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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER JULY 25, 2023: THE FUTURE OF DEBITO.ORG
Hello Debito.org Newsletter Readers. Let me open with an update on where we are:
We are close to thirty years since Debito.org came in to being as an information site for life and human rights in Japan. It will continue to exist for as long as I live and breathe, if not beyond. That said, I’m finding myself more and more distant from Japan these days both in the physical and professional senses. I now have lived outside of Japan for several years teaching Political Science at the university level. Consequently I am finding Japan these days, as it fades into a relative backwater geopolitically, increasingly a minor example in my research interests, which revolve around the state of democracy vs. authoritarianism worldwide.
But I do have some articles to share, and I wanted to ground them in this context above before I get to the TOC:
Table of Contents:
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1) My SNA Visible Minorities 46: “Visible Minorities: Departing Japan at Middle Age” (May 15, 2023), where I make the case for deciding whether you’re a “lifer” in Japan by age 40.
2) My SNA Visible Minorities column 47: “The Reverse Culture Shock of Leaving Japan”, with some pointers of how to resettle and reassimilate overseas despite all the things you might miss about Japan
3) BLOG BIZ: Thoughts about the future of Debito.org: What’s next?
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By Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter (for as long as that exists too) @arudoudebito)
Debito.org Newsletter are as always freely forwardable
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1) My SNA Visible Minorities 46: “Visible Minorities: Departing Japan at Middle Age” (May 15, 2023), where I make the case for deciding whether you’re a “lifer” in Japan by age 40.
Excerpt: This column offers a frank assessment of living your life out in Japan as an immigrant. It of course can be done, but most of you will find that even after decades swimming against the current in terms of legal status and social acceptance, you will get no commensurate reward after all your efforts. In fact, I found that life opportunities dwindle as you age in Japan, and you get locked into a dreary, impoverished lifestyle like most other elderly here. If you think you can avoid this situation, power to you, but I suggest you make your decision to stay permanently or not by age 40. Good luck.
I lived in Japan for 24 years, married and had kids, became tenured faculty at a university, bought land, built a house, and learned the language and culture well enough to write books in Japanese and take out Japanese citizenship. In terms of trying to assimilate into Japan, I don’t think there’s a lot more I could have done. I was an ideal immigrant. But then, like Editor Michael Penn at the Shingetsu News Agency, I too left Japan.
That’s both a pity and, in my case, an inevitability. Japan should be trying harder to keep people like us. It really doesn’t. The longer you’re in Japan, the more your opportunities dwindle. Let’s first talk about the natural obstacles to people staying on, starting with how difficult it is to keep a visa…
Full article with comments archived at
https://www.debito.org/?p=17259
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2) My SNA Visible Minorities column 47: “The Reverse Culture Shock of Leaving Japan” (July 25, 2023), with some pointers of how to resettle and reassimilate overseas despite all the things you might miss about Japan
Excerpt: SNA Editor Michael Penn is now doing SNA from the United States. Inspired by his big move, my previous column was about my leaving Japan in middle age, where I suggested readers decide whether or not to be a lifer in Japan by age 40. Accordingly, this column will talk about establishing a new life outside Japan…
The biggest culture shock I felt after Japan was right after I arrived overseas. In the United States, for example, many big airport hubs are dirty, run-down, and relatively unpredictable compared to their Japanese counterparts. The waiting areas in particular feel like bus stations. Facilities are sometimes ill-maintained, instructions to your connecting flights or ground transit often monolingual and poorly signposted, ground staff often inattentive and inaccessible, and the food… well, it’s “airport food,” enough said. I quickly missed Japan’s clean, efficient, and plentiful public transportation that follows a schedule, and the restaurant fare that actually looks like the picture on the menu…
This initial culture shock starts fading once you’ve had a good night sleep and enjoy a few familiar things: Larger hotel rooms. Comfort foods like a thick steak with A1 Sauce or a spiral-cut ham hock. An apple pie that actually has more than one apple in it. Supermarkets full of cereals, dozens of flavors of canned soups, bulk goods, and cheap rice and vegetables. News media that is an absorbing read not just because it’s in your native language, but because the topics are interesting! Procuring a car so you can merge into society like everyone else.
But things will still grate for awhile: Being forced to tip. Dirty public restrooms that seem to be the norm, not the exception. Bureaucrats who seem to have little personal dedication to a job well done. Political discourse more concerned with riling you up than with solving problems. The din of people on cellphones or kids having public meltdowns that you can’t shut out because they’re speaking in your native tongue. And the biggest worry: Getting sick or injured and having to deal with American healthcare! It’s worse with family in tow, listening to their grumbles about future uncertainties and cultural differences and feeling helpless to offer quick fixes. During this purgatory period of constant irritability, the grass will always seem greener elsewhere.
It takes months, but resettlement will happen. Things that you miss about Japan eventually get overwritten by routines you establish as things feel more like home…
Link to the full article on SNA at
https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2023/07/24/reverse-culture-shock-of-leaving-japan/
Anchor site for commentary at
https://www.debito.org/?p=17282
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3) BLOG BIZ: Thoughts about the future of Debito.org: What’s next?
Hi Blog. I want to tell you a bit about what’s on my mind. I’ve been researching and commenting on Debito.org for nearly thirty years. I’m not tired of writing, but my writing here has become monthly because, in terms of the urgency of commenting about Japan, I’m not really feeling it right now.
The issues I read about within Japan are usually insular, petty, and repetitive. And they are generally on topics I have commented on before. I’ve done the doctorate, written and updated my books multiple times, and said basically all I need to say about the state of discrimination and how to make a better life as an immigrant in Japan. My current job does not involve Japan at all, and my Japan skills are only personally useful when I’m actually in Japan. My interests have generally moved on to the geopolitical and on the state of democracy itself worldwide. That’s what I read about and teach about in my classes on a daily basis. Now I want to devote those energies to something more productive, such as my students and my retirement savings. In terms of profession I am, after all, a university instructor of Political Science first and an essayist/activist second. It’s time to focus on the professional side as I approach age 60 and my career enters my twilight years.
Not to worry, Debito.org as a blog and a searchable website resource on life and human rights in Japan, will stay up in perpetuity. I will continue to write monthly columns for the Shingetsu News Agency, and I will post excerpts on Debito.org. And I will of course continue to approve comments here on a regular basis. But would you be interested in my blogged thoughts even if they’re not about Japan?
More of my thoughts about where I am as a researcher and a commentator at
https://www.debito.org/?p=17262
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A final word: This is not the final Debito.org Newsletter. Of course not. At last count this Newsletter has 7658 subscribers, and that’s a valuable resource built up over decades that deserves to be maintained. So, again, if you are interested in my writings that are NOT specifically Japan-related, please let me know at debito@debito.org, and I will start putting them in these Newsletters as well.
Thank you for reading Debito.org for all these years. Sincerely, Debito
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER JULY 25, 2023 ENDS
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34 comments on “DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER JULY 25, 2023: THE FUTURE OF DEBITO.ORG”
Japan city drops plan to recognize foreigners as local citizens after opposition
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230726/p2a/00m/0na/004000c
Additional references courtesy of Asahi Shimbun:
Kumamoto omits ‘foreign national’ from proposal defining citizens / 「外国籍も市民」盛り込む条例案断念 熊本市、「参政権」誤解多く (Japanese language paywall version)
And it’s gone! Well, no taxation without representation so I guess that means leaving at three year mark to get my compulsory Nenkin payments back!
DEJIMA AWARD, surely? I actually thought the article was a few years old but no, 2023. Shame on you, Kumamoto.
Another case of racial discrimination and bullying in school. A fifth grader whose father is a foreigner got told “foreigners are disgusting” by his classmates. What’s even worse is that a third party committee concluded “that while bullying had taken place, it did not rise to the level of a serious situation. ”
How is one year of constant bullying due to “race” not a serious situation?
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230727/p2a/00m/0na/004000c
In our case we found that not unless there is a fatality, Japanese won’t take it seriously.
Following-up on my comment here, the GoJ will grant special permission to minors born and raised in Japan that lack residence status:
Foreign minors who grow up in Japan to be eligible for residence
Over 140 Japan-born foreign minors to get special permission to stay
Sounds great, right?
Well, not so fast: The system for issuing special permission lacks clear criteria, so deciding who gets special permission and who doesn’t is essentially up the Justice Minister.
Speaking of the Justice Minister, he made sure to not set a precedent by stating that the issuance of special permission is “for this time only”.
Also, there’s no word if something similar is in store for the family members or these minors, but apparently minors whose parents have criminal records will not be eligible (sins of the father much?!).
Props to Fast Retailing Co. (i.e. Uniqlo) for launching a scholarship program for Vietnamese high school students that will cover ~$28,200 in non-repayable scholarships, including tuition and living expenses:
Uniqlo owner offers scholarships to 6 Vietnamese to study at Japan universities / ファストリ財団、ベトナム高校生に日本留学奨学金 1期生に6人
The problem with this is that the GoJ would first have to backtrack on its “Japan will not adopt an immigration policy” policy:
Japan needs to open arms to foreigners as population drops: int’l exchange center director / 外国人との共生 (Japanese language paywall version)
On a related note, J businesses have been profiting off the backs of NJ since 1990 (i.e. with the revision to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act which granted nikkei from South America permanent resident visas), but have been outsourcing the support of NJ to others ever since.
It’s high time J businesses become part of the chain of support for NJ instead of continuing to be a missing link in this chain:
Businesses key to independence for Japan’s foreign permanent residents: NPO chair / 外国人との共生 (Japanese language paywall version)
UK won‘t extradite one of three men involved in a jewelry heist in Tokyo due to concerns over Japan‘s human rights record.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230812/p2g/00m/0in/019000c
Good to see that governments over the world are finally waking up to this. When Ghosn escaped and told his story I‘ve said that his story would probably be powerful enough to convince a lot of people that Japan‘s justice system is barbaric. Looks like governments are beginning to realize it too.
A woman in her 30s has died after being found unconscious in her cell at a police station in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, more than a month of detention resulting in an unnecessary death.
https://japantoday.com/category/crime/Female-detainee-dies-after-being-found-unconscious-in-cell
According to data from Kōseishō, over 70% of workplaces employing NJ trainees in 2022 engaged in illegal practices (e.g. safety rule violations, unpaid wages, etc.):
Over 7,200 Japan firms employing foreign trainees broke law
Some stats from the article:
* 23.7 percent were in breach of safety rules such as unsafe use of machines.
* 16.9 percent, were related to unpaid wages.
* 21 cases were deemed as serious or malicious violations and have been sent to prosecutors!
“We will continue to make efforts to supervise and instruct companies”.
Given the the results, one would be forgiven for assuming that the supervision and instruction is intended to help the 30% of workplaces not engaging in illegal practices join the group of 70% that are!
Some cops will start wearing body cams in 2024. „ The NPA will check the footage to see if officers are questioning people appropriately, among other purposes“
I wonder if this will also apply to foreigners or „foreign looking“ people, or if we‘ll get the good old excuse that stopping someone who‘s „foreign looking“ is perfectly fine because there‘s always the suspicion that they‘re overstaying their visa.
The bad news is that Japan is even becoming more of a police state with more ways to control people:
„ The NPA’s total fiscal 2024 budget request is some 334 billion yen (roughly $2.29 billion), an increase of about 13.1 billion yen (approx. $89.9 million) from fiscal 2023. The budget also includes the costs of demonstration experiments using cutting-edge technology, including fingerprint identification using artificial intelligence for some 46 million yen (about $315,000), and fatal accident prevention using non-contact sensors to measure the respiration and other health parameters of suspects in detention facilities, at some 4 million yen (roughly $27,000).“
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230831/p2a/00m/0na/008000c
We‘ll have to wait and see if the body cams will be used for anything useful. But since it‘s the NPA, I remain skeptical.
Kudos to NPO Mother’s Tree Japan for doing what the GoJ should be doing as part of the technical intern training program!:
NPO tells foreign trainees what to do if pregnant in Japan / 来日前の実習生にも「日本の出産事情を」 ＮＰＯがオンライン授業 (Japanese language paywall)
After Vietnam and Nepal go the way of China and South Korea, I wonder which country will be the next source of cheap student labor for Japan?
FEATURE: Nepalese workers proving invaluable to labor hungry Japan
“Many Nepalese students are employed part-time, but even if they are highly valued for their work, it is difficult for them to find full-time employment due to bureaucratic barriers.”
So, doubt this can be a long or even medium term solution. Want cake and eat it again, Japan.
This is very cool:
FEATURE: Kani city using performance to promote empathy across cultures
Oizumi in Gunma plans to drop the Japanese nationality requirement for regular municipal government jobs and assign foreign nationals to divisions not dealing with personal information. This sounds good, but the part about not being allowed to work with personal information still irks me, as it sounds racist. The article goes into more detail:“ Foreign regular staff will be assigned to construction and civil engineering work, such as park management and road repairs, as well as general office work. They will not be promoted to managerial posts, and will not be involved in the exercise of public authority, such as imposing and collecting taxes.“
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230907/p2a/00m/0na/012000c
Why shouldn‘t foreigners be able to be promoted into managerial posts if they‘re good workers? I‘m glad that the general ban will be liftet, but it seems that a lot of barriers will still remain. Japan just doesn‘t seem to be able to grasp the concept of equality.
@Niklas “Why shouldn‘t foreigners be able to be promoted into managerial posts if they‘re good workers? ”
Because it is humiliating for a Japanese to have to take orders from a non-Japanese. I’ve seen it at work quite often. (I’ve worked for Japanese companies for 27 years).
@TJJ,
I think it’s fair to say that the wajin pool around Oizumi is fairly constrained. Also, I think it’s fair to say that the mayor has a good handle on what is going on in his town w.r.t the NJ population.
So given this situation, do you think that the prohibition on NJ being promoted to managerial posts and exercising public authority will eventually be rolled back? In other words, in the case of Oizumi town, do you think pragmatism will trump humiliation?
BTW, let’s assume that Oizumi doesn’t decide to enhance the wajin numbers by bribing them to relocate.
I’m not holding my breath:
EDITORIAL: Government should admit to the massacre of Koreans in 1923 / （社説）虐殺の記録 史実の抹消は許されぬ
Props to Soka city for helping to support refugees from Myanmar (i.e. something that the GoJ should be doing!):
How refugees from Myanmar are getting head start in Saitama / 商議所が就労先を仲介 「第三国定住制度」で来日のミャンマー難民 (Japanese language paywall)
Eleven refugees from Myanmar! It wasn’t all that long ago that 11 would be more refugees than Japan would accept in an entire year.
A situation the Japanese army is partly responsible for fuelling
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/27/japan-train-new-cadets-officers-abusive-myanmar-military
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/10/myanmar-japan-trained-general-linked-abusive-forces
https://www.justiceformyanmar.org/stories/japan-railway-projects-risk-aiding-and-abetting-myanmar-junta-atrocities
Japan really playing the long game since the 1940s in Burma.
This should come as no surprise:
86% of municipalities across Japan want more foreign workers: survey
I am surprised the percentage realizing this is so high.
However, “The city of Nishinoomote on Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, said efforts should first focus on luring young Japanese citizens to move and settle down in its area.”
That is probably want they would all prefer to do, except how to “lure back” young people? I suspect the benefits would not be particularly good, and even so it would not be enticing enough to draw most young people away from the bright lights and delights of the cities, that most of them are in thrall to in a postmodern techno-Disneyland fantasy of consumerist hedonism. Most cannot kick this habit and prefer to live in the “never ending present”.
““the historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life.” ….. the assertion of a failure of history in the spectacle, which obfuscates the past and fuses it with a future to create a never-ending present. The waves of ecstasy and obsessive product trends also parallel religious fervor of ages past.” Guy Debord.
Sounds like Ohtaku hobbyism and consumerism to me.
Outdoor types would be needed. Surfers might be interested in relocating maybe, if said communities have good waves. Knowing the finnicky natures of most Japanese though, I would suspect only an unlikely convergence of perfect situations and benefits would lure a select few back.
Furthermore, all power lies in The City and why would urbanites care much for the countryside? Tokyo uber alles, after all. We saw that with the 3/11 disaster, or Kobe. The areas are treated like subordinates, disdained “Inaka” at worst.
Most Japanese live in cities and there are reasons for that, money and status being primary ones. Young people also go there for mating purposes, driven by urges reminiscent of lemmings; that is a hard one (no pun intended) to compete with.
They won’t see the logic.
Unless said depopulating regions offer some degree of urbanization and the conveniences that come with that, it would seem Japan is now in a downward spiral of its own making.
‘Japan is a safe country’.
Well, if you’re an NJ running an Indian, Nepalese or Sri Lankan restaurant, your mileage will vary!:
Man arrested after numerous Indian restaurants burglarized in Japan / 「インド料理店は警備甘い」 100店以上で空き巣か 容疑者逮捕
In other news, the GoJ is still preoccupied with using NJ + stopgap measures to shore up the labor pool:
Ministry mulls allowing foreign drivers amid worker shortage / 「特定技能」に外国人運転手の追加検討 タクシー・バス・トラック (Japanese language paywall version)
Japan looks to open transport industry to foreign drivers amid labor shortages / この国が縮む前に：タクシーなど外国人運転手を拡大 国交省「特定技能」に追加検討
｢特定技能｣にトラックなどの運転手 国交省が追加検討
So now they‘re randomly arresting people for overstaying their visa, even if not true.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230920/p2a/00m/0na/002000c
I also like how he‘s only getting an apology. In any decent country he would also get compensation. If I were him I would‘ve told them that they can shove their apology where the sun doesn‘t shine. Imagine spending 2 days in jail just because some „gaijin“ hating cop wasn‘t even able to listen what the immigration officer had to say over the phone.
I have always thought that the “processing” stamp on a piece of paper won’t cut it with street cops. So I used to spend the next six weeks actively avoiding them.
I don’t recall but don’t they retain your passport or ID card while it is being processed? At least that’s how it was a decade ago. They just give you a paper to carry around instead, which always seemed flimsy both literally and metaphorically.
The first time I converted a tourist visa to a work visa they literally did it in one day. I suppose those days are gone due to staff cutbacks or getting everyone’s hanko after rigorous background checks etc.
They need a different way to cover the period of processing. Maybe a temporary visa stamp in the actual passport? (one can dream…)
But then you’d have to carry your passport around with you at all times. Not such a fun day at the beach having to keep your passport safe and dry.
Iris Scans and Fingerprints are taken at the point of entry to Japan, not to mention Automatic Facial Recognition. This is enough Data for an Officer to use a Police Issue Mobile Phone to carry out a Field Interview and Street ID Process with an Immigration Status check in seconds. Just a bit of software and a 2 hour training slot in the Koban, done remotely.
This bigot is making headlines again:
Japan lawmaker’s post against Ainu deemed to have violated human rights / 杉田水脈氏の人権侵犯を認定 アイヌへの差別的投稿 札幌法務局
Editorial: Japan vice-minister Sugita unfit to serve after series of discriminatory remarks / 杉田政務官が発言撤回 反省するならけじめ必要
It’s due to how Japan’s national identity has been constructed and maintained through legal structures, statute enforcement, public policy, and media messages (i.e. Embedded Racism).
As I See It: Japan should base school rules on diversity / 黒人伝統の髪形で卒業式「隔離」 校則は多様性を前提に (Japanese language paywall version)
I wonder how this will impact visible minorities.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230925/p2a/00m/0na/021000c