Nipponica

Foreign nationals in Japan earn less than their Japanese counterparts even after controlling for such factors as education and experience, according to a recent government report covering an area at the center of intense policy debate.

The Cabinet Office's economic white paper for fiscal 2024 includes for the first time a section focusing specifically on Japan's more than 2 million foreign workers, finding that they earn 28% less than Japanese nationals.

This owes in large part to demographic differences, with many Japanese workers being in their 40s to 50s while their foreign counterparts skew younger, often in their 20s, and have less experience. But even after adjusting for age, education, and other characteristics of individual workers or workplaces, the paper still found a 7% gap that cannot otherwise be explained.

In Japan, which is made up of just 2.66% foreign nationals, there is no such named conceit for the Japanese people or for the foreign population.

Still, just because there’s no recognizable “Japanese dream” doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And as is increasingly apparent, the country needs a considerable increase in skills and talent from abroad to address its depopulation problem.

This is a great essay about the stories of some recent immigrants to Japan and how they chose coming here best choice for their future. The Japanese Dream is real but can be difficult to achieve unless you really work hard to integrate, compromise, and understand that it is a give-and-take process. Japan needs a part of you before it will take you in.

Less than half of foreign workers and students in Japan's rural areas want to remain in their current region when seeking employment or changing jobs, according to the analysis, compiled by Global Power, an operator of the job search and recruitment site NINJA for highly skilled foreign workers and students.

The company analyzed data from its 42,000 registered users as of May, focusing on their current addresses and desired employment locations.

Among those whose current residence matches their desired employment location, Tokyo leads the way with 51.7%, followed by the prefectures of Fukuoka at 51.5%, Aichi at 49.6% and Osaka at 48.8%. In contrast, Shimane is the lowest at 9.4%, followed by Kochi at 15.4%, Tokushima at 15.9% and Kagawa at 16%.

People want to live where the opprotunities are and the lack of development in rural Japan means no way to improve your wellbeing.

Foreign residents are increasing in number in southwestern Japan's Kyushu region as well as in Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures at a rate exceeding the national average amid a labor shortage.

The trend emerged in the Vital Statistics released on July 24 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, based on basic resident register data as of Jan. 1, 2024. It comes as the population of Japanese nationals continues to dwindle in these areas.

A total of 900 copies of the "Guidebook for Foreign Residents" have been published in English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and simple Japanese. The simple Japanese version has furigana readings for all of the kanji characters, which the city's Multicultural Affairs Division says it expects foreign residents not covered by the other five language versions will be able to use.

It is good that local governments are putting things like this together. Perhaps bits of it more general can be 'open sourced' for other municipalities to create similar guides for their residents.

According to the Takasaki Municipal Government, the 42-year-old ALT is employed on a one-year contract to teach English at a public junior high school in the city. He was arrested by local police on May 22 for allegedly stealing whiskey and other items from a convenience store in Takasaki on April 29. The man was also accused of stealing items from convenience stores on three other occasions, and was indicted for theft at the Takasaki branch of the Maebashi District Court.

Stealing is a crime and should be punished but one other factor to consider is that wages for English teaching have been stagnant for decades, much like every other profession. You can make the argument that a lot of these teachers are not actually trained in teaching, but at some point you have to accept that they are human beings that deserve a living wage for a job that their governments decide is important.

Potential new hires will receive training required to work in the Mos Burger chain, such as how to speak to customers and handle ingredients, at an educational institution it has tied up with in Vietnam.

The company expects to begin recruiting workers next spring in accordance with the needs of franchisees, with the chain already having applied for approval with related agencies.

More private business are realizing that an increasing immigrant workforce is necessary to survive in the near future.

The government will introduce a new preclearance system from next January, starting with tourists from Taiwan, NHK reported. Visitors will be able to complete most of their immigration screening before departure to help shorten the time taken for entry procedures on arrival, according to the report.

There are not much details on how this will function, but I doubt it will mean that Japanese immigration officers will be deployed to foreign airports like the US version of this program. I assume it will just be a more rigorous check of paperwork and perhaps receiving your passport visa sticker before boarding. Perhaps using automated immigration gates in foreign airports?

I'm concerned about the trend toward exclusion. Even regarding accepting immigrants, the situation in Japan differs from that in the West, which has been accepting immigrants for a long time. We live in an age where anyone can travel abroad, but it seems that Japanese people are still not used to foreigners. I sometimes get the impression that Japan is unilaterally imposing its values and customs on them. And even on matters where we should be treated equally, I feel that Japanese people are given priority.

Places like this are key to helping newcomers to get the simple things done in Japanese society that most people think are simple. Just setting up a phone contract or bank account is hard to impossible for those that don't know the procedures and rules. I got lucky when I first came here as my university helped with all the initial bureaucracy but most do not have the luxury. And huge respect for the Japanese that recognize this problem and are doing something about it.

As of Oct. 1, 2023, there were an estimated 5 million Nikkei around the world, according to the Foreign Ministry. About 3 million of that number lived in South America. By country, Brazil was home to the most, at about 2.7 million Nikkei, followed by 1.5 million in the United States, 200,000 in Peru, 120,000 in Canada and 100,000 in Australia. The Nikkei population in Paraguay, where Kishida visited in May, stood at about 10,000.

Needless to say, each Nikkei person has a personal history that can never be completely told and that has led them to where they are today. When we think about bilateral relations with foreign countries that have accepted immigrants from Japan, we should not forget the role Nikkei have played in fostering those relationships.

A short introduction to the Japanese communities of nikkei that exist around the world, including specifically Brazil and Paraguay in this article. They seem largely forgotten by the residents of their mother country but play an important part in fostering Japanese culture outside the Home Islands.