JAPANS IMMINENT INTERNATIONALIZATION Can Japan Assimilate its Immigrants

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JAPANS IMMINENT INTERNATIONALIZATIONCan Japan
Assimilate its Immigrants?
By ARUDOU DebitoAssociate Professor, Hokkaido
Information UniversityJSAC Annual Conference
2006Thompson Rivers University, October 13, 2006

• Download this paper in Word format at
• www.debito.org/JSACassimilation101306.doc

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Facts to consider

• Japans economy is still about as big as all
  other Asian economies combined.
• Japans economy still has a labor shortage, and
  without foreign labor many domestic industries
  cannot function.

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Shuukan Diamondo June 5, 2004 IMMIGRATION
ARCHIPELAGO JAPAN Without foreigners, the
Toyota System of manufacturing wont work
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Japan needs foreigners!

• With the record-low birthrate and record-high
  lifetime expectancies, the UN predicts Japanese
  society will soon have the highest percentage of
  elderly.
• As of 2006, the Health Ministry says Japans
  population has started to decrease, and will fall
  from 127 to 100 million by 2050.
• (The average annual influx of around 50,000
  foreigners buoyed Japan in the black in 2005.)

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Yes, Japan needs foreigners

• Both the UN and a PM Cabinet survey in 2000
  indicated that Japan must import 600,000 workers
  per year to maintain the current standard of
  living and tax base.
• Japan is already importing foreign workers, to
  alleviate the labor shortage and hollowing out of
  domestic industry.

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The writing on the wall

• Japans number of registered foreigners has risen
  without pause for decades, topping 2 million in
  2005.
• Japans Permanent Residents (???) more than
  doubled between 2000 and 2005, and may outnumber
  the shrinking Zainichi ethnic Korean and Chinese
  generational foreigners within this decade.
• Negligible in 1990, Brazilians now number
  300,000, the third largest body of foreign
  residents (behind the Koreans and Chinese).

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Will immigrants want to stay in Japan?
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Factors conducive to assimilation

• Foreigners can own property.
• Foreigners can found and run their own
  businesses, with reasonable restrictions.
• Marriage to a Japanese is relatively easy, with
  over 40,000 international couples per year
  marrying in Japan.

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Factors not conducive to assimilation

• Foreigners cannot get secure (or any) jobs in
  certain sectors.
• Foreigners are routinely denied lifestyle
  essentials, such as apartments, credit, and
  health insurance.
• Foreigners are being portrayed as a social bane,
  not a boon, by the government and police forces.

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Factors not conducive to assimilation (2)

• Foreigners cannot get juuminhyou Residency
  Certificates or koseki Family Registries. (How
  many countries can you think of that require
  citizenship for formal residency?)
• Foreigners contributions to Japanese society
  remain largely unrecognized, and promoting a
  monoethnic Japan is still official policy.

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JAPAN STILL HAS NO LAW AGAINST RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION

• Without legal protections to safeguard their
  rights, will foreigners want to stay and raise
  families?

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Wakkanai
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Monbetsu
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Rumoi
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Otaru
Sapporo
Nemuro
Ohtaki-mura
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MISAWA, AOMORI PREF.
AKITA CITY
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ISESAKI CITY, GUNMA PREF.
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KOSHIGAYA, SAITAMA PREF. TODA CITY, SAITAMA PREF.
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OHTA CITY, GUNMA PREF.
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KOFU, YAMANASHI PREF.
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TOKYO OGIKUBO TOKYO AOYAMA DOORI TOKYO
SHINBASHI TOKYO SHINJUKU-KU TOKYO KABUKICHO
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KYOTO
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KURASHIKI CITY, OKAYAMA PREF.
HAMAMATSU, SHIZUOKA PREF.
HIROSHIMA
NAGOYA
More information and photos at www.debito.org/rog
uesgallery.html
OKINAWA URUMA CITY
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What Japan must do next

• Institute free language education in reading,
  writing, and spoken Japanese.
• Make elementary education compulsory for all
  children regardless of nationality, and accredit
  more ethnic schools.
• Pass laws and take concrete measures to safeguard
  the human rights for all residents regardless of
  nationality.

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What else Japan must do

• Enact a clear immigration policy to secure stable
  jobs and visas.
• Eliminate the Nationality Clause, and employ
  people by qualification, not nationality.
• Eliminate the grey zone of Zainichi status by
  granting citizenship by birth, granting local
  suffrage, legalizing dual nationality, and
  reducing the arbitrariness of naturalization
  procedures.

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What else Japan must do

• Eliminate the separation of resident and
  citizen fostered by the koseki and
  juuminhyou systems.
• Make public statements from the highest levels of
  government on why foreigners are in Japan, what
  good works they are doing, and how they are
  community residents and taxpayers like everyone
  else.

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