Foreigners (or non-Japanese (NJ)) living and working in Japan have felt discriminated over rights and benefits. Although legal residents, there are establishments around Japan to this day with "Japanese Only" or "No Foreigners" signs. Sounds like the Deep South before the Civil Rights act of 1964, doesn't it?
Generally, in order to even live in Japan a NJ either has to marry a Japanese national or be sponsored by a Japanese company (minimum requirement: a Bachelor's degree). (There are some exceptions.)
All this may be changing if a new immigration policy is worked out and implimented. There's a lot of self-interest involved.
The Japan Times reported:
Last month the Japanese government took baby steps toward an official immigration policy. Ten ministries and several specialist "people of awareness" (yūshikisha) held meetings aimed at creating a "coexistence society" (kyōsei shakai) within which non-Japanese (NJ) would be "accepted" (uke ire).
This is a positive change from the past two decades, when Japan cultivated an unofficial unskilled labor visa regime that a) imported NJ as cheap work units to keep Japanese factories from going bankrupt or moving overseas, and then b) saw NJ as an inconvenient unemployment statistic, fixable by canceling visas or buying them tickets home (JBC, Apr. 7, 2009).
Yes, we've seen this kyōsei sloganeering before. Remember the empty "kokusaika" internationalization mantra of Japan's '80s bubble era?
But this time the government is serious. Sponsored by the Cabinet, these meetings are considering assimilationist ideas suggested by local governments and ignored for a decade.
Why? Attendees acknowledged that Japan needs NJ to revitalize its future economy.
It will be interesting to see if anything positive comes from this. Only time will tell.
To read more, go here.
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