{"id":13314,"date":"2015-05-21T08:16:23","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13314"},"modified":"2015-05-21T14:17:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T00:17:02","slug":"arimura-haruko-minister-for-the-empowerment-of-women-immigration-is-a-pandoras-box-offers-weird-team-abe-arguments-to-justify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13314","title":{"rendered":"Arimura Haruko, Minister for the Empowerment of Women:  Immigration is a &#8220;Pandora&#8217;s Box&#8221;, offers weird Team Abe arguments to justify"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>eBooks, Books, and more from Dr. ARUDOU, Debito (click on icon):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11452\" title=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Guidebookcover.jpg\" alt=\"Guidebookcover.jpg\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11335\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/japaneseonlyebookcovertext-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/handbook.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1298\" title=\"Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Handbook2ndEdcover.jpg\" alt=\"Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/inappropriate.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8577\" title=\"inappropriatecoverthumb150x226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/inappropriatecoverthumb150x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japaneseonly.html#japanese\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1700\" title=\"jobookcover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/jobookcover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemabstruso.de\/strawberries\/main.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2735\" title=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sourstrawberriesavatar.jpg\" alt=\"sourstrawberriesavatar\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?cat=32\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4921\" title=\"debitopodcastthumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/debitopodcastthumb.jpg\" alt=\"debitopodcastthumb\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12473\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-12474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/FodorsJapan2014cover-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"FodorsJapan2014cover\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<br \/>\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free<br \/>\n&#8220;LIKE&#8221; US on Facebook at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a><br \/>\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dreamhost.com\/donate.cgi?id=17701\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.newdream.net\/donate4.gif\" alt=\"Donate towards my web hosting bill!\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<i>All donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Hi Blog. \u00a0Now let&#8217;s get to the narrative by Team Abe on immigration. \u00a0Despite calling for the expansion of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12470\">officially-sanctioned system of often-slavery that the &#8220;Trainee&#8221; Program constitutes<\/a> (even cynically saying that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12245\">we need cheap temporary foreign labor for constructing the 2020 Olympics<\/a>), and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=9848\">recognized need for caregivers below<\/a>, we have a government official below charged with empowering people (a worthy goal in itself) also advocating the disempowerment of others &#8212; not giving people who would be contributing to Japan any stake in its society.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BloombergArimura051215.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13325\" src=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BloombergArimura051215.jpg\" alt=\"BloombergArimura051215\" width=\"786\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BloombergArimura051215.jpg 786w, https:\/\/www.debito.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BloombergArimura051215-300x223.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s one thing. \u00a0Another is how this Minister for the Empowerment of Women Arimura Haruko is justifying this organized disenfranchisement of NJ. \u00a0Despite being married to a NJ herself, she uses him as a fulcrum (his family in Malaysia forcing their Indonesian nanny to sleep on the floor), alleging that mistreatment of immigrants is something that naturally happens (okay, without their proper enfranchisement, yes) and that it would be &#8220;unthinkable in Japan&#8221; (oh, is she as a government official ignorant of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=105\">much bigger abuses of that\u00a0&#8220;Trainee&#8221; program that have been going on for more than two decades<\/a>)?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wt__lHCuH5g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wt__lHCuH5g\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/wt__lHCuH5g<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Completing the effect of working backwards from preset conclusions, Arimura then brings the song home\u00a0by blaming foreigners for their own disenfranchisement: \u00a0alleging their terroristic tendencies (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/japantimes052405.html\">a common trope for the past decade since PM Koizumi in 2005<\/a>), and how bringing them here would be a &#8220;Pandora&#8217;s Box&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Suck on the bitter lozenge that is Team Abe&#8217;s world view, and read on to see how this probably otherwise well-intentioned minister\u00a0married to a NJ has to play Twister\u00a0with illogic and weird social science to justify a warped narrative. \u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n<p><strong>Japan Cabinet minister wary of opening \u2018Pandora\u2019s box\u2019 of immigration<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> by Isabel Reynolds and Maiko Takahashi<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Bloomberg, May 12, 2015<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-05-12\/japan-minister-says-get-women-working-before-immigration-option\">http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-05-12\/japan-minister-says-get-women-working-before-immigration-option<\/a><br \/>\nCommentary by the usual suspects at The Japan Times May 13, 2015 at<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2015\/05\/13\/national\/social-issues\/japan-must-put-women-work-opening-pandoras-box-immigration-female-empowerment-minister\/\">http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2015\/05\/13\/national\/social-issues\/japan-must-put-women-work-opening-pandoras-box-immigration-female-empowerment-minister\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Japan should fix its shrinking workforce by enabling women to work, before turning to the \u2018Pandora\u2019s box\u2019 of immigration, the country\u2019s minister for the empowerment of women said in an interview last week.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Haruko Arimura, a 44-year-old mother of two, said Japan must act fast to change a trend that could otherwise see the workforce decline by almost half by 2060. But she warned if immigrants were mistreated &#8212; something she\u2019d witnessed overseas &#8212; it raised the risk of creating resentment in their ranks.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cMany developed countries have experienced immigration,\u201d she said in her Tokyo office. \u201cThe world has been shaken by immigrants who come into contact with extremist thinking like that of ISIL, bundle themselves in explosives and kill people indiscriminately in the country where they were brought up,\u201d Arimura said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cIf we want to preserve the character of the country and pass it on to our children and grandchildren in better shape, there are reforms we need to carry out now to protect those values.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Some economists have urged the government to accept more foreigners to make up for a slide in the working age population. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has noted there is a need for workers from overseas to help with housework and care of the elderly, he\u2019s promoted female workers instead &#8212; appointing Arimura to the new post last year to spearhead the effort.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Arimura, whose husband is from Malaysia, said more immigration could add to social tension. For example, she felt uneasy when she saw one of her husband\u2019s relatives make an Indonesian nanny sleep on a hotel floor while family members slept in beds.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of course over there, but it would be unthinkable in Japan,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would build up dissatisfaction with society.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Few Foreigners<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em> Japan\u2019s working-age population may fall as low as 44.2 million by 2060 from 81.7 million in 2010, according to a projections from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. At the same time, people aged 65 or over will rise to almost 40 percent of the population.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Relying only on women to make up the shortfall may be difficult, given that one in three wants to be a full-time housewife, according to a survey published by the government in 2013. About 60 percent leave their jobs when they have their first child.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Increased immigration poses its own challenges in Japan. Cultural barriers to outsiders are rooted in a two-century isolationist policy under the Tokugawa Shogunate, which banned most immigration until 1853. A genre of writing called nihonjinron focuses on the theory that the Japanese are a unique people.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The number of registered foreign residents has been flat since 2006 at just over 2 million. That\u2019s out of a population of about 127 million.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2018Precious\u2019 Lifestyles<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em> Public attitudes toward new arrivals may be changing. About 51 percent of Japanese support a more open immigration policy, according to a survey published by the Asahi newspaper last month. Some 34 percent oppose the idea.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cThere are things we should do before we talk about that Pandora\u2019s box,\u201d Arimura said.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em> Her task is to convince voters that putting more women to work is the best solution. She said she realized the policy could cause confusion among backers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party given its past support for traditional family arrangements.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The government has no intention of interfering with the \u201cprecious\u201d lifestyles of women who want to devote themselves to their families, Arimura said. Instead, she said it wanted to support those who might otherwise be forced to abandon careers because of family responsibilities, or who wish to resume working after raising children.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Female Managers<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em> Arimura described as \u201ca good start\u201d a new draft bill obliging employers with more than 300 staff to publish gender breakdown statistics and plans to promote women. While non-compliance carries no penalty, she said the legislation would give a picture of how women are faring at work and pointers on the problems they face.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>While Abe wants women to fill 30 percent of management positions by 2020, he faces an uphill task. Women accounted for just over 8 percent of management positions in private-sector companies employing more than 100 people last year, according to government data.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cIn terms of tackling the low birth rate and promoting women, the next five or 10 years will decide the trend for Japan, whether it goes up or down,\u201d Arimura said. \u201cIn a way, it\u2019s the last chance.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now let&#8217;s get to the narrative by Team Abe on immigration.  Despite calling for the expansion of the officially-sanctioned system of often-slavery that the &#8220;Trainee&#8221; Program constitutes (even cynically saying that we need cheap temporary foreign labor for constructing the 2020 Olympics), and the recognized need for caregivers below, we have a government official below charged with empowering people (a worthy goal in itself) also advocating the disempowerment of others &#8212; not giving people who would be contributing to Japan any stake in its society.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s one thing.  Another is how this Minister for the Empowerment of Women Arimura Haruko is justifying this organized disenfranchisement of NJ.  Despite being married to a NJ herself, she uses him as a fulcrum (his family in Malaysia forcing their Indonesian nanny to sleep on the floor), alleging that mistreatment of immigrants is something that naturally happens (okay, without their proper enfranchisement, yes) and that it would be &#8220;unthinkable in Japan&#8221; (oh, is she as a government official ignorant of the much bigger abuses of that &#8220;Trainee&#8221; program that have been going on for more than two decades)?<\/p>\n<p>Completing the effect of working backwards from preset conclusions, Arimura then brings the song home by blaming foreigners for their own disenfranchisement:  alleging their terroristic tendencies (a common trope for the past decade since PM Koizumi in 2005), and how bringing them here would be a &#8220;Pandora&#8217;s Box&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg:  Japan should fix its shrinking workforce by enabling women to work, before turning to the \u2018Pandora\u2019s box\u2019 of immigration, the country\u2019s minister for the empowerment of women said in an interview last week. Haruko Arimura, a 44-year-old mother of two, said Japan must act fast to change a trend that could otherwise see the workforce decline by almost half by 2060. But she warned if immigrants were mistreated &#8212; something she\u2019d witnessed overseas &#8212; it raised the risk of creating resentment in their ranks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany developed countries have experienced immigration,\u201d she said in her Tokyo office. \u201cThe world has been shaken by immigrants who come into contact with extremist thinking like that of ISIL, bundle themselves in explosives and kill people indiscriminately in the country where they were brought up,\u201d Arimura said. \u201cIf we want to preserve the character of the country and pass it on to our children and grandchildren in better shape, there are reforms we need to carry out now to protect those values.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,34,52,5,12,26,4,14,16,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-social-science","category-exclusionism","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}