Nipponica

Japanese ocean shipping group Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is exploring options for sending employees to English-speaking countries other than the U.S., citing the possibility of longer-term impacts.

The company has eight participants in its program, with four each at New York University and University of California, Irvine. They have student visas to take part in three-month programs to study English and business.

"The Trump administration's xenophobic policies will in the long term hurt the free-spirited charm has attracted exceptional young talent from all over the world and has been a U.S. strength," Mitsui O.S.K. Lines chief executive Takeshi Hashimoto said.

The internal affairs ministry plans to survey municipalities about uncollected resident tax from foreigners who leave Japan without paying, in order to consider countermeasures, a government source said Friday.

Workers living in Japan as of Jan. 1 are subject to resident tax for that year. However, it is typically paid in monthly installments from June of the following year and the time lag contributes to the problem, as some foreign workers leave Japan before their payments begin.

The core of the problem here is that municipalities are taxing people on a year delay, not people not paying. It is the first thing in the populist playbook to claim the immigrants aren't paying their fair share, but the answer to this problem is not to punish people when the system itself should be the object of reform. Adopting an immediate resident tax would simplify everything.