Category Archives: Immigration

Refugees in Japan

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by Koichi Sugimoto

There are so many refugees in the world, and they are abandoned by their own government. They are getting a lot of troubles such as living, eating, working and raising children, so they have to find a place which they can be alive. In my opinion, Japan should accept refugees. In this blog, I am going to argue how refugees in Japan spend their lives by using things I learned in the class in terms of Japan’s policy, and how much benefits Japan can get.

Now, refugees in Japan are facing harsh reality because the government of Japan has taken a restricted approach to the protection of refugees. For example, when refugees apply for refugee status, they have to be approved by the Ministry of Justice within 6 months of entering Japan with effective evidence. It’s very hard for them because they escaped from their homeland to Japan for requiring more comfortable conditions, so they had have no time to organize evidence. In practice, when they are interviewed to get refugee status, the interviewer often says that is your country such a desperate circumstance? I don’t think so. You can back to there. Therefore, people who are approved as refugee in Japan are very less compared with other developed countries. Moreover, they need a visa to live in Japan, but it’s also difficult. If they cannot get it, they are regarded as illegal resident by the government. If that is exposed, they will be taken to a prison by the police, that is, they are arrested.

By the way, the present Japan’s economic conditions is not so good, and also the government is required to improve this condition, but now actually the Democratic Party of Japan is going to go out of power with declining of an approval rating. What is the way out of the present situation? That’s related to refugees. That’s why I think admitting refugees can be a key to improve economic situation. Refugees are surely not good at speaking Japanese, and also their cultures are different from Japan. They have different values, so that sounds like it is difficult to fit in Japanese society. However, they can be good workers in Japan. Recently people tend to change the job from the upper class to the lower class, that is, they try to get good working conditions such as treatment and pay. On the other hand, people gradually leave a severe working, and then refugees can be an important factor for improving that. They may become workers who can do a job which Japanese people don’t like. If so, this condition will be improved. This is my argument, but some people may think a bad point that refugees have a possibility to cause a crime, or it’s hard to study Japanese and raise children, but first actually all refugees have no possibility to cause a crime. That is Japanese prejudice, and Japanese tend to have that image. It’s a mere guess. Second, Japanese may be difficult for them, but the time will be able to solve this problem, and about their children, the government should take care of them in the beginning.

For the above reasons, the government of Japan should admit refugees, but to do that, they need to make a system to make this problem going well.

Refugees in Japan

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by Kie Maruoka

The Japanese government affirms that “refugee assistance is a bounden duty of a member of the international community,” and “one of the important pillars of Japan’s contribution to world peace and prosperity.” The Japanese Government also gives money to foreign countries for refugees. Japan is the third-largest donor after the U.S. and EU. However, money is not everything, and the reality in Japan is serious. Many refugees escape from their home country to Japan. And the number of refugees that the Japanese government admitted is very small. In 2001, Japan admitted 26 refugees even though more than million people in the world are hoping to be accepted as refugee. Moreover in the same year, the US accepted more than 20,000 people as refugees. Takizawa Saburo, who is the UNHCR Representative in Japan, says that “The ratio of asylum seekers coming to japan is only 0.0013％.”

Also even if people are admitted as refugees in Japan, their life is not comfortable. Those people can’t get a job easily because of the lack of the Japanese skills and the restriction of the refugees’ access to information. They don’t have many friends who they can rely on. So they can’t gain information enough. Also if they can get a job, their job is very hard. From the research, at the refugee camps in Thailand, Japanese government is showing ‘promotion video’ which says that Japan is a safe country where people can easily live with few problems. So if Japanese government wants to appeal that we welcome refugees to the world, they should adopt more refugees and establish more supporting program for refugees.

In the debate last week, I heard some demerits of accepting refugees in Japan. It is true that now the unemployment problem is serious in Japan. So if more refugees come into Japan, this problem may become more serious. However, in my opinion, this problem is different. Those people who want to be accepted as refugees experienced very serious situation in their home country. Their daily life is not guaranteed and they are always facing dangerous happenings in their home country. Therefore in Japan, as a one of the international society, we should consider what we can do for those people. And the governments need to try to help and to establish better programs for them.

Refugees in Japan

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by Akifumi Kamamoto

From my research and our classes, I found that Japan has a strict policy toward refugees although the number of refugees is increasing. You can see the clear statistics that Japan is not tolerant toward refugees, on the other side many countries receive much more refugees. Of course Japan has policy of refugee protection, too. However there are some problems in the policy and they make the difficult situation for refugees.

It is said that there are four contents which make refugee application difficult in refugee application procedures. First, they have to make application within 60 days when they come to Japan or they are regarded as refugee. If they missed the deadline, they could not be regarded as legal refugee and could not get any protection. Second, there are some lacks in the policy about their capacity to live in Japan and protection of refugees. In fact these policies exist, but these standards don’t come up to that of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Third, those who apply to be refugee in Japan cannot get legal standing during application. So they are treated as the same as foreigner who don’t have right to live in Japan then. Finally, Japanese government thinks that it is more important to recognize to be refugee under the judge by political and diplomatic reasons than under the judge by rule of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. These problems make receiving refugees much more difficult.

Although these problems are pointed out seriously, these days refugee application procedures in Japan is improved gradually through comprehensive action by the government or residential society. As a result, there is the statistics that the number of receiving refugees is increasing. Also, the third country residents (第三国定住) program, which is adopted the first in Asia, is paid attention.

In conclusion, I think Japan is improving its thought about refugees. Although Japan has some risks when it accepts them, Japan should be more tolerant toward them. Some refugees cannot stay and live in their own countries, and have to leave in order to continue to live. At the same time, Japan has problems, such as a declining birthrate or a labor shortage in the country or so. Then, we need the power and cooperation of refugees. So, I think Japan should receive much more refugees in order to help them and to improve our society.

References

UNHCR JAPAN (2012/11/13) http://www.unhcr.or.jp/html/protect.html

日本の難民制度・難民政策(2012/11/13) http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~pinktri/afghan/japanrefugee.html

Japan’s attitude toward refugees

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by Yuuka Kageyama

According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2011, only 21 of applicants are accepted as refugees in Japan although 1,867 people have been wishing. It is clear that Japan has accepted small number of refugees compared to other developed countries and the way to support refugees in Japan need improving.

Although many countries have accepted and assisted refugees, there are still so many people who are suffering from humanitarian problems such as persecution, discrimination and abuse of human right in their countries. They don’t have house to live in because they are ejected during war or conflict. Considering this situation in the world, should Japan accept more refugees?  There are many points to consider in discussing this program. First, Japan cannot afford to help them very well because Japan’s national debt is getting larger and larger. Moreover, Japan has still many people who are living in the tent and requiring aid in Tohoku region after the earthquake. Second, Japan’s society and community is difficult to fit in because of the difference of culture and language, that is, the refugees accepted in Japan may be faced with many difference, difficulty and even discrimination

However, as Japan is often pointed out about its negative attitude toward refugee policy by other countries, I think Japan should accept more refugees and take more care of them in Japan economically, politically, culturally, physically and mentally. The reasons are as follows;

First, Japan had ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which means Japan has a responsibility to protect refugees. If Japan keeps its negative attitude toward this policy, it can be said that Japan is pushing it responsibility off onto other member nations.

Second, the problems on refugees are relating to the fundamental human right. Some people may say that Japan’s government should focus on its citizen’s lives first. It may be reasonable to claim like that in part but I want to ask that which is more important and prior, to ensure human rights and the right to life, or to be better off in high standard level of life.

I don’t mean that government should make light of the life of citizen in Japan nor their lives should be sacrifices. However, it would be too late that the government starts to take measures about refugees seriously after solving Japan’s internal problem completely.

The situation of refugees in Japan

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by Akisato Fujita

According to Japan Association for Refugees, the number of people who come to Japan as refugees has increased rapidly. From 1999 to 2009, the number of the people has been more than 5,594, which is more than 6 times compared to 889 from 1989 to 1999. However, in fact, Japan does not take a positive attitude toward recognizing them as refugees and accepting them. For example, in 2009, 1,388 people made the application to refugees of Japan, but the Japanese Government recognized only 30 people as refugees. In addition, even though the government decides to accept refugees, there are not enough systems and laws for them in Japan. It is natural that they know nothing about Japanese language, society and custom. Therefore, the government has a duty to support them, but now, it cannot be said that the support is sufficient.

It is thought that Japan should improve this situation considering the international and national issues. First, Japan could be criticized by other countries because of not contributing to the international society as one of the developed countries. Japan is one of the countries which signed the 1951 UN Conventions Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Therefore, Japan has an obligation to save refugees actively. Japan Association for Refugees reports that about 34 percent of the world’s refugees (3.82 million people) are in the Asia-Pacific Ocean region. It is considered that accepting these people could show Japan’s affirmative attitude toward the problem of refugees, and it would connect to enhancing the status of the international community. Second, the number of people in Japan has been decreasing today. Now, the population of Japan is about 120 million. However, according to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it is estimated that the total population would decrease to 90 million people, and the rate of aging would become close to 40% by 2060. It means that the working population in Japan would become smaller and the economy should become weak in the future. In order to solve this problem, accepting refugees as the work force could be an effective way. They would work in Japan and sustain Japanese economy and society.

There are some negative opinions about admitting more refugees in Japan, but refugees could have positive influences on Japan. In short, Japan should get ready for the laws and systems for refugees which guarantee their status as refugees and make their life in Japan comfortable, and accept more refugees.

Non-Japanese and Hafu in Japan

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by Maho Machida

Nowadays, in Japan, many “hafu” can be seen in variety shows and fashion magazine. So, many Japanese people associate cool or cute people who are white and Japanese with “hafu”, I think. And I have never pay attention to how “hafu” form their identity in Japan before I learned it in class. I think many “hafu” who live in Japan experience some hardships which we Japanese don’t notice.

Referring to these people as “hafu” seems to be controversial. In my opinion, this term doesn’t include negative meanings. However, by calling so, we unconsciously distinguish non-Japanese from us. So, some feel uncomfortable with this labeling, if they have their identity as Japanese as they are brought up in Japan. In addition, there is a possibility that the term “hafu” imply incomplete Japanese. Therefore, these days, it becomes better to use “double” instead of it. But I think that both “hafu” and “double” could prevent them from participating in Japanese group. Both are sort another category different from “Japanese”. Therefore, it would be the best way to call them as their name, like Japanese people. The more the globalization proceeds, the more Japanese society gets diversified. So, I hope a flexible and generous society where there is no need to use “hafu” and “double”.

Japanese idea of citizenship is ethnic and exclusive, I think. There are some limits on jobs and the right to vote for non-Japanese. Historically, we have shaped our own identity and made a system in relatively homogeneous country. Japan seems to be not able to keep up with dramatically changing members of Japan. More and more people have got married to non-Japanese. Moreover, more and more people have come to Japan as immigrants and worker. Nevertheless, the number of signboards and menu cards written in both Japanese and English in Japan seems to be small, I think. And, some Japanese still have a prejudice against “gaijin”. For example, they think Japan becomes unsafe as the number of “gaijin” increases. However, in fact, the number of crimes committed by foreigners in Japan is not very large. Because of its rarity, it is focused on too much.

Thanks to the development of the Internet, we get connect more easily with the world. By using SNS, we communicate more easily with people from all over the word. In that point, our generation is more open to non-Japanese people than the past. So, I hope that Japan become comfortable to live in for non-Japanese people.

Passive and Active Identities

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by Kohei Nomura

In Japan, the mixed-ethnic minorities are called “hafu” which means half. Most Japanese people who are based on Japanese ethnicity and culture accept this word “hafu” with something good images like a blur. However, and therefore, problems which mixed-ethnic minorities have tend to remain and be hidden in the Japanese unified society.

I belong to entire Japanese ethnicity, so that what I should do to fit in the Japanese society was just growing up among the environment. At the same time, it automatically helps forming my identity as a person. It was a quite passive process to me. However, mixed-ethnic minorities in Japan should be more active to form their identity because they have several roots and this situation may be unique among their environment. They should search and find their identities, the countries they will live, the way to interpret who they are and so on. Moreover, if they are hybrid of different skin colors, they might not be seen as “Japanese” even if they decided to live more like “Japanese”. In fact, Hafu Project Booklet (Lise, 2011) which is a brochure of a project to spread mixed-ethnic people’s lives shows several experiences of mixed-ethnic people. Some of them say they were aware of being different and forced to think that it cannot be helped. Mixed-ethnic minorities have to try forming their identities and let them be accepted by themselves. The process is not the things which Japanese-ethnic people fully understand. That is why I think the problems which mixed-ethnic minorities have are hidden in Japan.

However, we can know and respect the way to live as mixed-ethnic minorities. It is quite different from the general “hafu” images I previously mentioned. To spread this reality and let Japanese people think of the mixed-ethnic people’s struggle, we all would be able to make effort to create better Japanese society which helps forming mixed-ethnic people’s identities.

Actually, Japanese society is changing to more diverse ways. Hafu Project Booklet (Lise, 2011) says “Japan is undergoing significant transformation”. The number of foreign national are increasing from 1970s, and from 1990s, it is increasing more sharply. As a result, the number of foreign nationals changes from 751,842 in 1975 to 2,186,121 in 2009. This also means that the number of mixed-ethnic minorities can increase and the hybridity of several ethnicities may not be special. Thus, Japan’s situation today that the number of foreign nationals is increasing can create the new opportunities to deepen understanding of mixed-ethnic minorities. I strongly hope that we will make a better society which enables us to respect each identity for “everyone”.

Reference

Lise.M.Y., (2011), Hafu Project Booklet, Retrieved October 18, 2012

from http://lore.com/a#EKK-III-%28RA%29%3A-Immigration/meeting/675355

The problems caused by ethnic nationalism

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by Naoko Yamada

There are 2 kinds of model of nationalism; Ethnic nationalism and Civic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism is principle in which belonging to the nation is rooted in descent, and it is related to race and language.  On the other hand, Civic nationalism is the principle in which belonging is tied to rights and a Universalist, voluntary political membership. Japan is nearly homogeneous nation, so almost Japanese distinguish Japanese and foreigner by their looks and language. Therefore the model of ethnic nationalism describes Japan. Now, conflicts caused language as symbol of ethnic nationalism have happened in the world. I’d like to describe about the problems caused by Ethnic nationalism thinking about 3 cases of EU.

In July 2010, a mass demonstration by self-governing body of Catalonia to advocate independence from Spain was held in Barcelona, Spain. Millions of people took part in this demonstration, and they required protection of their language and their culture. 4 kinds of different languages exist in Spain, especially Catalan was object of persecution and Catalan people are persecuted politically and culturally. They consider themselves as aggregate which has different culture and autonomy, and so they go on with movement of independence.

In 1945 Polish was authorized as the language of Poland, in addition using languages of ethnic minorities as official language was prohibited. Therefore policy of an innate respect for cultural assimilation was adopted in Poland. Then, academic meeting about the language of Polish was held in Poland at its participation to EU. In this meeting main discussion became the topic about cultural exchange, on the other hand, possibility of loss of identity by influence from other language was discussed. Not only language of ethnic minority but also the language of country is facing to the loss of its identity because of affiliation to EU.

From 19th century, a lot of Turkish people have worked in Germany as immigrants. Most of them don’t speak German and live in Germany without German. German people think that Turkish should become familiar with German customs, so needless to say, German people want them to speak German. The point of view likes “If Turkish work in Germany, they should be German” causes this problem.

Multiculturalism has expanded, and the problems of language and citizenship have changed to more complex. The problems Catalonia and Poland show us the importance of language as identity. Moreover the problem between Germany and Turkey show the importance of language as citizenship. Ethnic and Civic nationalism have exclusive aspect.

Bibliography

Kenjiro, S. (2005). 欧州諸国の言語法（欧州統合と多言語主義）.Tokyo: Sangensya.

Kouji, O. (2011). エティック国際関係学.Osaka: Toshinsya

Yasuteru, O. (2010). EUの言語教育政策. Tokyo: Kroshio

The sense of belonging and patriotism

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by Satomi Toba

In this short report, I’ll talk about what influence has over the sense of belonging to country. Actually, I had never thought about this topic before. Probably it is because not only me but also many Japanese people don’t have enough chance to think about their identity or the sense of belonging to this country. To make this understand easily, I’ll compare some common situation between Japan and Indonesia. The reason why I chose Indonesia as the comparison country is mentioned later.

Since I went to Taiwan for school trip in my high school days, I’ve thought that I can feel to be Japanese and a foreigner only while staying outside Japan. In this summer, I visited Padang, Indonesia for 1 month and a half. There, every time I walked into a road or a town local people stared at me and sometimes they tried to talk to me in English. That experience made me realize that I was different from them. Rethinking about it now, it seems to let me be more Japanese person than I was in Japan. It means that I came to compare any style between Indonesia one and Japanese one, for example, the bathroom, the transportation, the food and so on. Whenever I found those differences, my perspective for Japan got more and more deep.

There is another interesting case for comparison: it’s about patriotism. Here and there in Indonesia, we can see so many national flags along roads and some people often sang national anthem. However in Japan, those scenes rarely can be seen these days. Some Japanese old people put national flag in front of their house when the national holiday. I think it is related to a bad image regarding the right-wingers. Japanese people tend to connect the patriotism idea with them and insist that it reminds us the World War Ⅱ when all citizens had to fight against the Allied Powers and the most important thing was to swear loyalty to the Emperor. Also, the authorities forced the citizens to be willing to join the war. When we think about this topic, it is better to refer to the relationship with colonization/ independence. Japan has never been colonized by any country unlike Indonesia, which had been a part of Netherland for over 300 years. Ex-serviceman told that they’ve got patriotic spirit from Japanese army’s education and then they stood up to fight against Netherland. After getting the independence, they’ve celebrated the independence-day on a large scale and it seems to make people’s feeling of commitment strong.

This time, it can be said that colonization experience is one of the keys leading to patriotism. It’s just the point so I’ll keep searching on this topic.

Reference

Hatena diary, Katsute nihon wa utsukushi kata. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/jjtaro_maru/20101022/1287749130

Hafu

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by Tomoka Otani

The word Hafu stands for mixed-Japanese and I have a lot of friends who are half Japanese and half American since there is an American base near my house in my hometown. Because they look more like Americans, they were teased by their looks and names. When I was in elementary school, most of my Hafu friends had experienced bullying at least one time in their school lives. It was shocking to see my friends bullied just because by their looks or their names. Japan is said to be a racially homogeneous nation and it is extremely difficult for people who look different from other people to live in the society and to interact with other people. For example, the American people who are working at the American base are having hard time interacting with other people out side of the base, therefore, they tend to be inside the base most of the time and they hardly have a chance to know Japanese people even though they are living in Japan.

Another example is my friend, whose father is an American and whose mother is a Japanese, born and raised in Japan and could not speak English. She had trouble interacting with other Japanese children in the class because she looked different. In addition, because she looks American, she was often spoken to by Americans in English, however she could not understand since she only speaks Japanese. It is very hard for her because she looks American but she is Japanese inside. As a result, she couldn’t interact with neither Japanese nor American.

As we talked about the citizenship of Japanese, I began to think what does it mean to be Japanese. It is extremely difficult to define what does it mean to be Japanese, however, I think the most important thing of all is what people believe. For example, I have two Hafu friends, whose father is an American and whose mother is a Japanese, whose father is a Japanese and whose mother is a Chinese. They both speak English and Japanese, Japanese and Chinese. However the girl with an American father looks different from us and the other girl with a Chinese mother looks the same like us. The American Japanese are more likely to be asked by other people if she is hafu or a foreigner compare to Japanese Chinese. But both of them grew up in Japan and they both believe that they are Japanese. Therefore, I came to think that the most important thing when we define what is it mean to be Japanese is what the person believe. It is hard for others not to judge people by their looks but in terms of citizenship, I think what the person believes is the most important thing of all.