Here is a fascinating study that was in the news today:

Foreigners more eager for local interaction than Japanese: survey
(Kyodo) _ Foreign residents in Japan show more appetite for interacting with local Japanese people than the other way around, according to a survey unveiled Monday by the land ministry and other agencies. The survey showed that 56 percent of foreign respondents living in districts where foreigners accounted for 15 percent or more of the total population expressed eagerness to communicate with their local communities while only 10 percent of Japanese respondents said they want to interact with foreign residents.
.
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The survey was conducted between December 2006 and January 2007 among 738 foreign households and 1,104 Japanese households in a total of 16 districts in four prefectures — Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki. By nationality, 49 percent of the foreign respondents were Brazilian nationals. The next largest group was Peruvians at 14 percent followed by Chinese at 12 percent. The average length of their stay in Japan was 8.7 years. According to the survey, 31 percent of foreign respondents were somewhat reluctant to communicate with local communities while 77 percent of Japanese respondents showed reluctance to some degree.

Debito has posted a blog entry about the rising number of NJ residents (new Japanese residents).

Both because I am a foreign resident in Japan and I like diversity, I’m glad this number keeps on rising. Tangentially I’ll note, I think the best way to utterly destroy Japanese culture is to entrust it to government bureaucrats, while the best way to preserve and foster it is to gradually introduce some competition into the mix. After all culture isn’t something you put in a bottle and stare at, it’s something you grow.

I’m getting off topic.

Debito notes that the Ministry of Justice has recently released their official yearly report on this. It’s a PDF file and can be downloaded here.

The Yomiuri had this to say about the report:

Foreign residents at record high
The number of foreign residents in Japan as of the end of 2006 hit a record-high of 2.08 million, increasing 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau. The figure of 2,084,919 accounted for 1.63 percent of the nation’s total population. By nationality and place of origin, the two Koreas combined had the largest share at 28.7 percent, or 598,219. But because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991 …

… because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991. ??

Hm? So special permanent residents, that is zainichi Koreans and Chinese, are not really decreasing, their just becoming Japanese.

So this would imply one day you’re Korean, and the next — after your naturalization, you’re Japanese. That is, as I understand it, once you naturalize you are Japanese as far as any census measures are concerned.

Now, if this was a testament to how color blind and accepting people in Japan were, I’d offer this up as an example of tolerance in Japanese society. In a perfect world it shouldn’t matter what your supposed ethnic group might be, just whether your a citizen or not. So, ultimately, I think that’s just how the census should be done. As an individualist, I sincerely don’t like groupism (categorizing people according to groups.)

However, in Japan’s case, where numerous arguments for policy proposals take as their premises a homogenous Japan, census reporting that doesn’t account for naturalized non-homogenous Japanese becomes really dubious and even slightly sinister.

How many Korean-Japanese are there? How many American-Japanese? How many Chinese-Japanese? How many Philippine-Japanese? Would the emperor be Korean-Japanese? So long as Japanese policy-makers are going to argue for or against policy using as a premise a homogenous Japan, then we desperately need these numbers. As far as I know there aren’t any.

Of course, somehow I think words like homogenous should be reserved for things like … you know … milk or something, not people. But perhaps I’m just too radical?

Japan has a notorious record on refugees. You can read up on this here and here.

The list of people who clearly qualify for some kind of refugee status but won’t get it grows each year. We can now add another name to that list: Aung Tin Oo.

Let me explain.

Japan has issued formal statements of concern over the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar.

Their most recent statement can be found here. It states:

1. Japan is deeply concerned about the continuation of the detention under house arrest of after the extended term of one year ended on May 27.
2. Japan strongly hopes that the Government of Myanmar will activate talks with the international community, release political detainees including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and expeditiously advance a democratization process that includes Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other parties concerned.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar. To make a long story short, that is why she is under the very house arrest that Japan has been vigorously protesting.

So the question is, how does Japan treat local members of the National League for Democracy? In other words, how does Japan support those Myanmar dissidents who escape repression in Myanmar and (without formal approval of the government) wash up on Japanese shores? The answer is that it puts them under detention on suspicion of illegal disembarkation.

Here is the recent Japan Times article on this:

Myanmar activist detained in Japan

NAGOYA (Kyodo) A prodemocracy Myanmar activist in the Japanese arm of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has been detained since March and his supporters are calling for his release.

Aung Tin Oo, 29, an executive member of the Japanese unit of the NLD-Liberated Area, the party’s overseas organization, has been detained by the Nagoya Immigration Bureau on suspicion of illegal disembarkation, the supporters said.

Aung was supposed to head an NLD-LA office in Nagoya, which opened last weekend in his absence. His supporters submitted a petition with more than 1,000 signatures for his provisional release to the immigration bureau last month.

Aung, a sailor, landed in Japan without permission after his ship arrived in Nagoya in May 2001, and has since stayed illegally in Japan doing part-time jobs, the supporters said.

After engaging in activities to promote democracy in Myanmar, Aung was named as the first head of the Nagoya office with seven members.

However, he was detained by authorities at a 24-hour supermarket in Nagoya early on the morning of March 15, they said.

After he was detained, Aung submitted a prepared application for refugee status to the Justice Ministry.

The ministry rejected his request, saying he did not belong to an antigovernment organization and his activities in Japan were not recognized as dangerous by the Myanmar government.

“We cannot comment on individual cases, ” an immigration official said.

… he did not belong to an antigovernment organization and his activities in Japan were not recognized as dangerous by the Myanmar government. Right, like that kind of information is shared with Japanese officials. Give me a break!

Yes, he was staying here illegally. But so are well over 200,000 others. Presumably as the police have kobans stationed everywhere, and know where the overstayers are, they could all be rounded up tomorrow. Instead, only occasional high profiles roundups are carried out to appease xenophobes in Nagatachō. So why, after six years, did the government bother to nab Aung Tin Oo while he was doing some early morning grocery shopping?

Was it an accident?

And what does the the government intend to do now? Hold him in detention indefinitely? Send him back to Myanmar where he can be appropriately handled.

We’ll see.

Recently the topic of foreign trainees came up for discussion on the Community in Japan list. I’ve blogged a lot on this topic previously.

Let me give a very opionated response to the recent news surrounding the trainee program.

Before I begin I should remind people why the trainee system is tragically flawed. Let’s not mince words. Basically it is not a trainee system, but a method used by small and mid-sized companies to procure cheap labor. These trainees face common abuses such as having their passports taken and their wages withheld. Even when they are paid, their salary is nearly always far below normal standards. Trainees work around the clock for little pay in horrible conditions, and often aren’t even protected by labor laws. Stories of abuses ranging from rape to isolation to not allowing people to practice their religion have constantly made the headlines. It’s all too obvious that the program has no competent oversight such that it’s nearly an anything goes world for those participating. Brokers in third world countries offer for exorbitant fees to get people into the program, but when they get to Japan they certainly must feel cheated. Many escape their job and become illegal laborers at different companies. The program is a disaster.

While the program actually does have some companies that really use it properly, these are sadly becoming the minority. As the population declines and the economy improves the problem looks surely set to spiral out of control. Action was needed literally years ago, but to date nothing has been done to really fix the problem.

Now recently three ministries have stepped forward with a plan to save the day. These would be:

The Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

There would seem to be the three views, roughly something like this …

Justice Ministry: Let’s stop pretending this is a trainee program and just admit openly that it’s a guest worker program. Then let’s be very clear that we expect labor laws to apply to the guest workers just like anyone else. We’ll crack down on the abuses. However, let’s be very clear that after the guests have stayed for three years, they MUST leave and they certainly can NOT come back. We don’t want these poor low life scum ruining Japanese society and culture.

Labor Ministry: Let’s just reform the system a bit. Let’s throw out the Industrial Training Program and instead focus on the Technical Internship Program. And you know that clause we’ve got about labor law not applying for the first year, well, let’s go ahead and apply it. That should fix things up, well, you know, maybe a little. I mean, this whole system is pretty lucrative for us bureaucrats, so let’s not rock the boat too much.

Economics Ministry: Let’s not let go of the idea that Japan is trying to help other countries by training their people. So what if the program becomes near slave labor at times. Even if it’s not true that were helping other countries, it’s the thought that counts. Do you know how much trouble it’ll be for us MITI bureaucrats to deal with these other countries if we were OPENLY using and throwing away their workers? They would hate us. We can’t lose the important facade that we’re helping to develop poor countries. Why don’t we offer a certification program for those who want to abuse the trainees. It won’t mean dirt, but it’ll give us bureaucrats a bit more power and that’s not bad, right?

Sorry if all this sounds a bit overboard. But then again maybe it’s not.

Let’s give some more background.

Most of the trainees now go through JITCO a bloated bureaucracy in and of itself. One that earns quite a bit of money. As Terrie Lloyd has noted:

As another article in the Daily Yomiuri reports, JITCO appears to be part of the problem, with the body being responsible for a reported 60% of all trainee visas. JITCO apparently earns JPY308m for visa application services and JPY1.148bn from member company dues, more than triple the amount 10 years ago. I wonder how JITCO is using this profit?

The JITCO is basically a partnership of five different bloated bureaucracies (ministries) and I’m sure in some way or another all of them have their hands in the cookie jar. Can you imagine any organization that can’t be changed unless five bloated bureaucracies can all agree to change it? All the while spiraling out of control for years?

What is lacking is someone in the non-permanent government, an elected official, who is willing to step forward and provide some leadership.

However, I’m not aware of any such politician. Is there anyone out there? As trainees can’t vote, I’d guess there isn’t anyone. For the record I searched both the LDP’s and the DPJ’s official sites and could not find anything worth commenting on in regards to the trainee program problem. The LDP grudgingly acknowledge the problem, but don’t seriously offer any solutions.

Now, if you look at the above proposals that each ministry has offered, they are all seriously flawed. None of them are ready to accept foreign laborers on anything but a temporary basis. This is either racism or at best culturism.

The idea that any of these bureaucrats want to provide legal protection for these workers is basically rhetoric. Consider this. If you worked in a job for three years, then for no explicit reason whatsoever you were fired and another person was hired to take your place (probably at a lower wage), wouldn’t you have rights? Of course you would. To a large extent labor laws in Japan protect citizens from such problems. So then why is it okay to do this to foreign laborers? It isn’t. It’s not fair. No matter what anyone says, until this is resolved, labor law is NOT in fact applying to foreigners.

I do think of all the proposals offered that the Justice Ministry’s proposal is the best, merely because it is the most honest and direct of all the proposals. It doesn’t attempt to pretend to be anything it is not. The author of the proposal should be commended for his directness and honesty.

Let us hope it is that policy that is chosen, and chosen soon. Then who knows, through such honesty, perhaps things can gradually improve.

News Links:

• 2007/05/28 Slain farm association official took fees from both Chinese trainees, farmers, Asahi Shimbun (via debito.org blog); “A slain former executive of a farm association had forced Chinese trainees to pay sizable fees that had already been covered by the farmers who accepted the trainees, sources said.”
• 2007/05/28 CRACK IN THE DOOR Cautiously, an Aging Japan Warms to Foreign Workers, Yuka Hayashi and Sebastian Moffett, Wall Street Journal; “Japan, long known for its resistance to mass immigration, is gradually starting to use more foreigners — known as gaikokujin roudousha in Japanese — to solve its labor shortage. They are taking up jobs in rural areas where industries such as agriculture and textiles are struggling. Big companies are filling their factories with foreigners to assemble auto parts and flat-panel TVs. In cities, foreign workers serve meals at restaurants and stock shelves at grocery stores. The 2005 census found Japan had 770,000 foreign workers, or 1.3% of its working population, up from 604,000 and 0.9% a decade earlier. That is still a far cry from the U.S., which has 22 million foreign-born workers, or 15% of the labor force. Nonetheless, for Japan it’s a big change.”
• 2007/05/19 Govt split over foreign trainee program, Takeshi Kosaka, Masaharu Nomura and Soichiro Kuboniwa, Yomiuri Shimbun; Excellent article. Well worth reading.
• 2007/05/18 Asahi: Update on NJ Trainee Worker program: reform or abolition?, debito.org blog; Article plus Debito’s comments.
• 2007/05/17 Nagase enters foreign-worker feud, The Asahi Shimbun; Discusses all the important topics, but not as good as the Yomiuri’s take above.
• 2007/05/16 Revised program for foreign trainees proposed, The Japan Times; “In an effort to curb misuse of the government-sponsored industrial training and internship program for foreign workers, Justice Minister Jinen Nagase proposed Tuesday allowing foreigners at authorized organizations to work for up to three years.”
• 2007/05/12 Panel: End exploitation of overseas trainees, The Yomiuri Shimbun; “A study group of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry drew up an interim report Friday that calls for a revision of the training system for foreign workers, which is believed to have allowed cheap labor, to make it mandatory to pay salaries that are due to such workers.”
• 2007/05/12 Workplace training program to be axed, The Asahi Shimbun; “The labor ministry is set to abolish a first-year program for foreign nationals who come to Japan to learn work skills as trainees because many companies routinely exploit such workers, sources said.” I don’t think this is correct. I think three ministries are arguing over what to do.

Policy Links:

• SAKANAKA CHANNEL: 外国人技能実習制度改革論
• LIberal Democratic Party: 外国人労働者に関する方針について
• The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: 「研修・技能実習制度研究会中間報告」のとりまとめについて
• Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry: 外国人研修・技能実習制度に関する研究会とりまとめ報告
• The Ministry of Justice: [PDF] 「外国人労働者受入れに関する検討の指示について」
• Keidanran: 「外国人材受入問題に関する部会」が第１回会合

The WSJ did a long and detailed article about foreign workers in Japan in late May. The article is only available to subscribers, however someone has posted the article on-line. So check it out. For people interested in this issue, it’s a great article:

CRACK IN THE DOOR Cautiously, an Aging Japan Warms to Foreign Workers

2007/05/04 The local mosque is central to the lives of Muslims living in Japan, Yasunori Kawakami, The Asahi Shimbun.

The Yokohama Mosque in Yokohama’s Tsuzuki Ward echoes with the sound of Friday prayers chanted in Arabic. Worshippers in the 200-square-meter mosque number about 70–Muslims from Asia, Africa and elsewhere. The premises were purchased last summer and then renovated, opening for services at the end of last year. … The price: 100 million yen. The contract called for a 10 million yen down payment in March, with the remaining 90 million yen to be paid within four months. An appeal went out for contributions from foreign Muslims all over the country–in Osaka, Nagoya, Toyama, Niigata and Hokkaido. … A mosque is more than a place of worship. It occupies a central role in Islamic life. Adults not only pray there but also attend sermons as well, given by religious teachers. Children study the Koran there. The mosque collects charity and assists the poor. It forms the core of the Islamic community.
There are currently between 30 and 40 single-story mosques in Japan, plus another 100 or more apartment rooms set aside, in the absence of more suitable facilities, for prayers. Many Muslim communities have plans to build mosques in the near future.

The above is only a small selection. The article is well worth reading. It’s always nice to hear about increasing diversity in Japan. Especially when in a case like this it seems entirely positive.

I’ve been very busy of late and haven’t been able to do much with this blog, which is frustrating. There are more than a few comments I’ve been wanting to respond to, but haven’t yet had the chance.One of them raised a new topic, so I’ll make this reply an entry in and of itself.I’m referring to a comment made by David to my post on Lee Soo Im. David has his own blog, called Canapan, please check it out. David said:

In many countries where immigrants were once welcomed with open arms, and multi-culturism was encouraged, “assimilation” is now getting a fresh look. Even in Canada, where the politicians would have us believe multi-culturism is a “Canadian value” the idea that all new immigrants should assimilate is taking hold. Although, I don’t support exclusion, and I don’t agree with the way ethnic Koreans have been treated in Japan, I tend to think everyone would be better off if they simply melted into society.

David,I’m sorry I never responded to this interesting comment.I think you raise an important issue. One problem the Koreans have faced in Japan is that they did not want to assimilate. Here you had one strong ethnic identity at odds with another. One of them clearly in the driver’s seat, and the other not wanting to be taken for a drive. For first and second generation zainichi Koreans, becoming Japanese would have meant a complete loss of identity. I think in many ways, this attitude was understandable given what many Koreans had experienced under colonial rule. But I don’t think in the long run this attitude has been helpful, and I’m glad that people like Lee Soo Im are reaching out there for new paradigms. Lee Soo Im sounds proud to be a Japanese national and an ethnic Korean. (Her husband is Iranian, by the way.) This sounds to me like something new, and maybe the beginning of an important trend.I think problems with assimilation also need to be looked at in terms of the structure of the institutions in place. Some institutions harmlessly encourage integration, others are destined to end up with confrontation. I think socialist programs that attempt to better society unwittingly require assimilation. In a country like Japan, which has a lot of socialist institutions, the form of that assimilation often takes a nationalist color. In another country it might take a more universalist color, but still be just as problematic. Consider education or health care, both what constitutes knowledge and what constitutes health are far more tinged with morality than most people feel comfortable admitting.However, I think when you have liberal policies — and here I mean old fashion liberalism, like free markets and an emphasis on self-autonomy — you get the best of both worlds, pluralism and gradual assimilation. In my opinion, the government should take an active role, *not* in promoting one version of the good, but in making sure each individual can follow their own version of that good while competing with others on a fair and level playing field. A system like this *allows* for a plurality of values, but at the same time sets these values up in competition with each other. It also encourages a lot of interaction through commerce.One can always argue that people really don’t want (or deserve) self-autonomy, but that is an argument that strikes a stake through the heart of any form of self-government.Anyway, I hope in a future to be able to elaborate more on ideas like this, and to provide some relevant material.Best,Matt

There’s a great article on-line about Lee Soo Im:

Koreans’ struggle casts fresh light on Japanese immigration debate

Here are few select quotes:

A third-generation ethnic Korean, Lee was born in 1953 in Osaka Prefecture. Like hundreds of thousands of their compatriots, Lee’s grandparents emigrated to Japan in 1921 after losing their farmlands following Japan’s colonization of Korea in 1910.

So due to the colonization they lost what they had but were given a chance to work in Japan.

Her maternal grandfather had a job in Tokyo, but never returned after the massive 1923 Kanto Earthquake. Through various contacts, the family learned that he was among about 6,000 Koreans killed by vigilantes acting on rumors that Koreans were planning a riot.

How tragic. Information on the massacre of 6000 Koreans can be found here:

The Great Kanto Earthquake Massacre
Behind the Accounts of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923

For a few years after 1945, Koreans in Japan were still considered Japanese citizens. But their citizenship was revoked abruptly in 1952 as Japan regained independence that year.

So while Japan was still under the occupation, Koreans were able to maintain their citizenship? Clearly given the time frame the Korean War must have complicated the entire situation.

While Japan’s ratification of the 1982 refugee recognition treaty, which barred nationality-based discrimination, improved the situation to some extent, unspoken discrimination in jobs, bank loans, housing and marriages persisted.

What exactly does this mean? So by applying this treaty, gaikokusekijin were able to get more rights for themselves? Did this apply strictly those with a special residence status? If so, why?

Back in Japan, Lee decided to apply for Japanese citizenship to safeguard her family’s visa status. But the immigration office was not convinced that she would become the ”head of a family” under Japan’s quintessentially paternal family registry system.  ”They didn’t even give me an application form,” Lee said. . .  Regaining her confidence, Lee went back to the immigration office in 1999 to apply for citizenship. The office was initially reluctant, but gave in after she threatened legal action, Lee said.

Wow. She told them to give her citizenship or face legal action. Incredible. Way to go!

 Lee became a Japanese citizen in 2002. Unlike most Koreans who naturalize, however, she decided to retain her Korean name, a decision questioned by an official in the process.

Good for her!

Lee, who recently co-edited ”Japan’s Diversity Dilemmas: Ethnicity, Citizenship, and Education” to highlight issues surrounding the country’s immigrant population, says there are no such thing as pure Japanese. A homogenous Japan is a myth built upon foreigners forced to live ”invisibly,” she says.

Right on! I have the book above in PDF format, but am ashamed to say I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Looking forward to it now!

While the Japanese perception toward Koreans got a lift in recent years thanks largely to the Korean pop culture, there is a backlash by nationalists, in addition to a move to reinstate patriotic education, a trend she is particularly concerned about. Lee forecasts that the Japanese attitude toward immigrants will not change unless the situation ”really hits the bottom.” But she believes Japan can no longer expect foreigners to choose between assimilation and exclusion under the forces of globalization. ”I love Japan and fighting against the system is my way of showing patriotism to my country,” Lee said.

Let’s put that in block letters:

“I LOVE JAPAN AND FIGHTING AGAINST THE SYSTEM IS MY WAY OF SHOWING PATRIOTISM TO MY COUNTRY.” — Lee Soo Im

Make sure to read the entire article!

Lee’s classes:
Great page with a list of publications by Lee Soo Im, and information on the classes she teaches. Makes sure to check it out after you read the article!

Directory Database of Research and Development Activities: Lee Soo Im

Who’s who: Lee Soo Im (in Japanese)

Guess it’s not just bath houses any more …

Here’s a nice editorial. It was published a couple of weeks ago and only now have I come across it.

Title:
Fundamental flaw remains in education law

Author:
Daisuke Onuki

Link:
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702120089.html

Excerpts:
The people shall all be given equal opportunities of receiving education according to their ability, and they shall not be subject to educational discrimination on account of race, creed, sex, social status, economic position, or family origin. Thus, the Fundamental Law of Education guarantees the equal opportunity of education to all people of Japan.

However, it is necessary to note that the word “people” is the translation of the word “kokumin,” which literally means “nationals.”

Currently, the most important law on education in Japan, as well as the very Constitution, does not guarantee the right to education for children with foreign nationalities.

Our eldest daughter, who has only Brazilian nationality, was once denied entrance to a public junior high school in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, when trying to transfer from a school in Brazil at the age 15 in the ninth grade.

…

Two years ago, when the population of Japan started to decrease, the number of foreign nationals registered here surpassed 2 million. More than half are so-called newcomers who stay in Japan for the purpose of work. The number of people from Brazil, the country of origin of my wife and daughters, now exceeds 300,000.

…

A survey six years ago estimated that 3,000 Brazilian children between 6 and 15 in Japan had never been enrolled in school. More recent estimates indicate that more than 10,000 Brazilian children never entered school or dropped out.

Somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of Brazilian children are currently out of primary education. These figures do not include the 25 percent of children who go to expensive Brazilian schools that are not officially recognized as “schools” by the Japanese government.

…

In recent years, many European countries have seen a rise in extreme rightist movements. Our country should not wait for that to happen before taking serious actions.

Guaranteeing foreign children’s right to education in other education-related laws to be revised in the following years will be important steps to take. It has been 16 years since this problem started in Japan’s Brazilian community.

Another year lost in the childhoods of tens of thousands of immigrant children will require an incredible amount of work in the future to undo the damage done to the children, society–and the hopes to build a healthy internationalist Japan.

Comment:

Don’t worry, I’m sure Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki is hard at work on the problem …

[See the comments that follow the article to learn how you can help this family! In actuality, the family is not Japanese in any sense other than that they *should* be granted citizenship. The oldest daughter basically grew up in Japan, and the youngest daughter was born and raised in Japan.]

From the Japan Times:

Article Title:
Iranian teen can stay if family leaves quietly, Nagase hints

Article begins
Justice Minister Jinen Nagase hinted Tuesday that the ministry might agree to a request from an Iranian family facing deportation that the 18-year-old daughter be allowed to stay if the family makes it clear the rest will leave Japan by the Friday deadline.

Comment: It sounds as if they were negotiating with the Corleone family as opposed to the Justice Ministry. What’s that mean, leave quietly or else …

The family, which has been here illegally since the early 1990s, had asked that the government allow the elder daughter to stay here to go to school in exchange for the rest of the family leaving the country.

Comment: Isn’t it interesting how one of the daughter’s was actually born here, over ten years ago, and yet she is here illegally? Let her stay, and let her parents stay.

Maryam Khalil has been accepted to a two-year program starting in April at a junior college in Gunma Prefecture.

“I’d like to pay as much consideration as possible to the elder daughter if the family reflects on their illegal stay in Japan and makes clear their will to voluntarily return home,” Nagase told a regularly scheduled news conference.

Comment: Look, its about rights. The constitution is based on rights. Either these people have a right to be here or they don’t. The fact is the government has allowed them to live here for all this time. The father had a gaijin card. He’d been running a used car business for years, and he only turned himself in because he wanted amnesty. So much for being honest.

Amine Khalil, 43, his wife and their two daughters have been ordered to leave Japan by Friday.
Amine Khalil came to Japan in 1990, and his wife and Maryam joined him the following year. The other daughter was born in Japan in 1996.
The family filed a suit with the Tokyo District Court in 2000 to fight the deportation order. The court repealed the order in 2003 but was overturned by the Tokyo High Court. The Supreme Court upheld the high court decision last Oct. 10.
The family filed for special residence permits but was turned down.

Article Ends

Some more comments:

First, I want to note the following link:
http://www.jca.apc.org/apfs/event/event20061127.htm

At that link, there is a good description of the events, and also a request to fax the Justice Department on behalf of the Amine family, and especially Maryam the oldest daughter. This request reads:

Japanese:
どうか法務省へ「アミネさん一家に在留特別許可を認めてください。マリアムちゃんの夢をこわさないでください！」という内容のＦＡＸをお送りください。18歳の娘の人生を救うためにご協力ください！
（法務省ＦＡＸ番号：03-3592-7393）

English (my translation):
Please fax the justice department. Include in your fax this message. “Please grant the Amine family permission to stay in Japan. Please don’t destroy Maryam’s dream!” Help save this young girls life!

Justice Department Fax: 03-3592-7393

This was prior to the recent decision of the Justice Ministry to give the family until January 8th (?). However, I doubt any harm can come from faxing the Justice department now.

Here are some key facts regarding this case (as best as I understand it):

1. Japan was granting amnesty to several immigrant families if it seemed that sending their children back would cause undue hardship on the children. In fact, Japan has an obligation to do this under certain UN treaties that they have signed. Of particular merit in this case is the youngest daughter, who was born in Japan and has now lived there over ten years.

2. At the encouragement of an organization in 1999, Mr. Khalil turned himself in and requested amnesty for his family. He noted that he had two daughters, one of them in the sixth grade and soon to be starting junior high school. He said it would present undue hardships for them if they had to readjust to Iran.

Mr. Khalil Amine could have continued on indefinitely without ever being “caught.” The local city officials knew him, and as he ran a used car lot, he was well received in the community where he lived. He had an outstanding reputation. Note, he had an alien registration card. You can’t get any more noticed than that.

At some point in the late 1990’s he got involved with a Japanese NPO called Asian Peoples Friendship Society. The society had gathered about 50 people, and it was their goal to go as a group and petition the government for permission to stay. The society and its lawyers made clear this was a risky move, as all petitioners could be detained and then deported. The 50 members dwindled to 23 (five families and two individuals.)

While the 23 individuals could have probably continued on with their lives as they were, for various reasons they both wanted and thought they deserved legitimacy. They were making a political statement of sorts, and hoping by their actions they could help others in similar situations.

It is not clear to me how many were accepted. However, I am *guessing* that *all* got permission to stay in the country *except* the Amine family. See the document linked above and read it yourself. It doesn’t seem clear to me on this point.

3. Mr. Khalil Amine was denied, arrested, and then the process began for his deportation. Or something along these lines, I’m not sure what the specific procedure was, but the Amine family was not given any type of amnesty. The result was that they were on the road to being deported. However, they were granted permission to stay *only* so as to appeal the decision of the government. (Often this isn’t the case, so the lawyers must have been ready.)

4. A legal battle ensued, in which it was learned that there was a policy being put in practice but *never* made explicit, in which amnesty was being granted to families if they had a child that had been in Japan more than 10 years and was attending at least junior high school.

I am not clear if the government has *ever* specified its policies in regards to this. What the Asian Peoples Friendship Society did was to compare the Amine family situation with those who were accepted. They then guessed at what the criteria must have been.

For example the Amine family had an eleven year old daughter, so did another Iranian family that was granted permission. What was the difference? The Amines’ daughter was in elementary school, the other family’s daughter was in junior high school. Also, Mr. Amine had been in Japan nine years and a number of months, others accepted had been in Japan over 10 years.

5.The upshot here being that if Mr. Amine had waited only about six months more, he would have been granted amnesty. Yet, as the policy was a secret he had no way of knowing this.

6. After various court battles (and even the collection of 3000 signatures of support for Mr. Amine), the Supreme Court decided nearly eight years after Mr. Amine first requested amnesty, to send he and his family back to Iran. The Ministry of Justice with perhaps unintentional irony said something like, “the law’s the law and we can’t let people think it’s okay to break it. That trumps human rights.” Okay, they didn’t really say that. But something like that. I really don’t think I understand what the ministry’s point was anyway. As the constitution is based on the concept of fundamental rights, and all laws follow from the constitution, it seems human rights should in fact take precedence, so the ministry’s statement left me a little confused.

Summing up:
My understanding is that the purpose of granting people the permission to stay has entirely to do with the daughters (the children). If they’ve become acclimatized to Japan then its regarded as cruel to force them to return to their home country. (In this case they’ll have to cover up their skin, they won’t be able to go out alone, they don’t speak the country’s language, they’ll might have to practice a form of Islam disagreeable to them, etc)

It is also regarded an wrong to break up families in this way. (All of this is related to various UN treaties and so on.)

The question *was* this, should the family have been granted permission to stay? The Supreme Court seems to have said, the Ministry has jurisdiction, so their original decision should hold. (I’m not clear on what the Court stated. I think something like, it’s not the responsibility of a court to legislate from the bench. The ministry’s decision stands.)

Okay, fine. The original decision should hold. No problem.

Anyway, let’s put that all behind us. How about *now*? Even if the family didn’t meet the (mysterious) criteria six years ago, then *surely* they must meet it now?

It’s as if the Justice Ministry wants to say, “no, because they only stayed in Japan so they could appeal their case. Now that the appeal is over they have to go.”

This might sound plausible, but again, the issue is about the daughters, *not* the parents. It shouldn’t matter why the parents stayed, the fact is they did, and now it will hurt the daughters to send them back. If other families have been allowed to stay for the sake of their children, why not the Amine Family?

Also, note that, at this point, there is no fear of precedence setting, because the precedence has *already* been set.

There’s no clear barrier to granting the family permission to stay.

The Ministry of Justice could *easily* give the family permission to stay if it desired to. In fact, we can tell this by reading the article above. It’s totally up to the Corleones … ahem .. I mean the Justice Ministry to decide what to do here.

There’s no clear logic behind the decision to send the family back. Some people have suggested political problems with Iran. Maybe that’s it. But it’s really disconcerting.

For reference see here.

Further comments from me were posted here.