Category Archives: International Soc

Are multi-culture and multi-ethnicity accepted in Japanese society?

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by Naoko Yoshida

In 2007, Taro Aso, the then Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, made a statement that Japan was the only racially, linguistically, and culturally homogeneous nation. Throughout the history, many politicians and celebrities have said that Japan is a mono-ethnic and mono-cultural country, and those statements have caused a lot of disputes. Although there have been some other races and cultures besides Japanese ones, why so many people consider that Japan is mono-cultural or mono-ethnic nation? I believe this fact shows that Japanese society tacitly has not accepted multi-culture and multi-ethnicity.

There are several minority races in Japan, two of them are Koreans with permanent residence of Japan, who are called Zainichi Koreans, and the Ryukyu race in Okinawa, who are also called Okinawans.

Zainichi Koreans are people who moved to Japan in search of work and as forced labor before and during World War II, and the offspring of those people. Although their nationalities and races are Korean, many of them have Japanese family names. That is because they can adapt to Japanese society more easily with Japanese family names. For example, one of my friends has her Japanese family name “Nakamura” as well as her Korean name “Kim.” She almost always uses her Japanese surname except when she is abroad. In addition, Koreans in Japan usually speak Japanese instead of their mother language, Korean. Those facts show that although they are proud of their own culture, they should follow Japanese customs not to stand out in Japan.

Also, Ryukyu race is a minority in Japanese society. Although Okinawa is one of the prefectures in Japan, it is seen as unique in Japanese society. That is because they show off their indigenous culture. Here, we can say they have strong pride for their culture. And, indeed, Okinawan society is sometimes considered to be separate from Japanese society. That is also shown throughout the history. Japanese government offered Okinawa as a hostage to the US soon after World War Two.

In summary, Zainichi Koreans had tried to be inconspicuous in Japanese society with using Japanese family name and speaking Japanese, and Okinawans had hard time probably because of their too strong pride of their own culture. By considering those facts, multi-culture and multi-ethnicity are not accepted in Japanese society. Since we are in the world of globalization, Japanese people should be more acceptable for other races and cultures.

Reference

Tai, E. (2004/9). Korean japanese. Asian Studies 36 (3), 355-382. doi: 10.1080/1467271042000241586

Hoffman, M. (2012/6). Okinawa: a long history of hardship. The Japan Times, 14.

麻生総務相「一民族の国はほかにない」九博開館式で発言. (2005/10/16). asahi.com. http://web.archive.org/web/20051018033046/http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1016/001.html

Immersion school for multicultural society

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by Sungryoung Yoon

In 1960s, public schools in Canada started to introduce “immersion schools” where children can study French, and in 1970s public schools in US also started to introduce a new education system, “immersion schools” to public school. Today, children in the US and Canada can study a second language or third language in public schools by this system. We did discussion about “immersion school” for children to be bilingual by the end of elementary school. However, I think that this system is one of important roles for multicultural society. I would like to write about what background made US to introduce this system and how Japanese society can change to be multicultural society by using this system.

We generally think that the US is one of big countries of multicultural society. However, almost people of immigrant encouraged dropping their native language. For instance parents don’t teach their native language to children and making them to study English. Why these actions happen to the society? I guess it is disadvantage for people who don’t have an English ability to live in the US society for education and job. It is necessary for people to get to full English skill and I think this action does not lead multicultural society anymore. Not dropping native language and knowing other language are one of the big ways to be multicultural society. Today, in the US, many public schools have “immersion school” and give a lot of opportunities to children to learn their native language and also to know other culture of countries. I think this system has been helping the US society to coexist with different countries and it has been a big role for multicultural society in the US.

While the US society has struggled to introduce the new education system for multicultural society since 1970s, I think that children are limited to learn language in Japanese society. For example, we could not get to chance to study English when I was an elementary school. At last Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology introduced English education system to elementary school in 2008 but it is not enough to say Japan is multicultural system. For instance, how children who came to Japan as immigrant learn their native language? Today, Japanese society has to try to coexist with languages and culture of each country like the US since a lot of immigrants live together in Japan and I think it will be one of a big role for Japanese society to be multicultural society.

I think that children could get know their identity, and they could understand about cultures and language of other countries by introducing “immersion school” to Japanese society. We need multicultural society since more immigrants would come to Japan in the future. “Immersion school” will help Japanese society to be multicultural society.

Do foreign immigrants threaten public security?

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by Chika Yamamoto

When we are talking about foreign immigrants, the discussion always goes to the anxiety of increasing crime by foreigners somehow. In this case, I don’t know why but criminals are always foreigners and therefore victims are Japanese. So, my question is why. Why do people assume that crime will increase if foreign immigrants increase? Is it really true?

As for my first question, I think people don’t worry about just foreigners in Japan. In other words, people don’t care or feel anxious about, for example, lots of foreign tourists coming to Japan. Rather, mostly Japanese people welcome foreigners to come to Japan. Also, if a foreign couple becomes our neighbor, we would be nice to them, help them if necessary, and we wouldn’t feel afraid of them. But when it comes to foreigners accounting for the majority in our neighborhood, the situation and people’s reaction would be different. People don’t know how to communicate with them if they don’t speak fluent Japanese. People feel worried about being minority and replaced by them. The foreigners get visible and influential by the growth of number. I think that just comes from people’s mind. It is easier for them to label foreigners as unknown and uncanny people because people mostly don’t try to know them and decide the impossibility of communication with them. Also, people can put emphasis on Japanese safety by associating foreigners to crime even though Japanese of course commit crimes mostly in Japan. I think this idea is just for escaping and hiding the fact of crimes by Japanese.

My next question is whether this relation between foreign immigrants and crimes is true or not. According to Shakai Jitsujyo Deta Zuroku, the rate of crime by foreigners has not really increased since 1992. Of course comparing to 1980, the rate increases from 0.2% to 2.4% in 1992. As of 2010, it even decreases to 2.0% according to this statistic although number of foreign people is increasing day by day. So, from this result, I think the increasing number of immigrants doesn’t correspond with increasing number of crime. In addition, Omae says that this idea that crime will increase because of increasing number of foreigners is very one-sided. He criticizes the opinion Ishihara, mayor of Tokyo, saying all over Japan would be like Shinokubo if we accept huge number of immigrants. Shinokubo is one of the diverse cities in Tokyo and even called as ethnic town. Foreigners living in Shinokubo account for almost 40%. However, Omae says this is biased by showing the example of immigration in Singapore. Singapore accepted huge number of immigrants for the economic demand and population increases from about 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. But, nothing changed in public order. They maintain the security in Singapore because they put requirements for immigrants such as their academic career and job qualification. Thus, the increasing number of immigrants and foreign crime are not really corresponded.

In this aging society, Japan needs huge number of labor to maintain Japanese economic. Immigration from foreign countries is probably significant to make up this labor shortage. But if people believe that crimes will increase and society will not be safe by having foreign immigrants, it would be very difficult to have foreign immigrants. There will be serious problem such as the problem in America that we learnt in the class. Therefore, as Omae points out, I think people should know that this view is one-sided and there is another way to have immigrants and maintain the security in Japan. That will be at least first step for being immigrant-friendly country.

Reference

Shakai Jitsujyo Deta Zuroku. “Transition diagram of crime by foreigners in Japan” (Dec 28,2011) http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/2794.html

Omae Kenichi. News Post Seven (Nov 14, 2011) http://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20111114_67639.html

Great effects of second language

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by Mayu Uehara

Language is one of a given tool for people to communicate. It can show our emotion, identify ourselves and also built relationship. First three months of my life in Canada, I had been stressful because only English was spoken there and couldn’t speak Japanese. Now I can speak English but this is because my friends and many people there tried hard to understand me and also taught me English. In Japan, there are lots kinds of immigrants who are struggling with their life. They are isolated and also tend to gather together with common race. There should be necessity of community project to teach people second languages for not only immigrants but also local people. There are three reasons for supporting my opinion. First, the numbers of immigrants has increased. Second, community should make better society for citizens. Third, bilingualism can make numbers of chances for every people.

In reality, globalization can’t be avoided. Now the numbers of immigrants has increased and as social changes in Japan, numbers of elderly people will be twice as much as youth, therefore we need more hands from overseas. In addition, in the aspects of business, it’s hard enough to pursue profit only inside of Japan so that there are lots of Japanese corporate progressing overseas and compete with global corporate. This means language especially English is important to success and also sustain Japanese society.

Second, though globalization is inevitable social change, local people is not used to be with immigrants yet. There are some racial difficulties such as Korean resident in Japan, Brazilian workers in Japan and so on. There are Korean or Brazilian communities in some parts but they are isolated from community mostly. For instance, Brazilian who come to Japan for working can’t read Japanese of course so they don’t know about social rules such as how to wrap garbage and when they should put them on the road. Only if there are any languages to communicate, they don’t have to have troubles. It’s difficult to make country to regulate bilingualism, however; community should be flexible to those community changes. If the community has lots of Brazilian residents, it should have some chances to provide citizens of the community to learn Japanese, English or Portuguese so that they can communicate each other to make their society better. These community movements also tie not only between local people and immigrants but also between local people themselves. If the bonds become tight in community, we’ll deal with current problems such as DV, crime, and urgent disasters.

Third, bilingualism can provide us many effects. If we speak only Japanese, we can communicate with Japanese speakers but it’s seldom to speak with foreigner because Japanese speaker of foreigners are not so many. If we have second language such as English, Spanish, and Chinese and so on, we can travel overseas, use it in business occasions, make foreign friends, and learn other cultures or sense of values. These effects can make our choices of life styles way broad. If numbers of communities, which support learning second language increase, lots of Japanese can have global senses and also choices of their life styles.

In conclusion, it’s necessary for Japan to live with immigrants and we need to protect them not only for them but also for ourselves. Second language can be great supporter to live our own life better and also it must need to keep up with other countries. Community can provide great impacts by progressing bilingualism for tie of citizenship, activation of society and broad choices of citizen’s life styles.

 

The Benefits of Being Bilingual

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by Sayaka Umei

Bilingualism is the ability of people to speak in two languages fluently. If this “fluency” would be defined as “to be able to speak, understand, read, and write well in a language (“English-only triumphs, but the costs are high” by Alejandro Portes),” most of the bilinguals were born in the different country from their parents’. There are the arguments whether the bilingualism is good or not, and in my opinion the bilingualism is good for their career and ability. I will begin with the positive points and negative points, and lead the new problems through these points

According to Portes, the strong points for bilingualism are that it is good for the brain, which is good for cognitive development, enhances the cohesion of the family unit or culture of the home country, and keeps or establishes self-esteem well. On the contrary, the negative points of it are that it might get children confused or it is hard for them to acquire two languages at the same time. However, these negative points are not true. Scientifically learning two languages at the same time is good for their brains because they develop differently through learning.

Here, new three problems are coming up through expansion of the multiculturalism and bilingualism. First, the idea of “English-plus” by Portes is that people can speak in one language except for English and “plus” they can speak in another language. If these people do not have parents who speak in different language from the language where they live, they cannot get the environment to speak in English. So they need the environment for it, such as school system. However, this kind of school system is not common. Just some special schools have this English-another language system.

Second, bilingualism can enhance family or culture cohesion, but it could threaten the unit of the host country. That means people keep their home countries’ language so they also keep the home culture as well. Some people would get together and make community. If it might get bigger and have a certain mind or idea, it could threaten the host country.

Third, there is the idea of “cultural capital” by Portes. This means the United States leads this world and the most spoken language around the world is English. Socially and politically people whose first language is English do not need to speak other languages because most people can speak in English or try to learn English to have communication. That also means most people who are bilingual or who want to speak in one more language can speak in English. That cannot be really said “multiculturalism” according to Portes because it just English culture plus other cultures.

In conclusion, there is misunderstanding for bilingualism among many people all over the world and some people do not know the benefit from it. After children growing up, then they realized the benefit, but it is too late to be bilingual. Or some country would be worried about their unity against this global society. What people need in this society, where the bilinguals are getting common, is that they have to understand what bilingualism is well and what is needed as career in this global society in order to solve these problems.

Fraudulent Marriage and Japanese Society

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by Rina Terasaki

Today, I would like to write about fraudulent marriage in Japanese society. The reason why I took my interest in this topic is a little long story but simply it comes from a story I heard from my friend. My Filipina friend living in Japan told me that she is not able to invite her close relatives from the Philippines even a several days trip due to the Japanese immigration-control reason. So at first, I was interested about the immigration-control system in Japan and I was willing to write about this, but while searching, I came across to another interesting topic which is‘fraudulent marriage.’ Fraudulent marriage (false marriage) happens in various reasons but generically is transnational and many of those are at criminal situations.

According to the national police agency, the number of fraudulent marriage crushed in Japan last year’s first half (January-June) was 88 times, and that was about 50 percent more than the prior year. Fraudulent marriage is not the same with normal marriage, it often includes organized illegal acts, so that the issue is quite serious and being urgent priority. Though marriage is a precious experience for one’s whole life and meant to be an act which would realize between two who are loving each other, however many people still choose this form of false marriage only for their profit even they are doing not a very right thing. I would like to focus on the false marriage in terms of immigrants, and explain what are behind this situation, and what problems would this cause, with using some stories that I found on the Internet.

First, when do people make fraudulent marriage? With the expanse of globalization, more and more people in developing countries want to go abroad for a job. Filipina hostess in Japan is also one case, and the imminent big problem for them is the right of residence. It is not easy at all for them to stay in Japan, or even to enter the country, if they have no relatives in Japan. It means many people are hoping to go abroad but in reality chances of entering legally are very less. Then, some people choose to get married with the local man or woman, and will get a visa. EU is having a problem nowadays over this. Many people make false marriage with an EU local resident to get whatever rights and citizenship. I guess on the background of increasing of southasian woman getting married with a Japanese man, also has a little similar point with EU’s case in terms of ‘getting rights.’ When there is love between two people who marry, this would be wonderful, but if there is not, then it becomes a problem. Next, I would like to explain what I call a ‘problem’ in two reasons.

The first reason is a governmental reason. In Japan, (and may be in other countries too) the law prohibit false marriage. If a couple married and a foreign woman enter country, but then they soon get apart and not having contact, it cannot call a family essentially, and the office do not allow this kind of situation to be happened. The immigration office control strictly about new marriage between Japanese and foreign pairs. It has been concerned that after recent year’s detection of false marriage, the office made it more and more strict, and now it effects on the people who really want to marry properly. Moreover, a complex problem is that there are black market organizations that help women in the developing countries and men in Japan for fraudulent marriage. The negotiations are being conducted behind the scenes with a large amount of money.

The second reason is that fraudulent marriage are often connected with swindling. (kekkon sagi= being swindled out of one’s money under a false promise of marriage) I found a story on the internet that a Japanese man was engaged to a Chinese woman, and was going to marry soon, but he one day happened to hear that the woman was willing to do fake marriage, not loving him very much but for a chance of working in Japan legally. I found this story interesting and also ironic at the same time. Though their marriage was going to be a proper one, depending on a thought he was kind of deceived by his most dearest woman. Just to get a citizenship, is it necessary to exploit a person in a bad way? In reality, yes, for those few people. As above, most false marriage happens through two people’s agreement, but sometimes he or she does not really notice and just get involved. This is an ironical case in those marriages.

To conclude my essay, I strongly feel the importance of stop this fraudulent marriage ‘system.’ Those institution needs to be regulated and penalized by the government, to avoid more people to get involved into this bad system. Also, I am feeling something complex about Japanese immigrant system. It seems to be very strict about foreigners. As I mentioned in the very begging also, even foreign residence’s close relations cannot reach them in Japan. The government in one side needs to strengthen unlawful entry but on the other hand I believe they need to reconsider our national immigrant system.

Reference

http://www.recordchina.co.jp/group.php?groupid=53957

Migration to Do “Women’s Work”

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by Sian Taylor

In this essay I will be analysing the women migration from poor countries to rich countries in order to do “women’s works”. I will initially make a division between the women who are kidnapped and forced to go abroad as sex slaves etcetera, and the women who “willingly decide” to do so. Then I will focus on this latter part and I will answer questions like: “why is it the woman who migrates and helps her family back home” and “why are there major requests from the First World for nannies, cleaners and entertainers”. Finally I will conclude giving my own opinion on the matter and trying to give a possible solution in order to partly resolve some of the matter.

There are many women that “willingly decide” to go abroad and start a new life as a care woman or as an entertainer. The truth behind this thought, is that even if no one was forcing them to go, the deep poverty they and their families are living in, and the local government that heavily promotes the migration of women, does not really leave these mothers or older sisters much of a choice.

But why is it the woman and not the man of the family that works abroad in order to send the remittances back home? Because on one hand it is proven that the woman is more likely to send home half or more of her income (compared to many men that will just keep most of the money for themselves) and on the other, in First World Countries there is a great request for old fashioned, caring, nurturing women that can take care of the house, the children or even the men.

No need to say that these women are mostly underpaid and often kept in a condition of insecurity, fear or worse. The problem therefore, now, shifts onto another question: why is there this need? The answer is that most women nowadays go to work just as the men do or even for longer, but the men haven’t really started helping more around the house, and this is when, at a first glance, all of the problems seem to have started.

If we look at things in a deeper way though, we will notice that that is not the main cause after all, and that the real problem resides once again in the roots of capitalism. The solution of the problem wouldn’t be just to stop immigration from happening, or sending the women that are in the First World back to their own countries. The only result of that would in fact be many illegal immigrants (therefore treated even worse) and much worse, many families dying of hunger or poor health conditions in the Third World.

The solution therefore seems to be in the government trying to improve the  jobs conditions through regulations. By doing that, the immigrant women will feel more serene and relaxed, knowing that they are protected and regulated, and will be less discriminated against and badly treated by other people, and will be able to feed their families, and live a life that according to them is a lot more free than the one they would have been leading in their town or villages.

International immigrants: System of Cooperation with Rules and Respect

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by Sanae Tanaka

Globalization and industrialization brought people moving around the world, and the issue of coexistence. In Europe, issue of international immigrants has been often discussed topic. Sweden is one of the countries known for accepting lots of international immigrants. Since issue and acceptance of international immigrants has been a delicate issue in many countries, Swedish government is making proactive approach towards the issue.

Since 2008, Swedish government has introduced the new policy that Sweden accepts more international immigrant workers actively. They support immigrants to get residence permits and even they have positive opinion about giving international immigrants permanent residency.

The reason why Sweden is taking positive position towards acceptance of international immigrants is because of the balance between domestic industry and government’s policy. Sweden has big land compare to other countries in Europe, however, they have fewer citizens, which is about nine million people, and to keep existing welfare policy and social security, the country needs to flourish domestic industry to the world. Also, usually international immigrant workers want to move in to the country which is low cost of living, having good weather throughout the year, and the country where speaks English as first language. Sweden is matching none of these three and in reality, it is hard for Sweden to get more international immigrants without having good conditions for them. Therefore, Swedish government gives out all decisions to the companies to decide how many international immigrant workers they hire and how many international immigrant workers they need. By letting companies to make all decisions, it leads the thriving domestic industry, Swedish government believes.

Unique point is that international immigrants policy in Sweden is all based on the idea of connection between domestic industry and labor power. Confidential relationship between government and company is making the country and policy together and this can be recognized as one of new model of building up the international immigrant policy.

The process of attaining a multiethnic nation and economic salvation demands institutional and behavioral reforms

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by Ryo Tanaka

Japan is now in the process of becoming a multicultural country in many ways. But how? What is the goal of this process? Ideological terms such as “multiculturalism” and “coexistence” are often heard and perceived as positive. But does the frequent use of these words really indicate the positive future? Since multiculturalism and coexistence are the “process” but not the “outcome”, it is essential to consider what is going on in the process of becoming a multicultural nation.

In order to attain the positive future of multicultural Japan, I would like to consider its obstacles by focusing on how immigrants affect Japanese socioeconomic stratification. Generally, how a society is positive is measured by two criteria: economic fulfillment and people’s satisfaction. To put those criteria on migrant issues, it is needed to examine both the extent to which migrant workers support Japanese economy and they make favorable relationships with Japanese citizens. The balance of these two should be kept.

Economically speaking, accepting migrant workers is a rational, and in a sense, unavoidable way to prevent Japan from a “population crisis”. Hoffman (2012) emphasizes, by citing the government’s estimation of Japan’s future population, that Japan “needs a fountain of youth” (The Japan Times, Oct. 21. 2012). Indeed, the government estimates that 40% of the Japanese people will be 65 or over. This implies that Japan will suffer from a severe decrease in the workforce in the future. Even today, the Japanese labor market relies largely on low-cost laborers from abroad. For the future, Japan will have to accept more migrant workers to supplement the dwindling Japanese workforce. Thus, “it is no longer possible to live in peace in a closed world only among Japanese nationals” (The Japan Times, Oct. 21. 2012).

Socially and culturally, however, the process of becoming a multiethnic migrant nation is not acceptable for all the people. Hoffman emphasizes the result of a survey that “[a]sked if they would accept large-scale immigration in the interests of reviving Japan, 65 percent respondent said no; 26 percent said yes” (The Japan Times, Oct. 21. 2012). Why do the majority of respondents not want to accept a large number of immigrants even though they might know the importance of them? Cultural difference seems to be the biggest reason. For example, Hoffman reports some Brazilian children “dropped out of school” and even “turned to crime” because they had trouble adapting to the Japanese school environment. At school, “the Brazilian culture of exuberance” and “language barrier” often conflicts with Japanese culture and the dominant Japanese language (The Japan Times, Oct. 21. 2012). Therefore, despite the increase in the number of migrant residents, Japan has not prepared the appropriate educational environment and support for them.

In summary, while is has been argued that Japan should accept more migrant workers to supplement the decreasing workforce, its society and citizens are not prepared to really accept them. In particular, some aspects of the society such as educational environment have not been transformed to welcome migrant residents, and people are not educated to take accepting attitudes toward them. Coexistence does not mean just “existing separately” but “living together”. But the reality is just like “existing separately”. Thus, there is big room for further improvement of Japanese social systems and people’s attitudes towards immigrants both for Japanese economy and everyone’s happiness.

Reference 

Hoffman, M. (2012, October 21). “‘Only immigrants can save Japan’”. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20121021x3.html

Mexican Migration to the US

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by Mihoko Sumitani

In this essay, I would like to talk about Mexican migrants in the United States. When I was in California, I saw many migrants there, especially Mexican migrants. I also found that most of them work for low wages as waiters or waitresses, bus drivers, cashiers, cleaners and so on. I was so wondering why there are so many Mexican migrant workers who work for low-wages. I could also see Mexican or other Latin nannies on TV or movies.

In historical view, southern parts of California were Mexican territories. The fact might make many Mexicans feel more comfortable to live in California. Also because of the fact that California is very close to Mexico, they can get easily reach to California.

Mexico represents the largest source of immigration to the United States. Of the 32.5 million foreign born, 9.8 million or 30 percent were from Mexico. This is the largest source. Now Hispanic is the largest minority in the United States over African-American. This current situation causes many problems in the United States.

Firstly, there are many undocumented migrants as it is said that Mexico is the single largest source of undocumented migrants in the United States. They came to work in the United States because they know they can get higher wages or salary than those which they can get in Mexico even though the work is low-class in the United States. Because of these Mexican migrants, many white lose their job. Employers prefer hiring those migrants than white as those migrants work for lower wages or salary.

Secondly, there are large number of Spanish-speaking population in those areas where have many Latino migrants. In fact, I heard from my host mother that if people want to work in supermarket or something like that, it is more likely that people who can speak both English and Spanish are hired because there are many customers who are Latinos.

These problems make white think that Mexican or other Latino could be their threat and they might break the societies that used to be. What is worse, Latino could be majority in the United States in the farther future. Those thoughts might cause many Latino victims for white criminals.