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You think Japan has no history of bringing in NJ labor?

Japan’s Multicultural Future Voices from the Grassroots By ARUDOU Debito Associate Professor, Hokkaido Information University. You think Japan has no history of bringing in NJ labor?.

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You think Japan has no history of bringing in NJ labor?

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  1. Japan’s Multicultural FutureVoices from the GrassrootsBy ARUDOU DebitoAssociate Professor, Hokkaido Information University

  2. You think Japan has no history of bringing in NJ labor? • During the Meiji Period, J imported “specialists” to enhance its agricultural, educational, and industrial prowess. • During its prewar and WWII Imperial phase, Japan “imported” millions of citizens of empire (and slaves) to man factories and develop infrastructure.

  3. Postwar labor “self-sufficiency” • From late 1940’s, Japan repatriated 2 million former Korean citizens. Created policy against importing unskilled labor. • During high-speed growth of 60’s and 70’s, tapped other elements of the domestic workforce: elderly, women, and automation. • Japan’s economy grew larger than all other Asian countries combined.

  4. Labor shortage of 1980s • According to the Ministry of Labor, by 1989, 46% of all domestic manufacturers were “labor deficient”. • By 1990, this figure rose to 56%. • Working in “3K” jobs was frowned upon by Japan’s youth. • Increasing pressure to lower wages for international competitiveness.

  5. Demographic Pressures • With the record-low birthrate and record-high lifetime expectancies, the UN predicts Japanese society will soon have the highest percentage of elderly. • As of 2006, the Health Ministry says Japan’s population is decreasing and will fall from 127 to 100 million by 2050.

  6. Choices to be made • Japan’s goods were being priced out of the market, due in part to labor costs. • Japan’s factories at all levels could either relocate overseas (“hollowing out”), or go bankrupt. • Or decrease labor costs by importing cheap NJ labor. • Keidanren etc. began lobbying for this.

  7. Choices made in 1990 • Institute “backdoor” NJ labor visas. • “Trainees” (gijutsu kenshuusei) would work for one year, receive education in Japanese know-how, and be exempt from labor laws. • This meant they worked for half minimum wage with no social security. • If they showed promise, they could graduate up to “Interns”.

  8. More visa categories • “Interns” (kenkyuusei) would work for one or two more years as regular employees, not exempt from labor laws. • More costly than Trainees, in 1993 the “Practical Trainee” (ginou jisshuusei) visa was also created to extend the Trainee period two more years. • Far more Trainees hired than Interns.

  9. More visa categories • “Entertainer” visas (kougyou) brought in women for the water trades (and earned Japan a reputation as a human trafficker). • “Student” visas (ryuugaku or shuugaku) also brought in labor from China, Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia, other developing countries.

  10. The biggest loophole • “Spouse or Child of Japanese National” (nihonjin no haiguusha tou) and “Long-Term Resident” (teijuusha) “repatriated” hundreds of thousands of Nikkei Diaspora to “explore J heritage”. • Unlike other visas, Nikkei had no restrictions on work status or renewal, so they could be employed indefinitely.

  11. The effects of backdoor work • The registered NJ population has doubled since 1990 to 2 million plus. • Official estimates of visa overstayers now around 220,000, but experts day more than double that. • Brazilians alone now 300,000 plus, now the third largest NJ nationality.

  12. The effects of backdoor work • The number of Trainees who graduated up to Interns lept from 11,000 in 1999 to 41,000 in 2006 • The number of Trainees themselves more than doubled to 68,305 between 2001 and 2006. • Legal NJ workers in general number 770,000, 1.3% of the workforce.

  13. The Dark Side • NJ workers coming for training, being put to work in unskilled labor. • NJ workers having bankbooks and passports confiscated by employers, also employed as illegals and exploited. • Japan now a tier-two human trafficker, according to the US State Department.

  14. The Dark Side • NJ working 22-hour days in slave conditions. Instances of child labor. • Denial of basic human rights, such as in one factory: worship, cellphone use, repatriation of wages, meeting with friends, even writing letters. • Exploitative conditions even causing murder August 2006 in Chiba.

  15. An emerging NJ underclass • NJ children remaining uneducated, since elementary education is only guaranteed to Japanese citizens. • Cases of schools refusing NJ children. • Asahi 2/12/07: Between 20 and 40% or Brazilian children are not in primary education. 10,000+ Brazilian children dropped out or never entered. • Ethnic schools not recognized or funded by MOE.

  16. Yet Japan relies on foreigners. • Both the UN and a PM Cabinet survey in 2000 indicated Japan must import 600,000 workers per year to maintain the current standard of living, tax base. • Japanese industry is now dependent on NJ labor. Insatiable demand at all levels. • Thanks to NJ workers, Toyota has become world’s #2 automaker.

  17. “WITHOUT FOREIGNERS, THE ‘TOYOTA SYSTEM’ WON’T WORK.” --SHUUKAN DIAMONDO JUNE 5, 2004

  18. DISINCENTIVES FOR NJ TO STAY Japan is the only major industrialized nation without any form of a law against Racial Discrimination. And it shows.

  19. . Wakkanai . . . . Monbetsu Rumoi . . . Otaru Sapporo Ohtaki-mura Nemuro . . MISAWA, AOMORI PREF. AKITA CITY ISESAKI CITY, GUNMA PREF. . . KOSHIGAYA, SAITAMA PREF. TODA CITY, SAITAMA PREF. OHTA CITY, GUNMA PREF. . . . . KOFU, YAMANASHI PREF. . . . DAITOU-SHI, OSAKA PREF TOKYO OGIKUBO TOKYO AOYAMA DOORI TOKYO SHINBASHI TOKYO SHINJUKU-KU TOKYO KABUKICHO . KYOTO . KURASHIKI CITY, OKAYAMA PREF. HAMAMATSU, SHIZUOKA PREF. HIROSHIMA NAGOYA KITAKYUSHU CITY FUKUOKA PREF More information and photos at www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html OKINAWA URUMA CITY

  20. More on this and other issues:www.debito.org ISBN 4 7503 9018 6 English version, Japanese version ISBN 4 7503 9001 9

  21. Shizuoka NPA foreign crime pamphlet 2001 www.debito.org/TheCommunity/shizuokakeisatsuhandbook.html

  22. Off-color NPA notices warning the public against foreign bagsnatchers and knifers (found at bank ATMs and subways) ： www.debito.org/TheCommunity/communityissues.html#police

  23. TOCHIGI PREFECTURE COAST GUARD PUBLIC NOTICE (MAY 2007): “PROTECT [OUR NATION] AND HEAD THEM OFF AT THE SHORES: COOPERATE IN STOPPING ILLEGAL OVERSTAYS AND ILLEGAL ENTRANTS”

  24. Yet still NJ keep immigrating • Every year we have a net intake of around 50,000 registered NJ, now 45 straight years of record numbers. • “Regular Permanent Residents” (ippan eijuusha) will probably surpass “Special Permanent Residents” (the Zainichi generational “foreigners”) by 2007. • Around 20,000 naturalizing per year.

  25. “NEWCOMERS SUSTAIN SECTORS WHERE JAPANESE AREN’T ABLE OR WILLING TO PICK UP THE SLACK.” --NEWSWEEK SEPT 11, 2006

  26. Japan’s invisible kokusaika • There are around 40,000 international marriages per year in Japan. • International children do not show up in statistics on “registered foreigners”. Of course not. They are citizens. • International children are also invisible statistically. The Japan Census Bureau does not measure for ethnicity.

  27. WELCOME TO THE FUTURE (Amy (left) and Anna Sugawara Aldwinckle 1996) Born and raised in Japan. Native speakers of Japanese. Japanese citizens.

  28. What’s being done to help? • Local govts (Hamamatsu Sengen 2001) are demanding the national govt help guarantee easier NJ access to education, social security, and immigration. • Local govts are getting grants (albeit temporary) to help NJ “settle”. • NGOs and other parts of Japan’s emergent civil society are making abuses public. • Japanese mass media paying attention. • LDP former MOJ Vice Minister Kouno Taro: The visa situation is “a swindle” (ikasama).

  29. What’s being done to help? • MOJ project team book “Basic Ideas for Accepting Non-Japanese” (Nov 2006): Make it easier for residents to become Permanent. • Keidanren (2004 and 2006): “Guarantee human rights, prevent discrimination, quality control, bilateral labor agreements in targeted job sectors” • Ministries currently debating to “fix” visa system by 2009.

  30. The current ministerial debate • MHLW: Tweak: Give Trainees labor rights protections, language tests, renewal contingent on acculturation. • METI: Paint job: Keep present system, monitor to prevent abuses. • MOJ: Slice: Abolish complicated system, create clear revolving-door labor visa fixed at three years nonrenewable. • (MOJ is the most powerful in this arena)

  31. Underlying Assumptions • NJ workers are temporary, and are not a solution for J decreasing population. • Despite arduous tests to qualify to stay, NJ workers will not be assimilated as residents or citizens. • NJ will want to come to Japan and work even only as dead-end factory workers. • J industry will have incentives to care about training NJ workers if they’re only here for three years tops? Not.

  32. Download full version of this powerpoint presentation at: www.debito.org/japansmulticulturalfuture.ppt My paper substantiating all this at: www.debito.org/ASCJPaper2007.doc THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING THIS PRESENTATION.

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