Liberal Japan

Notes on Reluctant Hosts: The Future of Japan as a Country of Immigration by Takeyuki Tsuda (pdf).

[The link to the article now turns up a blank page. Not sure if this is a temporary problem or somethign permanent. For now use this link.]

As this paper is on-line, I’m only going to give very brief notes. This is an excellent paper and I would encourage people interested in this issue to read it entirely and carefully.

1. During Japan’s rapid economic expansion, Japan seemed to get by without the use of immigrants. However, as the author puts it: “By the mid-1980s, however, Japan lost its unique status among First World countries and finally succumbed to the pressures of global migration, demonstrating that no advanced industrialized country can sustain high levels of economic growth forever without becoming dependent on large populations of immigrant workers.”

2. There were about 800,000 unskilled workers in Japan in the mid-90s and many problems emerged.

3. At around the same time Japan was becoming a popular destination for migrants, the country went into a prolonged recession. As this seemed to solve to problem albeit temporarily, interest in the issue seemed to die down somewhat. However, the dynamics that existed then still exist, and the problem has far from gone away.

4. Tsudua reviews standard reasons why Japan will need immigrants. Population declining, unwillingness of young to do the 3D work (dirty, dangerous, dull.). Also the large pool of labor just next door in poorer Asian countries. Several other reason are explored.

5. Quote: “The Structural Embeddedness of Immigrant Labor in the Japanese Economy Two important, long-term changes in the Japanese domestic economy have made Japan a country of immigration: an acute unskilled labor shortage and an increasing need for a casual and flexible labor force.”

6. Tsuda notes that the changes in the Japanese economy he discusses are long-term structural ones not likely to reverse themselves. So the need for immigrants and their inevitable presence is not something that will go away.

7. “In 1989, 46 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector were labor-deficient, and the proportion increased to 58 percent in 1990 (Ministry of Labor Secretariat 1990-1995). Many of these firms were therefore forced to employ foreign workers as the only realistic and cost-efficient source of labor power.”

8. Despite the need for foreign workers, the Japanese government refused to *openly* to admit and to allow in the presence of unskilled workers.

9. Tsuda notes that there are many side-doors through which unskilled labor enters Japan. He notes, Trainees, Students, Entertainers, and Nikkeijin as four main doors.

10. Tsuda argues that the trainee system is merely a facade for a guest worker program.

11. He takes each side-door one at a time and explains how it works.

12. Next Tsuda discusses illegal immigrant labor.

13. “When these different types of illegals are considered, the total number of illegal immigrants in Japan is probably in the 400,000 to 500,000 range.”

14. Tsuda notes that immigration does not really try to stop the illegal immigration but restricts itself to token efforts. A large portion of those caught are those who turn themselves in.

15. There is no cooperation between police and immigration officials. The police do not attempt to find and arrest illegal immigrants, though in theory they could easily do so.

16. Tsuda notes how the presence of large numbers of illegal immigrants leads to serious abuses. Also, these workers but poorly receives, if they receive at all, any social services.

17. “Because of the national government’s refusal to grant basic human rights to foreign workers, a type of “local citizenship” for immigrants is emerging (Pak 2000). However, it is an uneven, haphazard, and uncoordinated conferral of rights without firm governmental guarantees.”

18. Tsuda notes that policy making is not overly democratic, but basically formed by the bureaucracy and rubber stamped by politicians. He has particularly harsh words for the Justice Ministry.

19. Quote: “In fact, two of the most important immigration policies (the trainee program and the admission of the nikkeijin), which have supplied Japan with most of its unskilled immigrant workers, have simply been imposed as Ministry of Justice decrees without Diet scrutiny or ratification or even public notification.”

20. Quote: “Unfortunately, the Ministry of Justice is one of the most conservative, closed-minded institutions in Japanese society that still operates with ideologies of ethnic homogeneity, cultural purity, and a nation-state based on jus sanguinis (the principle of blood and descent). ”

21. Tsuda makes many interesting predictions for how the inevitable presence of migrant workers will be handled. Well worth reading in its entirety. He suggests that unless Japanese policy makers wake and and put together a good policy, they will be overwhelmed by the problems uncontrolled migration will bring.