DPJ Opposes Tighter Controls On Foreign Residents

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: DPJ slams strict bills on foreign residents
A Democratic Party of Japan legal affairs panel has drafted proposals to soften the rules and punishments stipulated in government-sponsored bills to tighten immigration regulations on foreign residents, DPJ lawmaker Ritsuo Hosokawa said Thursday...These cards, called "zairyu," would replace alien registration cards if the bills now before the Diet are passed. Foreigners are currently required to carry their alien cards at all times, but unlike at present, a failure to carry the zairyu could draw a 200,000 yen fine. Also subject to the fine would be failure to promptly report changes in personal information, including residential address, place of employment or marital status..."The control (over foreign residents) is too tight" in the bills, said Hosokawa...The panel also rejected language in the bills to strip foreigners of their residency status for failing to report new addresses to the government after a move. Another factor drawing flak pertains to cases in which foreigners with a spouse visa move away from their spouses, and thus fail to maintain "a normal married life"...more...

[pheyton]

Is there any possiblity this will pass? WTF is going on over there? 2k fine for not carrying ID?

[Gilligan]

The DPJ's got my vote

[Mock Cockpit]

What's the official penalty now for not carrying your gaijin card?

[Level3]

Don't know who wrote that, but the fine already IS up to 200,000 yen for not carrying a gaijin card, has been for a long time. I've just never heard of it being actually enforced.

The real worry is them getting strict about reporting any and all changes in your life within 2 weeks or whatever. For people with more chaotic lives, or more than one job, you'll be taking a lot of trips to the ward office. Get hit by a car and break your hip on the way to work and lose your job for being late (totally possible in eikaiwa-land) and you can be fined or deported for not yanking the IV from your arm and crawling on your elbows to update your paperwork at the ward office as to the fact that your lost your job.

Or how about just the fact that the ward office ain't open on weekends or evenings for people who ACTUALLY HAVE JOBS, to go in and update the BS paperwork. And if you DO take a half-day off to do so, your Japanese boss and colleagues will the meiwaku as YOUR fault. "Gaijin have to keep getting out of work to handle various BS gaijin affairs. Japanese staff don't do such things. Why the heck did we hire such a wagamama gaijin?"

There's no way they'll actually enforce these rules on us all, as they'd have to put half of the gaijin in jail.
They just need an excuse to justify more "random" checks from cops and justify arresting more gaijin who are unlucky enough to cross paths with the cops. And that's why it's bad news for all of us.

Is there anyone who's been in Japan for a length of time and actually kept their gaijin info perfectly up to date within 2 weeks of any and all changes in very aspect of your life?

God help you if some clerk screws up the records and YOU get to be deported for it.

[Iraira]

Don't know who wrote that, but the fine already IS up to 200,000 yen for not carrying a gaijin card, has been for a long time. I've just never heard of it being actually enforced.

The real worry is them getting strict about reporting any and all changes in your life within 2 weeks or whatever. For people with more chaotic lives, or more than one job, you'll be taking a lot of trips to the ward office. Get hit by a car and break your hip on the way to work and lose your job for being late (totally possible in eikaiwa-land) and you can be fined or deported for not yanking the IV from your arm and crawling on your elbows to update your paperwork at the ward office as to the fact that your lost your job.

Or how about just the fact that the ward office ain't open on weekends or evenings for people who ACTUALLY HAVE JOBS, to go in and update the BS paperwork. And if you DO take a half-day off to do so, your Japanese boss and colleagues will the meiwaku as YOUR fault. "Gaijin have to keep getting out of work to handle various BS gaijin affairs. Japanese staff don't do such things. Why the heck did we hire such a wagamama gaijin?"

There's no way they'll actually enforce these rules on us all, as they'd have to put half of the gaijin in jail.
They just need an excuse to justify more "random" checks from cops and justify arresting more gaijin who are unlucky enough to cross paths with the cops. And that's why it's bad news for all of us.

Is there anyone who's been in Japan for a length of time and actually kept their gaijin info perfectly up to date within 2 weeks of any and all changes in very aspect of your life?

God help you if some clerk screws up the records and YOU get to be deported for it.

Let's back away from that abyss you are staring into for a sec.

What is it that you have to, at present, keep in order? Your VISA and Gaijin card. So, it requires a few trips to the Nyuukoku and the Kuyakusho. If anyone at work sweats you over how it requires you to take time off or requires them to compile files to submit on your behalf to the Immi Dept., it's very easily dealt with.
How?
Simple..."Taihen ne. the Japanese immigration people make this so complicated. It's not how I would do it, but that's how THEY deem it necessary. Sorry that THEIR system causes you inconvenience, but I don't have the power to change it to something easier. You, as a Japanese citizen might have that power."

Now you have created three classes of people and tapped into that secret desire of all Japanese people (they secretly wish they could be gaijin, yet retain their Japanese-ness...right Takechan?)
1) The powerless, but taxed gaijin.
2) Japanese who are the true source of the problem at hand (the Immigration folks)
3) Japanese who now understand this and who are also inconvenienced by the system of 2) not by 1).

Make the snivelling co-worker into 3), and all is good.

This also works real well when requesting your paid vacation time right to overlap GW or Obon (so you get a longer vacation using less of your days off)

"It's so nice to be Japanese in Japan. If you want to see your friends and family, all you need to do is hop on the train, or at worst the shinkansen. I don't have that luxury, ne."

[baka tono]

holy shit I actually agree with one of the fucked up parties on something. A couple of years ago I found myself agreeing with the fuckin`local Communist party on their actual garbage policy of all things. Who knew.