Yomiuri Rages That Tuna Boats Have Become New Source of Illegal Immigrants

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: '112 foreign seamen have jumped ship'
A total of 112 foreign crew members of tuna boats have been reported missing since 2003 after their ships made port calls in areas such as Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture...The revelation was based on a survey conducted by a fisheries organization in Tokyo, which found that the 112 foreign seamen jumped ship in the period beginning with the introduction in 2003 of the Maru-ship system to Monday. Under the system, boats registered in Japan are loaned to foreign shipping firms, which hire them out, with non-Japanese crews, to work under Japanese captains and head fishermen. Because the system allows foreign crew members to enter the country by notifying the government of their passport details in advance, many are believed to be working illegally in the country after coming ashore...Most are said to have pretended to go shopping or fled during the night...Currently, about 1,000 foreign crew members work on about 180 such boats, which account for nearly 40 percent of tuna fishing vessels...Most boats pay about 40,000 yen a month to a foreign seaman, but the committee believes that those who have disappeared opted to stay illegally because they could make more money...more...

[Doctor Stop]

If Japanese fishermen don't have it in them, Japan is going to have to rely even more on foreign seamen to get the job done. The locals may object, but they are going have to get used to even more foreign seamen on Japanese soil, in Japanese hair, on Japanese faces, in Japanese eyes...

[Samurai_Jerk]

If Japanese fishermen don't have it in them, Japan is going to have to rely even more on foreign seamen to get the job done. The locals may object, but they are going have to get used to even more foreign seamen on Japanese soil, in Japanese hair, on Japanese faces, in Japanese eyes...

I don't get it.

[Behan]

Wow, 112 foreign immigrants in four years! With Japan's measley population of about 120 million the impact will be huge. Good thing the vigilant Yomiuri is trying to keep the foreign hordes at bay.


Somehow, this post just doesn't stack up to the first two...

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: New rules, higher wages aimed at keeping workers from disappearing

Fisheries organizations are set to improve their treatment of foreign seamen, including an increase in the minimum wage, in January to prevent them from leaving following the disappearance of foreign fishery laborers who take advantage of the "Maru-ship" system. The Maru-ship system is designed to simplify landing procedures for foreign crew members who work on tuna boats fishing coastal waters. However, since brokering organizations in foreign countries are lax in screening the working qualifications for foreign seamen, the improvement of conditions in Japan alone will not be enough to resolve the problem...The Maru-ship system was introduced in 2003 to ensure the survival of the tuna fishing industry. One hundred and eighty tuna fishing boats, or about 40 percent of all tuna vessels, with about 800 seamen, were registered with fisheries organizations. Of the foreign seamen on these vessels, 90 percent are Indonesian. Of the 118 foreign fisheries workers who have fled over the past five years, 117 were Indonesian...Heeding guidance from the government, the fisheries industry decided to double the minimum wage and increase pay to more than 70,000 yen a month for people who have more than one year of experience. It also will deploy guards at night to prevent brokers who help seamen jump ship from contacting them, and immediately notify the prefectural police and the Japan Coast Guard of any missing seamen. The Construction and Transport Ministry also has demanded that ship owners stop hiring seamen from the foreign brokering organizations whose dispatched workers have gone missing.

But it remains to be seen whether such measures will make a difference. The minimum wage for foreign crew members has been set at more than 326 dollars (about 37,000 yen) a month, but a 28-year-old Indonesian seaman said he has been paid 28,000 yen a month at the most. "Sometimes, I'm only paid 15,000 yen," he said. Since ship owners do not directly hire foreign seamen as they are dispatched by brokering organizations in their home countries, there may be a gap between promised salaries and actual pay. However, even if ship owners pay the newly raised minimum wage, it is still a low salary. An Indonesian seaman, 26, who went missing in 2004, earned about 150,000 yen a month working at a metal processing company in Chiba Prefecture until he was arrested two years later for staying illegally...more...