Organizer and Chair: Keiko Yamanaka, University of California, Berkeley
Discussant: John Lie, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Four years after the 1990 reform of immigration law, the foreign worker issue in Japan has become increasingly complex as immigrants' legal status and demographic profile have diversified. The new law grants to second and third generation Nikkeijin (people of Japanese ancestry) a stay of up to three years and unlimited access to the labor market. Other unskilled immigrant workers, most of whom are Asians and have no Japanese ancestry, are undocumented, working illegally, and are therefore subject to discrimination, exploitation and harassment both in the workplace and in the community. Divisions based on nationality, gender and occupation have also grown deeper as immigrants stay longer and develop closer ties with the Japanese community which hosts them as low skilled and low-wage workers.
This panel will comprise a follow up on discussions held among the five participants in the conference, "Foreign Workers in Japan: Gender, Civil Rights, Community Response," organized by the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa and co-sponsored by the East West Center in December, 1993. The theme of the panel will be an examination of the ongoing process of immigrant settlement in Japanese society from legal, political and cultural perspectives. Although the recent economic recession has reduced the demand for immigrant labor somewhat, at least temporarily, the rapidly aging and shrinking domestic labor force ensures the expansion of immigrant populations in the near future. The implications of the participants' analyses of immigrants' interactions with Japanese at this point will be valuable in anticipating and understanding issues and problems that Japan's future multi ethnic and multi lingual society will face.
Ronald C. Brown will initiate the panel by examining legal frameworks under which foreigners are included or excluded from participating in Japanese society. Keiko Yamanaka and Eunice A. Ishikawa Koga will probe the question of what it takes for legal immigrant workers to feel comfortable in, and accepted by, the local host community. Glenda S. Roberts will address the role of NGOs in assisting troubled illegal workers in Japan. Finally, David Groth will confront the issue of human rights of foreign workers by reference to three court cases in the Tokyo metropolitan area. John Lie, our discussant, will draw implications from a comparison of the four papers and may suggest ways to understand the nature of relations between the Japanese and immigrant workers in two historical periods: Koreans and Chinese who arrived at the turn of the century, and those and other Asians, as well as Latin Americans of Japanese descent, who have arrived during the past five years.
Ronald C. Brown, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
This paper examines how international labor obligations (standards, treaties, laws) and Japanese domestic laws apply to and regulate the flow and treatment of foreign workers in Japan. The focus is on how the law provides or fails to provide legal protections and legislative benefits to the foreign workers. Discussed are the differences of treatment to legal and illegal alien workers under laws and employment contracts. Issues arise about the availability of legislative rights and benefits, meaningful access to the courts or enforcement agencies, and the role of labor unions, lawyers, and labor brokers. Some observations and suggestions will be made regarding the role of law as it relates to the non legal practicalities of the needs of business, the workers, and the politics and social and economic implications of foreign labor.
Keiko Yamanaka, University of California, Berkeley;
Eunice A. Ishikawa Koga Ochanomizu University
This research focuses on the industrial concentration of Nikkeijin immigrant workers, primarily from Brazil and Peru, in the labor intensive manufacturing industries in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture and Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. The goal of the study is to understand the immigrants' desire to stay in Japan as unskilled, but legal, guest workers on the one hand, and as legitimate, but often temporary, residents of a local community, on the other. Through surveys and interviews with immigrants, their employers, school teachers, local administrators, voluntary social activists and other providers of various services for the immigrant community, we will examine the process of immigrants' building a social support system. Such a system will enable immigrants, as foreigners, to exchange information, combat hostile environments, enhance personal well being, maintain their cultural identity and finally, facilitate the continuity of their flow into the host country.
The recent international migration literature suggests that it is such social, familial and individual life factors within the immigrant community in the receiving society, together with employment opportunity factors in the sending country, that determine flows of migration into the receiving country, rather than a simple law of labor supply and demand operating between the sending and receiving countries. Our preliminary research findings from Hamamatsu and Toyohashi clearly indicate the rapid and extensive development of Nikkeijin communities in these manufacturing towns, complete with their own commercial and service institutions. Once established, immigrant communities develop their own dynamics and logic, independent of economic and political processes in the host country. Particularly, the presence of women and children tends to strengthen social ties with the local Japanese community through socialization, schooling of children and commercial and voluntary activities.
This study therefore comprises an analysis of the social process of immigrants' possible long term settlement in Japan and a contribution toward policy making regarding their integration into Japanese society without losing their cultural identity.
Glenda S. Roberts, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
This paper investigates the reception of "newcomer" foreign labor in Japanese society through the activities of two non-governmental organizations: one a shelter and counseling center for women, and the other, an independent labor union which organizes over four hundred mostly male workers from seventeen different countries, working mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Both of these organizations are providing a direct response to the "foreign worker problem," pushing the society toward change and questioning generally held assumptions about the place of non-Japanese nationals in Japanese society. This paper results from interview research, observation and literature review carried out during the summer of 1994 in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan, supplemented by additional research planned for December 1994. Although I will focus on two organizations, information on other similar organizations will be included for comparative purposes. The paper:
David Groth, University of Hawai'i, Hilo
Groth's presentation will examine how and to what degree the human rights of foreign migrant workers are being protected in Japan. The working conditions of foreign workers in Japan have attracted major concern. Japanese civic organizations such as Karabao no Kai [Association in Kotobuki for Solidarity with Foreign Migrant Workers] in Yokohama and HELP [House in Emergency in Love and Peace] in Tokyo have documented the problems of foreign workers and made appeals to the United Nations. Even official publications of Japanese ministries and agencies have noted the problems. Analysis will focus on the situation of Thai women, who probably suffer the most problems. In particular, Groth will examine three court cases in the Tokyo area, involving 14 Thai women who have faced murder charges. The presentation will review several approaches to protecting human rights:
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