Japan moving on to the next sucker societies for cheap or slave labor: Cambodia and Vietnam

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Hi Blog. I’ve been contacted by a source in western Honshu (who knows Cambodia very well) that the Japanese Government (GOJ) is now sucking labor from the next sucker society:

//////////////////////////////////////////
October 16, 2015
From XY:
Hi Debito Hope all’s well!
I am getting a LOT of messages these days from friends in Cambodia asking about the opportunities for their friends to work in Japan. I tell them the conditions are tough and the climates a killer (for them) but they say it’s better than the sweatshops in their homeland.

One of my Cambodian friends is in Kumamoto for a year and a half on a study program. He just got here. He is freezing his ass off already and wants me to send him clothes (he doesn’t have money to buy any, he needs his small allowance for food). Poor guy.

Anyhow, I had no idea Japanese companies are doing so much serious recruiting in Cambo and Vietnam these days… The impoverished Cambodians are coming here in droves.

Messaging a businessman in Cambo right now, he wants to provide labor to Japanese companies. Do you think they are treating these foreign workers better than in the past, or is it the same thing?

I responded:
It’s the same thing. Japan’s reputation has run sour in Brazil/Peru, China, The Philippines, and Indonesia. Japan is just moving on to another set of suckers. It would love to get their hands on Burmese too.
//////////////////////////////////////////

Debito.org Readers, let’s keep our eyes open for articles and GOJ policy papers on how Japan’s moving on to the next impoverished country to import and exploit as cheap or slave labor. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito

11 comments on “Japan moving on to the next sucker societies for cheap or slave labor: Cambodia and Vietnam

  • Jim di Griz says:

    I can’t say I’m surprised to see this, but I am saddened. What makes Cambodians and Vietnamese think they’ll be treated any better that the slave-labor like conditions J-Inc has imposed on every other ethnic group it has tried to import to cover its labor shortages?

    Interestingly, at the same time Abe is ‘urging very strongly’ that J-Inc raise salaries, J-Inc is seeking to force salaries lower through backing cheap imported NJ labor;

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/16/national/reuters-poll-finds-japan-inc-back-bringing-low-skilled-foreign-labor/

    Summary; the left hand is working against the right hand.

    Nothing will change as long as NJ keep coming. Given the fact that J-Inc labor abuses have soured Japan’s international image to the point where Japan has to give up on a country and move on to the next, and given that all previous efforts to attract skilled workers have failed (as I pointed out the other day), the question we should be asking is ‘How and why does Japan cling to the myth that NJ are beating down Japan’s door to get in, when all the evidence (and govt. policy) is to the contrary?’.

    — Because Japan sees itself as rich and special.

    Reply
  • @ Dr. Debito,

    Sure, so how do they reconcile that with the failure of their efforts to attract the NJ workers they need?

    — Because foreigners have so much trouble understanding and fitting in with Japan’s rich and special society. It’s the NJs’ fault.

    Reply
  • Can somebody point to an article that describes how these foreign “trainees” (exploited cheap wage labor) will be treated once they arrive in Japan? How much will they be paid, how are they distributed to Japanese companies, term period, visa rules, etc etc.

    — Um, follow some of the links I provided? That’s why I took the trouble to provide them.

    Reply
  • Loverilakkuma says:

    Unfortunately, many people from these two countries set their foot on Japan without enough input about the type of visa and SOR–partly due to little availability of inside information about work-visa scheme and rampant illicit human trafficking on their home soil.

    Abe’s Mizuho-no-kuni narrative is nothing more than a euphemism for JOL-Mart(Japanese Own Luxury) capitalism. Recent agreement on TPP will likely encourage more outsourcing of NJ for human rights abuse.

    Reply
  • Unfortunately, people without education (which is what I assume is meant by providing labor) are bound to be exploited. The best advice to give these people is to get some kind of college education. Get into a Japanese university and major in an engineering discipline. If you can write code there are plenty of excellent jobs for you. But if you are coming here to dig ditches, well, it’s going to be tough.

    — So you’re blaming them for their plight? How kind of you. And this magic wand of a Japanese university education you’re waving around is pretty ignorant too.

    Reply
  • >Do you think they are treating these foreign workers better than in the past, or is it the same thing?

    Well…

    ラーメン店「一蘭」を書類送検へ 大阪府警
    http://mainichi.jp/articles/20180305/k00/00m/040/150000c
    毎日新聞2018年3月5日 00時59分(最終更新 3月5日 06時52分)
     大阪・ミナミの店舗で外国人留学生らを違法に働かせたとして、大阪府警が週内にも、入管難民法違反(不法就労助長)の疑いで、人気ラーメンチェーン「一蘭」(福岡市博多区)の社員らと、法人としての同社を書類送検する方針を固めた。捜査関係者への取材で4日分かった。
     捜査関係者によると、本社で労務管理を担当する社員らは昨年、大阪市中央区の店舗で、ベトナム人留学生らを法定上限(週28時間)を超えて働かせた疑いが持たれている。
     府警は昨年11月、中央区道頓堀1の道頓堀店別館のアルバイト従業員でベトナム国籍の元留学生の女を同法違反(資格外活動)の疑いで逮捕。本社などを家宅捜索し、組織的な関与の有無を調べていた。さらに、他にもベトナム国籍の留学生ら十数人について、資格外活動の疑いがあるとして捜査していた。
     ホームページによると、一蘭は1993年設立。国内や米国、香港などに70店舗以上を展開している。【高嶋将之】

    Popular ramen chain Ichiran suspected of having foreign students work illegal hours
    http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180305/p2a/00m/0na/004000c
    March 5, 2018 (Mainichi Japan)
    OSAKA — Police are set to send papers to prosecutors on popular ramen restaurant chain operator Ichiran and its workers as early as by the end of this week for allegedly having foreign students work illegal hours at its outlet here, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

    The ramen shop operator based in Fukuoka’s Hakata Ward and its employees in charge of labor management are suspected of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. According to investigative sources, the workers at Ichiran’s headquarters allegedly had Vietnamese students and other employees at a restaurant in Osaka’s Chuo Ward work more hours than the legal limit of 28 hours per week last year.

    In November 2017, Osaka Prefectural Police arrested a Vietnamese woman who used to be a student in Japan and worked part time at an Ichiran shop in the Dotonbori district of Osaka’s Chuo Ward over the suspected violation of the immigration control law for allegedly engaging in activities outside her permitted status of residence. Police have since searched the restaurant headquarters and other locations for possible organizational involvement. In addition, prefectural police have been investigating more than 10 foreign nationals, including Vietnamese students, on suspicion of violating the immigration control act.

    Borrowing and tweaking two lines from Sting’s ‘King of Pain’…

    There’s a little black spot on the [land of the rising] sun today.

    It’s the same old thing as yesterday.

    -JK

    Reply
  • “The ramen shop operator based in Fukuoka’s Hakata Ward and its employees in charge of labor management are suspected of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.”

    The management is in violation but the employees are arrested?

    Reply
  • Baudrillard says:

    In July 23, 2012 at 7:19 am
    debito says:

    A friend poignantly comments off-list:

    “It is an odd plan. Take an untested teenager, hope that she actually has the potential to become a doctor, sponsor her education, and then force her to work in a rural town for several years.

    “It seems like another workaround or excuse for not having a real immigration policy.”

    Indeed. And dont froget that recent article about how the Vietnamese are now the fourth biggest immigrant group but also a large percent of “gaijin crime” (sic)
    “Duan, a 32-year-old housewife originally from Hanoi, tells the reporter: “The Japanese I work with are devious. They scare me and I don’t care for them much.”” She isnt dependent on the work visa so she can tell it like it is?
    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/02/17/national/media-national/face-immigration-rapidly-changing-japan/

    Reply

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