Japan's Humor Ministry tightens 'Entertainer' visas

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Filipinos under pressure amid visa crackdown
Marietta was with some Filipino friends in their local station when they were approached by a group of men they didn't know. One took her arm, and asked to see her alien registration card and passport. His badge showed he was from the Immigration Office. "Now they are checking everybody," she says...Those in Tokyo tell of plain clothes immigration officials waiting in the capital's stations for anyone speaking Tagalog. According to the Philippines Embassy, the number of travel documents issued to deportees was twice the normal rate last December...In the meantime, Filipinos in Tokyo say that some hostesses have remained in Japan illegally despite the end of the visa system. Many ended up as overstayers after running away from exploitative or abusive employers.

Some hostesses have lost their jobs and don't have the money to buy a ticket back; others have resolved to keep working and sending money home, despite the risk of arrest, fines of millions of yen and imprisonment. "People overstay because they want to work for their families," says one shop assistant from a Filipino food store in a part of Tokyo with many Filipino bars. "There is no work in the Philippines." Business has been very quiet since January. The shop used to have a number of illegal overstayers among their customers, but now "maybe half have been arrested." She suspects that the other half are keeping a low profile. She says that they dare not go out lest they are picked up by the police. "The only place they go is church . . . praying that they don't get arrested."

[Mulboyne]

CJAD: Japan cracks down on human trafficking, but sprawling sex industry is a tough target
Monica's life as a Tokyo prostitute was her own choice. Like thousands of others over the past two decades, she took what she thought was a good offer of lucrative work in Japan's multibillion-dollar sex industry. But the Colombian woman had no idea of what awaits foreign prostitutes in Japan: debt bondage, sometimes violent working conditions, "fines" imposed by pimps or brothel owners for any attempt to escape - and an utter lack of help from authorities...Arriving in 1993 at age 20, Monica was slapped with a debt of $48,000 US - much larger than she had been led to believe - and warned of reprisals against her family if she tried to escape. Minor infringements, including illness, can inflate that debt, she says, and women suffer a brutal physical toll in serving dozens of customers a week, with no days off to work off the debt...more...

[Mulboyne]

INQ7: Transsexual Pinoys find love, work in Japan (Part 1)
On stage, Kei Rodriguez looks and moves like a supermodel. So it comes as no surprise that at least 10 1,000 notes clipped between chopsticks are waved in her direction by appreciative guests of the Tres Bien Stage Club in this prefecture next to Tokyo. The mostly middle-aged men and women who frequent the small club in the basement of a three-story building near the train station just love the way Kei moves. And they don't seem to care that up until five years ago, she was a man. Kei is one of an estimated 100 transsexual Filipinos who have found acceptance and a decent living as entertainers in Japan...more...

INQ7: Blood, sweat and tears for P5,000-a-night tips (Part 2)
No doubt about it, Filipino entertainers, like the resident dancers of the Tres Bien Stage Club, make a lot of money. The dancers, most of whom are referred to as "new half" (because they have male genitalia and silicone breasts), shake hands with the club's customers after each of the three one-hour shows a night and come away with 10,000 (or P5,000) in tips alone...But the Tres Bien Stage Club dancers, and the rest of some 80,000 Filipino entertainers making a living in Japan, pay for the 1,000 notes and designer bags they receive with their blood, sweat and tears...more...

INQ7: Filipino entertainers' days in Japan are numbered (Part 3)
At the high-end Kingyo Bar in the famous entertainment district of Ropponggi, Janet Sese-Goto is one of the star dancers. Goto, a Filipino, constantly draws an appreciative and generous crowd of mostly Japanese customers. There is no reason to believe she will lose her luster soon. But Goto is hard put to gloat. She feels badly for her fellow entertainers whose visas will expire this year and who are nursing dim hopes of ever working in Japan again...Filipinos account for 60 percent of some 130,000 registered foreign entertainers in the land of the rising sun...Many bars that lost their entertainers have been forced to close down, said Goto. At the Tres Bien Stage Club in nearby Saitama prefecture, the remaining dancers wear huge costumes and accessories to deflect attention from the bareness of the stage...more...

FG Thread: "International Intersexual Informations"

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Tougher adult business law takes effect May 1
The revised adult entertainment control law will go into force May 1 featuring measures designed to crack down on human trafficking, the government decided Tuesday. Those arrested or sent to prosecutors for violating the human-trafficking provisions of the Penal Code will be denied business permits. The revised Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses requires business owners to keep documents confirming that any foreign woman employed for "entertainment services" holds a work permit. It also features measures to punish distributors of sex service fliers and those who advertise sex businesses. Violators will face a fine of up to 1 million yen. There was no penalty previously. The revised law contains provisions to curb aggressive touting in entertainment districts...more...

[Greji]

Japan Times: Tougher adult business law takes effect May 1-snip-It also features measures to punish distributors of sex service fliers and those who advertise sex businesses.

Damn! There goes my Roppongi part-time job. Shoganai, it was always cold standing on that corner all night!

But, it is a shame that nearly half of Nigeria is about to become un-employed!

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

ScienceDaily: Taiwanese duped by fake 'job in Japan' ads
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Human traffickers are luring Taiwanese women through fake newspaper ads touting job opportunities in Japan, the Taipei Times reported Monday. Officials of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan said police in Taiwan and Japan had rescued 100 women, 99 from Taiwan and one from Macau, who fell victim to human smugglers over the past three years and were forced into prostitution in Japan, the newspaper said. The youngest from Taiwan was 19, while the oldest was 53, with many of the women in their thirties, the officials said...more...

[Mulboyne]

PJI: Export of Pinay hookers to Japan averted
THE Philippines was apparently being eyed as a major source of prostitutes to Japan were it not for the intervention of alert immigration agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Yukio Oneda, 57, was apprehended upon his arrival Tuesday via a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. He allegedly recruited hookers from Thailand then took them to Japan as sex workers.

Oneda had visited Thailand at least 54 times since January 2002, each time bringing with him Thai sex workers to Japan. Records also showed that Oneda last entered the country on Oct. 20. He is detained at the BI jail in Bicutan and is now the subject of deportation proceedings by the bureau's board of commissioners. Oneda was included in the BI's blacklist upon the request of the Interpol in Tokyo and Japan's national agency. The Tokyo Interpol informed BI authorities of Oneda's alleged illegal activities. Oneda has a standing warrant of arrest in Japan. He was charged with violation of Japan's employment security law which is equivalent to the Philippines' anti-human trafficking law.

[Mulboyne]

SunStar: Japan's migration law forcing entertainers to go illegal

CONSTRICTED labor processing to Japan has displaced Filipino entertainers who, according to their promoters and recruiters, are forced to engage in illegal activities to ensure they can still work in that country. "Arranged or fixed marriages become rampant now. While they (OPAs) are still in Japan, they are already paying much amount of money to their prospective husband to marry them in the Philippines so that they can go back there to work," said Cristy Gatchialian, president of the Philippine Entertainment Exporters and Promoters Association (Peepa)...The US Government said it believes most OPAs in Japan were exploited and ended up in flesh trade. Ironically, according to Gatchialian, this experience that Washington wants to avoid occurs among Filipino women entertainers, a year after the Japanese toed the US line. Now, if we follow provisions of the new law, a Filipino woman "married" to a Japanese "can legally work in Japan," according to Gatchialian. "She can sit down with the customers and go out with them without the fear of being penalized if caught," Gatchialian said, adding that the club owner could not be punished...more...

PJI:

FILIPINO women bent on working in Japan as entertainers have managed to slip into that country by saying they are students or contracting fixed marriages...An apprehension report submitted to the office of Immigration chief Alipio Fernandez Jr. -- by the BI-NAIA Monitoring and Enforcement Units at both Terminal 1 and Centennial Terminal 2 -- revealed that many of the OPAs who succeeded in going to Japan used student visas and "immitation kikon" (fixed marriage). Although old-style, the departure modus operandi has been revived by several Philippine-based promoters and recruiting agencies in sending their talents to Japan because of huge salaries and commissions...more...

[Mulboyne]

This article is here because this deal was only offered as a concession to the tighter entertainer visa rules.

Asahi: Trade pact opens way for Philippine nurses

Japan will accept a maximum of 1,000 caregivers and nurses from the Philippines under a bilateral economic partnership agreement signed over the weekend, the government said Monday. The figure, which comprises 600 caregivers and 400 nurses, is for two years after the agreement takes effect, labor ministry officials said. The agreement is expected to go into force next spring following parliamentary approval. Japan will likely begin accepting Filipino caregivers and nurses in the first half of fiscal 2007...
... Despite high expectations from the Philippines, Filipino workers will face strict qualification requirements for working in Japan. Caregivers must be graduates of a four-year university or a nursing college, who have had training in care services. Nurses must be graduates of a nursing college with a minimum of three years of work experience. In Japan, the workers will be required to go through a six-month orientation in Japanese language, laws and society. Caregivers will be allowed to work for four years, and nurses for three years on the basis of preliminary admission standards. If they pass government qualification examinations for their professions in Japanese, the workers can renew their resident permits indefinitely.
...Maragtas Amante, a professor in industrial relations who studies Japan-Philippine labor exchange at the University of the Philippines, said most Filipinos may ultimately choose to go to North America or Britain, where they can work in English and bring their families with them.

I suppose this deal is a start but it does look as if Japan wants the cream of the crop. Unless salary and status is also on offer, those who pass the entry requirements will almost certainly do what the professor suggests and choose the EU or the US, so long as demand continues to be stronger than supply.

[American Oyaji]

[IparryU]

[Greji]

the sad thing is that it is the Japanese that are setting this up, but all the blame is put on the individuals (or in other cases the bar/club) who come here with those visas accusing them of setting it all up...

As someone who has contributed an extremely large sum to the GNP of The Philippines in the form of services rendered by ex-pat hostesses, I have never met one who did not want to stay in Japan turning tricks when given the choice of returning home for any other type of employment. I met one (who was introduced by a member of this board to whom I am greatly indebted), who claimed Japan was hooker heaven as the majority of her work consisted of hand jobs and blow jobs. Thus strokers and headers did not lead to preggers. Her compatriots who got knocked up would look for a J-kusojiji to marry, which apparently was not all that difficult find with the willing to marry female shortage. Once married and a ticket to PR obtained, she could proceed at will.

Now, I'm sure there are a million sad stories about PI women and the business. When in the PI on business, the J-brokers (a lot are f-female vets) hold that there are waiting lists to try to get a visa to Japan for this work. I suppose there are cases where the girls are duped about what they are getting into and this would be sad indeed. On the other hand, most of the stories that I have heard of in Japan are when the gal gets in serious money trouble as most of them do through gambling, or living the good life, they usually end up being caught for overstay, illegal entry, etc. They will sometimes even flee their debts by turning themselves in, claiming to be a victim of "trafficking" and the such, all of which the J-authorities are not as eager to pursue, or document. This normally does not help the girl in her offenses, other than get her deported quietly with a multi-year entry restriction. The deportees, if they do not illegally return to Japan, become part of the recruitment of new talent process. If you have ever traveled much in the PI, there are no illusions as to what is the job description and requirements for a hostess in a bar or club, nor shortages of labor in the field.

The article does have an interesting quote ".....For hostesses, acts of commercial flirtation include playful bantering, seductive dance and song performances, and, in rare instances, sex acts such as groping and discreet masturbation of customers beneath the table......."

Now, I would consider that extremely "playful," however, that must only be the high class joints. I've been in some Philippina bars, where it was under the table, on the table, in the loo, on the stage, up against the wall and most any other available venue in and around the place.

It all comes under the heading of "Here we are mom in the exotic far east!"

[IparryU]

As someone who has contributed an extremely large sum to the GNP of The Philippines in the form of services rendered by ex-pat hostesses, I have never met one who did not want to stay in Japan turning tricks when given the choice of returning home for any other type of employment. I met one (who was introduced by a member of this board to whom I am greatly indebted), who claimed Japan was hooker heaven as the majority of her work consisted of hand jobs and blow jobs. Thus strokers and headers did not lead to preggers. Her compatriots who got knocked up would look for a J-kusojiji to marry, which apparently was not all that difficult find with the willing to marry female shortage. Once married and a ticket to PR obtained, she could proceed at will.

Now, I'm sure there are a million sad stories about PI women and the business. When in the PI on business, the J-brokers (a lot are f-female vets) hold that there are waiting lists to try to get a visa to Japan for this work. I suppose there are cases where the girls are duped about what they are getting into and this would be sad indeed. On the other hand, most of the stories that I have heard of in Japan are when the gal gets in serious money trouble as most of them do through gambling, or living the good life, they usually end up being caught for overstay, illegal entry, etc. They will sometimes even flee their debts by turning themselves in, claiming to be a victim of "trafficking" and the such, all of which the J-authorities are not as eager to pursue, or document. This normally does not help the girl in her offenses, other than get her deported quietly with a multi-year entry restriction. The deportees, if they do not illegally return to Japan, become part of the recruitment of new talent process. If you have ever traveled much in the PI, there are no illusions as to what is the job description and requirements for a hostess in a bar or club, nor shortages of labor in the field.

The article does have an interesting quote ".....For hostesses, acts of commercial flirtation include playful bantering, seductive dance and song performances, and, in rare instances, sex acts such as groping and discreet masturbation of customers beneath the table......."

Now, I would consider that extremely "playful," however, that must only be the high class joints. I've been in some Philippina bars, where it was under the table, on the table, in the loo, on the stage, up against the wall and most any other available venue in and around the place.

It all comes under the heading of "Here we are mom in the exotic far east!"

once again... papa bull tells the baby bull to walk over to the heffers rather than run to them... not in that sense... but a proper schooling session has occurred.

[matsuki]

Japan's Humor Ministry tightens 'Entertainer' visas

I wish they just tightened the entertainers....never played with any of them but I can't imagine they meet Jack's standards of rich older sugar mommy tight asian poot

[james]

I wish they just tightened the entertainers....never played with any of them but I can't imagine they meet Jack's standards of rich older sugar mommy tight asian poot

have you been to jack's restaurant?

[Christoff]

once again... papa bull tells the baby bull to walk over to the heffers rather than run to them... not in that sense... but a proper schooling session has occurred.

Let walk down the hill and fuck them all.

[matsuki]

have you been to jack's restaurant?

Now that's my kind of restaurant!

[IparryU]

Let walk down the hill and fuck them all.

right behind you...

[Samurai_Jerk]

[American Oyaji]

Let walk down the hill and fuck them all.

Shall we have an ambulance ready with elephant doses of pennicilin ready?

[IparryU]

Shall we have an ambulance ready with elephant doses of pennicilin ready?

with the amount of people following... we might need more than one ambulance... as long as I got priority for getting medicated... im ok..

we need some booze too if you can arrange that.