Who and what migrant workers are

Old comers and new comers

  It is estimated as of the end of 2004 that some 2,150,000 people from overseas live in Japan. Of them, 1,973,000 are registered and 207,000 are undocumented foreign residents. 500,000 foreign residents have a status of residence called "special permanent resident", who were forced to immigrate to Japan from Korea and China which were colonized by Japan, including their offspring. They are called "old comers". The other 1.5 million foreign residents are those who came to Japan mainly in and after the 1980s, including migrants, some of whom work ("new comers"). The migration of foreign nationals to Japan was a sudden phenomenon that happened in and after the 1980s. This may be called the second wave of migration of foreign people about half a century after the first migration of old comers. (See the figure attached.)






















What started such migration in the 1980s?

So-called capital globalization is nothing but global exploitation, which widens an economic divide between one country which deprives and another which is exploited. Under the current circumstances the advanced countries where 20% of the world population live occupy 80% of the world GNP total. It is impossible, therefore, to stop cross-border migration of labor force from exploited and impoverished countries to enriched, exploiting ones. That is, there has been observed a huge population transfer from southern regions to north advanced countries. A UN statistics tells us that 1,750 million people migrated cross-over all over the world as of 2002.
Japan recovered in the 1950s from the postwar economic downfall thanks to Korean War special procurements. In addition, the Japanese economy profited much from Vietnam War special procurements in the 1960s, stocking capital, and starting to find markets in the world, including Asia, and it gained lots of profits in the 1970's. It is in the 1980s that Japan thus came to have strong yen. As a result, waves of labor force transfer on a world scale reached even Japan from such regions as economically associated with Japan.

Overstay - why and what for?

Suppose a foreigner wants to enter Japan. Then, it is necessary for him/her to get a visa which comes under any of the 27 types of status of residence as stipulated in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. According to the law, working in Japan is not permitted as a rule although there are some exceptions such as technical and educational fields.　But Japan needs labor force from abroad in dirty, demanding and dangerous fields of work, and foreign workers work in any of such fields without being granted a proper status of residence.
The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, enacted after World War II, aims at controlling the foreign population residing in Japan, and it fails to go with the borderless age we are in. Foreign people who want to come to Japan from overseas to find a job are forced to use many a bypath. One example is that they enter Japan with a temporary stay visa (15 to 90 days) and work, overstaying their visa. According to Immigration Bureau statistics, those foreign workers who were overstaying their visa amounted to 220,000 as of the end of 2001. In violation of the Immigration Control Law, they are under a very vulnerable situation and it may happen anytime that they are put under arrest by the police or the Immigration Control Bureau. On top of that, they are reduced to work as they are told by their employer and paid less than Japanese co-workers. Still, they have to work to support their families in Japan or at home.
Due to insufficient legal schemes, not only overstaying foreign residents but also documented migrant foreign people are vulnerable in terms of their rights. Take up technical trainees for instance. They are invited here to learn Japanese high technology, but actually speaking, they are forced to work like a live-in slave by small- and medium-sized companies who receive them.
There are many foreign wives who are afraid to get a divorce from Japanese husbands even when they are victimized by domestic violence because if they divorce, they shall lose a status of residence as a spouse of a Japanese national, and may not continue to live in Japan.

Supporting foreign nationals for their human rights

Those who could not neglect what was happening to vulnerable migrant workers and foreign residents started to provide them with counseling services. There were set up a lot of NGOs (civic groups) in the late 1980s all over Japan. They cooperated with each other to extend helping hands to foreign nationals who are readily deprived of their rights as human beings. In addition, labor unions which any individual can join started to protect them for their rights in the early 1990s. Shelters were also established to protect women trafficked and forced to prostitute or victims of domestic violence.
The Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan was founded to advocate the human rights of migrant people, network these groups, and promote mutual cooperation among them.
|  Site Top  |  English Top  |  Sitemap  |
Solidarity network with Migrants Japan