Liberal Japan

This is part I of outline for chapter 10 of Japan and Global Migration published 2000 by Routledge. The title for the chapter is “Labor law, civil law, immigration law and the reality of migrants and their children.” The author is Katsuko Terasawa a practicing lawyer in Osaka. These notes cover the introduction, pages 219 to 220.
I. Introduction

1. In 1987 there was a labor shortage especially in the area of unskilled labor. Around this same time, large organizations such as Keidanren requested the government to accept foreigners as trainees.

2. The government did accepte foreigners as trainees, and it also began accepting foreigners who had Japanese ancestry.

3. This was a very inadequate response to the economic needs. The result being that by 1996 there were 284,500.

4. Part of the problem lie in government policy, which encourages a core group of employees to be life timers, while encouraging to use temporary or part-time workers to handle the rest. In 1996, temporary workers numbered 10 million, nearly 20% of the entire workforce.

5. 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.”

6. The trainee program that the government instituted in 1990 has become a façade for a visitor work program. As trainees are not covered under labor laws, the program has become a hot bed of human rights abuses.

7. By 1995 the number of foreigners who were allowed into Japan because of their Japanese ancestry was approximately 195,000. Most of this number was made up of unskilled workers.

8. Quote: “Although Japan does not issue residential status visas for unskilled foreign workers, many still come to Japan. they are in miserable conditions. Even foreign workers who legally stay and work in Japan suffer discrimination because of the unstable conditions of their residential status.”