I posted these comments recently to the community in Japan forum at Yahoo:

There’s been a lot of interesting comments on the JET programme, recently. I don’t know that much about it, except that I’ve done the same type of work before and found it mostly unsatisfying.

I just wanted to note that the pattern I see in the JET program seems to be the same pattern I see every where else, it’s for visitors. Come in, work a little while, then go home.

Here’s a quote: “The cornerstone of government migration policy was and remains that of limiting the stay of migrants and assuring their return to their home countries after two or three years.”

That’s from, Katsuko Terasawa, who writes chapter 10 of _Japan and Global Migration_.

Supposedly learning English is about internationalization. However, real internationalization means having people come over here to live. As I’ve said before in this forum, I think teachers should be offered a salary on par with other starting teachers. They should then be given a full time position and then treated as if they will be around for a while. Everything should be done to help them “fit in” and become a part of the community so they will want to stay. They should be treated like ordinary teachers.

Instead, is it not the case that people are treated as guests and everything is explained to them and they don’t really take part in things the way a normal teacher does? (As if there not being Japanese makes it impossible for them.) Is that internationalization?

It seems to me like through such a system, by accident, a lot of good might come about. A JET might be really adaptive, and they might find a school willing to give them the right amount of autonomy. But this doesn’t have to happen, does it? In fact, it could easily be just the opposite.

It seems to me the premises behind the exchange program are that foreigners just can’t fit in to the Japanese school system as teachers, and moreover that they can only fit into society on a temporary basis as visitors. These premises need to be challenged.

Article:
Foreigners, if conspicuous hard to fit in (Jan 24 2007)
Gunma Brazilians Mirror dilemma of closed Japan having to open up

Author:
Joseph Coleman

Source:
Japan Times Online

Comment: Okay, so this is to be a case representative of other and future cases. So let’s read the author’s comments carefully.

Article notes:

1. Coleman describes a Brazilian man, Carlos Watanabe, who along with his bar mates is lonely in Japan. He is: “Isolated, looked down upon, cold-shouldered.” He wants to go back to Brazil but he doesn’t have the money.

Comment: I’m saddened that he wants to return “home”, but why doesn’t he have the money? According to the article he’s been in Japan twelve years. Apparently, since he was sixteen. If I am reading the article correctly, he came to Japan at sixteen years of age to become a factory worker.

2. Coleman lists three complaints the government has about the Brazilians. “The outsiders do not speak enough Japanese. They don’t recycle their trash properly. Their kids don’t get along with their Japanese classmates.”

Comment: These are just examples.

3. The town of Oizumi in Gunma has a population of 42,000 with a 15 percent foreign population.

4. Article sites familiar information about Japan’s population decline.

5. Coleman argues that Oizumi might be Japan’s town of the future and describes how Brazilian features can now be found in the town. Shops and churches and so on.

6. Coleman says, Brazilians do things like slap people on the back, speak in booming voices, and have non-Japanese features. They even take their shirts off. So they stand out among the Japanese.

7. Coleman notes for the second time that Brazilians don’t throw away their trash properly. He also states that they unable or unwilling don’t communicate with the police or file tax returns.

8. Schooling is a problem for Brazilian kids. School is not compulsory for them.

9. Many Brazilians don’t get the same entitlements Japanese workers get because they are hired through labor brokers.

10. Quote: “Above all, the differences are cultural and rife with stereotypes: Latinos playing music late on weekends; teenagers congregating in the streets at night, alarming police.”

Comment: What does it mean to say the differences are rife with stereotypes? Is that a mistake? People view the differences through the lense of stereotypes, but this often produces inaccuracies, right?

11. Coleman again reviews Japan’s perilous population drop.

12. Coleman quotes someone at the immigration bureau who only wants “good” immigrants.

Comment: I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way.

13. Quote: “In 1999, the Brazilian education company Pitagoras opened a school in Ota, a town neighboring Oizumi, to improve the foreign children’s Portuguese and prepare them for a possible return to Brazil. Japan now has six Pitagoras outlets.”

Comment: Now that’s news and that’s interesting. Wonder if this might be a new trend … good? bad?

14. Apparently children at the above schools don’t fit in well in Japan or Brazil. They have a rough time of it.

15. One Brazilian notes “We’re noisy and lazy — they don’t like that.”

Comment: An ironic comment, after all it’s the Nikkeijin who are doing the work the Japanese don’t want to do!

Reading notes for “Migration, globalization and the nation state, Japan” by Yoko Sellek, from The Political Economy of Japanese Globalization edited Hasegawa Harukiyo and Glenn D. Hook, published by Routledge, 2001.

1. Article begins: “In an increasingly globalized world, international migration has to be seen as a complement to other flows and exchanges taking place between countries. During the last two decades or so, the issue of migration has emerged as one of the most serious crises in industrialized nations. The main reason for this is that, in an era of growing economic globalization, when each state is moving towards border-free economic spaces in the world order, the flow of migrants is largely determined by a global labour market, being more or less impervious to governmental policies. It is ultimately impossible to intensify border controls to keep migrants out, so any attempts by government to restrict the entry of migrants result in the growth of an illegal foreign migrant population. The existence of illegal migrants itself demonstrates an erosion of the state’s sovereignty.”

2. Foreign migrants often stay in their new country even after the employment opportunities they sought no longer exist. They form new groups within the country that have significant impacts.

3. Japan is traditionally regarded as having a strict citizen acquisition process, and one that does not encourage immigration. “Although the number of foreign residents with alien registration permits in Japan has continued to increase, the country has the lowest proportion of foreigners of any major industrialized country, with just 1.51 million in 1998, representing only 1.20 per cent of the then total Japanese population of more than 126 million (Ministry of Justice, Immigration Bureau 1999b: 19).”

4. Article notes the phenomena of special residents, in particular Koreans, who born in Japan have grown up there and are socially Japanese, but do not possess citizenship. This is because of Japan’s racially exclusive policies.

5. “Employment opportunities for foreigners in Japan are strictly controlled.” Only skilled workers are allowed in. Despite this there is a growing number of unskilled workers, many not legal.

6. Quote: “This chapter addresses globalization in the migration arena using the case of contemporary Japan. Japan has participated in constructing a global economic system and has grown vastly richer partly as a result of the liberalization of capital flows and trade in goods and services. In parallel with these flows of capital and goods, however, an influx of foreign workers has emerged.”

7. While countries in Western Europe relied on foreign labor to help boost their economies in the 1960s and 1970s, Japan during the same time period used other methods to help boost production. However, since the 1980s as Japan has become increasing part of the global economy with links to many other nations, it has become a major destination for migrants.

8. Factors influencing demand for foreign unskilled labor in Japan include low birth rate, undesirability of 3D work (dirty, dangerous, and dull), both of which lead to a shortage of workers.

9. “These statistics indicate that, although there is no category that accommodates ‘unskilled workers’ in the Immigration Control Act, the reality has become such that a strong polarization exists, on the one hand, between a firm government policy dictating that only small numbers of skilled foreign labourers are to be admitted, and the presence of half a million unskilled foreign workers from Asia and South America, including nearly 270,000 illegal workers according to figures published in July 1999, on the other.”

10. There are two types of demand for workers in Japan. There are those who will bring in expertise that is not readily present in Japan, in particular, those who have skills related to the managing global businesses are wanted. On the other hand in the area of small and medium sized industrial businesses, there is an acute shortage of labor as Japanese no longer want this type of work.

11. There is also a demand for foreigners in education and local government as Japan tries to “internationalize” itself. Also, in rural areas, farmers seek Asian brides.

12. National government officials have tried to maintain their ideals of a ethnically homogenous and harmonious society, with the stark reality of a strong demand for unskilled cheap labor and a near limitless supply.

13. The government tried to resolve the dilemma above by revising immigration laws with the revise Immigration Control Act in June 1990. The idea was to be more strict towards the presence of illegal immigrants, while on the other hand creating side-door methods in which cheap unskilled labor can be brought into Japan, quasi-legally.

14. One main source of legal unskilled labor has been the Nikkeijin. Third-generation “Japanese” living in Latin America can obtain the necessary visas to work in Japan under any occupation. It was hoped that being ethnic Japanese they would be able to acclimatize better to Japan.

15. “As evidenced by the revised Immigration Control Act, the government is proactive towards the expansion of the acceptance of skilled transients in order to improve the country’s position in a globalizing economy, while it is reactive against the influx of illegal foreign workers which has, in a sense, emerged in accordance with the development of new global economic processes.”

16. Quote: “The system of foreign ‘trainees’, the official purpose of which is ‘to contribute to the industrial, social, and economic development of various developing countries through an attempt to transfer technology, technical skills, expertise and/or knowledge which have been accumulated in Japan’ (Ministry of Justice, Immigration Bureau 1996a: 8 ), has been used as a very convenient mechanism for ensuring a constant labour supply through OJT (On-the-Job Training).”

17. The trainee system was first implemented in the 1960s. Companies overseas wanted to send local workers to Japan for training.

18. Quote: “Responding to this long-term pressure, in 1981 the Ministry of Justice introduced the status of residence 4-1-6 (Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 6) which was originally established to accept foreign students (Ministry of Justice, Immigration Bureau 1999d: 3). In April 1993 the Ministry of Justice implemented the Technical Intern Training Programme, which permits trainees to engage in employment, including manual labour, for a certain period after the completion of their actual training. Compared with the original trainee scheme, the new Technical Intern Training Programme gives trainees many more rights as ‘workers’ and, in 1997, the ministry further extended the programme by extending the retention period for trainees from the original two years to three years. 2 Furthermore, according to the basic principle of immigration policy in 2000, the ministry is prepared to extend the programme even further by increasing the range and types of skill covered by the programme. It will include caring for elderly people as a part of the measures against the country’s demographic trends, which include reduced fertility rates and rapid population ageing (Asahi Shinbun 14 January 2000).”

19. Quote: “Both the original trainee system and the Technical Intern Training Programme not only provide a mechanism for the legal supply of ‘unskilled labour’ to companies suffering from shortages of labour, but also contribute to an external perception of Japan as a leader in Asia through the system’s stated objectives of human capital development and technology transfer. Also, the expectation is that the system of foreign trainees will not generate many of the social problems that have plagued Western countries that have received foreign workers in the past, since they would normally come to Japan for only a limited period of time without bringing their families.”

20. Another side-door mechanism detailed is through “pre-college” students who are allowed to work up to four hours a day legally. Many of them actually work much more. Laws were adjusted to help curtail this in 1993. This had an impact on many of the Chinese who had been taking advantage of this loop-hole. However, giving that student enrollment is declining in Japan, in order to help support the university system, the government again revised these laws in 1997, relaxing the requirement that students must have guarantors. Most who work under a student visa do so in the service industry.

21. Quote: “The main concern of the government, in particular during the recession, has been to prevent Japan from following the experience of Western Europe after the oil crisis of 1973. What the government is anxious about is that, just as in the West European experience, the first phase of labour migration might merge into a second phase of family reunification, and these migrations might then result in demands for increased expenditure on housing, schooling, and medical and social facilities. On the surface, this concern in relation to immigration control may appear to be economic. It is, however, more than that. As in other countries, the core of immigration control in Japan is political and is closely associated with the nature of the sovereign state. Underlying the nature of the sovereign state is a doctrine of social, ethnic and linguistic homogeneity. As these various elements of homogeneity break down, the policy-making elite needs to take counter-measures in order to maintain the fundamental characteristics of the state. The fear is of losing control of the population which, in turn, will undermine the elite’s power. In the case of Japan, which sees itself as closed and ethnically homogeneous, fear of the emergence of various groups of foreigners who could dilute this homogeneity is obviously significant.”

22. The author notes that while the prolonged recession decreased the number of illegal immigrants, that most illegal immigrants are now staying on much longer. “In 1998, those who had stayed in Japan longer than five years comprised 25.7 per cent of the total number of apprehended illegal foreign workers ( Japan Immigration Association 1999a: 58).”

23. The author notes that regarding Nikkeijin, that while the original wave that came in during the bubble era were those who could speak some Japanese, a second wave of immigrants has now emerged, and they often do not speak Japanese nor have any familiarity with its customs. Also, now more people are coming with their entire families.

24. Also, as far as Nikkeijin are concerned, utilizing cable and satellite television they can watch their home programs. Stores catering to their special needs have sprung up. Communication prices have greatly diminished, and there is much less emotional distance than there previous was. Communities in Aichi, Shizuoka and Gunma have taken root.

25. The number of registered foreigners has continued to increase despite the prolonged recession.

26. Quote: “Initially, the Japanese government put most of its effort in the field of immigration control into controlling the national border, being mainly concerned with short-term economic gain through the fulfilment of labour requirements. However, these foreigners often reside in Japan much longer than the government had initially expected, which conflicts with the country’s traditional immigration policy, i.e. that all foreigners should be admitted on a temporary basis only. As these foreigners are beginning to be accepted as ordinary, rather than exceptional, foreigners, their economically driven migration has eventually spilled over into the social, cultural and political domains of Japanese society and some of the components of sovereign power over immigration control in Japan have been influenced and reshaped by their existence. Problems arising from having a large number of foreign residents in Japanese society tend to rise to the surface where the existing social system has not yet accommodated the requirements of such non-Japanese. They include, for example, various social services such as education for foreign children and health insurance. The main dilemma for the government is that, although it possesses exclusive authority to define its nationals as well as to control the entry of non-nationals like any sovereign state, because non-nationals reside in Japan for long periods of time and eventually create precedents as ‘residents’, the government inevitably becomes more and more accountable to all its residents, regardless of their nationalities, as increasing focus comes to be placed on their human rights. Issues related to medical care and health insurance schemes for foreign residents illustrate this dilemma.”

27. Author spends a considerable amount of space discussing National Health Insurance programme. The system in anachronistic and ill suited for the new immigrants needs. Very good analysis here.

28. Quote: “Although Japan may still wish to see itself as closed and ethnically homogeneous, Japanese society today paints a different picture, pointing towards the emergence of a society in which multiple cultures and affiliations going beyond the nation state are being syncretized in a complex way. For the Japanese, the existence of foreign workers as ‘residents’ may be seen as the internal globalization of society and the identity of the Japanese people. Traditionally, the Japanese people have been territorializing their identity on the basis of myths of ethnic purity and of cultural homogeneity. The current situation in which transnational identities have been increasingly proliferating will certainly represent a threat for the Japanese people and will eventually erode their national identity or may create countervailing tendencies such as racism.”

members has come in during the prolonged recession. Also, those who now come to Japan with their entire family has also increased.

Article:
Migration News Vol. 14 No. 1: Japan, Korea

Source:
Migration News

1.

Foreign trainees work in Japan for one year; they can remain two more years as advanced trainees at higher wages. Trainees often work long hours for below-minimum wages, earning about $15,000 a year while the minimum wage yields $28,000 a year.

A Justice Ministry investigation reported that 9,500 foreign trainees had absconded between 2000 and 2006. Some abscond because they can earn more as unauthorized workers, especially since many Japanese firms do not pay even the lower-than-minimum wages due trainees. A 2005 survey found that 80 percent of the 730 firms with foreign trainees were violating the Labor Standards Law and the Minimum Wages Law.

Some 83,319 foreign trainees were admitted to Japan in 2005, including 55,150 from China. Most are employed in small manufacturing companies and farms, and they are supposed to receive training to compensate for their low wages. However, many are required to work long hours, and if they complain their employers threaten to fire them, which leads to their removal from Japan. Reformers want to convert trainees to guest workers who would be subject to labor laws, and reform the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization, which administers the trainee program, to increase monitoring of trainee conditions.

Comment: Great statistics. As I read this, the information is coming directly from the Ministry of Justice.

2.

The OECD’s July 2006 survey of Japan included a section on migrant workers (pp189-192), noting that postwar Japan has not been a country of significant immigration or emigration. In 2002, the 180,000 legal foreign workers in Japan, a third entertainers, were 0.3 percent of the labor force, and adding in descendants of Japanese emigrants (234,000), foreign students who work part time (83,000) and trainees (46,000), and unauthorized migrants (221,000), brings the total to 760,000, or 1.1 percent of the labor force. The OECD urged Japan to increase female labor force participation by changing tax laws, reducing discrimination and increasing childcare facilities.

Comment: Useful statistics. The OECD might want to urge Japan to increase female labor, but as I understand it the percentage of females already working is quite high. Moreover, if people want to increase the fertility rate, encouraging more females to work may not help. I’m not sure. Ultimately, I don’t like it when the government meddles into the personal lives of people in such a manner as to encourage or discourage them to have children.

Article:
Japan Shrinks (Nov 20, 2006)

Author:
Fred Hiatt

Source:
Washington Post

Comment:
What I don’t like about this article is one is left reading it and thinking that immigration won’t even play a role in Japan’s future, but the population will be allowed to slide to lower and lower levels while the country some how copes. Also, the article repeats the fallacy that Japan is ethnically cohesive.

Notes on article:
1. Quote:

Japan has embarked on a path no developed nation has ever followed — of sustained and inexorable population decline.

Comment: Well, has it? I mean it’s a done deal, then? No immigrants?

2. Italy, Russia, and South Korea are also getting smaller. The US is the only advanced nation which has an increasing population. This is not only because of immigration but because of a high birthrate.

Comment: Is America’s rate really that high? I’d like to see some demographics of this. I also wonder which segments of the population are increasing fastest. Is it the low-income ones?

3. Japan’s population sank by 21,000 last year (2005).

4. Hitoshi Suziki has written a book Population Decline is not Something We Need to Fear.

5. For a population to maintain itself the birthrate needs to be 2.1. Once the birthrate drops to 1.5 and stays there for any period of time, it’s very hard to recover. China has a birthrate of 1.7. Japan’s birthrate is 1.25.

6. Japan’s current population of about 128 million will drop to about 100 million by mid-century.

7.

In 1965 there were 25 million children in Japan, 67 million people of working age and 6 million senior citizens. In 2050 there will be 11 million children, 54 million potential workers and 36 million people 65 and over.

Comment: Those are some stark statistics.

8. There will be many dependents for every productive worker, so it’s not clear how such a society would function.

9.

Faced with this prospect, a country could choose to fight (raise the birthrate) or cope (prepare to manage the consequences). Japan gives lip service to the former.

Comment: Interesting.

10.

In truth, Japan doesn’t seem to want to change as it would have to in order to increase the birthrate. Japanese women say in surveys that they want two children, but they delay or abstain from marriage and motherhood in astonishing numbers because fathers don’t help around the house, because mothers feel isolated in tiny apartments and because it’s so hard for a woman to combine career and motherhood.

Comment: These are the standar reasons always given, but I think the real answer is there isn’t a theory out there that stands up well to criticism explaining why the birthrate is declining.

11.

When I asked Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week … [he] said his aim is to provide choices so mothers can work or stay home as they see fit. But he also made clear that he is focused on the coping rather than the preventing: “Even considering the decline in the population, I am convinced Japan will be able to continue on a path of growth,” he said. The trick will be “innovation,” Abe said, and economic reform.

Comment: How about immigration? New reasons not to think highly of Abe.

12.

In fact, robots and other ways to improve productivity are one of four possible routes to economic growth despite an aging population. The others would be making better use of women; immigration, which has increased slightly but remains unpopular in this ethnically cohesive country; and keeping the elderly working longer. According to Naohiro Ogawa, a population expert at Nihon University, if every healthy elderly person worked, Japan’s total economy in 2025 would be worth 791 trillion yen instead of the currently projected 619 trillion yen, an increase of 28 percent. Just raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 would produce a 12 percent increase.

Comment: Okay, I really have no idea what the truth is here, but I have to admit that on the surface this actually sounds stupid. First, as I’ve noted elsewhere, 56% of people between 60 and 65 have already continued working, and this was as early as 1994. Second, the elderly will be incapable of doing unskilled labor, at least most of them will be. So whose going to do the dirty, dangerous, and dull work that needs to get done. Don’t even get me started on robots! Female workers are already a large part of the work force. So the answer here is clearly immigration with or without government approval. The views here are really irresponsible.

Article:
Fair pay urged for Filipino nurses

Source:
Japan Times Online

Comment:
If the current draft discussed in this article gets passed that will be good news for Filipino nurses.

Notes on article:

1. Quote:

A draft government guideline for employers hiring nurses and caregivers from the Philippines says they should be paid the same as their Japanese colleagues, according to labor ministry officials.
Japan is to accept up to 400 nurses and 600 caregivers from the Philippines between fiscal 2007 and 2008 under a free-trade agreement signed in September.
The guideline drafted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is aimed at preventing the Filipinos from having to work under unfair labor conditions, officials said.
Currently, foreign trainees in the machinery and agricultural industries tend to get lower pay than their Japanese counterparts.

Comment: Those numbers seem really small, but I guess if this works out then they can be ratcheted up as the need arises in the future. I hope this works out and that turns out to be the case.

2. Other conditions of employment are specified in the article.

Article:
Mixed results with foreign influx

Author:
Tony McNicol

Source:
The Japan Times Online

Comment:
This article is light-weight and seems contains little that’s new. However, I’m glad that the issue of immigration is continuing to get attention. If someone were new to the issue, the article would be a good introduction.

Notes on Article:

1. Details Nishi-Kasai as a home of over 1000 Indians. The Indians there have developed their own local community.

2. Article reviews standard statistics for Japan’s decreasing population.

3. Article notes that Japan has only 2 million foreign residents. (Article fails to mention that there are probably between 400,000 to 500,000 illegal immigrants in Japan.)

4. Quote:

In 2000, visa rules were changed to help attract skilled workers to come to Japan. The number of “engineer” visas increased 10 times between 1995 and 2005, many given to workers from India’s booming IT sector. The Indian population in Japan has more than doubled since 2000. “The time it took to get visas was reduced from 6 months to a few days,” says Manish Prabhune. “If a customer tells me tomorrow that they want two engineers from India, I can fly them out in a week.”

Comment:
That’s great, but really 2000 is pretty small number. I’m guessing that the main area where Japan will need assistance will be unskilled labor.

5. Quote:

But business leaders say that the foreign skilled workers currently in Japan meet just a fraction of Japanese industry’s needs. Keidanren (The Japan Business Federation) is calling for a radical overhaul of Japan’s immigration policy. Last year, a policy statement advocated the creation of a “multicultural” society through a raft of measures to draw foreign in workers. It also criticized current government policy for “lacking direction” and called for an independent government body to coordinate a proactive immigration policy.

Comment: I want to look into this. Is Keidanren calling for more unskilled workers or more skilled workers or both? And which would lead to the multi-cultural society envisioned here? Again there are already between 400,000 to 500,000 illegal, unskilled workers in Japan. To get things started, I say grant them amnesty

6. Author discusses some other very optimistic estimates of what Japan could be like in the future as a multicultural society. The views of Sakanaka Hidenori are discussed, and reference is made to Immigration Battle Diary.

7. Author discusses problems foreigners are already having in Japan, language, acceptance, medical care, etc.

8. Article ends:

But if the decision is left too long, he worries that a smaller, aged Japan might find itself unable to attract the workers it needs. “Japan needs to decide its policy while it is still economically strong and attractive to immigrants,” he warns.

Comment: That’s an interesting point.

Article:
Iran family wins new stay — till Feb. 16

Source:
Japan Times Online

Comment:
I have been following this story and at some point want to summarize what has happened so far on this blog. However now I only have time to put up a link!

Recently Debito commented about the requirements to get a spouse visa in Japan.

As usual Debito makes some really good points. There are several ways to look at these questions, but let me merely make a modest proposal and judge the questions based on two criteria:

First criteria - Objectivity - do the questions offer an objective for the judging immigration official to determine eligibility or not. For example, compare (a) and (b) below

a. Express how dearly you love your spouse.
b. show proof you met twice before marriage.

Second Criteria - Relevance - Are the questions relevant to determining if the couple is really married? For example, a question like, do you both like chocolate ice cream? isn’t really relevant, is it? However, a question like have you met twice previous to your marriage is at least *more* relevant. In the case of most real marriages people have met twice before they were married. (Even here though there might be some glaring exceptions.)

Now the reason for objectivity is because you don’t want immigration officials deciding whether or not to admit someone based on their subjective whims. Otherwise, some officials will lean left and others right and you’ll have arbitrary justice. It’s inevitable.

At least one commentator on Debito’s blog doesn’t grasp this.

The reason for relevance is because naturally the questions should be as little invasive as possible. Officials shouldn’t take their authority as a chance to pry into people’s personal lives any more than is necessary to accomplish their jobs.

So, bearing this in mind let me look at some of the questions, note these questions are from the entry at Debito’s blog already cited above.

SECTION TWO asks for your love story, from meeting until marriage. It gives you nearly a page (attach more if you need) to write down the date you met, where you met, whether or not you were introduced, and your whole love life (kekkon ni itatta kei’i, ikisatsu) until you got married.

Objectivity: How is an immigration official to determine which love story is true and which isn’t? Is he to be truth-sayer and merely divine which story is more real than the other? If information like this is admitted into the decisions process it can only help make the decision *more* not less arbitrary.

Relevance: How is it that *real* marriages are to come about? Clearly, there’s no answer here, so I’m at a loss as to how one story should be preferred over another. As there can’t be a preference for one story over another, then the question is irrelevant.

SECTION THREE gets into the linguistics of your relationship. It asks what language you speak together, what your native tongues are, how well you understand each other (with four possible boxes to check), and how the foreigner learned his or her Japanese (again, be specific–there are four lines provided).

Objectivity: If language is important than give a language test. What if a person actual does speak a kind of pidgin *Japanese* with their spouse all the time, but then in front of an immigration official gets unintentionally mealy mouthed and can’t get out a clear expression in Japanese, then the immigration official decides then that the applicant *lied* when they said they spoke Japanese to their spouse all the time. What a mess!

Relevance: I guess an argument could be made that in order for the couple to have a *successful* marriage they need to speak the same language. Maybe. But clearly immigrations officials aren’t *suppose* to be determining if the marriage *will* be successful, but if it is legitimate. Along these lines, I’m sure people who don’t communicate well often get married, even when they speak the same language. So, I don’t see this question as being relevant. Of course, if immigration officials want to require a minimal amount of Japanese competency to live in Japan that’s a separate issue.

SECTION FIVE asks about the fanfare. If you held a wedding ceremony or a party (doesn’t indicate where–I guess that includes overseas bashes too), give the date and address. How many people attended–give a number. Who came? Choose from the appropriate seven types of family members: Father, mother, older brother, older sister…

Objectivity: So long as its just a description a person could easily lie. So, its up to the immigration official to divine the truth. Clearly this is unacceptably subjective. One official will think one story is true, another will think the same story is false. Hopeless. Note that these days even photos are easily faked.

Relevance: Some people have small private weddings at city hall, others have extravagant affairs at a church or temple. So? Even supposing we got a true story is one marriage method favored over another? I hope not.

SECTION SEVEN asks how many times your foreign client, sorry, spouse, traveled to Japan and for how long. Give dates and reasons. SECTION EIGHT asks how many times you Japanese spouse went to the foreigner’s home country. Same data, please, except there are two specific sections devoted to how many times you’ve crossed the border since you met, then how many times since you married.

Objectivity: The one good thing here is that these questions can be made objective by requiring proof. Passport stamps, air plane ticket receipts can be used and so on. However, note that there is probably *no* rule about how many times the couple has had to meet before and after their marriage. Once, twice, three times? If there’s a rule it *must* be made explicit. Otherwise, how do we know the official is not making their decisions arbitrarily.

Relevance: I’m kind of back and forth on this. Note that if they make it an explicit rule that the couple must meet at least twice before or after marriage, then the couple will just have to do that. That’s not so bad, because as long as the couple really care for each other they will probably find a way to do this. It’s an imperfect world, and this would be an imperfect rule, but at least it would be objective. Note though, as things stand the above request is *not* objective as noted.

SECTION ELEVEN wants you to fill out your entire family tree, with names, ages, addresses, and phone numbers in both Japan and the foreigner’s country. A separate chart is provided for the happy international couple to give the names, birth dates, and addresses of their children. Create for us an entire Koseki listing.

Objectivity: Unless some kind of proof is required then again the truth of such statements is merely a judgement call by the immigration official. So if this is to be a requirement of some kind, then *proof* of some sort should be required.

Relevance: I’m at a loss as to what relevance this has. Of course, if prior to entering Japan, immigration officials want to make this a requirement for everyone, then that’s a different issue. But what is the relevance here?

Finally, SECTION TWELVE asks who in both your families knew about your marriage. Again, circle the appropriate types of family members.

Objectivity: Again people can just lie as they will. If this is to enter into the decision process it must do so in an objective manner. There should be signed and notarized statements. I’m not kidding. Just asking people to report this stuff is inane.

Relevance: I don’t see any relevance here.

I’d like to note that this topic came up for discussion in the community group forum. Without citing specific names or quotes, I want to note two comments, which I’ll only paraphrase here.

One, perhaps the idea is to just ask lots of questions and then look for inconsistencies. There is probably a lot of truth to this. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is a method used in other countries as well. However, does that make this method acceptable? I can’t help but think that it seems to presume guilt of some kind. Moreover, it almost sounds like entrapment. I can’t help but think that my wife and I, who are legitimately married (I hope!!), would totally mess up. Also, I sincerely doubt that methods like this really are effective.

Two, another commentator in the community forum suggested these arguments are just about bureaucrats and politicians covering themselves. I think that this is the truth of the matter. I would go further and add that these questions almost certain defy certain rights that people have under the Japanese constitution. People will almost immediately respond that, first, the applicant is *not* in Japan, and second they are *not* Japanese citizens. However, I’ll note that the constitution is the supreme law of Japan. So all government officials are bound by it in their actions. Moreover, most rights in the constitution apply to non-citizens. Of course, the reality is that *most* (all?) governments routinely ignore their constitutions when taking actions with non-citizens abroad. Why are they able to do this? In short, because no one really cares.

I’d like to note that there probably is a problem with false marriages in Japan. There are probably illegal brokers and entire syndics who make a business of this. The question is, can the procedures above really put a stop to this. I don’t see how. So the question is what would put a stop to it? This is something to think about …

I will in the future try to look into getting some statistics on this and to review the procedures of other countries.

For those interested in the case of America, click here.

Article:
Government plans projects to boost jobs for over-70s

Source:
The Yomiuri Online

Comment:
Not sure what to think of this. I don’t have any problem with someone working on even after they are 70 if they wish, but what exactly does the government expect from such a program? Perhaps this is less about solving the labor shortage problem and more about trying to save the various social welfare programs that will be underfunded? Certainly one way to keep out immigrants won’t be through keeping people working till they are at an advanced age, right?

Notes from article:

1. Quote: “The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will launch in fiscal 2007 projects to promote the employment of senior citizens aged 70 and older, setting up a new subsidy system that will provide up to 1.6 million yen to small and midsize companies that extend the retirement age, it has been learned.
The ministry also plans to select during the year “100 pioneer companies” that extend the retirement age to 70.”

2. Quote: “The amended law for the stabilization of employment of elderly people, which was enforced in April 2006, obligates companies to raise the mandatory retirement age for their employees in a phased manner.
However, there is no legal obligation regarding people aged 70 and older.”