Tag Archives: japan

Japan and Refugees

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by Shoki Fujimoto

I think Japan should keep current stance on acceptance of refugee. There are some reasons why I think so. First, Japan is not suitable for accepting refugees or immigration. Japanese national feeling is kind of exclusive for foreign people. This attitude was promoted by the fact that Japan has not accepted refugees historically. Japanese people tend to feel fear against foreign people for some reasons. Moreover, there are not small numbers of people that kind of look down on refugees.

Second, we cannot ignore historical reason. Those who that say America and European countries’ cases as why Japan should take in refugees often say that we had better follow the stance of international society. According Ministry of Justice, Japan admitted only 21 refugees in 2011. On the other hand, America approves on average about 90 thousand refugees every year. However, this opinion does not include important factor that Japan has been a country of “Japanese”. This does not mean that I would like to say “Japan is monoracial country and there is no foreigner in Japan”. Needless to say, there has been and are many foreign people in Japan, and they contributed to Japan’s development by working for Japan like introducing culture, and bringing technology. However, comparing Japan with America and European countries, power of foreign people that contributed to build country is very small. America is very new country created by foreigners and in Europe, there has been numberless exchanges including war. It means that such countries were built by foreigners. Therefore, variation of way of building country makes difference on the stance on foreigners.

Third, acceptance of refugees has few merits on Japan. In our debate in EKK class, affirmative side claimed that we can solve Japan’s declining birthrate and aging population problem by refugee’s labor. However, we cannot agree with this opinion. First of all, I do not think it is good that compensating vacuum of labor by using refugees. If we aim to supply labor by foreign people, we should increase number of immigrants, but Japanese literacy is must, I think. Besides, designating refugee’s work and where they live means restricting their human rights. This is reverse of intension.

Certainly, it is so sad to refuse refugees who have run away from their countries, and personally I would like to admit refugees. However, my intention is one thing, and Japan’s national interest is another thing. Even if current Japan’s stance changes, it will take a long time to change its policy. To conclude, Japan should not change its stance if truly we aim at Japan’s national interest.

References

Ministry of Justice. [http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri03_00085.html] (retrieved May 30, 2013).

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan [http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/nanmin/main3.html] (retrieved May 30, 2013)

Refugees cannot fit in and would take jobs from Japanese

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by Reina Doi

Recently, lots of refugees are coming to Japan to expect better living, but most of them are not accepted as refugees, so they forced displacement. For this situation, some people criticized that this is not appropriate as a country which ratify the treaty of refugees,and Japan should accept more refugees. However, I disagree that opinion in that employment issue, cultural aspects and national sentiments.

First of all, I believe if Japan admits many refugees to come, more Japanese will feel difficulty to find job, and it will make hierarchy in Japanese society. Employer prefers low cost to employ, so refugees would rob work from Japanese people, and an unemployment rate will increase. In addition, society will divide into two opposites, and as a result, cognition that refugees should do working which people do not want to do will be general. Thus, increasing refugees affects Japanese employment.

Next, there are big culture shock if refugees come to Japan, and especially language seems suffered them. Language is the basic of communication, and important in everything one does. Of course, refugees who come to Japan did not study Japanese in their own country, even English is not so common, and not useful in daily life, so Japan is not good to live. However, Japanese government does not support for them to learn language, so it is too hard to live like their home country.

Finally, national sentiments could be important when we think about refugees. Many Japanese normally feel uncomfortable around foreigners, because it is rare that foreigners live in Japan compared with other countries. For instance, U.S. is formed by immigrants, and even now there are lots of people are coming and live together. However, Japan is not same as U.S., and even though Japan ratified the treaty of refugees, it does not match public opinion, so if government enforce to admit more refugees, they would suffer from discrimination. Besides, if tax which is caused for taking care of refugees increase, antipathy will burst, and it makes demonstration which accept lots of refugees.

To sum up, saving Japanese worker, culture differences in that language and national sentiments is the reason that I disagree to allow. Japan seems that it is not appropriate to admit refugees, because there are no good system to save refugees and people are exclusive. Therefore it does not good effect for refugees, and they will feel difficulty to live Japan. For these reasons, I think Japan should not allow more refugees.

Aggressively accepting refugees

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by Yurika Chiba

According to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), there were more than 15,370,000 refugees all over the world in 2010. Currently, Japan has more than 10,000 refugees. However, the number of refugees is very small compared to other countries. For example, the United States of America accepts more than 30,000 refugees per year. By contrast, Japan accepts less than 100 refugees per year. It is obvious that Japan does not actively take in refugees. Some people insist that Japan should accept more refugees. However, others do not think so. Which idea is correct?

At first, Japan is said to be a homogeneous country. Basically, the number of foreigners and immigrants is small. I mean most Japanese people do not get used to interacting with people from different countries. It is hard for refugees to fit in Japanese society. In addition, Japan does not have a well-organized system for refugees. For instance, refugees cannot get a job easily. They cannot receive health insurance. There are such problems in Japan. I mean that refugees cannot adapt Japanese society easily even if they are recognized as refugees by Japanese government. What I want to say is that Japanese government should produce a well-organized system to make better society for refugees before Japan increases the number of refugees.

However, some people suggest that accepting more refugees is above everything else. They indicate that waiting for a well-organized system for refugees is the same as doing nothing. It is crucial to take in more refugees as soon as possible. Many refugees would have an impact on Japanese people. Japanese government has to establish the system for refugees if there are a lot of refugees in Japan. I think it is also important to understand refugees among Japanese people. For instance, why they became refugees, why they cannot live in their own country and so on. Actually, I did not know much about refugees because I was not interested in the topic. But, this issue is attractive to me now. I think most Japanese people know too little about refugees because the word “refugees” is not-so-familiar topic. If a refugee moves home to next to our house, we have no other choice to consider how to deal with the refugee. I mean that most Japanese people do not have the opportunity to think about refugees because there are not refugees around us. Expanding the number of refugees might allow Japanese people to understand refugees more and more.

At last, my opinion is that Japan should accept more refugees aggressively. But, it is also important that Japanese government produce the well-organized system for refugees.

References

UNHCR. Retrieved 05/29/13 from http://www.unhcr.or.jp/html/index.html

Japan should become a leader of global society

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by Kazuki Ando

The ratio of refugees’ acceptance is very low in Japan. This data shows that Japan doesn’t accept refugee in some reason. The reasons why Japan doesn’t accept are that Japan is academic career-based society and Japan has large population despite small country. However Japan should accept more refugees.

First, to protect human rights is much more superior than not accept refugee. While most developed country tends to accept refugee, Japan doesn’t. To accept more refugees is possible to change the view of Japan from other country. To become a leader of international society like the U.S. and countries in Europe. Some Asian countries like Singapore accepted refugees are succeeded as well. In fact, it takes much time to make up some supports for refugee because Japanese have stereotypes, and then they regard as “gaijin”. I think it is not big deal if much time passed in order to change because Japan took much time to change into democracy. Besides some multicultural countries can make structures for refugee, so Japan also can do. This is good opportunity to change into multicultural and to contribute international society.

Second, to accept refugee doesn’t have any demerits. Some people say that to accept refugee has some demerits for Japanese society in terms of public safety and employment rate. According to metropolitan police department, the criminal rate of foreigner is quite fewer than that of Japanese. I think the public safety in Japan don’t become bad. Next, now employment rate is very low in Japan, so we can see the news that university student is hard to get a better job. Now Japan has this serious situation, thus Japan can’t afford to accept refugee in terms of employment rate. I don’t agree with that opinion because what refugee work in Japan brings good effect to Japanese society. For example, development of economy, rise of quality of products and so on. Refugee has strong will to work in Japan in order to live in Japan. If they don’t work hard, they can’t live in Japan because Japanese government did not give them enough treatment to live. In addition, Japan has some under populated areas and Japan is declining birth rate and an ageing population society, so Japan needs more workers to prevent such a problem. To accept more refugees is going to be a development of economy for Japan.

To sum up, Japan should accept more refugees to become leader in global society and to gain the development of Japanese economy. It must be necessary of much time, so Japan should gradually change the way of thinking about “gaijin” and make enough supports for refugee to live in Japan.

Language education against emigrants in Japan

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by Minori Takada

Today, in the world (especially in multicultural countries), the education of the language for the emigrant becomes the problem. Therefore, I report the actual situation of the Japanese education for emigrants in Japan, and in the end I would like to make a suggestion “what we need” for its improvement.

As you know, Japan shows severe posture for immigration intake, and the ratio of foreigner residing in Japan is remarkably lower than other countries. According to OECD, the ratio of the foreigner among the total population in Japan was 1.7% in 2009.

Many of them came to Japan as “emigrants” to get job. And some of them get married after having a job in Japan and get a child, so the linguistic education for the child of the emigrant often becomes the problem in Japan.

To say it plainly, the Japanese education for the children of emigrants is not enough. We can understand this situation from looking at this chart. （Economic and Social Research Institute Cabinet Office Tokyo, Japan. 2012）

Citizenship School attendance (%) Students who go on to high school (%)
Korea 99.8% 93.0%
China 99.4% 85.7%
Philippine 98.1% 59.7%
Brazil 98.1% 42.2%
U.S. 94.3% 87.7%
U.K. 99.5% 98.1%

This is the percentage of students who go on to a higher stage of education.

There are six nationalities’ data, Korea, China, Philippine, Brazil, U.S. and U.K. Here is the average percentage of schools that are compulsory education, and all of them show high numbers. However, percentages of students who go on to a high school greatly falls. This is why that they cannot keep up with classes, because some of children cannot understand Japanese well.

Why does such a result appear? I checked what kind of linguistic education for emigrants is done in Japan.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs research, the number of the facilities that teach Japanese to immigrants was 1,832 in 2011. And in addition, more than 70% are accounted by public facilities. And there are four main supports that are done by the Japanese government.

  • Financial support for the administration of the Japanese classroom.
  • Working-out of the research expense about the Japanese education.
  • Maintenance of the teaching materials about the Japanese education.
  • Holding of the Japanese education meeting for the study.

From this, we can understand that “support” by the Japanese government is only basically financial or superficial things.

Then, what kinds of policies do countries (where a lot of emigrants succeed in their linguistic education) perform?

I nominated Germany for an example, because it is said that Germany resembles Japan.

The biggest difference is that there is an enforcement of the native language education at government level. This is called as “intensive teaching methods”, and children can use only German all the time when they are at school. And in addition, German government holds special measures against children who do not have enough skills to speak and write.

“The education for the emigrant” is established in a school law clearly in Germany, and it may be said that such an education is accomplished well.

In conclusion, based on these things, I point out a refinement of the linguistic education for the emigrant in Japan.

I think the government should be concerned with support more directly. The government should perform not only the support that indirect and financial, but also a more concrete support.

And to plan an opportunity to learn Japanese for as a public thing, as the agency for cultural affairs says, it is necessary to calculate numbers from the results of conventional various educational fronts and accumulation of future data, and research about the language use situation of the foreigner and the Japanese ability.

References

移民統合における言語教育の役割 ―ドイツの事例を中心に― （金箱秀俊 pp.50-76. 2010. 国立国会図書館調査）

日本における外国人の定住化についての 社会階層論による分析 ‐職業達成と世代間移動に焦点をあてて‐ （是川夕 2012. ESRI Discussion Paper Series No.283）

文化庁 海外における移民に対する言語教育www.bunka.go.jp/publish/bunkachou_geppou/2011_08/special/special_04.html

文化庁 世界、日本、地域から見る日本語教育www.bunka.go.jp/publish/bunkachou_geppou/2011_08/special/special_01.html

The Atlas for Emigration: emigration-atlas.net/society/emigration.html

Hafus’ citizenship and their identities

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by Ryota Ochiai

You might have looked at a situation that a lot of hafu are living in Japan, today. In this article, hafu mean the people who are half-Japanese and half-something else. They spend days while they are often bound by that stereotypes like being seen as “cool” or “cute”.

However they are faced an important choice seriously until being 22 years old. The thing is “choosing own citizenship between two countries”. Dual citizenship is not accepted in the current Japanese Nationality Act (JNA). Therefore, hafu who chose Japanese citizenship have to withdraw another citizenship. In fact, however, hafu should leave the foreign citizenship when they will be foreign public such as police and member of National Diet. If in this case, hafu may only lose Japanese citizenship. However, the foreign citizenship does not disappear only by having reported that hafu chose the Japanese citizenship. Moreover, in Japan, there are no penal regulations about not withdrawing the foreign citizenship. It is approved by the government if I declare that “I choose Japanese citizenship.” However this declaration also means “an acting as for the withdrawal of the foreign citizenship” because JNA is telling. It is not compulsory to withdraw own foreign citizenship. These mean that “dual citizenship” might be accepted legally.

Nevertheless, the problem of the citizenship of hafu is not solved easily because of relating one country and another country. The time when hafu were born and family-forms maybe include in these factor. Ms. Sandra said that “If there are 10 hafus, there are 10 different stories about citizenship.”

We just see that hafu could have dual citizenship in Japan legally. Well, how about their identity? A problem of the identity for hafu is not “a problem in adult”, but “a problem facing you since you were child”. I felt unconsciously, that the way of thinking of human relations in “my foreign blood” is different from that of Japanese. I did not understand identity when I was a child. However I can felt what’s called “sense of estrangement” somehow. What distinguishes a Japanese from a foreigner? I fell into such a problem deeply in a childhood. However, an answer for oneself was found now. The answer is “not to distinguish own”. Even if two or three kind of bloods is flowing my body, it does not matter. Recognizing the environments that imposed on myself and taking it balance is my answer. I would like to take Japanese citizenship but I don’t want to waste my experiences and environment which are bound myself. Therefore I want to help hafu who are troubled with identity and say to them “Take it easy!”

Thank you for reading my post. I’m waiting your comments or feedback.

References

http://half-sandra.com/ <Thinking of Hafus’ Problems (Hafu ni tsuite kangaeyou)> written by Sandra Heferin.

Hafu issue and Japan

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by Kensuke Ikeda

There are a lot of hafu whose parents don’t have the same nationality all over the world and there are many Japanese hafu in Japan. I found though movie about hafu that hafu cannot accept adequately in Japan because some Japanese people regard hafu as foreigner and other Japanese people don’t have interest in them. Also, hafu tend not to have own identity because they have difficulties for finding their origin and nation. Hafu issue, I think, is based on the lack of identity. The lack of identity is related to some questions are “where am I from” and “who am I”. Now we (my classmate and I) have discussed the situation of hafu and some students recommend multicultural education and global political policy for improving the idea for Japanese hafu on Facebook.

Of course the multicultural thinking is important, but the thinking is not perfect because the multicultural education is taught only to younger people such as school students. Therefore I suggest another way that Japanese government should allow for hafu to get two nationalities and follow the wave of globalization.

First I explain first solutions. To begin with, you should recognize the cause of lack of identity for reconsidering the issue. The loss of identity has relationships to the citizenship of hafu. They have to choose their nationality and citizenship in some countries such as Japan and Korea compared to the USA. In other words, these governments force hafu as minority to abandon one side right of their nations without getting double nationality. In my opinion, Japanese government should make room for hafu to have double nationalities and identities.

Second I introduce another method for solving hafu issue. Japanese people still tend to keep from foreigners because Japan is said to be a racially homogeneous nation and Japanese people get used to treat foreigners. On the other hand, globalization is advancing by improving IT such as the Internet and SNS. If this globalization is increasing, naturally the number of hafu will increase and the kinds of hafu pattern are more various, and then the environment for hafu in Japan will be changing. In other words globalization makes Japan racially multination. Therefore, I suppose that Japan should be more global and Japanese people get more opportunities to treat hafu. If this solution can, hafu will not need their identity because they could have the sense of belonging. They are treated as just a “human”. They would not lose something they could rely on.

How can people become Japanese?

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by Tatsuya Haishi

Through the discussion in our class, I realized that there are many ways to become Japanese; however, it is a very difficult attempt to succeed. If I must choose one way to become Japanese, I would mention Japanese language. We cannot judge people’s nationality by their appearance like skin, hair and eyes in the age of globalization. We feel comfortable when we can communicate well with other people, yet if we feel that we cannot communicate well with them, maybe we begin thinking about a disparity between us and them. The most effective way to communicate well is the language. When I hit it off with a foreigner who really wants to be a Japanese citizen, it is difficult for me to recognize him as Japanese although I would like to.  He would be one of my foreign friends. However, if he can speak Japanese and communicate with me in Japanese, I will regard him as Japanese with no doubts. Accordingly, I think hafu people who grew up in Japan and can speak Japanese well are perfect Japanese.

I think that to be Japanese is still harder than to be other country’s citizen. Although I have no idea about the exact reason of that, in my experience, many Japanese people have the feeling that our society is a homogeneous community. Of course we learn and know Japan is not a racially homogeneous nation, but we have such sense unconsciously. I think that’s because we have few opportunities to meet foreigners in Japan. I also had never talked with foreigners until I entered the university.

Now, for most of Japanese people, to be Japanese means to be “Japanese-Japanese”, not “Korean-Japanese” or “British-Japanese”, but this situation may change in the near future. Japan is an aging society with a declining birthrate and is facing a decrease of the work force. It will be necessary to accept immigrants from other countries to hire them. When they adapt themselves to Japanese society and have their kids, some of them come to feel that they are Japanese. I take it for granted that there are many kinds of races living together in London. Today, it is a quite natural scene that various different ethnic people are living together in the U.K. On the contrary, I would feel strange if there is a TV drama or a movie that a foreigner acts as Japanese. However, Japan may be a multiethnic nation like U.K. in future. If it becomes real, it will be easy to become Japanese.

Japan and Hafu Nationality

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by Reina Doi

Imagine that your parents have an international marriage (one of your parents is Japanese), and you are living as hafu in Japan. In your house, two type of cultures are mixed, and you belong to two countries through your experiences. However, if you were 22, you would have to choose one country as a nationality. You used to have two nationalities that your parent’s home country, but you can choose only one nationality, so you automatically have to abandon one nationality, though you have two countries’ identity.

Do you think that situation is unreasonable? I think many people think “I want to keep both nationalities like before!”. However, this is real story that hafu people face. In Japan, dual citizenship is not admitted, and as I say before, hafu are forced to choose one nationality by age 22. Many countries such as America, France and UK allow dual citizenship, and hafu get guarantee from country.  Why Japan does not admit like other countries? I think the reason relates to dual citizenship demerits. In America, there are many immigrants from all over the world, and America give citizenship for them. It seems good, but American government does not officially support dual citizenship, because if person has two nationalities, it would be trouble when person committed one country’s law. Besides, it is annoying to some Americans that some people might come to America for giving birth, and the children get American nationality, and then go back to their home country.

Thus, dual citizenship has some negative aspects. However, I think Japan should allow dual citizenship. Globalization is coming to Japan too, and we cannot stop this stream. Some people believes that Japan is homogeneous country, but that is not true. Many foreigners are lived as a worker and international marriage is getting more and more. Therefore Japan should prepare that follow globalization. Japan does not have enough care and guarantee for foreigner, and even hafu. Hafu is also increasing (one out of thirty baby is hafu) recently, so Japan have to think whether continuing present nationality’s system or not. I think giving up one nationality means forcing to lose one own identity from government, so Japan should give right to choose that hafu choose one or keep two nationalities.

To join global society, Japan should quit old system, and accept new style. More people should come, and Japan’s lived foreigners and hafu will increase. Therefore I think it is time that Japan prepare and take action for hafu to live better in Japan.

How can Japanese people accept hafu? Hafu people struggle with Japanese society

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by Kazuki Ando

In Japan, there are a lot of hafu people. In fact, there are many types of hafu. For example, some hafu  have a white parent and a Japanese parent. Other hafu have an Asian parent and a Japanese one. According to the article, a member of hafu project has struggles with prejudice against hafu in Japan. On their experience, most members had bad memory. While people in other country accept these people, people in Japan tend not to accept them. It is really controversial problem now in Japan. How should Japan change this situation?

First, I learned that hafu have some troubles. For example, a hafu man who is French and Japanese worked in Japan, and then he had a French name and a Japanese name. He tried to use his Japanese name, however his boss suggested him that he should use his French name. I think it’s a kind of discrimination against him. His boss wanted the customer to overlook him because he is a foreigner. Next, I have some hafu friends, and I saw some discrimination against them when I was elementary school student.  However, I don’t see such discriminations right now in university life. What’s the difference? In my opinion, while young people have curious about the difference between them, university student can understand the difference of looks and culture. These processes through elementary school student to university student are significant to accept these people.

Second, we are not familiar with hafu people unlike people in other country. That’s why we have a good image of hafu. For instance, hafu can speak more than two languages and their looking is so cool or cute. We have such good images, so we can’t understand their feelings. For me, to know their feelings about being hafu is first time. Besides we can’t distinguish hafu people from foreigners because they look absolutely foreign, not Japanese. Hafu regarded these prejudice against them as serious problem, so I pointed out that these problems comes the difference between hafu and Japanese in terms of looking.  As my professor mentioned, most hafu people in Japan came from some Asian countries, so they have no difference with us. I agree with his opinion, and they can easily assimilate themselves into Japanese society, compared to hafu people from Europe. That’s why white hafu need to assimilate to Japanese society easily, too.  It is necessary for Japanese to understand both advantages and disadvantages.

In conclusion, Japanese culture is said to be homogeneous, so we have the image of a typical Japanese. In addition, Japanese are also stereotypes, so Japanese don’t tend to accept people who have difference between Japanese and hafu. It’s difficult to remove the way Japanese think soon from now on. As a result, I think Japanese need the education about culture of heterogeneous in order to understand the way of thinking, and should learn that hafu has a lot of distresses. In fact, hafu people looks different, compared to us. However it doesn’t matter now. I hope that it is possible for both Japanese and hafu to make harmony with each other.