Buraku wrote:kind of strange seeing the proposal coming from the LDP, I thought these guys had an extremely conservative immigration policy.

Bucky wrote:Mrs. Bucky is "interested " in getting U.S. citizenship but if it means giving up her Japanese citizenship she is likely to not go through unless there is a really meaningful reason (like estate planning) to become a 'merican.

Japan must accept unskilled foreign workers to resolve the serious labor shortage that is hitting small and midsize companies especially hard the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a report released Thursday. The report calls for admitting unskilled foreign laborers to the nation with no restriction on the types of jobs they can do, although it does lay out some requirements:

• The government will decide the number of workers to be accepted and issue a working visa valid for between three and five years.
  
• The government will monitor the status of the labor shortage in the manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors as well as the nursing and welfare field.
  
• Candidates must pass a Japanese-language proficiency test in their home country and complete a training program to learn Japanese customs.

Currently, the country accepts unskilled foreign workers in principle only under a three-year training and technical internship program that comprises one year of basic job training and two years of practical on-the-job training. The report points out the discrepancy emerging between the intended purpose of human resource development through basic and practical training, and reality in which many trained foreigners are actually working as unskilled laborers.

TFG wrote:Doesn't Japan already have unskilled foreign labor under the guise of training programs but actually they outsource these foreign trainees to farmers for slave labor wages like 400 Yen an hour or so.

...Will Japan be able to cope with the extra numbers? Japanese society cannot boast of a harmonious relationship with immigrants and there are many examples of begrudging migration policies throughout its history. However, Japan pales in comparison to some European nations which maintain immigrant populations of up to 15%. Before World War II, there were migrant flows from Korea after Japan colonized the country in 1910. Millions of laborers were brought into Japan on a conscription basis, but the flow stopped after 1945. When independence was declared in 1952, all non-nationals were declared gaijins or "foreigners" and given no welcome entry into Japanese society. Few gaijins were encouraged to settle long-term. Later, the Immigration Control Law (ICL) was introduced and became the framework of all ensuing migrant policies. It has held that all foreign workers must sign into an alien registration scheme which must be repeated every year. The ICL also provided means to monitor workers who only planned to stay for a short time.

During the spiraling economic progress of the 1960s and 1970s, machines became preferred to foreign labor; a policy propelled by government and major corporations alike which resulted in low migrant labor numbers during this period. In response to more transnational networks - and the growing power of a strong yen to attract overseas workers - the ICL was reformed in 1989. The overhaul aimed to buck the rise in expired short-term visas as well as an influx of low-skilled labor. It established strict guidelines for employers concerning illegal or black-market employment of foreigners. Foreigners have not always enjoyed a favorable reputation in Japan, and have widely being blamed for the rise in crime and increased use of drugs in the country.

Tokyo's governor Shintaro Ishihara is one of Japan's most prominent right-wing figures. In 2006, he was quoted as saying, "Roppongi [Tokyo's most populous foreign section] is now virtually a foreign neighborhood. Africans - I don't mean African-Americans - who don't speak English are there doing who knows what. This is leading to new forms of crime such as car theft. We should be letting in people who are intelligent." Still, the obvious necessity for change may provoke a change in such entrenched attitudes.

"Opinions from Japanese people are diverse at the moment and there is an increasing realization that demographic patterns are going to change and that we need a younger population," said Akio Nakayama, of the International Organization for Migration's Tokyo office. "Many more local communities know that there is no other alternative, and in the major cities they already have migrant communities and their knowledge of multiculturalism is growing. We have 2.15 million migrants in the country now and look at the amount of Brazilians that now reside in Japan since the Nikkeijin policy was introduced allowing descendents of Japanese emigrates to live here. This has only been recent." Nakayama added, "Tokyo has a high proportion of foreigners and has the experience of welcoming labor. But the skepticism [about] foreigners and the perception that they often cause crime is not based on reality and official crime figures confirm that. This image is manipulated."

However, criticism of foreign workers still points to a loss of national culture, social instability and the burden of unemployed migrants. Goro Ono, author of Bringing Foreign Workers Ruins Japan, argued that salaries will determine whether migrants are needed. Nor does Ono believe an increase in migration is a necessity: "If industries where labor is in high demand pay adequate salaries, people will work there." Nakagawa is an influential politician and his proposal is the strongest indication yet that policies must change. Still, his proposal is unlikely to become law in its current form and will almost certainly have to be watered down.

Across the Diet opinions are diverse. The Democrat Party, which took control of the House of Councilors after last year's elections, has put forward its own proposal which is much more limited in scope than Nakagawa's, but is supportive of an immigration overhaul. Japan's immigration debate is heating up once again.

Opinion is firming in the government and the Liberal Democratic Party that Japan should more proactively accept workers from overseas. This development comes against the backdrop of the business world facing increasingly serious labor shortages amid the accelerating globalization of markets and the rapid aging of society coupled with the chronically low birthrate. Expansion of acceptance of foreign workers, however, cannot happen without what should be called Japan's "internationalization from within," or the installment of a set of arrangements benefiting foreigners working in Japan, including employment security, medical services and education. Following are key tasks that must be addressed in opening Japan's labor market wider to foreigners.

'Accept 10 million from abroad'

The government's Economic and Fiscal Reform 2008 document, also known as the Basic Policies 2008, includes slogans meant to underline the government policy of strengthening efforts to accept workers from overseas. The policy package was approved in a Cabinet meeting on June 27 as a road map for the nation's economic and fiscal strategies. Among them are: "Japan should accept quality, skilled labor from around the world!" and "Not only 'internationalization for branching out overseas,' but also 'internationalization for welcoming working people from overseas!'" The government plans to soon set up an expert council to work out an action program to promote accepting foreign workers. A panel of LDP legislators for facilitating international exchanges of human resources came up with a set of proposals on the issue in June. The panel, chaired by former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, says "there is no other remedy for Japan's population crisis than to boost the intake of immigrants." The panel proposes that Japan accept 10 million people from overseas in the coming 50 years. The proposals came against the background of growing demands from the business world for adequate numbers of qualified foreign workers, as the nation faces the challenges of globalization of markets and the graying of society.

Wrongdoing rampant

The problem is, however, that many people from abroad working in this country find themselves in a less than congenial environment. Many foreigners are unstably employed. Symbolic of this situation is the on-the-job training system for foreigners that the government launched in 1993. The system is ostensibly designed to provide foreigners with a one-year Japanese-language- and lifestyle-related course before having them undergo a two-year on-the-job training program whose stated purpose is encouraging technology transfers from Japan to developing countries. A large number of foreigners under the system, however, are in fact employed as cheap, unskilled laborers, in violation of the law that bans employing foreigners in unskilled jobs in such sectors as textile and machinery manufacturing, where finding Japanese recruits is getting more and more difficult. A survey by the Justice Ministry showed that the number of companies and other organizations that were found to be abusing their foreign employees under the "job-training" system, such as by failing to pay them due wages, stood at 449 throughout the country in 2007--an all-time high.

In the words of a 27-year-old Chinese man who came to Japan after applying to participate in the government-run job training system in 2005: "The promise of 'job training' is totally false." "I was forced to do a farming job from 5 in the morning through 10 at night every day, without any paid days off," the man, who now lives in the Kanto region, said. "My pay was a little more than 100,000 yen a month, and my employer banned me from using a cell phone and confiscated my passport," he said. "I can't afford to return home, as doing so before I finish the three-year period under the training system would mean that I'd forfeit the deposit, or guarantee money, that I managed to raise from my relatives." Ippei Torii, secretary general of Zentoitsu Workers Union, a Tokyo-based trade union, who has been tackling this problem for years, said: "Problems afflicting foreign workers have been worsening year by year. Many people are subject to such abuses as sexual harassment and having their wages illegally skimmed."

There also are problems with acceptance of "quality labor"--foreign workers working in research and investment services and administration fields. While a "struggle for quality labor" has been intensifying worldwide in these fields, foreigners accounted for only 0.7 percent of the workers in this category in Japan in 2001, according to statistics compiled by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry. The figure is far below the corresponding ones in other industrial countries--6 percent in the United States and 4.8 percent in France. An official of the ministry's industrial manpower policy division noted, "Jobs foreign workers are employed in in the name of 'quality labor' tend to be lopsided, as a majority of them are either translators or interpreters, meaning that it's hard for them to get promoted." "Many of them, like their Japanese colleagues, are frequently compelled to work overtime without pay, while being put at a disadvantage under the seniority system," the official said, adding, "Such labor practices peculiar to Japan must be done away with." With a view to improving the situation, the ministry plans to create an official commendation system for companies utilizing their foreign employees properly to encourage them to pass on to other firms their know-how about how to make good use of foreign workers.

30% not covered by insurance

Another major problem involves medical care for foreign workers. A fact-finding survey conducted by the municipal government of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where many foreigners of Japanese ancestry live, covering workers from South American countries in the city showed that 32 percent of the foreigners polled were not covered by any insurance for medical care. Many of them, when asked why they were uninsured, cited such reasons as they could not afford to pay premiums and their employers did not allow them to have health care coverage, according to the survey. Those not covered by medical insurance, must, of course, pay their medical bill in full if they fall ill or are injured. Many foreign workers, therefore, tend not to go to a hospital until their disease or injury gets serious, meaning that their medical bill can skyrocket, prompting some to disappear after receiving treatment, city officials said.

To deal with such problems, 15 municipal governments, including that of Hamamatsu, have set up a "council of municipalities with large numbers of foreign residents." The council has urged the central government to create a medical care system exclusively for foreign workers since under the existing system, nobody may get medical care insurance without at the same time joining the national pension plan. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has rejected the council's plea, saying foreigners should not receive special privileges.

Yet another problem with foreign workers involves the education of their children. A survey by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry showed that 22,413 children of foreigners required tuition in the Japanese language as of Sept. 1, 2006, the highest figure on record. According to data obtained in 2002 by the municipality council, however, 20 percent to slightly more than 50 percent of children of foreigners living in the member cities of the council did not go to school. Since foreigners in this country are not obliged by law to send their children to school, municipal governments tend not to encourage them to do so. Another major factor is the fact that Japanese-language teaching programs are of poor quality, and the number of experts in this field is badly lacking.

Europe seeks 'social integration'

Many European countries have been pushing ahead with what is called a "social integration policy" since the late 1990s, with the aim of assimilating foreigners. The policy was introduced because the problem of foreigners failing to adapt themselves to the European countries became grave. In France, expert consultation offices for foreigners were set up in about 30 locations across the country, starting from 2005. Under the system, the French government concludes contracts with individual foreigners, providing the foreigner and his or her children with language education, job training and job-search services. The Netherlands has adopted similar services at government-run employment assistance offices since 1998. The German government, for its part, has made it obligatory since 2005 for foreigners in Germany to receive more than 600 hours of lessons in the German language, culture and related subjects. Foreigners who refuse to attend the courses may be fined. Costs the European governments bear for these programs are said to be the equivalent of between 200,000 yen and nearly 1 million yen a year per foreigner.

Mulboyne wrote:If you like this sort of thing, the Ministry of Heath, Labour & Welfare has just released data for foreign workers (Japanese) with breakdowns for nationality, visa status and prefecture, as of the end of June.