{"id":16361,"date":"2021-01-17T11:24:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16361"},"modified":"2021-01-18T10:12:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T18:12:15","slug":"japan-times-j-govts-pandemic-border-policy-highlights-their-taking-advantage-of-insecure-legal-status-of-foreign-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16361","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times: J Govt’s pandemic border policy highlights their taking advantage of insecure legal status of foreign residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. In more remarkable reporting, Magdalena Osumi brings out the background thought processes behind Japan’s Covid measures that have constantly targeted foreigners in particular as vectors of infection. I will be talking more about this in my next SNA column out tomorrow<\/a>, but before that, let’s get some insights into the mindsets of our government, which takes full advantage of the fact that foreigners in Japan have no guaranteed legal, civil, or even human rights under the Constitution in Japan because they don’t have citizenship<\/a>. Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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\nTokyo\u2019s pandemic border policy highlights insecure status of foreign residents<\/strong>
\nBy Magdalena Osumi, The Japan Times, Dec 30, 2020<\/strong>
\nCourtesy https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2020\/12\/30\/national\/japan-pandemic-foreign-residents\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Excerpt:
\n[<\/em>…] <\/strong>Inequity between the treatment of Japanese and non-Japanese residents, including those with established residency status and decadeslong careers here, brought back to the surface long-standing frustrations over apparent struggles with multiculturalism in the nation, stirring debate on the status of foreign residents here and the extent of Japan\u2019s preparedness for an influx of foreign workers that had been anticipated before the pandemic struck.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As questions linger over the government\u2019s intentions behind the controversial rules, records and reports from behind the scenes of Japan\u2019s fight against the pandemic have begun to emerge.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They highlight the limits of the nation\u2019s immigration strategy, with decisions apparently made ad hoc amid chaos, and reveal the insecure status of foreign nationals in Japan and underlying discriminatory attitudes within society toward immigrants and expatriates.[…]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s handling of border control in the first months of the year was more chaotic.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That changed on April 3 when Japan introduced a draconian border control policy, banning entry by nearly all foreign residents from 73 countries and regions affected by the spread of the virus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What prompted some of the most intense criticism of the policy was its failure to distinguish between short-term visitors and long-term residents \u2014 a decision that made it the only member of the Group of Seven that refused to allow residents with foreign passports to return to their homes in Japan from overseas.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What turned out to be the decisive factor in Japan\u2019s implementation of the strict entry ban \u2014 and its reluctance to ease the restrictions \u2014 was a lack of preparedness to control entry procedures, together with poor testing capacity at airports. […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Reports from government meetings do not show any sign of vigorous debate on the consequences of imposing strict restrictions on non-Japanese residents with legal residency status in the nation, despite concerns about international ties and a long-term impact on Japan\u2019s economic interest. […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On top of that, the government faced a challenge in implementing further restrictions on Japanese citizens, who are protected by a constitutional right to enter Japan. Foreign nationals, meanwhile, do not have such protection under the Constitution. […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the year, health care experts on the government\u2019s coronavirus task force expressed concern that they were unable to gain a comprehensive view of the attitudes held by foreign nationals toward the pandemic.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials were worried that language barriers, for example, may hamper access to information on basic anti-infection measures, such as avoiding the so-called Three C\u2019s of closed spaces, crowds and close-contact settings.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But that their remarks suggesting inability among foreign nationals to adhere to health protocols were made alongside words of encouragement regarding the promotion of domestic tourism instilled a false perception that the pandemic in Japan was under control, in contrast to the situation abroad, while contributing to a narrative that foreign nationals may have posed a threat…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Full article at https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2020\/12\/30\/national\/japan-pandemic-foreign-residents\/<\/a>
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JT: Inequity between the treatment of Japanese and non-Japanese residents, including those with established residency status and decadeslong careers here, brought back to the surface long-standing frustrations over apparent struggles with multiculturalism in the nation, stirring debate on the status of foreign residents here and the extent of Japan\u2019s preparedness for an influx of foreign workers that had been anticipated before the pandemic struck.<\/p>\n

As questions linger over the government\u2019s intentions behind the controversial rules, records and reports from behind the scenes of Japan\u2019s fight against the pandemic have begun to emerge.<\/p>\n

They highlight the limits of the nation\u2019s immigration strategy, with decisions apparently made ad hoc amid chaos, and reveal the insecure status of foreign nationals in Japan and underlying discriminatory attitudes within society toward immigrants and expatriates…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,43,36,22,34,33,50,5,12,26,4,14,60,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-exclusionism","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-gaiatsu","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361","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=16361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16385,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16361\/revisions\/16385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}