Print
this page
Email
this page Newsletters - The Impact of Globalisation on Families and Communities
Japan
Although Japan does not issue residential status visas for unskilled foreign workers and these workers, if employed, become classified as “illegal”, Japan has been one of the major destinations for migrant workers.
From 1987, facing the impending population decline, a rapidly ageing society and demands of low-wage service sectors, Japanese financial circles requested the Japanese Government to accept foreigners as trainees. This was obliquely accepted in the case of foreign trainees and those with Japanese ancestry. The result has been a major growth of the number of migrant workers since the 1980s; in January 2006 it was estimated there were 510,000 such workers in Japan mainly from Brazil, China, Korea, and the Philippines. Some 220,000 of these were undocumented and so not covered by the Labour Standards Law and many were forced to work as ordinary workers under the pretext of being in training - most of them on an hourly or daily basis. Many are women, mostly working as “entertainers” in clubs and snack bars and vulnerable to prostitution. Male migrant workers can be found in construction sites of buildings, houses and factories performing the “Three D” jobs (dirty, dangerous and difficult) that are shunned by the Japanese people, particularly the younger generation. Although the Japanese government silently recognises that the Japanese economy needs foreign workers, they do not enact laws for their protection other than the “trainees” and those with Japanese ancestry.
Japan is currently experiencing a serious depression, with an unemployment rate the highest in 60 years, and foreign workers are the first to be affected. Many lose their jobs and others have their hours cut. They have no security such as compensation when injured, no social benefits such as health insurance or protection against unfair dismissal.
Stateless Children
As more migrant workers reside in Japan and form relationships - often with those from their own country - children are born who are undocumented. Undocumented workers’ children, and those who are not legitimised by their Japanese fathers, often have difficulty in being registered with the local government because of their parents’ fear of deportation. From the moment of their birth, these children are considered as illegal residents. They live under constant stress and many have nowhere to stay or to go to school. In 2000, we interviewed 600 foreign children and found that there were 152 who had no alien registration. The Nagoya Youth Centre, which is run by the Chubu Dioceses of the Episcopal Church in Japan, campaigns for these children and supports them through schooling, clubs and advice. The foreign workers’ issue is no longer just one of the workplace but of human rights for them and their families.
Top
