversion? Here we have a case of how a naturalized citizen in South Korea has been given a significant administrative post.

Good for him, and good for Korea. This is a country with only recently established a law against racial discrimination (at last) in 2007, and their democracy’s much younger than ours. What’s holding Japan back? The LDP’s primacy? Not for long, I bet, and there are hundreds of thousands of naturalized citizens here to choose from. I know at least eight of them. Let’s get cracking. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Naturalized Korean Lee Charm named tourism head

The Korea Herald, July 29, 2009, Courtesy of MS

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/07/29/200907290099.asp

Media personality Lee Charm was named chief of the Korea National Tourism Organization Wednesday, the first naturalized Korean to take a top government post in Korea, according to Yonhap News.

Lee, 55, is the first German male ever to become a naturalized Korean citizen, and his appointment is anticipated to pave the way for others like him to assume government positions, a pledge by President Lee Myung-bak during the 2007 election.

“I became a Korean citizen to help the country in some way,”

Lee said in an earlier interview with Yonhap after it was known he had been nominated. “I hope this new role will bring me closer to that goal.”

Lee will hold the post for three years from Thursday, when he will officially be appointed to the post by Culture Minister Yu In-chon.

“The ministry had requested the president to consider Lee for the post, considering his global experiences which will help boost the domestic tourism sector,” the culture ministry said in a press release.

Having come to Korea in 1978 as Bernhard Quandt, the catalyst for Lee’s move was a post with a European cultural foundation, where he helped with academic seminars on international issues.

Over time, Lee has played many different roles in Korean society, including a German teacher, English teacher, consultant, actor and broadcaster.

Lee became one of only a few dozen Caucasian citizens of South Korea in 1986. He has since become a prominent figure in Korean media and politics, and worked for President Lee’s campaign during the 2007 elections.

Lee Charm currently hosts a Korean culture and food show on KTV, a government channel, and is member of the state-run Korean food promotion body.

2009.07.29

Kyodo & JT: Osaka JH school reluctantly takes preteen NJ kid despite teacher opposition!

Posted on July 31, 2009July 31, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. This article has made a few waves. Read and then I’ll comment:

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

Foreign schoolgirl’s admittance delayed due to teachers’ opposition

Kyodo News/Japan Today Tuesday 28th July, 02:35 PM JST.

Courtesy lots of people. A more concise version in the Japan Times July 30

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/foreign-schoolgirls-admittance-delayed-due-to-teachers-opposition

OSAKA —
A 12-year-old girl from a Southeast Asian nation ran into problems earlier this year in trying to attend a public junior high school in Osaka due to opposition from some teachers who resisted her enrollment, the Osaka municipal board of education said Tuesday. She was ultimately enrolled in the school’s first-year level on July 1, a month after she applied for admission.

The girl, accompanied by her parents, visited the school in the city of Osaka on June 1 to say she wanted to be enrolled, but the school, whose name has been withheld, advised the girl to attend the sixth grade in elementary school, citing her inability to speak Japanese, board officials said.

On June 17, the parents again tried to enroll her in the junior high school, but several teachers expressed opposition at a faculty meeting, saying she should go to a different school and that their school could not make adequate preparations to accept her, the officials said.

The junior high school, acting on an instruction from the municipal board of education, finally gave an application form to the parents on June 24.

The girl was admitted to the school on July 1, but she could not attend any classes for the first 10 days, they said.

The municipal board of education said it is impermissible to reject a foreign student at a public school, noting that the school in question should have the girl receive lessons at a Japanese language school or depend on an interpreter.

ENDS

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

COMMENT: How nice. A NJ kid tries to get an education and these teachers try to fob her off on another school (as if that changes the circumstances), claiming… well, let’s come up with something. Oh, I know. A language barrier! We all know how difficult Japanese is for foreigners, and it requires that we be somehow certified in Japanese language training from the MOE to teach them! (Even though kids, as we all know and gnash our teeth about, soak up languages like a sponge; she’ll adapt, wouldn’t you think?)

It’s times like these I wish we had a Hippocratic Oath for teachers too (not that it always binds Japanese doctors dealing with NJ patients). For don’t these teachers feel any obligation to teach children regardless of background? No, I guess not. Compulsory education is only compulsory for citizens. Not foreigners.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard about schools refusing NJ children, either. Check out this report I released April 13, 2000 (almost ten years ago; I’ve been doing these things that long now), and witness the excuses made for local Hokkaido schools refusing children of missionaries (who were even born in Japan and speak Japanese):

1) REPORT: DAVE AND OLAF’S TRIP TO RUMOI AND WAKKANAI:
Olaf Karthaus and Dave Aldwinckle confirm claims that policies excluding non-Japanese have gone beyond both Otaru as a place and the onsens as an industry. A fact-finding mission last weekend to Wakkanai found that not only does a bathhouse there deny entry to foreigners, but so does a sports shop and a barber. Longtime non-Japanese residents of Wakkanai also assert that the situation has worsened over the past few years, alleging that even Japanese public high schools hesitate or refuse missionary children due to “a lack of facilities” and “too much work for teachers”.

https://www.debito.org/onsennyuuyokutimes041300.html

(Page down to section entitled ALLEGED EXCLUSION FROM EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
ACCORDING TO MISSIONARIES JOHN AND RUTHANNA MATHER)

I’d give this Osaka school a coveted Debito.org Dejima Award (reserved for only the most stupid of the stupid when it comes to exclusionists). But the article decided not to tell us the school’s name. Accountability, anyone? Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Kyodo: Resident NJ numbers rise yet again in 2008, according to MOJ

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Registered foreign population in Japan hits record-high 2.21 million
Japan Today/Kyodo Saturday 11th July, 06:50 AM JST
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/registered-foreign-population-in-japan-hits-record-high-221-million

TOKYO —
The number of registered foreign residents in Japan hit a record high of 2,217,000 at the end of 2008, marking an increase of around 50% in the last decade, a report released by the Justice Ministry said Friday. The registered foreign population accounts for 1.74% of Japan’s total population, it said.

Chinese nationals accounted for the largest group of foreign residents at around 30%, or 655,000 people, followed by Koreans at 589,000, Brazilians at 313,000, Filipinos at 211,000 and Peruvians at 60,000. The number of permanent residents increased to 492,000, up 11.9%, and that of nonpermanent residents with skilled labor visas rose by 21.6%. Most foreign nationals resided in Tokyo, with 402,000 registered, followed by Aichi and Osaka prefectures.

ENDS
Source: Ministry of Justice home page
http://www.moj.go.jp/PRESS/090710-1/090710-1.html

COMMENT FROM DEBITO: Quite honestly, I’ve been in a funk these past few months, starting with the Nikkei Repatriation Bribe, adopted April 1 of this year. Given that I’ve come to the conclusion that the GOJ deliberately keeps on instituting a formal revolving-door labor policy towards NJ (keep them here temporarily, suck them dry of the best years of their working lives, take their taxes and pension monies, and then send them back as soon as they become inconvenient regardless of how much contribution they make), the study of Japan’s internationalization (and the looming demographic nightmare) has become a dismal science. I’ve got a pile of books I’m supposed to be reading, most of which come to the conclusion that Japan’s internationalization and multiculturalization is inevitable (an argument I too have made constantly this decade), and it’s now become winceworthy reading. Again, quite honestly, I’m just not sure the elites who govern Japan will allow people like us to save Japan from itself.

Then I see statistics like the above. NJ are still coming here, to stay, to live. More NJ Permanent Residents than ever before, and the numbers have only slowed from an average of 15% (2002-2006) to 12%.

I have a feeling that the numbers of registered NJ residents may actually drop for the first time in nearly five decades in 2009. But if even then, with all the GOJ’s disincentives towards immigration, numbers keep rising, then I’ll snap out of my funk and resume my arguments about the multicultural inevitability. It’s a shame that without tabulations in real time, we have to wait another year to find out.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo
ENDS

“Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants” featured in Legal Scriveners magazine

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito

Hi Blog. Trying to limit myself to one post per day, and timing is off with Roppongi Piss Issue. Let me post this briefly, then send something later after midnight.

Just heard from Akira today. Our book (“our” meaning friend Akira Higuchi and myself) HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMER, MIGRANTS, AND IMMIGRANTS (Akashi Shoten Inc.) has just been featured (well, listed, anyway) in this month’s “Nihon Gyousei”, a national magazine for legal scriveners.

Great news. The book has really come into its own. If you don’t have a copy, you really oughta consider getting one. It deals with things you need to know to make a better life in Japan. Debito.org does its best, but the Handbook is one-stop shopping. And if you want to support Debito.org’s activities in some financial way, consider purchasing.

More on what’s in Handbook and how to get a copy here. (Amazon.co.jp is not the best way, BTW.) Arudou Debito in Sapporo

ENDS

Sapporo Source DEBITO Column 1 June 2009 on Hokkaido Winters

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

mytest

Hi Blog. 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.

Oh yes, my column. Cover page and scan of my article follows. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Text:
THE DEBITO COLUMN
HOKKAIDO’S THREE SEASONS
PART ONE: WINTER
Column one for publication in Sapporo Source June 2009
DRAFT THIRTEEN AND FINAL DRAFT

If you’ve ever read any of my writings (www.debito.org), this column will be a bit of a departure. I’m going to try writing about something more banal. Nothing’s more banal, of course, than the weather. Except if it’s the weather in Hokkaido.

Japan likes to chatter on about its distinct four seasons. But Hokkaido, I’ve noticed after more than twenty years here, has only three: Winter, Summer, and two half-seasons — I’ll call them “Pseudo-Spring” and “Pseudo-Autumn” — that act as short transitions between the two. Let’s chatter here about Winter first, since it’s the most memorable of them all.

At the end of Pseudo-Autumn, you tear October from your calendar and watch The Revolution from your window: the first flakes of snow infiltrating the air and occupying cracks in the road. The time is ripe for change — all Hokkaido’s verdure has collapsed into a uniform brown, with skeleton trees and evil-dead spooky forests clawing their way up from the newly-frozen ground. Nights are long, dark, and brutish throughout November, the worst month — as you can neither ski nor even go outside without wincing, as the winds whip up and blow December closer. Just hunker in your bunker and accept the inevitable: the Siberian snows are yet again crashing in, like a sociopath shadowing your door whom you will eventually have to go outside and face.

Then the snows come. And come. And bury you. Overcome, you coin words like “Tropical Snow Forest”, as thirty centimeters at a time almost every day accumulate to a meter, then two, then three or more as you try to shift it around. At least under The Occupation the long nights are brighter now, and Hokkaido’s odd weather pattern of “dump, then clear” means that you can enjoy sunshine on fresh white snow a couple of times a day. If you’re not happy with the current weather, wait half an hour.

Unfortunately, collaborating with rotations of flurry and dazzle becomes tiresome by mid-January, as Winter overstays its welcome. Everywhere becomes an obstacle course. Sidewalks challenge you to sashay your way through ten centimeters of sublimated ice. Side roads demand you merge into traffic by peering around two-meter drifts, sticking your car’s nose in front of oncoming cars. Hokkaido Winter takes your life into its hands, as you learn how to skate in your shoes or on your car’s snow tires. You wonder if that innocuous-looking crossroads on your commute is going to yield a fatality this year. You begin to watch the forecasts avidly, because at any time the weather may turn foul.

Eventually you come round to seeing why Japan’s nanny state exists. Local NHK broadcasts devote at least a third of their airtime to the weather, what roads have been freshly blocked, and where pileups have occurred. You take heed, or else you too might lose the road and find yourself in a potentially fatal situation.

But Hokkaido’s fatalism is what makes us special. Sure, people down south get seasonal spurts of storms when typhoons barrel through. But they don’t compare with our daily dump that whallops, then envelops, for three solid months. So we learn to live with it. Contrast that with Tokyo, when you scoff at their panic at a whole three centimeters accumulated. Their trains and school systems are in chaos! Bah! They’re rich, but they’re softies! By February, snow has even occupied our economy, as the Japanese military tames it into snow sculptures to attract and bedazzle the rich tourists.

Fortunately, Winter officially turns a corner by the end of the Snow Festival, when you get a miraculous day or two above freezing. At the start of March, you wonder if the snow and ice will ever begone. Fear not, it will. Hokkaido has no glaciers, and within three weeks, you can emerge from your bunker to kick over the retreating snow walls on the sidewalks, and smash the cages of icicles on nearby roofs. There is a joy in shoveling dying ice in front of oncoming cars. The Resistance has prevailed. Open the window and savor the victory of outlasting yet another Occupation.

That’s how we suddenly arrive at the dazed and confused brown grasses of Pseudo-Spring — not sure if it’ll rain or shine, but at least it won’t snow and stick. Then you can enjoy Golden Week for one more important reason: it’s as far away from Winter as possible.

It is also mere footfalls from Summer, the reason why everyone in the world should live in Hokkaido. I’ll get to that next column.

760 WORDS
ENDS

ENDS

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

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. A bit of follow-up on a case that Debito.org took up in 2007 due to the politics of Sumo (and our perceived need for the Association to divert attention from its own excesses by bashing the foreign rikishi). 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. Even Ozeki Kaio has rallied as a defender of the practices, see below. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

—————————–

The Japan Times, Saturday, May 30, 2009

Former stable master gets six years for young wrestler’s hazing death

NAGOYA (Kyodo) The Nagoya District Court sentenced a former sumo stable master Friday to six years in prison for telling wrestlers at his stable to haze and beat a 17-year-old wrestler who died in the 2007 assault.

Junichi Yamamoto KYODO PHOTO

Presiding Judge Masaharu Ashizawa said that Junichi Yamamoto, 59, with his “immeasurable power” as stable master, ordered the two days of physical abuse that “grossly disrespected the victim’s human dignity.”

Yamamoto immediately appealed the ruling.

Rest of the article at

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090530a3.html

ENDS

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

The Japan Times, Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ozeki Kaio says harsh treatment is integral

By JIM ARMSTRONG

The Associated Press

Sumo veteran Kaio said Tuesday that harsh treatment of wrestlers in training is an integral part of Japan’s ancient sport and is partially responsible for his own success.

Japan’s ancient sport has been rocked by several recent scandals, including one in which a trainer was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the fatal beating of a young wrestler during training.

Rest of the article at

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20090604a1.html

ENDS

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

Posted on June 7, 2009June 7, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. 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 (世襲政治家), 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. It’s one of my best, so have a look. Excerpt:

Politicians are even further out of touch. No wonder, considering they are effectively a peerage masquerading as an elected legislature.

After the last election, 185 of 480 Diet members (39%) were second- or third- (or more) generation politicians (seshuu seijika). Of 244 members of the LDP (the ruling party for practically all the postwar period), 126 (52%) are seshuu seijika. Likewise eight of the last ten Prime Ministers, and around half the Abe and Fukuda Cabinets. When the average turnover per election is only around 3%, you have what can only be termed a political class.

https://www.debito.org/japantimes121807.html

Any political party willing to limit the powers of its own politicians is worth a second look. So now read with the Japan Times has to say about it. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

The Japan Times Tuesday, June 2, 2009

DPJ submits bill to cut back on culture of hereditary politicians

By ALEX MARTIN

Staff writer

The Democratic Party of Japan submitted a bill to the Lower HouseMonday aimed at cutting back on what many in the public believe is the unfair advantage enjoyed by so-called hereditary politicians.

The revision proposed by the largest opposition party to the Political Funds Control Law would restrict relatives within three degrees of kinship — up to nieces or nephews — of retired or deceased Diet members from inheriting a seat and running in the same electoral district as their predecessor.

One-third of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers are said to have inherited their father’s or grandfather’s constituencies, as well as their campaign machines and political funding sources.

Rest of the article at…

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090602b1.html

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

The Japan Times, Saturday, May 30, 2009

EDITORIAL

End of ‘hereditary lawmakers’?

Those who “inherit” campaign machines, political funds and electoral districts from a close relative are dubbed “hereditary lawmakers.” While the practice has been going on for years, it now has become a red-hot issue.

The Democratic Party of Japan has decided to adopt a party rule that will prohibit new candidates from running in future elections if they fit the definition of a hereditary politician. By adopting this rule, the party apparently wants to deflect criticism of the party and former party leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa following the arrest of his chief aide in connection with alleged political donation irregularities.

The DPJ’s move may have a positive effect on Japanese politics in the long run. According to Kyodo News, about 130 people who plan to run in the 300 single-seat constituencies in the coming Lower House election have parents or grandparents who were Diet members. About 110 of them have been elected from the same constituencies as their parents or grandparents — about 90 of them belong to the Liberal Democratic Party and about 20 are with the DPJ. Among them are Mr. Ozawa and former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

Read the rest at:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20090530a2.html

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

LDP puts off ban on hereditary candidates

The Japan Times: Wednesday, June 3, 2009

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20090603a1.html

Kyodo News

With only a few months remaining until the next Lower House election must be called, the Liberal Democratic Party has postponed a plan to restrict so-called hereditary candidates until after the campaign, party sources said Tuesday.

The postponement comes amid speculation that Prime Minister Taro Aso may dissolve the Lower House in late June or early July and call a snap election in early or late August. The current term of Lower House members expires in September.

The LDP apparently failed to forge a consensus among its members, many of whom are from well-established political families. Such a rule would prevent their kin from inheriting not only their electoral districts but also their support groups and fundraising machines.

Because of their easy wins in elections, such hereditary politicians are often criticized for an inability to grasp voter sentiment or develop policies that connect with the public.

The LDP has judged that excluding hereditary candidates, some of whom have already obtained informal endorsements as the party’s official candidates in the upcoming election, “would harm the LDP’s trustworthiness,” the sources said…

Rest of the article at:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20090603a1.html

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

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

Posted on May 31, 2009May 31, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Turning the keyboard over to JK. Comments? Debito

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

Hi Debito:

Looks like your handbook has some competition:

Guide to Living in Shinjuku

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090411p2a00m0na015000c.html

新宿生活スタートブック：４カ国語で生活ガイド本－－区が発行　／東京

http://mainichi.jp/area/tokyo/archive/news/2009/04/07/20090407ddlk13040344000c.html

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”. –JK

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

Debito here again: Page down below articles to see sample scans of book. I contacted Shinjuku-ku for copies, which they very kindly sent at their own expense. Thanks.

Personally, I think it’s a good college try, and every local govt should issue one of these to its NJ residents. Better than not having a book at all. And I appreciate that it’s quadralingual. I assume they took the four top nationalities in their district and extrapolated languages (no Spanish or Portuguese, however. Ah well.) Get yourself a copy from Shinjuku. Way cool.

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

Shinjuku Ward issues daily living guide in four languages

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.

The manual is available at the foreigner registration desk at the ward office, and at the Shinjuku Multicultural Plaza in Kabukicho.

The ward has also issued a new version of its English language ward map. The previous map was printed on a single large sheet of paper. The new version, however, comes as an easy to carry 58-page booklet of highly detailed maps.

Both the map booklet and the living guide are available for free. Copies of either can be obtained by contacting the Shinjuku Ward Culture, Tourism and International Affairs Division at 03-5273-3504.

(Mainichi Japan) April 12, 2009

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

新宿生活スタートブック：４カ国語で生活ガイド本－－区が発行　／東京

新宿区は今年度から、新規の外国人登録者向けに、４カ国語で日常生活のマナーなどをまとめた「新宿生活スタートブック」を発行した。

ブックはイラスト入りで、韓国語、中国語、英語、ふり仮名付き日本語の４カ国語で記載。賃貸住宅入居者向けに、引っ越しのあいさつの仕方や敷金、礼金の仕組みを紹介し、「勝手にリフォームしない」「夜間は大きな音で音楽を聴かない」「ペット飼育は大家に確認する」など、外国人にとっては文化の違いで分かりにくい生活マナーも説明している。

また、路上喫煙の禁止やゴミの分別方法、自転車の乗り方、防災対策もまとめられている。Ａ５判７４ページ。区の外国人登録窓口の他、しんじゅく多文化共生プラザ（歌舞伎町２）でも手に入る。

また、区の全域を紹介した英語版の地図も作成。これまでは、大きな一枚紙の地図のみだったが、今回はＡ５判５８ページの冊子タイプで持ちやすく、番地まで細かく記載した。

いずれも無料。問い合わせは、区文化観光国際課（電話０３・５２７３・３５０４）。【松谷譲二】

毎日新聞　2009年4月7日　地方版

ENDS

Japan Times: “Immigrants” magazine & advocates’ moves to establish J immigration policy

Posted on May 13, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. On the other end of the cantilever balancing out those who would sooner cleanse Japanese society of the foreign element, we have those who accept the reality of immigration and call for something to be done to help people. Excerpting from the Japan Times. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
============================

The Japan Times, Thursday, April 30, 2009

Opening the door to foreigners

Expert warns Japan shuns the very immigrants it needs to thrive

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090430f1.html

…”Japan’s immigration policy has always been a patchwork. We need to have proper laws and regulations in place when accepting people from abroad,” Susumu Ishihara, 57, president of the Japan Immigrant Information Agency, said during a recent interview with The Japan Times.

Motivated by a sense of urgency, Ishihara recently spent ¥5 million of his own money to launch a quarterly Japanese-language magazine, called Immigrants, focusing on immigration issues. The goal is to provide more information on foreigners living here to Japanese people to bridge the gap between the two sides.

The first issue of the quarterly, circulation 10,000, included messages from ambassadors of South American countries as well as interviews with immigration policyexperts, including Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taro Kono, and Shigehiko Shiramizu, a professor of global media studies at Komazawa University…

“When I use the term ‘immigration policy,’ people may think I am urging Japan to accept more foreigners, but it’s not quite true. What I’m saying is that there are already so many foreigners living here, so we have to think about them. We have already opened the door to foreigners, and companies need them, too,” Ishihara said.

His views are shared by politicians in the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc. In February last year, about 80 LDP politicians, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa, formed a group to promote foreign personnel exchanges.

The group submitted a proposal to educate and train foreigners who wish to come to Japan and to accept 10 million immigrants over the next 50 years. The policy proposal also called for accepting 1,000asylum seekers annually and others who need protection on humanitarian grounds.

Separately, current Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamuraestablished a lawmakers’ group to create a bill to support schools for foreigners living in Japan. In addition, the Cabinet Office set up an office especially to deal with problems facing foreigners here earlier this year….

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

End excerpt. Full text of the article at

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090430f1.html

Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column May 5, 2009 on Alberto Fujimori

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. What follows is yesterday’s Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column on former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, and the precedents left behind by his antics. A “Director’s Cut” with links to sources, it contains an extra paragraph (in italics only) I couldn’t fit into a very limited column space. Enjoy. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

JUST BE CAUSE

Fujimori gets his; Japan left shamed

Finally, an outlaw president sets a good legal precedent

The Japan Times: Tuesday, May 5, 2009

By ARUDOU DEBITO

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090505ad.html

News item: Alberto Fujimori, former president of Peru, was sentenced last month to 25 years in prison by a Peruvian court for connections to death squads.

In my humble but loud opinion, hurrah! World media headlined it “a victory for the rule of law.” It was the first time an elected world leader in exile had been extradited back to his home country, tried, and found guilty of human-rights abuses. Take that, Pinochet, Amin and Milosevic.

That’s the only positive precedent set by an outlaw president who made a career of putting himself above the law. Lest we forget, Fujimori spoiled things for a lot of people, exploiting his Japanese roots in a ruthless pursuit of power.

Recap: Fujimori was elected in 1990 as South America’s first leader descended from Japanese immigrants. As the Japanese government likes to claim anyone with the correct blood as one of its own (recall 2008’s emigre Nobel Prize winners), out came the predictable cheers and massive investment.

Giving credit where credit’s due, Fujimori’s much-ballyhooed successes included economic development, antiterrorism programs, and a famous hostage situation at the Japanese ambassador’s residence (which ended with every insurgent executed). But Fujimori’s excesses eventually caught up with him. His corrupt administration (right-hand man Vladimiro Montesinos is serving 20 years for bribery) skimmed at least $1 billion of public money. He also suspended Parliament, purged the judiciary, and amended the constitution, allowing him to claim a hitherto illegal third term after rigged elections in 2000.

(BTW, I saw on the Discovery Channel early April 12 2009 a Canadian documentary (「ゼロアワー･ペルー日本大使館人質事件」) about the siege of the Japanese Ambassador to Peru’s house in 1996-7. When the commandos were on tiptoe for 34 hours ready to go in, deputy Montesinos was trying to contact Fujimori to get final approval. Guess what. It took a while to reach Fujimori, because he was dealing with personal stuff — his divorce hearing! One would expect Fujimori to be on tiptoe too, what with a looming assault on your biggest national donor’s sovereign territory! Not as high a priority for a president like Fujimori.)

Four months later Fujimori bailed out. On the pretext of visiting an international conference in Brunei, he surfaced in Japan, faxed a letter of resignation from his Tokyo hotel room, and claimed he was a Japanese.

Legal contortionism ensued. Although Japan does not recognize dual nationality and spends at least a year deliberating bona fide naturalization applications, our government decided within three weeks to issue him a passport. Reasoning: Fujimori’s parents had registered his Peruvian birth with the Japanese Embassy. Since he hadn’t personally renounced his Japanese citizenship, he was to our justice minister still a Japanese citizen, and therefore immune from Peru’s demands for extradition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1065667.stm

For the next five years, despite Interpol arrest warrants for murder, kidnapping and crimes against humanity, Fujimori lived a comfortable exile in multiple residences within Japan’s elite society. Supported by the likes of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, Fujimori was for a time the toast of Tokyo, charming all manner of nationalistic authors, rightwing politicians, diplomats and journalists with his celebrity. Meanwhile he plotted his political comeback through the Internet. “I live as if I were in Peru,” he told the New York Times in 2004.

http://www.bigempire.com/sake/fujimori.html

http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/609/feature.asp

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/world/an-ex-president-of-peru-plots-his-return.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

You can’t keep a bad man down. In 2005 he renewed his Peruvian passport, formally declared his candidacy for Peru’s 2006 presidential election, and abandoned his safe haven for a chartered flight to Chile. Chilean authorities immediately put the fool under arrest.

Then it got comical. Fujimori was trounced in Peru’s presidential election, so he ran in absentia in 2007 for the Japanese Diet (under the Kokumin Shinto Party). He was trounced here too. Chile then extradited him to Peru for trial. In 2007 he got six years for abuses of power. Last month he got an additional quarter-century for murder, bodily harm, and kidnapping — and there are still more trials outstanding.

That should put him out of harm’s way. Now 70, Fujimori will be three digits old before he sees turnkeys, unless his daughter — chip off the old block — carries out her platform plank to become president and pardon him. Fujimori is a political vampire who makes one wish wooden stakes were part of the political process.

But seriously, consider the precedents set by this megalomaniac:

First, Fujimori rent asunder Japan’s due process for both naturalization and asylum-seekers (while dozens of North Korean children of Japanese mothers who have clear blood ties to Japan remain STATELESS). He made it clear that Japanese elites arbitrarily enforce our laws to benefit their own.

Now contrast him with fellow nikkei in Japan. It’s obviously OK for an overseas citizen with Japanese blood to assume dictatorial powers, pillage the public purse, then slither off to Japan. But how about the thousands of nikkei Peruvian workers in Japan who are now being told — even bribed — to go home?

Then contrast him with fellow nikkei overseas. If any nikkei despot can parachute into Japan and be granted asylum through mere tribalism, what country would want to elect another Fujimori as head of state? Although wrong-headed and racist, this precedent hurts future prospects for nikkei assimilation.

But sociopaths like Fujimori are by definition incurious about how they affect others, especially when granted power in young, weak constitutional democracies. At least Peru and Chile had the sense (and the chance) to lock him up and re-establish the rule of law.

No thanks to Japan, of course, from whom the world expects more maturity. Rumor has it the International Olympic Committee has been nudged by rival candidate cities about Ishihara and Fujimori. If this knocks Tokyo out of contention for the 2016 Olympics, more hurrahs for poetic justice.

In sum, Fujimori is a classic case of how power corrupts. A former math teacher comes to power, comes to believe that he can do anything, then comes to a dazzlingly rich society run by elites who shelter him and further encourage his excesses.

A pundit friend said it well: “Fujimori is an accident of birth. If he had been born in North America, he’d have been a dentist, not a dictator.”

At least this time, this kind of “accident” has not gone unpunished.

Debito Arudou is coauthor of the “Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants.” Just Be Cause appears on the first Tuesday (Wednesday in some areas) Community Page of the month. Send comments tocommunity@japantimes.co.jp

ENDS

Asahi: domestic resistance to new IC Gaijin Cards

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. As Debito.org reported two days ago (with the upcoming Tokyo May 24 public demonstration by Amnesty International et al), there is domestic protest against the proposed new IC Gaijin Cards — it’s even made domestic media. Good. Suggest you get involved and spread the word. Yesterday’s article from Asahi Shinbun, translated by William Stonehill. Courtesy of TimK at PALE. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

“Proposed tightening of Foreigner residency control draws negative reactions”
Asahi Shinbun, April 30, 2009, page 3.

Scan of article at very bottom.

The review of the proposed new section of the laws controlling residency of foreigners in Japan under exit and entry laws for foreigners is currently taking place in the Legal Subcommittee of the Lower House. Although on one hand it is expected that the law will have the effect of reducing illegal residency in Japan, on the other hand criticism is being heard that this law “Can be seen as nothing more than making foreigners (residing in Japan) an object of surveillance”.

Under the current system of foreigner registration, which the government leaves up to local governments, there is no attempt to determine whether foreigners are residing legally in Japan or not.Even Illegal residents can apply for foreigner registration at any local government office because this is used as an identity card to open a bank account or look for work.

Because information on immigration status is under the management of the Ministry of Justice, there is no obligation for foreigners to report change of address so it is difficult to discover their exact residency status.To end this problem, the Ministry of Justice has proposed a system whereby all different status reports are brought under one roof.

The central tenet of this (proposed) system is a “Residency Card”. It will use an IC Chip to be hard to counterfeit, and will carry the name, address and immigration status of the holder.It will also carry information on work permissions, enabling speedy discovery of illegal workers. All foreigners above the age of 16 who have resided in Japan for more than three months will be required to carry it and be subject to criminal penalties if discovered without it. The present Gaikokujin Torokusho will be abolished.

The Ministry of Justice further contends that the number of items actually reported on will be reduced as compared to the present Gaikokujin Torokusho: Residency will be increased from the current limit of three years to five years and application, changes and renewal will be simplified along with other changes that the Ministry of Justice insists will make it more convenient for foreigners.

However, negative reactions, mainly from human rights NPO groups that support foreigners are very strong. Numerous faults with the law, have been pointed out one after the other–The requirement that foreigners carry the residency card with them at all times is excessive, criminal penalties for not carrying it are too heavy, canceling residency privileges because of errors in reporting address or because of getting married without reporting it are too severe, the human rights of foreigners who are attempting to flee from domestic violence are not protected, refugees, whose necessarily must undergo a lengthy administrative process are not covered by this law and their status is left vague (and other problems).

Hatate Akira, head of the group “Freedom and human rights coalition” has attacked the very philosophical basis of the law saying that “This new level of surveillance (of foreigners) will lead to increased discrimination” In response to this, the Japan Democratic Party has proposed dropping from the law the requirement to carry this identity card and the imposition of criminal penalties for not doing so, as well as other modifications.

Once a new law on foreigner residency is approved, it will be put into operation within three years of passage.At present, the question of how to treat the (estimated) 110,000 illegal resident of Japan remains. (….here the article goes on to discuss illegal resident and the special problems of Korean and Chinese permanent residents of Japan)

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

asahinewgaijincard043009001

Nisshin Kasai Insurance company allows insurance to NJ customers

Posted on April 22, 2009July 12, 2012 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

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Hi Blog. Just got a call from the insurance company that insures my car, answering my request for information regarding how open-door their policies are towards customers of varied backgrounds.

Nisshin Fire and Marine Insurance Company (Nisshin Kasai Kaijou Hoken 日新火災海上保険) KK allows insurance for NJ regardless of Japanese language ability. If that is lacking, the customer just has to bring along an interpreter.

Of course, this should not be blog-entry-worthy news. The default should be acceptance of customers and their money. But we do hear at Debito.org of companies that refuse NJ flat out because they assume that NJ cannot communicate in Japanese, therefore they cannot get into contractual relationships.

Some examples:

Shounan Shinkin Bank in Chigasaki

Hokkoku Shinbun in Ishikawa Prefecture (yes, a newspaper!)

AXA Direct Insurance (later amended its CNN advertising to accept NJ)

Just wanted to put the word out there that there is a good company to steer your business towards. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Japan Times: DPJ slams new Gaijin Cards and further tightening of NJ policing

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Here’s a Japan Times article that is rather incomplete as is, but depicts the rumblings between the status-quo LDP (not to mention the bureaucracy and police forces) and the neophyte DPJ: the frictions over foreigners in Japan. This could be quite significant. It’s not the first time NJ issues have caused rifts in the highest echelons of Japanese politics. See here and here. Courtesy of Black Tokyo and Ben Shearon. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

DPJ slams strict bills on foreign residents

By MINORU MATSUTANI

The Japan Times, Friday, April 17, 2009

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090417a1.html

A Democratic Party of Japan legal affairs panel has drafted proposals to soften the rules and punishments stipulated in government-sponsored bills to tighten immigration regulations on foreign residents, DPJ lawmaker Ritsuo Hosokawa said Thursday.

The panel called for eliminating eight provisions in the bills, including one that would oblige foreigners to always carry residency cards, Hosokawa told The Japan Times.

These cards, called “zairyu,” would replace alien registration cards if the bills now before the Diet are passed. Foreigners are currently required to carry their alien cards at all times, but unlike at present, a failure to carry the zairyu could draw a ¥200,000 fine. Also subject to the fine would be failure to promptly report changes in personal information, including residential address, place of employment or marital status.

“The control (over foreign residents) is too tight” in the bills, said Hosokawa, who is the justice minister in the DPJ’s shadow Cabinet. Under the proposed system, resident registrations would be handled by the Justice Ministry, not the municipalities where people live.

The bills to revise the immigration law, which were submitted to the Diet in March, have drawn fire from foreigners, lawyers and nonprofit organizations, who complain the proposed stricter monitoring is a violation of human rights…

Rest of the article at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090417a1.html

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

ENDS

Korea Times: South Korea proposes dual citizenship

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Another Asian country unbuttoning its top button regarding assimilation. In the wake of passing a law in 2007 which effectively outlaws racial discrimination, it’s now proposing dual citizenship, with people keeping their second nationality if they naturalize. Good.

Japan, you taking notice? Your Asian neighbor (and in their view, historical and economic rival) is yet again taking a lead to make things a bit better for its people of differences. Well, maybe Japan won’t take notice. But in any case it’s cheerworthy, especially if the bill passes. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=====================================
Allowing Dual Citizenship
It’s Necessary to Enforce Fair, Transparent Rules
Korea Times, Editorial, 03-29-2009, Courtesy anonymous
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/03/137_42173.html

It’s good news for foreigners that they can get Korean citizenship without giving up their own nationality from the latter part of this year at the earliest. The Ministry of Justice plans to present a bill to the National Assembly by June in a move to offer dual citizenship to foreigners with ample potential to contribute to national development. The plan is to allow dual citizenship on a limited basis to cope with the worsening brain-drain problem and attract talented foreigners into the country.

It was inevitable that the country would ease its ban on dual citizenship in the era of globalization and a multicultural society. We believe the ministry has made the right decision to improve our national competitiveness by drawing more talented foreign professionals to the country. In fact, the rigid single-nationality regulation has been an impediment to foreigners’ activities and their life here. Thus, the possible softening of the regulation will enable more foreigners to better contribute to Korean society.

According to official statistics, 170,000 people have given up their Korean citizenship over the last 10 years, while only 50,000 have obtained it. This means that the county suffers from a brain drain of more than 10,000 people every year. In separate developments, South Korea is steadily becoming a multicultural society. The number of foreign residents in the country has already reached one million, accounting for over 2 percent of the total population. And the ratio is likely to hit 5 percent in 2020.

Under current law, non-Koreans are required to reside here for at least five years to apply for Korean citizenship, take a state exam and give up their original citizenship within six months after being naturalized. Many foreigners have long complained about the difficult, tedious and cumbersome process of naturalization. Likewise, businesses, universities and research institutions have also undergone difficulties in recruiting competent and talented foreigners due to the rules.

If the bill is passed by the National Assembly and becomes law, foreigners evaluated by the government as “talented” will be allowed to become naturalized Koreans without rescinding their original nationality. The ministry has yet to set the criteria for foreigners eligible for dual citizenship. It simply said that those showing “outstanding performances” in the fields of science, business, culture and sports are likely to be the beneficiaries.

The to-be-eased rules are also expected to help the country attract second- and third-generation ethnic Koreans overseas willing to return and contribute to the country’s development. But the government plan leaves something to be desired because it seeks to allow dual citizenship on a selective basis. Some immigration experts recommend that the government take bolder measures to allow more foreign residents to enjoy dual citizenship because many of them are working for Korea.

It is imperative that policymakers shake off the negative image of dual citizenship because it has often been abused by some people, mostly Koreans, to avoid mandatory military service or evade taxes. It’s important to ensure fairness and transparency in the selection of foreigners for dual citizenship. We hope the government thoroughly prepares to make dual citizenship a success.

ENDS

Peru’s Fujimori really really gets his: 25 years jail for death squads

Posted on April 9, 2009April 29, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. In my humble but loud opinion, good news:

Former Peruvian Prez Alberto Fujimori, who ran a corrupt government, parachuted into Japan for sanctuary in 2000 (getting a Japanese passport without due process), lived the life of a Tokyo elite with full impunity (despite extradition demands and an Interpol warrant for kidnapping and murder), bogged off back to Chile on private jet in 2005 to run for election in Peru (not to mention run for election here in Japan; the fool lost in both places). Then the fool was arrested upon landing and later extradited back to Peru for trial. Yesterday he finally got his: A jail sentence for a quarter-century for executive excesses. As in death squads. In complement to the six years he got in December 2007 for lesser charges.

Good. Rot there, you dreadful man.

Debito.org has said time and again why I have it in for this creep. It’s not just because he leapfrogged genuine candidates for Japanese citizenship (claiming it by blood and spoils within weeks of faxing a resignation letter to Peru, from a Tokyo hotel!). It’s because a person like this could spoil it for every other Nikkei in South America. What other country would want to elect another possible Fujimori after all this? Sorry, as wrongfully racist as that sentiment is, clear criminal activity is not going to help the assimilation and social advancement of others like him. That man is quite simply a destroyer of anything that gets in his way.

But Fujimori, like many leaders in Latin American countries (think Simon Bolivar, Santa Anna, the Perons, or Porfirio Diaz), seems to have nine lives. And his elected daughter is jockeying to become president and pardon him. (Chip off the old block. Now that’s an important national priority and a key campaign plank! Kinda like another president invading Iraq to avenge his father…)

BTW, I saw on the Discovery Channel on Tuesday night a Canadian documentary about the siege of the Japanese Ambassador to Peru’s house in 1996-7. When the commandos were on tiptoe for 34 hours ready to go in, deputy Montesinos was trying to contact Fujimori to get final approval. Guess what. It took a while to reach him, because he was dealing with personal stuff — his divorce hearing! One would think a looming assault on your biggest national donor’s sovereign territory would take ultrapriority for a president. Not a president like FJ.

Ecch. Again, what a dreadful man. Stay tuned. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

—————————

Peru’s Fujimori gets 25 years for death squad

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090408p2g00m0in001000c.html

April 8, 2009. Courtesy lots of people.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday for death squad killings and kidnappings during his 1990s struggle against Shining Path insurgents.

Outside court, pro- and anti-Fujimori activists fought with fists, sticks and rocks. About 50 people chanted “Fujimori killer!” while several hundred chanted “Fujimori innocent!” before riot police separated them.

The court convicted the 70-year-old former leader, who was widely credited for rescuing Peru from the brink of economic and political collapse, of “crimes against humanity” including two operations by the military hit squad that claimed 25 lives. None of the victims, the three-judge court found, were connected to any insurgency.

Presiding judge Cesar San Martin said there was no question Fujimori authorized the creation of the Colina unit, which the court said killed at least 50 people as the government battled Shining Path terror with a “parallel terror apparatus” of its own. He sentenced Fujimori to 25 years in prison, only five fewer than the maximum.

Victims’ family members nodded with satisfaction and shed tears in the courtroom as the verdict was read.

“For the first time, the memory of our relatives is dignified in a ruling that says none of the victims was linked to any terrorist group,” said Gisela Ortiz, whose brother was killed.

Fujimori, who proclaimed his innocence in a roar when the 15-month televised trial began, barely looked up, uttering only four words — “I move to nullify” — before turning, waving to his children, and walking out of the courtroom at the Lima police base where he has been held and tried since his 2007 extradition from Chile.

His supporters in the courtroom shook their heads in disgust and groaned in exasperation. Fujimori’s congresswoman daughter, Keiko, called the conviction foreordained and “full of hate and vengeance.” She said it would only strengthen her candidacy for the 2011 presidential race.

“Fujimorism will continue to advance. Today we’re first in the polls and will continue to be so,” she said outside the courtroom. She has vowed to pardon her father if elected.

But some political analysts think Keiko Fujimori, 33, is more likely weakened by the verdict and would become a one-issue candidate. Her party has, after all, just 13 seats in Peru’s 120-member congress.

“It’s one thing to capitalize on the romantic image of the daughter defending a presumably innocent father, another defending a sentenced criminal,” said Nelson Manrique, a Catholic University professor.

Human rights activists heralded the case as the first in which a democratically elected former president was extradited and tried in his home country for rights violations.

Although none of the trial’s 80 witnesses directly accused Fujimori of ordering killings, kidnappings or disappearances, the court said the former mathematics professor and son of Japanese immigrants bore responsibility by allowing the Colina group to be formed.

It said Fujimori’s disgraced intelligence chief and close confidant, Vladimiro Montesinos, was in direct control of the unit.

And it noted that Fujimori freed jailed Colina members with a blanket 1995 amnesty for soldiers while state security agencies engaged in a “very complete and extensive” cover-up of the group’s deeds.

The Colina group was formed in 1991. In its first raid, using silencer-equipped machine guns, the group killed 15 people at a barbecue, including an 8-year-old boy. The intended victims, it turned out, lived on a different floor. The following year, the group “disappeared” nine students and a leftist professor at La Cantuta University.

In both cases, the killers targeted alleged sympathizers of the Shining Path, which was killing Peruvians with nearly daily car bombings. The group was devastated by the September 1992 arrest of its charismatic leader, Abimael Guzman, but some 500 Shining Path remnants remain active in Peru’s jungle, financed by the cocaine trade.

Fujimori also was convicted of two 1992 kidnappings: the 10-day abduction of opposition businessman Samuel Dyer and the one-day kidnapping of Gustavo Gorriti, a journalist who had criticized the president’s shuttering of the opposition-led Congress and courts.

In the trial, prosecutors presented declassified cables showing that U.S. diplomats including then-Ambassador Anthony Quainton repeatedly questioned Fujimori and his aides about reports of extrajudicial killings by his military.

“He never wanted to talk about it very much. He always, of course, said that human rights abuses were not tolerated by his government,” Quainton, now an American University professor, told The Associated Press by phone from Washington.

Fujimori has already been sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of power and faces two corruption trials, the first set to begin in May, on charges including bribing lawmakers and paying off a TV station.

His 10-year presidency ended in disgrace in 2000, when videotapes showed Montesinos, now serving a 20-year term for corruption and gunrunning, bribing lawmakers and businessmen. Fujimori fled to Japan, then attempted a return five years later via Chile.

Fujimori remains remarkably popular and his successors have maintained his market-friendly policies. Peru had Latin America’s strongest economic growth from 2002-2008, averaging 6.7 percent. A November poll found two-thirds of Peruvians approve of Fujimori’s rule.

In his final appeal Friday, Fujimori cast himself as a victim of political persecution, saying the charges against him reflect a double standard. Why, he asked, isn’t current President Alan Garcia also being prosecuted, since it was from Garcia, who also preceded him in office, that Fujimori inherited the messy conflict that would claim 70,000 lives.

Garcia denies responsibility for human rights abuses during his 1985-90 administration — and has the power to pardon Fujimori.

Human rights advocates called the verdict historic.

“What this verdict says is that these crimes did in fact happen and that Fujimori was in fact responsible for them, and that’s something Peruvians needed to hear,” said Maria McFarland, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch, who was in the courtroom.

“For so many years, certain sectors in Peru have said that you have to look the other way and refused to acknowledge what happened.”

(Mainichi Japan) April 8, 2009

ENDS

Mainichi: Lawson hiring more NJ, offering Vietnamese scholarships

Posted on April 3, 2009April 3, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

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

See I told you so #1: Newcomer PR outnumber Oldcomer Zainichis as of 2007

Posted on March 31, 2009March 31, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Here’s an article from the Mainichi courtesy of MS talking about making life easier for NJ through “one-stop centers”, noting (in a poorly-translated paragraph) that Newcomer Permanent Residents now outnumber the historical Zainichi Oldcomer Permanent Residents. And have done since 2007.

See I told you so.

Anyway, the article follows. Believe Immigration’s plausibly pleasant intentions if you like, but I’ll remain a little skeptical for the moment. Still mentioned is that hackneyed and ludicrous concern about garbage separation, after all, demonstrating that the GOJ is still dealing in trivialities; it might take a little while before the government sees what true assimilation actually means. It’s not just giving information to NJ. It’s also raising awareness amongst the Japanese public about why NJ are here in the first place. Arudou Debito in Kumamoto

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

Gov’t to set up ‘One Stop Centers’ for foreigners

Mainichi Shinbun March 30, 2009

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090330p2a00m0na011000c.html

With more and more foreign residents facing employment and immigration problems due to the ongoing recession, the Ministry of Justice is creating new “One Stop Centers” for foreign residents in the Kanto and Tokai regions to handle queries in one place.

Until now, these issues were handled separately by local governments and regional immigration bureaus, but the three centers — to be set up in Tokyo, Saitama and Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture — will be open for consultations on all matters pertaining to foreign residents in the country, in an attempt to better integrate them into Japanese society.

“The immigration bureau is not just about exposing illegal residents, it’s now at a turning point where it can work toward creating a society where Japanese people and foreigners can live in harmony,” said an Immigration Bureau official.

The number of native and Japan-born Koreans with special permanent residency, who have lived in Japan since the pre-war period, has been declining. However, the number of Chinese and Filipinos, as well as foreigners of Japanese descent whose employment was liberalized under the 1990 revision to the Law on Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition, has surged. In 2007, the number of these so-called “new comers” exceeded that of special permanent residents for the first time (440,000 vs. 430,000).

As a result, there are fears that the number of children unable to speak Japanese, and of foreigners unable to fit into society, is also on the rise.

The centers will be staffed by local government and former immigration bureau employees, and will cover everything from residency procedures to how to correctly separate garbage.

The Hamamatsu center will open in April.

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

定住外国人：一括支援、浜松などに「よろず相談所」－－法務省

毎日新聞　2009年3月29日　東京朝刊

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20090329ddm001010111000c.html

　法務省は日本に定住する外国人の相談を広く受け付ける「ワンストップセンター」を、定住者が多い浜松市など関東・東海地方の３カ所に設置する方針を決めた。従来は自治体と入国管理局が相談内容ごとに相談を受け付けていたが、一括して「よろず窓口」として対応する。景気低迷で外国人の失業が相次いでおり、定住外国人との共生社会づくりに向け支援体制を整える。

　日本の定住外国人は、戦前から住む在日韓国・朝鮮人ら特別永住者が減少傾向にある一方、９０年の入管法改正で就労が自由化された日系人や中国人、フィリピン人ら「ニューカマー」と呼ばれる永住者が急増した。０７年のニューカマーの永住者は約４４万人で、特別永住者（約４３万人）を初めて上回った。

　このため、日本語が苦手な子供や風土になじめない外国人の増加が懸念されている。「１回で用事が済む」という意味のワンストップセンターは、入国管理局職員ＯＢや自治体職員らが常駐し、在留手続きに関する問い合わせからゴミ出しや日本人との接し方まで幅広く相談に乗る。設置場所は浜松市のほか、さいたま市と東京２３区内の計３カ所が選定された。浜松市については、４月に開設する。

　失業した外国人の場合、元の在留資格が認められない場合もあり、再就職の相談と同時に法的な相談の必要も生まれる。これまでは、別々の窓口を訪れなければならなかった。医師や弁護士、労働相談員なども必要に応じて助言する。

　入国管理局の担当者は「入管は不正の摘発だけでなく、外国人と共生できる社会づくりへの転換期にいる」と話す。【石川淳一】

ends

NPA enforcing Hotel Management Law against exclusionary Prince Hotel Tokyo

Posted on March 18, 2009March 18, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Interesting precedent here. A hotel which refused a booking to a major organization (in fact, cancelled their reservation) looks to be taken before the public prosecutor by police.

This is a good precedent. The police are at last enforcing the Hotel Management Law, which says you can’t refuse people unless there are no rooms, there’s a threat to public health, or a threat to public morals. But hotels sometimes refuse foreigners, even have signs up to that effect. They can’t legally do that, but last time I took a case before the local police box in Shinjuku, they told me they wouldn’t enforce the law.

Not in this case. Read on. As I said, interesting precedent being set here, what with this criminal case instead of a civil suit. Pity it took more than a year to enforce, and it took a group this big and organized to kick the NPA’s butt into action. I’m not sure this is a situation the average NJ will be able to take much advantage of. But again, a step in the right direction. Courtesy of HH. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

Police move Prince Hotels-teachers union case to next level

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

IHT/Asahi: March 17,2009

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200903170247.html

Police sent papers to prosecutors Tuesday against the operator of a Tokyo hotel that refused entry to the Japan Teachers Union for its annual convention, fearing protests by right-wing groups.

Police said Prince Hotels Inc., its president, Yukihiro Watanabe, 61, the 52-year-old general manager of three Prince group hotels, and managers of the company’s administration and reception departments are suspected of violating the Hotel Business Law.

They said the parties reneged on their obligation to provide lodging as stipulated by the law.

It is rare for police to establish a case based on the hotel law’s stipulation, according to officials of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

According to police, Prince Hotels and Watanabe in November 2007 rescinded a contract signed with the teachers union to use the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo’s Minato Ward for its 57th National Conference on Educational Research scheduled from Feb. 2, 2008.

They also refused, without a justifiable reason, to let the union reserve 190 rooms at the hotel for conference participants, police said.

As a result, the teachers union was forced to cancel the plenary session of the conference for the first time since 1951.

According to police, Prince Hotel officials said they were aware that their actions were illegal, but they insisted they had no choice because the Japan Teachers Union’s convention could draw “protests by right-wing groups and cause problems for other guests and residents nearby.”

The union has demanded an apology and has sued the hotel for compensation.

The union filed a criminal complaint with police in August last year.

Under the Hotel Business Law, hotel operators are prohibited from denying accommodations to guests except when they pose a clear risk of spreading a communicable disease, engage in illegal activities, or disrupt public moral, or when the hotel has no vacancies.

Violators face a 5,000-yen fine, but under a special measures law on fines, the hotel operator and executives can be fined a maximum 20,000 yen if found guilty.

A lawyer representing the union said the issue with the hotel touches upon basic constitutional rights.

“Freedom of assembly, protected under the Constitution, will be jeopardized” if government and judiciary fail to take strict measures, the lawyer said.

The union made reservations in March 2007 through a travel agency, paid half of the costs in July that year, and signed a formal contract the following month.

The hotel then sent a certified letter to the union saying the contract had been annulled.

The union fought back and won a tentative injunction from the Tokyo District Court to allow it to use the hotel facilities.

The Tokyo High Court upheld the injunction on Jan. 30, 2008. However, the hotel still refused to let the union members in.

Minato Ward, where the hotel is located, reprimanded hotel officials in April 2008. But the ward stopped short of using administrative penalties, such as ordering a suspension of business operations, after receiving a letter from the operator vowing to prevent a recurrence.

Prince Hotels issued a statement Tuesday saying it “considers seriously the sending of papers to prosecutors and will continue to cooperate with the investigation.”

(IHT/Asahi: March 17,2009)

ENDS

AXA Direct insurance amends its advertising to sound less exclusive to NJ customers

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Good news. Chand B, who reported last October that AXA Direct insurance company had some pretty rough (and exclusionary-sounding) English wording in its CNN television advertising, updates his report.

AXA Direct actually took his request for amendment seriously, and changed their text. Well done. Thanks for taking this up and getting things improved, Chand. Here’s his report. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

March 3, 2009

Dear Debito, sorry for the delay in replying.

A while ago I reported that the insurance company Axa Direct was requiring Japanese Language Proficiency as a requirement for buying their services.

The ad they were running on CNN was subtitled:

‘Being resident in Japan and understanding spoken and written Japanese are the basic requirements for any transaction of this insurance service.’

axadirect

Well after a few emails they replied that they would in fact accept people without Japanese language ability and I’m pleased to report that they’ve now changed the subtitling on their commercial to the more friendly:

‘Kindly note that all our insurance services in Japan are offered to residents in Japan in the Japanese language.’

axanewmarch09
It’s nice to see a company take note of criticism and action to correct it, or maybe in the current economic crisis they’re just looking to rake in some NJ cash.

Please find attached a photograph of the new subtitling their email reply, with my basic translation of it. Chand B

———————————–

Axa only prepares its product information in Japanese. If you can understand this you can sign.
If you can understand you can sign.
Also if you have an accident we can only deal with it in Japanese.
In that case you would always require a Japanese-speaking friend.
We only sell by phone so please prepare your information in Japanese.
Axa Direct.

[Chand B]様
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ENDS

Books recently received by Debito.org: “Japan’s Open Future”, et al.

Posted on March 8, 2009March 13, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Some very friendly people out there send me books from time to time for review, or just because they think it might be of interest to Debito.org. I’m grateful for that, and although time to read whole books is a luxury (I just got a pile of them for my own PhD thesis in two languages, anticipate a lot of bedtime reading), I thought it would be nice to at least acknowledge receipt here and offer a thumb-through review.

Last week I got a book from John Haffner, one author of ambitious book “JAPAN’S OPEN FUTURE: An Agenda for Global Citizenship” (Anthem Press 2009). The goal of the book is, in John’s words:

As our aim is ultimately to contribute to the policy debate in Japan, I’d also be grateful if you’d consider mentioning or linking to our book and/or my Huffington piece via your website or newsletter. I took the liberty of linking to debito.org on our (still embryonic) “Change Agents” page on our book website: http://www.japansopenfuture.com/?q=node/22

The Huffington Post article being referred to is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-haffner/japan-in-a-post-american_b_171933.html

Excerpt:

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

In our book Japan’s Open Future: an Agenda for Global Citizenship, my co-authors and I contend that if Japan wishes to escape a future of decline and irrelevance, and if it wants to take meaningful steps towards a more secure, contented and prosperous future, it needs to think big. Japan really has only one sustainable option: to become a more open, dynamic, conscientious, engaged, globally integrated country. In our book we show why this is so, and we offer a set of interconnected policy prescriptions for how Japan could undertake this radical transformation. There are many things Japan could do, but especially by moving beyond a rigid and inflexible conception of its national identity, by opening up to trade and immigration, by learning to communicate more effectively, including with the English language as the global lingua franca, and by undertaking a much more spirited commitment to global development and security, Japan has the potential to make a profound contribution to domestic, regional, and global challenges.

To pursue this path, however, Japan must think beyond isolationism and the US security alliance. Japan must begin to see itself as a global citizen and as an Asian country, and it must walk the walk on both counts.

At a time when multilateralism is imperiled, the United States would also benefit from such a radical shift in Japan’s posture: it would find an expanded, wealthy market for its exports, a more secure Asian region, and a talented civil society capable of constructively contributing to global issues. President Obama understands that multilateralism is the only path forward for the world, and that its importance is even greater in dark economic times. As a grand strategy for Asia, therefore, President Obama should encourage Japan to pursue policies leading to a peaceful and integrated Asian community, one rooted in reasonably harmonious and dynamic relations between those (highly complementary) leading economies, Japan and China.

Now more than ever, the United States needs Asia to prosper, and Japan must play its part.

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

Thumbing through the book, I feel as though it adds a necessary perspective (if not a reconfirmation of Japan’s importance) to the debate, especially in these times when “Asia Leadership” in overseas policymaking circles increasingly means China. If not cautioned, the media eye may begin truly overlooking Japan as a participant in the world system (particularly, as far as I’m of course concerned, in terms of human rights). I don’t want Japan to be let off the hook as some kind of “quaint hamlet backwater of erstwhile importance, so who cares how it behaves towards outsiders?” sort of thing. How you treat foreigners inside your country is of direct correlation to how you will treat them outside. I think, on cursory examination, the book provides a reminder that Japan’s economic and political power should not be underestimated just because there are other rising stars in the neighborhood.

(And yes, the book cites Debito.org, regarding the GAIJIN HANZAI Magazine issue two years ago, on page 194. Thanks.)

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

Now for two other books I received some months ago. One is Minoru Morita, “CURING JAPAN’S AMERICA ADDICTION: How Bush & Koizumi destroyed Japan’s middle class and what we need to do about it” (Chin Music Press 2008). Rather than give you a thumbed-review, Eric Johnston offers these thoughts in the Japan Times (excerpt):

In “Curing Japan’s America Addiction,” Morita says publicly what a lot of Japanese think and say privately, in sharp contrast to whatever pleasantries they offer at cocktail parties with foreign diplomats and policy wonks, or in speeches they give abroad. For that reason, “Curing Japan’s America Addiction” deserves to be read by anybody tired of the Orwellian doublespeak coming out of Washington and Tokyo and interested in an alternative, very contrarian view on contemporary Japan, a view far more prominent among Japanese than certain policy wonks and academic specialists on Japan-U.S. relations want to admit.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb20080928a1.html

The other is Sumie Kawakami, “GOODBYE MADAME BUTTERFLY: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman” (Chin Music Press 2007; I seem to be on their mailing list, thanks), a handsome little tome,which, according to the blurb on the back, “offers a modern twist on the tradition in Japanese literature to revel in tales of sexual exploits. Kawakami’s nonfiction update on this theme offers strands of hope for women struggling to liberate themselves from joyless, sexless relationships.”

It is that, a page-turner indeed. In the very introduction (which is as far as I got, sorry; I’m a slow reader, and reading this cover to cover wasn’t a priority), Kawakami says:

“[W]hile the sex industry maintains a high profile in Japan, the nation doesn’t seem to be having much actual sex. A case in point is the results of the Global Sex Survey by Durex (http://www.durex.com/cm/gss2005results.asp), the world’s largest condom maker. In its 2005 survey, the company interviewed 317,000 people from forty-one countries and found that Japan ranked forty-first in terms of sexual activity. The survey found that people had sex an average of 103 times a year, with men (104) having more sex than women (101). The Japanese, at the very bottom, reported having sex an average of forty-five times a year.

Japan also ranked second to last, just ahead of China, in terms of sexual contentment…” (pp. vi. – vii).

See what I mean? The book explores this, with case studies of Japanese women’s sexuality.

Thanks for the books, everyone. If others want to send their tomes to Debito.org, I’d be honored, but I can’t promise I’ll get to them (I spend eight hours a day reading and mostly writing a day already). Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

UPDATE MARCH 13, 2009

I got round to reading one of the books, GOODBYE MADAME BUTTERFLY. I generally write reviews on the back pages if and when I get through a book, something brief that fills the page (or two). Here’s what I scribbled:

Started March 10, 2009, Finished March 13, 2009, Received Gratis from publisher 2007.

REVIEW: A gossipy little book. The best, most scientific part of the book is the introduction, which introduces the point of this book as an exploration of why sex doesn’t seem to happen much in Japan, according to a Durex survey. So one plunges into some very obviously true stores that are well-charted gossip, but not case studies of any scientific caliber. If Iate-night unwinding or beach-blanket reading is what you’re after, this book is for you. If you’re after the promise of why Japanese apparently don’t have much sex, you’ll end up disappointed. The author isn’t brave enough to try and draw any conclusions from the scattering of stories. I wouldn’t have, either. But I felt lured by the promise the foreword. And left the book in the end disappointed.

The best thing about the book is, sadly, the handsome, well-designed print and cover, making the fluff a joy to look at. Just not think about.

ENDS

Officially proposed by Soumushou: NJ to get Juuminhyou

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. In a country where NJ are so separated from Japanese that citizenship has been required for residency, the news keeps getting better.

In a country where the bureaucrats are usually the drafters of laws and quasi-law directives (whereas the politicians are more the lobbyists), we have a proposal formally announced by Soumushou (The Ministry of the Interior) that puts NJ on a Juuminhyou Residency Certificate with their Japanese families. Email regarding this arrived yesterday from AM:

======================
Hi Debito, It looks like the details of NJ inclusion in the juuminhyou system have been cemented.

http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_04/k_houan.html

The link above has some interesting information under the new proposed law titled 住民基本台帳法の一部を改正する法律案. Especially the 概要 part and the 法律案・理由 part. Excerpt from the former:

For one, it looks like the proper handling of international families is a main goal. So no more need to be a “jijitsujou no setainushi”. Also, any change in visa status will be reported directly from immigration, so no need for a trip to city hall.

It looks like this inclusion in the juuminhyou system will happen on the same day the residence card is rolled out. Best Regards, AM

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

Yes, and how about that jijitsujou setai nushi (“effective head of household”, the tenuous status granted to NJ breadwinners if they happen to be breadwinners, and male (females often got rejected, because gimlet-eyed bureaucrats have discretionary powers to doubt that people without the proper gonads could make proper money)). This status used to be the only way an NJ could be listed with his or her family on the Residency Certificate.

Well, for more than a decade now Debito.org has had copies of a particular “legal clarification” (Seirei 292, in this case) that bureaucrats can make to mint new laws without involving politicians. According to this Seirei, NJ could actually be juuminhyoued if they requested it. People then downloaded that and forced the gimlets to effectively household head them. So many NJ did it that the gimlets actually created special forms for the procedure. See another email I got yesterday:

====================
Hi Debito: The Juuminhyou request went surprisingly smooth, we didn’t even need to hit anybody over the head with a rolled up copy of Seirei 292.

As a matter of fact, look at this nice form they gave us, which kindly notified us of 2 additional rights we have, so we said “Yes” to all 3 rights:
jijitsujousetainushi

I think this form, plus the “Juuminhyou for all Residents by 2012” possibility, are both direct results of your activism. Thanks again Debito!

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

Quite welcome. We all played a part in this. It’s only taken 60 years (1952, when NJ first had to register, to 2012) for it to change. But we did it.

Next up, the Koseki Family Registry issue, where citizenship is again required for proper listing as a spouse and current family member.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

NPA on foreign-infiltrated organized crime: NJ crime down 3rd straight year, but not newsworthy in J-media

Posted on February 28, 2009February 28, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Two topics today for the price of one: The NPA spending our tax monies to target the bad guys (if they’re NJ) again, and how the J media is not reporting crime rates properly, again.

Hang on to your hats. folks. It’s the NPA “Foreign Crime Report” time of year again. Yes, twice a year, we get appraised of what our boys in blue are doing to stem the hordes and save the country. (We get little of this NPA assiduity for domestic crime; after all, the sociology of crime means that police get blamed if domestic crime rises, but get encouraged budgetwise if foreign crime rises.)

So this time the biannual deluge is buried within an NPA “soshiki hanzai jousei” general report released this week. Despite the “general”-sounding title, the dirt on the NJ crooks starts from page eight, and continues throughout the total 47 pages.

Conspiring foreign crooks are everywhere, it seems. With so little focus on the pure Yamato yakuza, it looks like organized crime is the most international thing about Japan. Lots of stories and case studies of NJ evildoers (with a special focus on money laundering from page 13; maybe this is why banks are targeting NJesque accounts and transactions recently).

For example, here an illustration of the web of intrigue that NJ get up to, from the NPA report page 31. Note how the Japanese criminals (usually not included at all in any police-published visual specs of foreign crime, see page 22) are only involved in two stages of the game.

(Love the NJ kingpin’s 1990’s cellphone.)

But oh oh for the NPA: For the third straight year, foreign crime is, er, um, down. However will they justify their budgets for the NPA’s Kokusai Taisaku Iinkai?

Don’t worry. You’re not going to hear that good news in the Japanese media. At least, not in an unadulterated form. Because when it comes to foreign crime, good news is no news. Short AP article, then comments follow:

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

Number of crimes by foreign visitors down for 3rd year
Associated Press Feb 26 2009, courtesy MJ
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96JFBFO3&show_article=1

TOKYO, Feb. 27 (AP) – (Kyodo)—The number of crimes committed by foreign visitors in Japan fell in 2008 for the third consecutive year to 31,280, down 12.6 percent from the previous year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

The number of foreign criminals, excluding permanent residents, also dropped in 2008 for a third straight year to 13,872, down 12.8 percent, it said.

Both figures peaked in 2005, according to the NPA.

Of the 31,280 cases detected by police, 23,229 involved violations of the criminal code, while 8,051 involved immigration and other violations, the NPA said.

Chinese people accounted for 35 percent of the detected crimes, or 4,856, followed by South Koreans at 1,603 and Filipinos at 1,486.

Meanwhile, 633 foreign suspects fled abroad, the NPA said.

ENDS

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

Well, good. But look what a Google News Search turns up: No articles in the Japanese media, which in the past fell over themselves to scream alleged foreign crime rises (see examples in the Yomiuri, Sankei, and the Asahi). Or in the case of the Mainichi, crime rate falls were headlined as falls in English but as rises in Japanese). Evidence: Screen capture today, current as of Midnight February 28:

You’d expect that if the overseas media has reported this, the domestic news certainly would have by now. And it would no doubt would quite assiduously (if the past is any guide) if it had been a crime rate rise.

So if it bleeds it leads, sure. But if it bleeds and it’s foreign, it had better be BAD news or else newspapers aren’t going to break their stride, and give society any follow-ups that might paint a rosier picture of Japan’s immigration. What negligence and public disservice by a free press.

I’ll include below the text of Mainichi article featured in the Google News search above. It’s also instructive of bent reporting. Note how the headline does mention the crime rate did drop, but of course tempers the cheers by following up with assiduous reportage on how it’s also rising — in the provinces, as group crime increases. The body of the text also tempers any fall with a rise, zeroing on Chinese perps (same as the above 47NEWS article), making sure the last thought you’re left with after reading a paragraph is how crime is increasing.

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

外国人犯罪：３年連続で減少　組織化進み、地方に広がる

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20090227k0000e040017000c.html

　０８年に警察が摘発した来日外国人の犯罪は前年比１２．６％減の３万１２８０件で、３年連続減少したことが警察庁のまとめで分かった。以前より不法滞在者の割合が減る一方、共犯者がいるケースが増えて組織化が進んでおり、地方での犯罪も増えている。

　警察庁によると、刑法犯は２万３２２９件（前年比９．７％減）、入管法違反など特別法犯は８０５１件（同１９．９％減）。国籍別の検挙人数では、中国が最多で全体の３９．７％を占めた。

　１０年前の９８年との比較では、刑法犯のうち不法滞在者の割合は２４．２％から８．６％に激減。単独犯の事件も３７％と２０ポイント減ったが、３人組は３．２倍、４人組以上が１．３倍と共犯事件が増えた。発生地域別でみると、東京都は３３９９件で２６．５％減ったが、中部地方が２４．６％増の４３２７件と東京を上回り、中国地方も２．４倍に増えた。【長野宏美】

毎日新聞　2009年2月27日　10時34分

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

I wonder how they’ll translate this for an English-reading audience (if they ever do; they haven’t as of this writing). Hopefully they won’t sweeten it for tender NJ eyes like last time. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Kyodo: Proposal for registering NJ on Juuminhyou by 2012

Posted on February 27, 2009February 27, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Coming atcha with some very good news.

NJ residents, after decades of being treated as nonresidents in registry procedures, will by 2012, so the proposal runs, be registered the same as Japanese. Meaning get their own juuminhyou. So say two Kyodo articles below.

Good, good, and good. Here’s a link to information on why the old (meaning current) system is so problematic:

https://www.debito.org/activistspage.html#juuminhyou

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

Foreigners may be logged in resident registry

Kyodo News/The Japan Times: Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090226a5.html

Courtesy of Sendaiben, Adam, and Joe Jones at Mutantfrog.

The government is considering putting non-Japanese living here for more than three months in the resident registry system, officials said.

The measure could come into force as early as 2012. The Cabinet is expected to endorse the plan next month.

With the government looking to abolish the current alien registration system, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry had considered setting up a separate new registry system for foreign residents. But it eventually decided it would be more efficient to amend the national registry system to include foreign nationals, the officials said.

Korean residents with special permanent status will be included, they said.

The ministry hopes the change will help municipalities get a better picture of foreign nationals living in their area and provide welfare and education services equivalent to those of Japanese nationals, according to the sources.

If non-Japanese make a request, municipal governments will issue optional residency certificates and Juki Net registration cards.

The certificate would include such information as name, address, sex, date of birth, nationality, resident status and length of stay.

About 2.15 million foreign nationals were registered as of the end of 2007, about 1.5 times that of 10 years earlier.

ENDS

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

外国人の住民票作成へ　在留期間３カ月超が対象

共同通信　2009年2月25日 12時19分

http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/s/article/2009022501000290.html

Courtesy of Sendai Ben and Joe Jones at Mutantfrog.

　総務省が今国会に提出する「住民基本台帳法改正案」が２５日、明らかになった。現行の外国人登録制度の廃止に伴い、在留期間が３カ月を超す外国人も日本人と同様、住民基本台帳制度の登録対象とし、自治体が住民票を作成するのが柱。政府は３月に閣議決定し、早ければ２０１２年の施行を目指す。

　中・長期在留の外国人や在日韓国・朝鮮人などの特別永住者も住基台帳制度の対象とすることで、住民票の交付や住基カードの発行が可能になる。自治体が外国人住民の正確な居住実態を把握し、福祉や教育などで日本人と同様の行政サービスを提供できる効果も期待される。

　同省は当初、日本人の住基台帳とは別に外国人台帳の創設も検討していたが、「制度を分けるよりも効率的」として、住基台帳の対象に外国人を追加することにした。

　改正案で住基台帳制度の対象に加える外国人は、在留期間が３カ月超で、外国人登録証明書の代わりに国が新たに発行する「在留カード」の交付対象者や特別永住者ら。

　市区町村が作成、管理する外国人の住民票には、氏名、住所、性別、生年月日の４情報に加え、「国籍」、在留カードに記された「在留資格」「在留期間」を記載する。

　日本に住む外国人は０７年末で２１５万人。１０年間で１・５倍に増加している。

（共同）

ENDS

Fun Facts #12: Statistics on Naturalized Citizens in Japan; holding steady despite immigration

Posted on February 26, 2009February 26, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Again, something interesting that cropped up while researching my thesis: The stats on people who have naturalized (or applied and been rejected for Japanese citizenship for the past ten years. Courtesy of the MOJ.

kikastats98-07

http://www.moj.go.jp/TOUKEI/t_minj03.html

COMMENTS: Once upon a time (as in 2000), the MOJ would not give me these numbers, citing “privacy”, and it wasn’t until relatively recently before these stats, the ultimate in immigration, were so freely public.

Over the past ten years (1998-2007), 153,103 people became Japanese citizens. That’s a sizeable amount, for if you assume reasonable influx for the previous five decades (1948-1997), we’re looking at at least half a million people here as cloaked NJ-blood citizens. That’s a lot of people no matter how you slice it. (Of course, these older stats are still not available online for confirmation.)

As you can see, numbers have held steady, at an average of about 15,000 plus applicants per year. And about the same number were accepted. In fact the rejection rate is so low (153,103/154,844 people = 98.9% acceptance rate), you are only a little more likely to be convicted of a crime during criminal trial in Japan (99.9%) than be rejected for citizenship once you file all the paperwork. That should encourage those who are considering it.

Of course, one would hope that a high acceptance rate would be the case. There is a weeding-out procedure at the very beginning, as when you go to the MOJ Kokuseki-ka, they’ll sit you down for a one-on-one interview for an hour or so and ascertain whether or not you qualify. And turn you away if you don’t. Sensible, since there is a lot of paperwork (naturally), and you don’t want to be rejected after getting everything together (it took me a year; documents aren’t always comparable or easy to get from overseas, especially if your family is not all that cooperative).

Note how the numbers of people either applying or succeeding over the years are not really rising (in fact, they’ve often roller-coastered significantly every year). Considering the rapid rise of the NJ resident population over the same period, this is a little surprising.

Also note the high numbers of Korean and Chinese applicants (around 90% or more). I was one of the few, the proud, the 725 non-K or C who got in in 2000. Less than five percent. However, the numbers of non-K or C accepted over the past ten years have tripled. I wonder if I was part of blazing some sort of trail. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

More on my naturalization here.

ENDS

Newly-elected Tsukuba City Assemblyman Jon Heese on the hows and whys of getting elected in Japan

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. What follows is an interesting (and in places deliciously irreverent) essay by Jon Heese, newly-elected naturalized Tsukuba City Assemblyperson, who encourages others to join him as elected local officials in Japan. He shows in this essay how he did it (he even looks a lot like Bill Clinton), with an important point: As long as you do your homework and figure out how your local system works, it should be possible for any number of people with international backgrounds (such as Inuyama’s Anthony Bianchi) to get in office and start making a difference. Enjoy. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Some background links, courtesy of Jeff Korpa:

Jon Heese Running for City Council « TsukuBlog:
http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/10/jon-heese-running-for-city-council/

Jon’s Stunning Victory « TsukuBlog:
http://blog.alientimes.org/2008/10/jons-stunning-victory/

ヘイズジョンの「愛してる、つくば」　Jon Heese -Aishiteru Tsukuba-:
http://aishiterutsukuba.jp/

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

Yes you can. Yes you should. -jon heese

October 26, 2008 was a very satisfying day. I woke up around the crack of noon, went to the local polling station to vote in the city election and took my family to the park for a beautiful afternoon. Dinner was a relaxed affair. All in all, it was quite a change from the previous seven days. The week beginning the previous Sunday was rather more hectic since I was quite busy kissing hands and shaking babies as I began my campaign for city councilor in Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken.

The election was the culmination of years of plodding…(plotting?). Four years before, after a few gin and tonics (four parts gin, one part ice and a whiff of tonic) in my favourite bar, I happened to mention to the barkeep how if I had half a mind, I should run for city council. Clearly, he believed I did in fact have only half a mind since he immediately became extremely excited and began to encourage me to take the plunge. He went on for awhile, trying to explain the election system to me, but as I had had at least 3 of those gin and tonics by that time, I was rather befuddled. What I did understand was that he believed I could win, if I ran. I had more than a hangover to think about the next morning.

It was one thing to convince myself that running for office was a good idea. Convincing my wife, Nori, was rather more arduous. Fortunately I had subjected her to many a crazy idea in the past so didn’t really need to convince her per se. She listened to my rant and more or less wrote off this latest plan as just another harebrained scheme. That said, she was willing to help do the necessary paperwork to get me started, the first step on the long road: citizenship.

I had quite a few obstacles to pass to get my citizenship, least of which was the actual application. My first task was to get my taxes paid off. That was not as easy as that sounds since I owed considerable sales taxes from a business that went south. I also needed to get birth records for my large family from various local governments. In any case, I finally managed to get all the required records together at the same time and applied.

The actual citizenship process wasn’t so difficult. My case officer was a friendly guy. No one in his office had ever processed a Canuck before so I believe he was rather excited by the challenge. Other than providing endless copies of paperwork, there really wasn’t much for me to do, with the exception of writing the requisite essay in Japanese. This essay was the one real challenge, the one actual test in Japanese-ness. The original request was for a one page essay written in pencil. At the next meeting I presented my case officer the essay and he claimed it was good enough. Now please rewrite it in ink. Could I just copy over the existing essay and erase the pencil after? Sure, no problem. I presented the ink version the next week. Ah, Heese-san, that’s great. Could you please make one more copy in ink? No, a photocopy was not good enough. Well, I didn’t choke the snivel serpent on the spot, so I guess I passed the “gaman” (patience) test. From start to finish, the process took about 6 months. This meant that the tax documents needed to be renewed and resubmitted since official docs expire after 3 months. More “gaman”.

On June 5th, 2007 I officially became Japanese. By this time pretty much anyone who bothered to listen to my blathering had heard of my political ambitions. Curiously, getting my citizenship did not convince many people of my seriousness. Even my wife still thought that the whole citizenship hoop-jump was a big step forward, but when push came to shove, I’d chicken out or find some excuse not to run.

Fast forward to spring of 2008. By then most of the candidates who were planning to run already had their flyers and campaign posters designed and their meishi printed. They had their political support clubs already registered and were gathering funds. Nori had been emphasizing for months I should stop my candidacy, since she felt that to lose would be a severe blow and not worth risking. True, many a losing Japanese candidate also loses vast amounts of face. I, however, was not afraid of losing since that would imply I had some pride (Bzzzz, wrong answer). In fact, the way I saw it, to run and lose would still prove to be a plus. In spite of the many foreigners in our city the principals have never really had anyone they could approach for advice whenever serious issues arose. Sure there were a few of the usual suspects that attended the various advisory boards and panels, but no one was really seen as a definitive voice for the foreign community. Worst case, by stepping forward for the election and losing, I would still become the go-to guy for any future dialogue. That couldn’t be bad.

When I approached my barkeep in July 2008 to see about selecting a campaign manager, he pretty much bit my head off for being so slow off the mark. OK, well, I had no answer but “Gomen nasai.” Still, I give barkeep a lot of credit since once he saw I was serious about running, in spite of my slow start, he started to make a few calls to a few of the movers and shakers around town. The first heavyweight to show up was Mr. O, a real firecracker. He’d spent his youth hitching around Europe and Asia, a true English speaking internationalist. That first meeting was just to satisfy him that I really was serious. Some days later, I got a call from the challenging mayoral candidate, and would I be interested in meeting? Mr. F is a sweet old guy, 72 in 2008. Would I support him in the coming election? Sure would, especially as his group promised to distribute 20,000 of my pamphlets throughout the city for free.

Ah, shit, those pamphlets… Ever notice that whenever you procrastinate for a long time, suddenly you get that feeling that everything needs to be done at once? Nori, my lovely and supporting wife, now had me over a barrel. As the designer-in-chief, she knew that if she was to get her best deal, that was the time. Working full time 6:30 AM to 11 PM in Tokyo, she was not at all interested in having even more work thrust on her because I needed something translated or designed for free. If she was going to support me in the campaign, it would be as an advisor only. She would not campaign with me, knocking on doors and generally bothering others. More importantly, if I won, she would not read the voluminous documentation, the many bills or other paperwork. She had her own job and I was on my own. But yes, she’s do the necessary design work for the election only. She sat down at the Mac and whipped up both my meishi and the pamphlet, sent everything off to the the printers in time to have everything back 3 weeks before the election and just in time for the challenger’s campaign supporters to stuff into mailboxes. In the meantime she also managed to get my web page up. And just 3 days before the actual campaign started, my posters arrived. Whew, safe.

By now the buzz was starting to happen. The pamphlets in the mailboxes were having an effect. People were approaching me and mentioning they’d seen my flyer in their post. Was I really going to run? YES PEOPLE, DAMMIT! I’M SERIOUS!!! The reactions were naturally varied. Many of my Japanese friends were all very supportive. The strangest reactions tended to come from my foreign friends. One guy even had the temerity to say his wife, a doctor, was a member of the Pink Ribbon society, a breast cancer awareness group. Since I was going to get my ass thumped in this first election he didn’t want his wife to use up her sway in the group for this election, but perhaps during the next election she might bring me around and introduce me. Well f*** you very much, friend. Generally, the only negative responses came from my foreign acquaintances. And when I say negative, I mean there was a lot of disbelief that I stood any chance. But “E” for effort Jon. Gambatte!

October 19th, the official start of the campaign. All my paperwork was done, posters ready and all the candidates gathered at the city office for the official kickoff. The atmosphere was more gold rush than election. Every candidate had his paperwork re-examined (we’d all had the paperwork gone over by the election officials the week before). As soon as the candidate was processed, out the door they raced, ready to stake their claim. The reality is that we all had to get our posters put up on the official boards erected throughout the city. This was no small feat as there were 450 locations, many in the middle of nowhere. The maps provided by the city were crappy photocopies at best. Fortunately I had made another connection to a group of like-minded candidates who divvied up the locations. My poster team would put up the posters of 6 other candidates at 30 locations and they would do the same for me around the city. Score.

Nori’s advice now came into effect. Number one: NO LOUDSPEAKER CAR. Yes, we all complain about it. The other candidates claimed that they too hate the damn cars and the grief they cause the voters. Well, I had to walk the walk. Number 2: forget about the train stations, especially in the early mornings. Everyone is in a rush and no one wants my damn meishi or flyer. If I want to catch the morning rush, stand outside the daycares and kindergartens and greet the mothers as they drop off their kids. The mothers will encouraged their husbands vote for me too, those same husbands rushing off to work on the trains. Number three: put a pole with my poster on the back of my bicycle and ride around town to my campaign stops. All good advice.

That first Sunday was rather special. It was the first day of campaigning so my manager and I went downtown and greeted the shoppers. As the other candidates were driving around and making a ruckus, I shouted “My name is Jon Heese and I’m running for city council” to all and sundry. A lot tougher than it sounds. After a couple of hours, my voice was thrashed. Towards the evening, we moved to another location and canvased local businesses until around 8 PM. Officially, campaigning can only occur between 8 AM to 8 PM. One day down.

Weekdays my manager and I got into a rhythm. We picked a daycare, greeted parents (see above) until just before 9, moved to the nearby kindergarten and greeted the mothers who usually formed a gaggle around the entrance. Unlike daycare parents, kindergarten mothers often don’t have a job to go to so this presented a nice opportunity to talk briefly about what I wanted to do. My manager had a real job to go to in the afternoons so I went home, had a short nap and lunch and went on the trail by myself in the afternoons and evenings. I tried doing the door to door a few times, but realistically, that’s a losing strategy. The few people at home on weekdays usually don’t open their doors, using their inter-phones. As soon as they heard I was a politician and a foreign one to boot, they’d hang up, some more politely than others.

While the other candidates went around bugging everyone with their loudspeakers, I spent my afternoons and evenings bothering people in their businesses. The nice thing about a business is that the staff are all trained to be polite to everyone. No slammed doors, no rude gestures, no buckets of blood thrown in my face. I walked in, asked for the boss, introduced myself and left. At the beginning of the week the news that a foreigner was running still wasn’t generally known. Over the course of the week, that changed somewhat. I still surprised a lot of folk. I’m sure there were a few people who were wondering which comedy show I was working for and where the hidden cameras were. Day 2 ~ 6 done.

Saturday rolled around; last day of campaigning. No daycares or kindergartens so I went back downtown and accosted, uhh, I mean greeted people. By this time my candidacy was common knowledge. Pretty much everyone had seen my posters and/or heard stuff via the grape-net or the inter-vine. I had many positive responses, people coming up to me and wanting to shake my hand and encourage me. Many voters told me they had used the early voting system to vote for me already. By the end of the 7th and final day, I knew I had at least 50 votes. Eight PM rolled around I was delighted to be able to take off my sash and take a long deserved sauna. The campaign was officially over. I was very confident that I was going to kick ass the next day. For my friends who really wanted to know what I thought my chances were, I told them top five. Otherwise, I just espoused optimism. I didn’t want to come across as over confident.

Sunday came, polling started and I relaxed. Candidates traditionally spend election day on the phones, encouraging the folk credulous enough to give out a working phone number to go vote. Campaigning is verboten, but burning up the land lines is fair game. I only had a few phone numbers of Japanese friends or foreign friends married to Japanese. Five calls later I was done. Time to relax and enjoy the day with my family. Polls closed at 8 PM. Counting began around 9. Mayor votes are counted first. My wife and I went to Mr. F’s campaign headquarters around 10:30 PM. We were late. The results were already in and he’d lost again. Sucked to be him. We arrived to doom and gloom, some of the supporters in tears. I wasn’t surprised. F-san is really a sweet guy, but he just didn’t have the charisma of his opponent. Piss-pots of money yes, but his oomph was gone.

Around 11 we went to my campaign headquarters, my favourite bar, to await the outcome. The first results came in around 11:30. I had been told that the winning candidates, based on previous elections, needed at least 1,600 votes. Someone at the computer was hitting refresh every 10 second or so from around 11:15. Another was on the phone talking to someone at the counting station. A cheer from the computer brought the whole bar to the monitor. After 30% of votes counted, there I was, tied for 1st place with 1,800 votes. It was all over but the cheering, multiple rounds of toasts, hugs, pictures and a special present from my brother, a stack of bribe envelopes with a million yen as the minimum amount. By midnight the final tally was in. I’d moved down to 2nd place with a total of 4,011 votes. First came in with 4,500. Still, not bad for a beginner.

OK, a nice story. Yeah me! What does this have to do with you? Well, here’s the dope. All city elections are pretty much run the same, following rules set up by the national government. Ergo, if you understand the structure, my story is repeatable… by you! “Me?” you say. Yes you. Let me explain.

Most cities have between 25 and 30 seats in their council. Usually there are around 10 ~ 20% more candidates than there are seats in any given city election. In Tsukuba, I had 40 competitors running for 33 seats. That is worth considering on its own. How much easier for me, all things being equal, to place in the winning 33 than to place in the losing 7?

The remarkable characteristic about most of candidates is how they are mostly nice gray men in nice gray suits. They are all very amiable and, above all, competent guys but pretty much lacking in charisma. They are all looking to make the city a better place by keeping the mayor in check. I say good for them. I’ve gotten to know our winning clutch over the last few months and I think they are a nice bunch. My opinion may change in the coming years, but so far, very positive.

Let’s have a look at the voters. The nice gray men all have their support groups and the better ones have better machines. However, in any given election, there are about 30% independent voters. In Tsukuba, about 90,000 citizens voted, meaning 30,000 voters were not aligned to any organization. Here are the numbers needed to win. The winner of seat 33 garnered 1577 votes (the guy below him had 1,552). The numbers show that anyone who can get 5% of independent voters will win. Now add on the votes from your spouse’s family, friends, the shopkeepers where you are known, your students/co-workers/underlings and all their friends and pretty soon you are vying for top dog.

How do independent voters decide who to vote for? Well, we can assume they have no clue who to vote for or they’d already be aligned. In 2004, the first time I paid attention to a local election, the number one vote getter was a 26 year old who went around saying, “Vote for me, I’m 26.” Of course he had a pamphlet with all the changes he wanted to make but his real message was very clear. This year I came in a respectable second. I also had a policy-filled flyer but my underlying campaign message was, “I’m foreign, vote for me.” OK, I’m being cynical, but sue me!

My impression is that independent voters are attracted to different and new things. Figure out what your attraction might be and play it for all it’s worth and you will do just fine. Just your foreignness already makes you prominent. Elections are really just advertising campaigns and if your product is being talked about, you will get votes. Remember, voters unhappy with your candidacy can’t vote you off the islands. At worst, they can only not vote for you. Certainly the other candidates will not waste their breath trying to block you as mud slinging just makes you even more famous.

OK, so you’ve read this far and maybe even have a dreamy “What if” look as you imagine the possibilities. Here is a brief overview of what you’ll need: 1. You need to be Japanese. Get over it. It is not that hard to do. The biggest obstacle will be giving up your previous citizenship. Chances are you are already here for the duration. Why not let everyone else know too. It will be cathartic. 2. If you have been a good boy or girl you have not only learned to speak Japanese fairly well, but can even read a significant amount of kanji. Everything else is just details. Is that brief enough?

Things you won’t need: lots of money, lots of friends. Both help but are not deal breakers. As for money, campaigns are funded by the city. The nice gray men need to spend the big yen over and above the city funding to get their “Look at me!” message out. I was stupid and wasted Y400,000 of my own money. If I’d procrastinated less, I could have been elected for free. As for friends, they are useful. That said, I have no clue who cast most of the 4,000 votes I got. I’ll never know and it’s not important. One advantage you have already that I did not is my help and experience. Contact Debito if you need my e-mail or phone number (don’t call before noon).

The fact you are reading this on Arudou Debito’s blog tells me you are a concerned inhabitant and hopefully future citizen. You are interested in the way Japan is being run. That you own a computer and are net literate already makes you exceptional when compared to the nice gray men running your city. Consider this, Tsukuba is hailed as Japan’s Science City, it’s Palo Alto. And yet, fewer than 30% of the candidates even had an election home page. Doesn’t that strike you as more than just odd, but disastrous for this country? When the country’s smartest city (highest average IQ) elects a majority of its councilors with no net presence, that is worrying. Chances are it’s worse where you are.

In spite of all of the negative shit you read on this blog, there is another side to Japan that Debito freely recognizes. There are so many super kind and generous Japanese out there who will gladly support you in your efforts, should you decide to try to be the next foreign candidate. The silent majority in Japan are just keeping their heads down and trying not to get singled out. However, there is an active minority who really do believe in Japan’s place in the fabric of humanity, that Japan should honour their pledges to the world.

Debito’s blog often points out where Japan is falling down on their commitments because good people do nothing. However, there are plenty of people out there who are doing great things but don’t have the charisma to get into politics. You’ve met them, your spouse knows them. This is a fifth column that is just waiting for you to stand up and be counted. They will stand behind you and find the resources you need to win.

I praise Debito for his work in poking the establishment in the eye for their lack of backbone and I hope my story provides a little balance to Debito’s efforts. Now imagine what will happen when Debito, and yes, I do mean WHEN Debito takes his scrotum in hand and changes Hokkaido forever by becoming Sapporo’s first western politician. Can you imagine the changes that will take place when Japan’s biggest pain in the ass foreigner starts to point the spotlight on all those politicians who are not living up to our obligations because they do nothing? Oh Happy Day! Now imagine, 30 of us throughout the nation. This is not a dream, this is very doable. The election system is designed with you in mind. Take advantage of it. Yes you can. YES YOU SHOULD!

January 30, 2008

ENDS

Wash Post on GOJ efforts to get Brazilian workers to stay

Posted on January 26, 2009January 26, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

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

Japan Times on international trends towards allowing citizens to become multinational

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. In yet another excellent article from the Japan Times (with information on what countries are in Japan’s league of strict jus sanguinis) indicating how the worldwide trend has been towards granting people, or allowing them to keep, dual nationality. The GOJ and their online apologists are running out of excuses. Debito in Sapporo

—————————-

THE MANY FACES OF CITIZENSHIP
Multinationalism remains far from acceptance in Japan
By SETSUKO KAMIYA, Staff writer
THE JAPAN TIMES, Sunday, January 4, 2009 Third in a series

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090104f1.html

In a country notorious for its exclusive immigration policy, the question of whether to allow Japanese to hold dual citizenship became a surprisingly hot policy topic last year after members of the ruling party breached the issue.

In many other parts of the world, it’s a matter that has already been discussed in great depth, and observers agree that an increasing number of countries are moving toward allowing citizens to become multinational.

As of 2000, around 90 countries and territories permitted dual citizenship either fully or with exceptional permission, according to the “Backgrounder,” published by the Center for Immigration Studies in the United States, and “Citizenship Laws of the World” by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Since the reports came out, several countries have lifted bans on dual nationality. As a consequence, there are more than 90 countries backing dual nationality by default today.

“The trend is dramatic and nearly unidirectional. A clear majority of countries now accepts dual citizenship,” said Peter Spiro, an expert on multi nationality issues at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

“Plural citizenship has quietly become a defining feature of globalization.”

Countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom who go by the principle of jus soli, which gives nationality to everyone born on their soil and territories, have long been lenient in permitting dual citizenship.

The shift is also being seen in countries that have traditionally adhered to jus sanguinis, which says that a child’s nationality is determined by his parent’s citizenship.

The change in jus sanguinis countries first grew prominent in European countries, followed by some South American and Asian states, largely as a result of economic globalization and the expansion in people’s mobility over the past few decades.

Europe’s general acceptance of dual nationality is stated in the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, which stipulates that while member states can define their own citizens, they must at least allow children of international marriages and immigrants to hold dual nationality.

This was a major shift from traditional attitudes in the region, stated in a 1963 convention that supported the single nationality principle.

Atsushi Kondo, a law professor at Meijo University, explained that the economic growth after World War II and the formation of the European Union are two major reasons driving the change.

After WWII, the western European countries, who had been a source of emigrants, began accepting foreigners in their labor forces to deal with the rise in economic development they were enjoying.

Contrary to the initial presumption of European states that immigrant workers will eventually pack up and leave at some point, many foreigners have stayed longer and settled. They not only brought in more family members to their new homes, but married citizens of those countries as well, Kondo said.

As more immigrants virtually became permanent residents, many governments eventually reached the conclusion that securing the rights of foreigners and integrating them with society was unavoidable if they were to bring about a fair and democratic society, he explained.

“These countries have become aware that leaving the status of foreigners unstable was violating their human rights and making society unfair” and wanted to avoid that, Kondo said.

Meanwhile, countries whose citizens are migrating to other countries have also granted dual citizenship to the Diaspora.

Among them are many Latin American countries, who took this step in the 1990s because many of their citizens were immigrating to the U.S.

For example, Colombia acknowledged dual nationality in 1991, the Dominican Republic in 1994, Brazil in 1996 and Mexico in 1998.

Joining the club in recent years have been Asian countries, such as the Philippines, India and Vietnam.

Since September 2003, native Filipinos who have become citizens of other countries through naturalization have been able to reacquire Filipino citizenship by taking the oath of allegiance to their motherland.

In 2005, India began granting people of Indian origin living in other countries, except Pakistan and Bangladesh, “Overseas Citizenship of India” if their habitual resident countries recognize dual citizenship.

While voting rights are not given, OCI holders will be allowed multiple-entry visas and hold equal economic, financial and educational benefits.

And from this year, some 3.5 million Vietnamese living abroad will also be able to obtain citizenship thanks to legislation passed by the Vietnamese parliament in November allowing dual nationality.

Last year, South Korea began reviewing ways to permit Koreans to hold dual nationalities under certain conditions. This is in line with the policies that President Lee Myung Bak has said he wanted to actualize.

Spiro of Temple University, who recently wrote the book “Beyond Citizenship,” said states that are major producers of immigrants have been looking into cementing ties with emigrant populations, largely for economic reasons.

“Embracing dual nationality is like a tool for harnessing the economic power of external citizens,” Spiro said.

“Instead of forcing emigrants to make a choice, or treating them like traitors to the homeland, emigrants can both integrate with their new place of residence at the same time that they maintain the citizenship tie with their homeland,” he noted.

While simultaneously holding citizenship in more than one country can bring more opportunities to individuals, it also brings risks, such as mandatory military service or taxation obligations.

But both Spiro and Kondo said many countries have reconciled this on the basis of residence.

For example, in European countries, if one holds citizenship in two countries where military service is mandatory, the person only need serve one of them, usually the country in which they reside.

People with dual nationality are also warned about the risk of running into trouble or accidents when one of the two countries does not acknowledge dual citizenship. In those circumstances, the other government is limited in what it can do for the person.

Kondo, however, said that in many cases, especially emergencies, many governments take humanitarian actions and make claims to the other country in a peaceful manner to secure the safety of the citizen.

Jus sanguinis countries like Japan have traditionally been less tolerant of dual nationality because people tend to regard themselves as an exclusively racially homogeneous, Kondo explained.

While Japan does not allow dual citizenship, people can acquire more than one nationality upon birth if the parents are a Japanese and a foreigner, or if a Japanese couple have a baby in countries where citizenship is given to those born on their soil.

For babies, nationality depends on birthplace, parents

In such cases, Japanese nationality law stipulates that the child must select one of the nationalities permanently before turning 22 years old.

While the law is rigid about this rule, the reality is that the Justice minister has never strictly imposed it on anyone who actually has two nationalities.

“It’s not favorable to force a citizen to choose one among his parents,” Kondo said.

“It will take a very, very long time before Japan becomes a jus soli country, but at least it is possible to gradually set the bar lower” and accept dual citizens as other countries have done, he said.

Even in countries like the U.S., for example, there are voices calling for scaling back birthright citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.

However, Spiro said that there is very little real political support in U.S. for opposing dual citizenship.

This is partly due to the rise of dual citizens among powerful political constituencies, such as Irish-, Italian- and Jewish-Americans, but also because dual citizens pose very little threat of any description to local society, he said.

“The U.S. and many European nations now understand that dual citizenship doesn’t pose much of a threat . . . In many states, the acceptance is now nearly absolute,” Spiro said.
The Japan Times: Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009
ENDS

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

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

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

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:

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.
https://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.
https://www.debito.org/?p=1018 and https://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).
https://www.debito.org/?p=1660
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080826zg.html

https://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.
https://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.
https://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

Japan Times Zeit Gist on Chinese/Japanese bilingual education in Japan

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Further festive good news: A rupo in the Japan Times Community Page from a member of the Chinese Diaspora in Japan, on the Chinese Diaspora in Japan. And how some are being educated to believe that they are bicultural, bilingual, and binational. Good. Debito in Monbetsu

HOME

THE ZEIT GIST

School bridges China-Japan gap

Historic Yokohama institute seeks to nurture Chinese values, equip pupils for life in Japan

By EMILY CHO

Special to The Japan Times

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20081223zg.html

At first glance it seems to be a typical lunch break at a local Japanese school: Boys rambunctiously chasing one another and yanking at each other’s white polo shirts, little girls twirling so hard in their pleated gray skirts that they fall down with squeals of glee.

Bilingual, trilingual: Classes at Yokohama Yamate Chinese School are taught in both Mandarin and Japanese. Students learn English from fifth grade.EMILY CHO PHOTO

But look closer and you notice that although the signs on the wall are familiar, the Chinese characters are written in simplified form, unlike Japanese “kanji.” A group of lanky adolescent boys in navy blazers start kicking around a fuchsia-feathered shuttlecock, or “jianzi,” instead of a soccer ball.

“Ne ne, ore ne, hao chi de bing gan aru yo ne!” a little boy shouts, holding some biscuits up like a prize as he switches fluidly back and forth between Mandarin and Japanese.

Welcome to the Yokohama Yamate Chinese School, which boasts a more-than-century-old cultural tapestry steeped in Chinese values deeply interwoven with Japanese influences.

The Yokohama Chinese School was established in 1898 by Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China, during his exile from the mainland. The school aimed to assuage the worries of parents that their children might lose their Chinese identity growing up in Japan.

In 1952 the school split into two factions due to the political tensions between mainland China and Taiwan. The supporters of Communist China broke off to form the Yokohama Yamate Chinese School at another site, while the supporters of Taiwan stayed behind at what became the Yokohama Overseas Chinese School. Both schools claim to be the first Chinese school in Japan. Of the five Chinese schools in the country, only the Yokohama Yamate Chinese School and the Kobe Chinese School are oriented toward the mainland.

One of the main differences between the two types of schools is that simplified Chinese is taught instead of traditional Chinese in pro-mainland China schools. They also teach Pinyin, a romanization system for standard Chinese, while the Taiwan-oriented schools teach Zhuyin, which uses phonetic symbols. However, the Taiwan-oriented schools are starting to teach simplified Chinese and Pinyin to offer a more well-rounded education.

Of the Yamate school’s 413 students, 30 percent are Chinese nationals, with the rest having Japanese citizenship. Ten percent of the student body is ethnically Japanese.

“Chinese people feel the need to be infused with the Chinese culture, logic and ideology,” Principal Pan Minsheng explains. “The Japanese people enroll because they realize what a big and powerful force China is. China and Japan are also closely intertwined in many aspects of life, politics and culture. It is therefore beneficial for them to learn more about the Chinese culture.”

Although separated only by a narrow strip of water, war and occupation have left China and Japan divided by a wider gulf, exacerbated by ongoing political, historical and territorial tensions. However, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and great efforts are being made in both countries to build on growing ties. Perhaps both sides are finally heeding the wisdom of the Chinese proverb that says, “A good neighbor is a found treasure.”

During his state visit to Japan in May — the first by a Chinese president in a decade — Hu Jintao set aside time for the school, perhaps recognizing that the students may come to play a critical role in bridging the gap of understanding between Japan and China.

At the end of a worn-out hallway decorated with hand-painted artworks, Pan pulls open a sliding door to reveal a class of children reading out loud with perfect pronunciation from Chinese textbooks. Shutting the door behind him, Pan then pulls open another sliding panel; in this class the students are bantering with their teacher and each other in fluent Japanese.

In the school’s kindergarten, children are mainly taught in Japanese, while primary and secondary-level classes are taught in Japanese or Chinese depending on the subject. English is also taught from the fifth grade. Chinese schools also encourage student-initiated learning, where the children learn as much from themselves and fellow classmates as from teachers and textbooks.

“As you can see, in this class they are all learning Japanese,” explains Pan. “The students are proactive and discuss among themselves. They are learning when communicating with each other.”

He points to the nearest table, where two students are quietly eavesdropping on our conversation. “Hey! Discuss!” he barks good-naturedly, getting giggles in response.

The Yamate school only teaches up to junior-high level, but according to Pan all students go on to pass entrance exams for high-level Japanese senior high schools and transition easily into the Japanese school system.

Unlike other international schools in Japan, which tend to focus on readying students for life outside Japan, Chinese schools like Yokohama Yamate aim to prepare their students for Japanese society, while keeping their Chinese cultural identity intact. In effect, the school aims to teach each its students how to be both Chinese and Japanese.

When asked where they were from, a crowd of fourth-graders eagerly shared their varied answers.

“I’m Japanese, and Chinese,” said a serious-looking boy named Bozhi, a first-generation Japanese-born Chinese.

“We’re from China!” proclaimed two girls, Zhenxin and Chongmei, and another boy named Fangwei. All three were born in China and are being raised in Japan.

Mandarin and Japanese poured forth in a strangely comfortable cadence among the boisterous bunch, and there was no preference for either language. But the younger students tended to favor one language over the other, depending on which is spoken at home.

“I’m Japanese. I like Japanese class the best because it’s easy. I got 99 on my last test,” confided Akiyama, a shy 6-year-old who speaks Japanese at home to her Japanese father and Chinese mother.

A cheeky boy runs up to the principal and tugs his sleeve insistently. “He hit me, he hit me!” he hollers. The principal ruffles the boy’s hair. “This little boy can speak Cantonese too. He speaks three languages!” he says proudly.

The Yokohama Yamate school, like all other Chinese schools, encourages a tightknit community environment. The atmosphere in the school seems to be almost familial between faculty and students.

In the courtyard, a young teenage boy is seen playing down his basketball abilities with the eager primary students. All over the school, similar interactions suggest a close bond between the students.

“All the students clean their classrooms on their own,” says Pan. “But for the first-graders, the older students cleans the classroom for them.”

Mrs. Ogawa, a Japanese mother who sent her two daughters to the school, appreciates the strong bonds it fosters. Her husband worked in China for a brief stint, and upon his return the couple formed friendships with Chinese people.

“We thought that if it was possible, we should let our child mix with Chinese people from a young age and let them know that there are all sorts of people in the world, not just Japanese,” she explains. “It will make them more flexible and open-minded.”

Despite the fact that the majority of the parents are Chinese, Ogawa says she has never felt out of place. She even picked up basic Mandarin so she could pronounce the names of her daughters’ Chinese friends and teachers.

Looking at the sea of enthusiastic young faces, it is as impossible to pick out which student is Japanese or Chinese as it is irrelevant. Within the walls of the school there is no differentiation between the two ethnicities, only the celebration of both.

“In the school, we are all parents — we have the same worries and the same happiness. Japanese people have to mingle with the Chinese to truly understand them,” says Ogawa. “It is important to form opinions from interpersonal relationships, not just from what you see on television. At the end of the day, we aren’t that different after all.”

Send comments on this issue and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp

The Japan Times: Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008

German movie SOUR STRAWBERRIES preview, with Debito interview

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

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

All registered NJ will in fact now get the 12,000 “economic stimulus” bribe

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Good news. After dallying with thoughts of excluding NJ taxpayers, then allowing only those NJ with Permanent Residency and Japanese spouses, the GOJ has just announced that all registered NJ will get the 12,000 yen-plus economic stimulus bribe. Seasons Greetings.

This is probably the first time NJ have ever been treated equally positively with citizens (save for, perhaps, access to Hello Work unemployment agency) with a voter stimulus package. See, it pays to complain. Articles courtesy of Wes and Sendaiben. Debito in Sapporo

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

Gov’t to extend cash handouts to 2 mil registered foreign residents
Kyodo News Sunday 21st December, 07:00 AM JST
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/govt-to-extend-cash-handouts-to-2-mil-registered-foreign-residents

TOKYO — The government said Saturday it has decided to recognize 2 million foreigners registered as residents with local governments as of next Feb 1 as eligible for cash benefits it will hand out next year as a fiscal measure to spur private consumption.

The government will recognize foreigners registered as residents on the foreign registry as of Feb 1, 2009 as qualified recipients of the cash handout under the 2 trillion yen program, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Among the 2 million recipients are permanent foreign residents, such as North and South Korean residents in Japan, as well as foreign workers of Japanese ancestry who have residential permits as migrant workers, the ministry said.

Foreigners studying at Japanese schools as well as foreigners accepted as trainees by Japanese companies are also recognized as qualified recipients.

Foreign tourists, foreigners overstaying their visas and other illegal aliens will not be recognized as legitimate recipients, the ministry said.

The administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso approved on Saturday a second supplementary budget that includes the handouts as its main pillar.

The ministry said Feb 1 is the set date for deciding on eligibility for the handouts for both Japanese citizens and registered foreigners. The number of recipients, including foreigners, will total 129 million.

Japanese citizens and foreigners will basically be given 12,000 yen per person, but an extra 8,000 yen will be given to recipients up to and including 18 years old as of the standard date, as well as to recipients 65 years old or older.

Local government officials will check on such recipients’ ages when the cash handouts are disbursed. This means that those receiving additional payouts must be young people born on Feb 2, 1990, or later and elderly people born on Feb 2, 1944, or before.

Feb 2 became the defining date because Japanese law adds one more year to a person’s legal age at midnight on the day before he or she is born, the ministry said.

Consequently, people whose 65th birthday falls on next Feb 2 are counted among qualified recipients of the cash.

The older qualified recipients will total 28 million, while young recipients up to and including 18 years old will number 22 million persons.

But babies who will be born exactly on next Feb 2 or after will not be recognized as qualified recipients, because the government is designating Feb 1 as the defining date for eligibility, it said.

The cash will be handed out through the offices of the local governments at which Japanese citizens or foreigners are registered as residents.

The payments assume that the second extra budget and other relevant bills will pass the Diet. They also assume that local assemblies will pass budgetary bills to cover expenses for administering the payments.

It is not yet known, therefore, whether the government will be able to hand out the cash benefits prior to next March 31 because deliberations on these bills may drag on.

ENDS

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

定額給付金：支給基準日は来年２月１日　総務省

毎日新聞　2008年12月20日　18時39分（最終更新　12月21日　1時53分）

http://mainichi.jp/select/seiji/news/20081221k0000m010020000c.html

　総務省は２０日、定額給付金の支給基準日を来年２月１日にすると発表した。市区町村は２月１日時点の住民基本台帳を支給の基礎とする。基準日は来年１月１日か２月１日のいずれかで調整していたが、引っ越したにもかかわらず転居を市区町村に届けていない場合などを想定し、混乱を避けるには一定の期間が必要と判断した。

　定額給付金は１人１万２０００円で、６５歳以上の高齢者と１８歳以下の子供に対しては８０００円加算される。

　２月１日が基準日になったことにより、２月１日までに生まれた子供は支給対象になるが、２日以降では受け取れない。出生届の提出は２日以降であっても、受け取りに問題は生じない。支給をめぐっては、基準日に死亡するケースなども考えられるが、詳細な扱いはさらに検討する。

　加算に関しては、年齢計算に関する法律などの関係から「６５歳以上」には１９４４（昭和１９）年２月２日以前生まれの人が該当し、「１８歳以下」は９０年２月２日以降に生まれた人が対象になる。

　また外国人は、観光などの短期滞在や不法滞在者を除き、原則全員（約２０００万人）が支給対象になる。永住外国人や日本人の配偶者に加え、就労や留学目的で滞在する在留資格を持つ外国人なども受け取れる。外国人登録原票に基づき支給され、世帯主ではなくそれぞれが申請することになる。

　政府は０８年度第２次補正予算案として、給付金関係として事務経費８２５億円を含む総額２兆３９５億円を計上した。【石川貴教】

　■基準日にかかわるポイント

　▽支給窓口は来年２月１日現在で住民登録している市区町村

　▽支給対象に含まれるのは来年２月１日生まれまで

　▽８０００円加算の対象は（１）１９４４年２月２日以前生まれの高齢者（６５歳以上）（２）９０年２月２日以降生まれの子供（１８歳未満）

ends

Kyodo: NJ to be registered as family members (residents?) by 2012

Posted on December 19, 2008December 19, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Good news if this actually comes to fruition: The ludicrous system of registering NJ separately from J in residency certificates (juuminhyou) may be coming to an end. According a Kyodo article (that is too deficient in detail — Japan Times, do another article in depth, please!), we’ll start seeing NJ registered with their families in three years. And hopefully as real, bonafide residents too (even though this is still not clear thanks to Kyodo blurbing). At least we’ll see the end of the ridiculous gaikokujin touroku zumi shoumeisho and the invisible NJ husbands and wives. More on why the current registry situation is problematic here, including NJ being left out for tax-rebates, and not being included in official local government tallies of population. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

The Japan Times, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081219a4.html

New registry rules for foreigners proposed

Kyodo News, courtesy of AW and Sendaiben

A government panel Thursday recommended creating a new system by 2012 to register foreign residents on a household basis, replacing the current individual-basis system, to better oversee their living conditions.

Japanese nationals are registered on a household basis.

In a report, the panel of experts under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications also recommended scrapping the current two-tier system in which the Justice Ministry handles immigration and stay permits, while local governments handle registrations of foreign residents, and called for a unified control system.

Based on the recommendation report, the internal affairs ministry will submit a bill for the envisaged foreigner registry system to an ordinary Diet session next year, ministry officials said.

The proposed steps are expected to help improve the welfare, education and other public services for foreign residents, but critics warn it could lead to increased surveillance.

The number of non-Japanese residents has topped 2 million, more than doubling in the past 20 years.

Under the current system, non-Japanese residents are registered with local governments on an individual basis. The new system is designed to register them on a household basis and the information will be shared by local governments across Japan.

An advisory panel to the justice minister recommended in March that local governments abolish the issuance of foreign registration certificates.

ENDS

Tokyo High Court overrules lower court regarding murder of Lucie Blackman: Obara Joji now guilty of “dismemberment and abandonment of a body”

Posted on December 17, 2008December 17, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Serial rapist and sexual predator Obara Joji yesterday had his “innocent on the grounds of lack of evidence” lower court decision overturned by the Tokyo High Court, with Lucie Blackman’s rape and murder now added to his long list of crimes against women. A hair was split between actual murder and just doing nasty things to her corpse, but for people outraged about the rather odd consideration of evidence in this case (which I in the past have indicated might have something to do with a J crime against a NJ, as opposed to the opposite), this is a victory of sorts. Given that Obara got away with a heckuva lot before he was finally nailed (including some pretty hapless police investigation), I wonder if the outcome of his cases will be much of a deterrent to other sociopathic predators out there. Anyway, this verdict is better than upholding the previous one, of course. Two articles follow. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

Guilty verdict ends Blackman family’s fight for justice
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/guilty-verdict-ends-blackman-familys-fight-for-justice-1192828.html
By David McNeill in Tokyo
The Independent. Wednesday, 17 December 2008

A Japanese businessman has been convicted of abducting Lucie Blackman and mutilating her body, ending an eight-year campaign by her family.

The millionaire property developer Joji Obara was cleared last year of raping and killing the 21-year-old British bar hostess in Japan in 2000. Yesterday the High Court in Tokyo agreed that there was insufficient evidence to convict him on these charges but ruled that Obara dismembered and abandoned her body.

Ms Blackman’s family said they were “delighted” by the higher court’s judgment but added that they were left with a bitter taste in the mouth after their long fight for justice through Japan’s drawn-out legal system.

Her mother, Jane Steare, sat weeping yards from Obara in court as the verdict was read out, an experience she called “very, very harrowing”. It was her first sighting of the man who used a chainsaw to mutilate her daughter’s body, which he then dumped in a cave south-west of Tokyo. On a previous court appearance, Obara had failed to show up.

After the verdict, she said: “At last we have two guilty verdicts and a life sentence for the crimes Obara committed against my wonderful Lucie. He’s got a life sentence and I think justice has been done.”

Her father, Tim Blackman, who lives on the Isle of Wight, said: “Although the result is not the absolute decision we had hoped for, it is still an obvious recognition of guilt. After such a long time it is clear that it was necessary for this protracted process to get any degree of result and some form of justice for Lucie, but it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.”

Ms Blackman’s sister, Sophie, 26, said: “It is not important exactly what he was charged with – what matters is that he is finally taking responsibility after all this time. I’m delighted.”

Ms Blackman, a former flight attendant, went to Japan in May 2000 and found a job as a hostess at a Tokyo nightclub. She vanished in July that year after telephoning her flatmate to say she was going out for the afternoon with a man. Her remains were found in a cave near Obara’s beachside condominium in February 2001 following an extensive search.

In April last year Tokyo District Court acquitted Obara of involvement in Ms Blackman’s death. But he was ordered to spend life in prison for a string of rapes and causing the death of an Australian woman. Tokyo High Court also upheld this sentence yesterday. Judge Hiroshi Kadono held that Obara’s actions left no room for leniency and said: “His action of damaging and abandoning her body was ruthless and did not even give the slightest consideration to her dignity.”

Police found hundreds of home-made videos in the businessman’s flat, showing him having sex with unconscious women, many of whom he met while cruising the Tokyo entertainment district where Ms Blackman worked.

However, although strong circumstantial evidence, including proof that he bought the chainsaw, apparently linked him to the death of the former air stewardess, there was no video recording of her rape.

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

The Japan Times, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
High court: Obara buried Blackman
Serial rapist’s life term is upheld; abduction added to convictions
By SETSUKO KAMIYA Staff writer
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081217a1.html

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday sentenced serial rapist Joji Obara to life in prison for kidnapping Briton Lucie Blackman and mutilating her corpse eight years ago, after a lower court acquitted him of the charges.

The high court also upheld the Tokyo District Court’s life sentence for Obara, 56, for nine other rape cases, including that of an Australian woman who died from an overdose of sleeping drugs Obara slipped her before the assault.

Dressed in a dark suit and brown-framed glasses, Obara nervously wiped his face with a blue handkerchief before the judge read out the 1 1/2-hour decision. As the ruling was being announced, Obara stared at the floor and remained motionless.

Obara was charged with six cases of rape, two cases of rape resulting in bodily injury, and rape resulting in the death of Australian hostess Carita Ridgway.

In the Blackman case, he was charged with kidnapping with intent to rape, attempted rape, and damaging and disposing of a body. He was not charged with murder or manslaughter, however, due to lack of evidence.

Prosecutors demanded a life term.

Presiding Judge Hiroshi Kadono said that while the court couldn’t find direct evidence that Obara raped Blackman, there was enough circumstantial evidence to conclude he abducted the 21-year-old from her residence in Shibuya Ward with the intention of drugging and raping her in July 2000.

The court also said that there was enough evidence to believe that Blackman died for some reason after Obara drugged her in his condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, and that he dismembered her with a chain saw and buried her body parts in a cave near another condo he owned on the Miura coastline.

But the court said it was unable to determine exactly where Obara dismembered her corpse, except that it was in the vicinity of his condo.

The court also rejected Obara’s appeal in the Ridgway case and determined her death was caused by the chloroform Obara forced her to inhale, which caused her to die from fulminant hepatitis in 1992.

Afterward, Ridgway’s family issued a statement saying they welcomed the ruling.

“It is hoped that this finally brings an end to a process that began over eight years ago. The process has been prolonged because Obara refused to accept his guilt and has had access to significant financial resources which he used to fund his attempts to escape justice,” they said.

In April 2007, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Obara to life in prison for a string of nine rapes between 1992 and 2000, including Ridgway’s.

But the court acquitted him of all charges in the Blackman case, ruling that the circumstantial evidence linking him to her dismemberment and burial was not convincing enough to link him directly to her death.

Although the evidence included some 200 videotapes showing Obara engaging in sexual acts with his victims, Blackman was not among them, and the court said other evidence could not prove Obara was involved in any way with Blackman.

During appeal sessions that began in March, prosecutors said there was sufficient evidence showing Obara was involved in the Briton’s death.

Blackman’s dismembered corpse was found in February 2001 in a Miura cave near one of his condos. The prosecution argued that Obara raped her at his Zushi condo several kilometers away.

Prosecutors said he bought a chain saw shortly after the ex-British Airways flight attendant vanished in July 2000.

ENDS

Japan Times: Eric Johnston on Gunma NGO stopping ijime towards NJ students

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Here’s an article from the JT regarding bullying of NJ schoolchildren, and grassroots efforts to ameliorate it. Yet another helpful bit of journalism from the Japan Times, well done. Get in touch with these people if you’re having a problem in school. Debito in Sapporo

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

An NGO reaches out to bullied foreign kids

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081128f2.html

By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer

The Japan Times Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

KYOTO — Bullying is widely recognized as a problem affecting Japanese children. But non-Japanese kids and their parents who are also harassed can have a particularly hard time finding either sympathy or practical advice in their native language.

Now, the Gunma Prefecture-based nongovernmental organization Multilingual Education Research Institute is reaching out to non-Japanese parents and students throughout Japan, as well as to concerned Japanese who want to stop the bullying of foreign children.

The Ijime (Bullying) Zero campaign provides a number of services, including a telephone hotline and a Web page with advice in English, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

“No one in Japanese education is talking about the xenophobic aspects of bullying. There is a need to train people to be aware and to do something,” said Cheiron McMahill, president of the International Community School in Tamamura, Gunma Prefecture, and head of the institute.

McMahill noted that while the government assists Japanese victims of bullying, there are fewer resources for foreign children in their native language. To fill the void, the institute is using its Ijime Zero campaign to offer three kinds of assistance.

First is a multilingual forum where foreign children and their families can disclose their concerns and help each other. Second, educators nationwide, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, who have foreign students can get information and assistance on dealing with bullies. Third, anybody who wishes may borrow, for the price of return postage, multilingual literature and DVDs on dealing with bullies. About 3,000 items are available for lending, McMahill said.

Nationwide, there are more than 25,000 foreign children in schools. The majority are believed to be Brazilians, followed by Chinese. Truancy among foreign children, who are often bullied because they are different or don’t speak Japanese, has become a concern in recent years, especially in prefectures like Gunma and in the Chubu region where large numbers of foreigners reside.

Local governments and the central government both say more needs to be done to integrate foreign children into Japanese schools. But they are often at odds over what exactly should be done and who should take the lead. The central government has long urged local governments to do more, while cash-strapped local governments say there is little more they can do unless Tokyo formulates a national policy and provides funds for assistance.

Human rights activists note a fundamental reason for truancy among foreign children is that they are not required by law to attend public school, which means those who drop out due to bullying or other reasons are not legally obliged to return. The education ministry’s position is that while public schools cannot turn away foreign children, they don’t have to make sure they’re in class.

“Revising the Compulsory Education Law to insure foreign children are covered is a top priority for Japan,” McMahill said.

Last year, a government survey revealed that at least 1 percent of foreign children living in Japan did not attend school, but because the whereabouts of 17.5 percent of children in Japan registered as foreigners was unknown, the real truancy figure is probably much higher.

“The different languages that foreign children speak need to be seen as a resource for Japanese society as a whole, not as a problem to be solved. Having foreign children in the classroom helps Japanese children become more multicultural, and that will pay benefits for all when they grow up and go out into the world,” McMahill said.

For more information on the Ijime Zero campaign and the kinds of assistance available to international parents and children, visit the Multilingual Education Research Institute’s Web site atwww.ijimezero.org

ENDS

GOJ Human Rights Week commemorative pamphlet includes NJ issues of discrimination

Posted on December 4, 2008December 4, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Good news, of sorts. Today starts Japan’s official “Human Rights Week” (Jinken Shuukan), when the GOJ spends money (and claims to the UN national campaigns of awareness raising) to promote issues of human rights.

The Bureau of Human Rights (jinken yougobu), the window-dressing department within the Ministry of Justice entrusted to spend tax money but not actually enforce any human rights mandate, usually glosses over discrimination against NJ (heaven forfend they actually use the breathtaking word “racial discrimination”, or actually call for a law against it!) as a matter of cultural misunderstandings (a wonderful way to reduce the issue down to next to nothing), and holds it low regard in comparison to other (worthy) issues of discrimination against Burakumin, Ainu, the handicapped, AIDs patients, etc. This has been reflected in dismissive GOJ human rights surveys and past “awareness-raising” campaigns in previous Human Rights Weeks.

So it comes as a welcome surprise that this year the GOJ has issued a commemorative pamphlet including discrimination against NJ as a real issue. Of course, the old bone about “cultural issues” is still there to dilute the Truth Octane. But it’s a start. Here’s my translation:

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

RESPECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF FOREIGNERS

Reflecting the era of internationalization in recent years, the number of foreigners making a living in our country has increased dramatically, but there have been various cases of human rights problems including being refused entry to public baths, discrimination in the workplace, and being refused apartments, due to differences in languages, religion, lifestyle customs etc. Human rights has no borders. It is desirable in future for us as a member of the international community to show respect and acceptance to foreigners who have different cultures and diversity.

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

Well, actually, looking over information from last year archived on Debito.org, it’s not that much of a change. Except that the BOHR site now actually includes on its official website a new video game for its cartoon characters, called “The Grand Adventure in Human Rights Land”! Have a play! Hey, it’s your taxes, might as well use them.

Here’s a scan of the pamphlet, courtesy of KGD. As the submitter notes: “It comments that ‘there are no national boundaries to human rights’ and notes that foreigners have been refused entry to public baths in Japan. While the pamphlet won’t get anyone the Nobel Prize, it does indicate that your message is reaching some bureaucrats in the central government.”

Well, good, I guess. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

ENDS

Mainichi: NJ now eligible for GOJ “economic stimulus” bribe. But not all NJ residents.

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. The GOJ has finally made it clear, after overmuch deliberation, that the “economic stimulus” cum political bribe to voters package will also be disbursable to non-voting taxpayers, i.e. NJ. However, not all. Only those with Permanent Residency or marriage with a Japanese. So too bad you taxpaying residents who don’t marry or haven’t been by the grace of Immigration been granted permanent leave to remain. You don’t get a sou for your contributions. It’s better than nothing, and indeed is a sign of progress, but why the lines are drawn there are still mysterious. Anyone with an address in Japan who is paying taxes should be eligible for the rebate. But no. Debito in Iwate.

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

Individuals to receive 12,000 yen under outline for cash handouts

(Mainichi Japan) November 28, 2008

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081128p2a00m0na017000c.html

Courtesy JYLO

Individuals will receive a minimum of 12,000 yen each under an outline on the distribution of 2 trillion yen in cash disbursements to the majority of households across Japan that was drafted on Friday, government officials said.

Discretion on distributing the financial handouts will be left to local governments, as the number of recipients could be limited based on their income.

The plan is part of the government’s stimulus package amid the economic slowdown triggered by the global financial crisis.

According to the draft plan, the cash will be doled out to households by transferring the money to individual accounts at financial institutions after the head of each household files an application by postal mail to local governments.

The draft says it is desirable to start supplying the cash to households before the end of fiscal 2008, but the actual starting date will be decided by each municipal government. The deadline for applications is still being debated and will be either within three months or six months.

While the government and the ruling coalition had earlier pledged to finish distributing the cash to all households before the end of this fiscal year, it has emerged that it will be unfeasible.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday held a meeting in Tokyo to explain the draft outline of the cash disbursements to officials of prefectural governments and municipal governments of major cities across the nation.

Under the draft plan, each municipal government will send application forms to the heads of households, who will be expected to return them with their bank account details. Municipal governments will confirm the identity of recipients by requiring them to send copies of their bankbooks and driver’s licenses together with their application. The officials may also transfer the cash to accounts already on record for use in withdrawing utility fees.

If an individual cannot file an application through postal mail, the head of a household can visit the municipal government office and go through procedures to have the cash transferred to their account. Supplying the money through municipal government offices is also an option, but for safety reasons, it will be limited to cases where bank transfers are difficult.

The amount of cash to be doled out will be 12,000 yen per person, and additional 8,000 yen will be paid to those aged over 65 or under 18. The base date for determining a person’s age will be either Jan. 1 or Feb. 1 next year.

The cash will be provided by municipal governments where recipients have their residency registered as of the base date. As for foreigners, the cash allowance will be distributed to permanent foreign residents and the foreign spouses of Japanese nationals.

Municipal governments that opt to limit the number of recipients based on their income can decline to pay a cash allowance to those who earned at least 18 million yen in 2009. Municipal authorities will try to obtain consent from recipients to use their tax information to confirm their income before deciding on whether they are eligible for the cash allowance. If recipients refuse to allow use of the information, municipal officials can withhold from paying cash to them.

Many municipal governments are apprehensive toward the plan because it will bring about complex clerical work such as confirming recipients’ incomes. The ministry will work out further details of the plan while hearing opinions from municipal government officials.

All expenses that arise for the cash disbursements will be covered by the central government, except for expenses to purchase equipment.

ENDS

Asahi NP Op-Ed urges J to make education compulsory for NJ children too

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Another column calling for the guaranteed education of NJ children. Good. Keep it up. The more of these, the better. Previous one earlier this year here. Debito in Sapporo

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

POINT OF VIEW/ Takaaki Kato: Non-Japanese kids deserve an education, too

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, 2008/11/20

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200811200044.html

Among non-Japanese families residing in Japan, there are too many that do not enroll their children in public or other schools here. Whatever their reasons, this is a serious problem. These children of foreign nationality, some of whom were born in Japan, are being deprived of their right to an education.

As a Japanese-language teacher at an elementary school, I find this situation distressing. Not only do these kids lose out, but so do their families and the community in general.

The Council for Cities of Non-Japanese Residents, which comprises representatives from municipal governments that have a high concentration of foreign residents, has made proposals to the national and prefectural governments on how best to educate the children of foreign nationality.

I believe the main reason many children of foreign nationality are not enrolled in school is because Japanese law does not oblige them to receive compulsory education.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says that when such children apply for enrollment at public elementary and junior high schools, they are accepted free of charge and are thus guaranteed educational opportunities.

However, that doesn’t prevent their parents or guardians from failing to enroll them, the first main problem.

Some non-Japanese parents or guardians prefer to send their children to international schools, such as those for Brazilians living in Japan. That is fine.

But others who don’t send their children to international schools also do not apply for their children to enter the Japanese school system. In some cases, they have pulled their kids out of school to baby-sit younger siblings.

This brings us to a second problem. Even when school officials try to persuade guardians to enroll their children, they fail because there is no law requiring enrollment. The School Education Law is not clear on whether children of foreign nationality fall within the definition of “mandatory school-age pupils and students.”

Still, Article 26 of the Constitution states: “All people shall be obliged to ensure that all boys and girls under their protection receive ordinary education as provided for by law.”

But since foreign residents are not Japanese citizens, they are not obliged to ensure their children go to school. That seems to be the general interpretation.

Does this mean children of foreign nationality in Japan have no right to an education?

No, it does not.

Under the spirit of the Constitution, under internationally accepted universal human rights principles and under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which Japan has ratified, every human being, regardless of nationality, has the right to a basic education.

Thus, a child’s right to an education means their parents or guardians are obliged to ensure they receive such schooling.

Therefore, foreign residents in Japan must be legally required to ensure the children under their care receive compulsory education.

So it seems obvious that a new clause must be added to the Fundamental Law of Education, for example, to ensure such children receive the education that is rightfully theirs.

If children of foreign nationality are legally obliged to receive compulsory education, local governments would have to check to ensure they have been enrolled in school.

The authorities would of course let guardians decide whether to enroll the children in international schools or Japanese public schools, but either way, they would have to ensure the children were actually attending school.

A revised system like this would also improve awareness among foreign residents about their children’s right to an education.

The government must tackle this problem seriously and implement measures to promote enrollment of foreign children in public or other schools.

Such steps might include providing subsidies to international schools, producing and distributing free Japanese-language learning textbooks and assigning Japanese-language teachers to teach Japanese as a second language to children of foreign nationality.

The future of these children is at stake. I strongly urge the government to make elementary and junior high school education compulsory for children of foreign nationality, too.

* * *

The author teaches international students at Imawatarikita Elementary School in Kani, Gifu Prefecture. (IHT/Asahi: November 20,2008)

Compare: Good survey of “non-Japanese citizens in Sapporo” by City

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. I mentioned yesterday about Careercross’s lousy survey of NJ employers, with loaded and leading questions galore about how NJ bosses apparently view their J subordinates. Contrast it with this thorough, culturally-sensitive survey (down to the phrasing of the questions) put out by the Sapporo City Government. Courtesy of Olaf, who got surveyed (I didn’t, of course.)

They do these once or twice a decade; their last one was in 2001, and they completely rewrote the 2008 version after a lot of groundwork from other city offices and help from their NJ staff, the International Relations Department told me last month.

Now this is how you do a survey. I’ve seen a lot of crappy ones over the years. (Government agencies seem to be incredibly inept at good social science. Consider this periodic survey from even the PM Cabinet regarding human rights, where they offer rights for other humans (NJ) as optional, not required! Keeps incurring the wrath of the United Nations.) Not Sapporo. Other cities should take note of this and use it as a template. So should Careercross.

Survey in English (cover plus 19 pages), then Survey in Japanese (cover plus 19 pages):

Well done! Arudou Debito in Sapporo

LDP’s Kouno Taro submits J dual nationality proposal to Diet

Posted on November 15, 2008November 16, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Morning Blog. Good news. Followup to yesterday’s post regarding granting Japanese citizenship to people in uncertain parentage circumstances: Granting dual citizenship to people in international family circumstances. Thanks to Kouno Taro, LDP Dietmember, for submitting a proposal to the Diet, after a good think about dual nationality following the paradoxes of Japanese-born American citizens winning Nobel Prizes. Let’s hope the proposal goes somewhere. It’s about time the unnecessary identity sacrifices of enforced mononationality are resolved. There is no need in this day and age to force multicultural people to legally deny themselves the existence of international roots. (And note the caveats in the proposal below to make sure people like Alberto Fujimori don’t abuse their possible J citizenship for political purposes.) Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

LDP panel mulls easing law on dual citizenship

Mixed couples’ kids could have two nationalities

By MINORU MATSUTANI Staff writer

The Japan Times: Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20081114a1.html

Courtesy of Sendaiben and Mark MT

Liberal Democratic Party member Taro Kono said Thursday he has submitted a proposal to an LDP panel he heads calling for the Nationality Law to be revised to allow offspring of mixed couples, one of whom being Japanese, to have more than one nationality.

The panel will scrutinize the proposal, but there is no time limit to formalize it as “this is not something that needs to be done anytime soon,” he said.

Under the current system, Japan, in principle, requires Japanese nationals who also hold citizenship in another country to choose one or the other before they turn 22.

However, there is no punishment for violators, and the Justice Ministry does not search for or even request people who publicly proclaim possession of multiple citizenship to choose one.

“The current law works unfavorably for honest people and those exposed to the media,” Kono said. “If we think about Japan’s future, we should establish a system as a nation to secure necessary human resources.”

The proposal calls for Japanese who hold other nationalities to report to local authorities. Those failing to do so would be subject to a fine and possible loss of their Japanese citizenship.

While the proposal allows for multiple nationalities, the government will not let Japanese hold nationalities of countries or regions that Japan does not recognize as nations, including North Korea.

Also under the proposal, foreigners would be able to obtain Japanese citizenship without giving up their original one. But the proposal does not say whether those who had had multiple nationalities and gave up one or more to retain their Japanese citizenship can regain other nationalities.

The proposal would also affect babies born in countries that grant nationality to those born there regardless of their parents’ nationalities, including the United States, Brazil and Australia.

Royalty, Diet members, Cabinet ministers, diplomats, certain members of the Self-Defense Forces and court judges can only hold Japanese nationality.

If holders of more than one nationality take such positions in other countries, they will lose their Japanese nationality, the proposal says.

To avoid granting citizenship to those with a limited connection to Japan, the proposal stipulates that those who have not lived in Japan for a total of 365 days until their 22nd birthday will lose their Japanese nationality.

The Japan Times: Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

ENDS

Post#1000: Oyako-Net and “From the Shadows” Documentary Forum on post-divorce child abductions

Posted on November 10, 2008November 10, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. This marks the 1000th post on the Debito.org blog since it started a little over two years ago, in June 2006. Long may we run. To celebrate, some good news about the developing documentary called FROM THE SHADOWS, on child abductions after divorce in Japan, and the growing attention being devoted to it (including NHK). Word from David Hearn, one of the directors (along with Matt Antell). Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=======================
A brief update: Matt told me that the filming of Murray Wood in Vancouver went well last weekend.
It was a busy three days and a lot of material was shot. Our volunteer assistants were very helpful.

I joined 5 other panelists at the Oyakonet event today. There are a couple photos below. I talked about my experience growing up to show an example of how custody after divorce was handled in the US.

At one point they asked for a show of hands for how many people were first timers to an Oyakonet event. About half of the crowd of 50 put their hands up.

There was also quite a bit of discussion afterward that the 20 minute segment which appeared on NHK (zenkoku) last Tuesday was well received. Many people also pushed attending the Nichibenren (Japanese Bar Association) event this coming Saturday Nov. 15th.

That’s all for now. Warm regards, David Hearn, one director, FROM THE SHADOWS documentary (reachable at ghosty eighty seven [write as numbers, no spaces] AT cablenet DOT ne DOT jp)

This is the video clip from the BBC that has been in the works for a little while now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7668654.stm

www.fromtheshadowsmovie.com

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

REFERENTIAL LINKS:

Filmmakers tackle contentious issue of parents’ abduction of children to Japan THE JAPAN TIMES, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008

https://www.debito.org/?p=1881

Spirited Away: Japan Won’t Let Abducted Kids Go
American Parents Have Little Hope of Being Reunited With Children Kidnapped to Japan
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
ABC News (USA) Feb. 26, 2008

https://www.debito.org/?p=1370

Here’s the powerpoint my speech last December 2007 at the upcoming film documentary on this subject, FOR TAKA AND MANA. Glad he’s gotten the attention his horrible case deserves.

AFP on Obama victory and the reactions of (former) Americans abroad

Posted on November 7, 2008November 8, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. This was a fast turnaround. I got a call last night during dinner for some quotes from the AFP, and less than four hours later it’s up on the Net. About my reactions to the Obama election. The reporter wanted reactions from Americans abroad, so I asked if it would be okay to speak as a former American. Even better, she said.

RANT ALERT, but it’s about time: Over the course of a twenty-minute conversation I talked inter alia about the shame I felt as America became the conservatory of Neoconism. As the sole superpower deciding to remake the world in its own (ignorant) image, it betrayed its ideals through renditioning, signing statements, torture memos and waterboarding, Guantanamo, wiretapping, a widening gap between rich and poor and a net decline in incomes for the nation’s poor, fingerprinting foreigners and denying them habeas corpus, two wars built on lies and the profit motive that are ultimately bankrupting the country all over again, topped off by a worldwide financial crisis resulting from this administration’s misbegotten policies. And so on. How I no longer felt like an American anymore and was happy to have given up my affiliation to it. More in my next column. Here’s hoping Obama restores America’s image to the world. The reporter essentially took my first and last quotes and took away the word “former” from “the American side of me”.

Anyway, it’s an article worth writing as these reactions matter. Good riddance Bush, in all likelihood (given the unprecedented damage done to the country at home and millions of people abroad) America’s worst president in history. I doubt I am far from alone in that appraisal from other people with American roots overseas. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Supporters of US President-elect Barack Obama react while watching results on TV during in Geneva

Full coverage »

Obama win injects a Cool America factor

November 6, 2008

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIrAEhXghUcfqnExqVJl7MZHPmlg

BERLIN (AFP) — Barack Obama’s victory in the US election has given Americans an almost overnight excuse to stop hiding their passports.

Americans around the world have reported being congratulated by strangers in the street. Obama t-shirts are on sale in stores in Paris and London, and after years of criticism over Iraq, climate change and other disputes, newspaper headlines have proclaimed that the United States is cool again.

“YES, WE CAN be friends!” splashed Germany’s top selling Bild daily on its front page Thursday. “We have fallen in love with the new, the different, the good America. ‘Obamerica’.”

Elena Fuetsch, a US student in Russia, learned about Obama’s victory on an overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow and was congratulated by a group of French students.

“One of them told me: ‘I never thought I would be telling this to an American, but congratulations on your president. We’re very proud of you’,” Fuetsch recalled.

“Many of us are still in somewhat pinch me mode,” said Roland Pearson, spokesman for the Johannesburg-based volunteer organisation Americans in Africa for Obama.

“I was out today shopping and a gentleman asked me whether I was American and I said yes. He said ‘oh, you must be celebrating along with all the rest of us’. No one said that in 2000 and no one said that in 2004.”

Eric Hansen, who has lived in Germany for more than 20 years and written several books on German culture from the US perspective, said Europeans “have waited just as much as Americans have waited to be able to change their opinions about America.

“I think that this old dream of an idealised America, this myth, is something that people need. It is allowed now, it is permissable to have it again.”

But while there was a sense of immediate common joy, Pearson, in Johannesburg and other expatriates, said global perceptions of the United States would take time to change after eight years under President George W. Bush.

“It’s only been 48 hours. Transforming a world view takes a little bit longer than that,” said Pearson. “Right now people are working on the level of emotion.”

Scott Saarlas, a 45-year-old American who now lives in Ethiopia, said: “There will be a lot of Americans who’ll feel more accepted and not be embarrassed to say that they are Americans in front of foreigners.

“I’d like to hope that it will be a lot easier now for us to travel overseas, but it’s too early to say at the moment.”

Jackie P. Chan, an American from San Francisco working in Hong Kong for an investment group, said Obama’s victory would be the first step to changing perceptions.

“We will have to see how the US government runs once Obama and the newly elected Democratic majority starts working in January,” she said.

“I think I will be proud to be American again when we pull out of the Middle East and stop spending billions a year of taxpayers’ money; when we develop better relationships with other countries based on shared ideals and values, and not interests like oil, and when we become more open-minded about the world and less US-centric.”

In [Sapporo], university lecturer and rights activist Arudou Debito, or formerly David Aldwinckle, said he abandoned his US citizenship in 2002 during the Bush administration.

Debito, 43, who now has a Japanese passport, welcomed the Obama victory as “the end of the dark age” and said he hoped the new president “may make the [former] American side of me proud again.”

But Hansen, the writer in Germany, said that it was often hard to be an American abroad even before Bush.

“It suffered before. When I came to Germany under (Ronald) Reagan, and then George Bush senior marched into Kuwait, and I heard the same sayings — ‘no blood for oil’ and that relationships with America had reached a nadir and all these things.

“It happens regularly. The perception of America sinks to a low point but it also regularly goes up,” said Hansen.

ENDS

Well done President Obama

Posted on November 5, 2008November 6, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Well done soon-to-be President Obama. Take back the country from the divisive and capitalizing forces that I have been glad to disassociate myself from. Arudou Debito in Sapporo, former American citizen.

(Two essays of note on this here:

https://www.debito.org/japantodaycolumns16-18.html (see essay 17)

https://www.debito.org/deamericanize.html)

Japan Focus runs translation of Asahi Oct 5 2008 article on discrimination

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Academic website JAPAN FOCUS ran my translation of the October 5 2008 Asahi article earlier this week. Now it’s got an international audience. Good. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=============================
Japan’s Entrenched Discrimination Toward Foreigners
The Asahi Shimbun October 5, 2008
Translation by Arudou Debito

Japan Focus, October 25, 2008

http://www.japanfocus.org/_The_Asahi_Shimbun-Japan_s_Entrenched_Discrimination_Toward_Foreigners

Will Japan ever overcome its distrust of foreigners? This question has been forcefully posed in various guises, most notably perhaps by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights Doudou Diene. In 2005 he concluded after a nine-day investigation in Japan that the authorities were not doing enough to tackle what he called Japan’s “deep and profound racism” and xenophobia, particularly against its former colonial subjects. The report appeared to vindicate the work of campaigners such as naturalized Japanese Arudou Debito, who argue that Japan needs, among other things, an anti-discrimination law.

Now, unusually perhaps for a major national newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun has waded into the debate with a major article on the issue. Titled, “Opening the nation: Time to make choices,” the article recounts tales of discrimination by long-term foreign residents before looking at how Japan compares to other nations, including perhaps its nearest equivalent, South Korea. A lively illustration helps makes the point that foreigners sometimes feel like second-class citizens. The Asahi concludes that the dearth of laws here protecting the livelihoods or rights of non-Japanese makes the country somewhat unique. “In other countries…there is almost no example of foreigners being shut out like this.” Interestingly, the Asahi did not translate the article for its foreign edition. David McNeill

—————————-

Apartments, hospitals…even restaurants

“They’re judging me on my appearance. They suspect me because I’m not Japanese.” Pakistani national Ali Nusrat (46), a resident of Saitama Prefecture, was stopped near his home by a policeman and asked, “What’s all this, then?” He soon lost his patience. This is his twentieth year in Japan and he has a valid visa. However, since last year, he has gotten more and more questions about his identity and workplace, to the point where he was stopped by police every day for seven days. He was aware that security was being tightened because of the G8 Summit of world leaders [which took place in Hokkaido in July 2008], but still thought it over the top.

Nusrat has admired Japan since childhood. There are lots of nice people here, he says. But after the terrorism of 9/11, he feels that local eyes have grown more suspicious towards non-Japanese. Realtors have told him, “We don’t take foreign renters.” When he took a Brazilian friend to a hospital, they refused to treat him: “Sorry, we don’t take foreign patients.”

Recently, an American male (44) who has lived in Japan 23 years took his visiting American friend to a yakitori shop in Tokyo. Nobody took their order. When he eventually asked in Japanese for service, a woman who appeared to be the head manager said, “No gaijin” [the epithet for “foreigner”]. It was a shock. “If this were the US, the first thing we’d do is report it to the police. But there is no law against discrimination in Japan, so there’s nothing the cops will do about it.”

In Otaru, on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, there were public bathhouses with signs saying “we refuse entry to foreigners” back in 1998. A court determined that this “qualified as discrimination”, handing down a verdict ordering one establishment to pay compensation. However, non-Japanese making a life in Japan still to this day face various forms of discrimination (see illustration). “Japanese Only” signs have still not disappeared, and some establishments charge non-Japanese entry fees many times higher than Japanese customers.

“If you’re worried about people’s manners, then make the rules clear, and kick out people who don’t follow them,” is the advice offered to these businesses by Arudou Debito, a native of the United States with Japanese citizenship and an associate professor at Hokkaido Information University. He was also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against an exclusionary bathhouse. “These days, when Japan needs labor from overseas, properly protecting foreigner rights sends an important message that people are welcome here.”

What about other countries? While there are punitive measures, there are also moves to encourage communication.

From July 2007, South Korea began enforcing the “Basic Act on Treatment of Foreigners Residing in Korea”. It demands that national and local governments “strive towards measures to prevent irrational cases of discrimination,” proclaiming in Article 1: “Foreigners will adapt to South Korean society in a way that will enable them to demonstrate their individual abilities.” South Korea’s aging society is outpacing Japan’s, and international unions now account for over 10 percent of all marriages. Forty percent of South Korean farmers and fishermen have welcomed brides from China, Southeast Asia, and other countries. The acceptance of foreign laborers continues apace. This law is the result of strong demands for improvements in the human rights of foreigners, who are propping up South Korean society and economy.

In Western countries, in addition to punitive laws against racial discrimination, there are very powerful organizations backing up foreigners’ rights, such as Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has a staff of 500 people. Public-sector residences doled out to white residents only; a child denied entry into a school “because he’s a Gypsy;” job promotions slow in coming — many of these types of cases and claims flow into the offices of the Commission, which carries out redress against discrimination by race, gender, and disability.

After investigating a bona fide case of discrimination, the Commission proposes all parties talk to each other. If mediation fails, then the organization issues an order for parties to improve their behavior. In the event of a lawsuit, the Commission provides legal funding and offers evidence in court. In recent years, as more people have emigrated from Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa and Asia, it has become harder to argue that discrimination is simply between “Whites” and “non-Whites”. According to [Patrick] Diamond, head of a government policy and strategy division within the Commission, “There are new duties concerning the prevention of antagonisms between ethnicities within communities.”

It is not only a matter of cracking down on discrimination after the fact, but also how to prevent it happening in the first place. France has begun trying out a procedure where application forms for public housing, as well as resumes for employment, are made anonymous; this way, people do not know by an applicant’s name if the latter is from an ethnic minority or a foreign country. In England, local governments are supporting events where immigrants and long-term residents cook each other food. By methods including trial and error, they are breaking down deeply-held insecurities (kokoro no kabe), creating “a leading country of immigration” (imin senshinkoku).

Creating anti-discrimination laws in Japan — the debate stalls

Saitama Prefecture, 2007: A non-Japanese couple in their seventies had just begun renting an upscale apartment, only to find the day before moving that they would be turned away. The management association of the apartment found that bylaws forbade rental or transfer of their apartments to foreigners. The couple’s oldest daughter called this a violation of human rights and appealed to the local Ministry of Justice, Bureau of Human Rights. The Bureau issued a warning to the association that this was “discriminatory treatment, conspicuously violating the freedom to choose one’s residence”. However, the association refused to revise its decision, and the couple had to look elsewhere.

Nationwide, the Bureau of Human Rights took on 21,600 cases of rights violations in 2007, including cases of violence or abuse towards women or the elderly, invasions of privacy and bullying. But there were also 126 cases of discrimination towards foreigners, a figure that is increasing year on year, with numerous cases involving refusals of service by renters, public baths, and hotels. However, even in cases determined to involve discrimination, the Bureau only has the power to issue “explanations” (setsuji) or “warnings”, not redress measures. Many are deterred by lawsuits and the enormous investment of time, emotional energy, and money they demand. In the end, many people just put up with it.

Japan still has no fundamental law protecting the livelihood or rights of non-Japanese. A bill for the protection of rights for handicapped and women, which also covers discrimination by race and ethnicity, was defeated in 2003. Debate is continuing within the government and ruling party on whether to resubmit it. Still, a “Human Rights Committee”, entrusted with the duties of hearing and investigating violations of human rights, has engendered great criticism from conservatives on the issue of appointing foreigners as committee members. The government eventually did a volte-face, saying that “only residents who have the right to vote for people in the local assemblies” are allowed, thus limiting appointments to Japanese.

In other countries, where organizations protect foreigners from discrimination, there is almost no example of foreigners being shut out like this. Even people within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been critical: “The very organizations that are supposed to help foreigners in all manner of difficulties, such as language barriers, are in fact putting up barriers of their own. Their priorities are truly skewed” (honmatsu tentou).

===========================
This article first appeared in The Asahi Shimbun morning edition, October 5, 2008 in the ashita o kangaeru (With Tomorrow in Mind) column. The original text of the article is archived here. Posted at Japan Focus on October 25, 2008.

ARUDOU Debito is an Associate Professor at Hokkaido Information University. A human rights activist, he is the author of Japaniizu Onrii–Otaru Onsen Nyuuyoku Kyohi Mondai to Jinshu Sabetsu and its English version, “JAPANESE ONLY”–The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan (Akashi Shoten Inc) and coauthor of a bilingual Guidebook for Immigrants in Japan.

With thanks to Miki Kaoru for technical assistance in rendering the cartoon in English.

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新宿生活スタートブック：４カ国語で生活ガイド本－－区が発行　／東京

外国人犯罪：３年連続で減少　組織化進み、地方に広がる

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