Nipponica

The government will begin considering whether to set a cap on the number of foreign nationals accepted into Japan, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said on Friday. A project team was established within the Immigration Services Agency that day to start full-fledged discussions on the matter.

According to a list of issues presented by Suzuki on Friday, Japan has traditionally lacked a consistent policy on accepting foreign nationals. “The time has come to begin detailed discussions on how to address the impact and challenges that foreigners will have on society in the medium to long term,” Suzuki said.

It was only a matter of time until something like this would happen but I have serious doubts that any substantial change will come of it or any reform of the immigration system. This is only to play to the base. Japan can’t survive without immigration.

The mayor of this west Japan city has urged for a calm and unbiased response over numerous complaints received after his city and three other municipalities were designated as "hometowns" for African countries as part of a new initiative by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The "JICA Africa Hometown" program aims to foster talent serving as a bridge between Japan and Africa. The Japanese government-sponsored agency on Aug. 21 designated four cities, including Imabari, as 'hometowns' for African nations. This has led to the spread of false claims on social media, saying it will "increase immigration," and protest calls to these cities. In response, Imabari Mayor Shigeki Tokunaga clarified during an Aug. 26 press conference, "This is purely a project for international exchange, with no intention of promoting immigration policies."

I knew this would happen when the original stories on this conference were published. Everyone knows how sensitive the subject of immigration is in Japan and especially from the global south. All comms and stories should have been fact checked and proofread both in Japanese and in the languages where these stories are published. Total cluster.

Japan is considering allowing foreigners under its revamped trainee program to change jobs after two years at their first workplace, provided they remain in the same industry, in seven of the program's 17 sectors, a government source said Monday.

Foreign workers are, in principle, not allowed to change jobs under the current training scheme, which has been criticized for labor rights violations such as long hours and low wages, leading some to desert their workplaces.

Translation is that you come to Japan as an indentured servant for two years rather than permanently. An improvement over the current system, sure. But maybe we should treat people with dignity rather than mistrust as a start and see what happens.

A policy proposal on coexistence with foreign residents in Japan has drawn a strong response after it was compiled by Shizuoka Gov. Yasutomo Suzuki at a meeting of the National Governors’ Association held in Aomori Prefecture in July.

The proposal calls on the central government to establish a comprehensive basic law and set up a central coordinating body for multicultural coexistence policies.

According to the prefectural government, as of Monday morning, it had received approximately 200 emails and phone calls. Many were critical, with comments such as, “It is unreasonable to use tax money to support foreigners,” or “This is inhospitable toward Japanese people.”

A friendly reminder that racism is everywhere.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency is set to designate at least four cities in the country as “hometowns” for certain nations in Africa at the 2025 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The agency, which assists with implementing development assistance in developing countries, will assign the city of Nagai in Yamagata Prefecture to Tanzania, Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture to Nigeria, Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture to Ghana and Imabari in Ehime Prefecture to Mozambique.

The purpose stated in the article is that it will promote two-way dialog and bring more population to these cities in Japan. But with an immigration system like it is now, is it realistic to expect that Africans could immigrate to Japan?

Japan's immigration authority is intensifying efforts to crack down on suspected abuse of the business manager visa program, which is intended to help foreign entrepreneurs start businesses in the country.

The heightened scrutiny follows the recent arrest of a Sri Lankan national accused of assisting compatriots in illegally obtaining business manager visas through the use of fictitious companies and falsified documents.

Many experts argue that Japan's business manager visa is prone to abuse because it is subject to less oversight than other residency categories, enabling individuals to set up shell companies to help others obtain or extend visas.

Yes, people abusing the system should be found and removed from the country. But the infographic in this article shows that people on this visa are a mere fraction of the total of foreigners in the country. Good to stop the misuse of the system but I hope that these people aren't the designated scapegoats for the anti-immigrant wave.

Japan's central government has yet to adopt a comprehensive national immigration policy despite a rise in foreign workers, leaving government agencies and local governments to handle issues individually, often in a haphazard manner.

The local governments want unified guidance at the national level but Tokyo is dropping the ball. There would be so much benefit and cost savings to centralize this kind of support but no political will to implement. Just another Thursday in Japan.

Hiroyuki Goto ventured into what appeared to be a high-risk business nearly two decades ago when, at the age of 28, he started providing rent guarantees for foreign nationals living in Japan.

Goto's experience suggested that the actual risk of backing a foreign resident might not be unusually high, and he thought that renting a place should not be an obstacle for people coming to Japan. More broadly, he felt it was inevitable that the country would have to accept more foreign workers due to depopulation.

So, he started GTN.

This is one of many areas that make starting a life in Japan so difficult. GTN was the only company that would allow me to open a credit card when I first came here to work and that allowed me to build up my personal infrastructure. This guy is a saint.

While the national government has viewed foreigners as "workers," local governments tend to see them as residents and community members just like Japanese citizens. The association is calling for the establishment of a central organization to oversee multicultural policies, among other measures.

The association calls for establishing a new central organization separate from the Immigration Services Agency, which oversees immigration administration, and for drafting a systematic and comprehensive basic law to underpin national and local multicultural policies. It also highlights the need for the national government to provide financial support for local multicultural coexistence measures and actively spread information on systems that foreign residents need to know.

Very bold proposals especially compared to the usual milquetoast faire from politicians at the national level. It does make sense to have a unified approach to multicultural policies instead of it depending on where you live. The only downside here is that the progressive stance that many cities take, like with LGBT residents, might be reverted if the central government has the reigns.

The rapid ascent of the right-wing Sanseito party in Japan has shone a spotlight on public attitudes to immigration, unnerving some non-Japanese residents.

Sanseito, founded in 2020, won 14 seats in Sunday's upper house election on its "Japanese First" platform advocating stricter rules on immigration and foreign capital, along with proposing tax cuts and welfare spending. The party had held only one seat in the 248-member chamber of parliament prior to the vote.

In a stump speech during the election campaign, party leader Sohei Kamiya called for limits on the number of unskilled foreign workers entering Japan to make up for the nation's labor shortage, which he described as a "national doping scheme."

Nikkei Asia asked a number of foreign residents in Japan to describe their reactions to Sanseito's election performance.

A good roundup of foreign resident's thoughts on this new party.