Helped by the politics of the Cold War, Japan greatly benefitted from the Korean and Vietnam Wars and massive US aid, and emerged as a world economic superpower. In the 1970s Japan stepped up links in East Asia. Business practices, including the subcontracting system, were reintroduced throughout the region. This helped Taiwan and South Korea grow rapidly. In the 1980s, the Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of Asia, as well as Japan, the US, and Western Europe, reached a stage of "economic restructuring," characterized by domestic de-industrialization and the relocation of manufacturing to East Asia for cheaper land and raw materials and more efficient labor sources. During this period, Japan became the major economic power in the region; total investments and official development assistance (ODA) to Southeast Asia reached US$8.5 billion. This process has formed a new regional division of labor in which the NIEs provide the capital and control the technology and markets, while South and Southeast Asian countries provide land and cheap labor for the relocated factories.
Once considered a "closed door" to foreigners, Japan experienced a large inflow of workers from Asian countries in the late 1980s. This was due largely to the skyrocketing value of the yen triggered by the "Plaza Agreement." This was enacted in the midst of an acute shortage of cheap labor in Japan, but eventually created a huge economic gap between Japan and the neighboring regions.
In June 1990, the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act" came into effect. This was one of the most significant amendments since the Immigration Law was promulgated in 1951. While it opened migration to a wider range of "skilled workers," the term "unskilled" was allocated to the small-scale industries of "Japanese descendants."
Due to rapid economic growth and the continued labor shortage in small-scale industries, the number of migrant workers increased significantly during the 1980s. The small-scale industries, along with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, asked the government to provide migrant workers to cope with the labor shortage. In order to deal with the increasing number of migrant workers, the revised Immigration Act was agreed upon in the Diet in December 1989, and came into effect in June 1990. However, as far as "unskilled" labor was concerned, an estimated 180,000 overstayed workers who made up for the labor shortage in the Japanese economy at the time were not legalized by the revision. Instead, descendants of Japanese abroad were given new work permits to fill the labor shortage, and the number eventually increased to 180,000 as of 1996.
Another significant change in the revision was the expansion of the "trainee" system introduced in 1982 which allowed businesses to hire migrants as low-paid trainees, thereby avoiding minimum wage payments. Between 1986-1994, the number of trainees steadily increased. Also under the 1990 revision, a person who encouraged illegal work risks punishment. The penal regulation targeted brokers as well as employers who hire undocumented workers. Because of this sanction, employers either laid-off overstayed workers, or kept employing them despite the risk. However, the policy seriously affected the undocumented migrant workers by fostering exploitative working conditions. Moreover, this sanction has been used as a pretext to crackdown on activists who assist undocumented workers who have problems. For example, Mr. Nobuyuki Aoyagi (1994) and Rev. Songi Kim (1996) were arrested on separate occasions for allegedly abusing the Immigration Act by "mediating foreign workers for illegal work." But in fact, they both were simply providing counseling, and the basic human needs and care to jobless migrants in the community.
Since 1990, the number of detainees in immigration detention centers has increased significantly due to the tightened controls toward undocumented workers. Immigration officials have also reportedly occasionally used violence on such migrants.
In the mid-1990s however, the "bubble economy" collapsed, and Japan's economy declined. The recovery process has been slow since bottoming out in 1994. Foreign migrant workers in particular have had a difficult time during this period. Intent on discouraging Japanese-South Americans from staying in Japan, the government tightened conditions for extensions on working visas for Japanese descendants. Consequently, many migrant workers were either laid off or had their wages decreased considerably.
The following are typical cases of human rights violations against migrant workers which surfaced in Japan in 1997.
Migrant workers are used as economic instruments; in particular, migrants who are labeled "illegal" are used as cheap labor. Employers hire them when convenient, and fire them when inconvenient. Ever since Nagano was selected in 1991 to host the 1998 Winter Olympics, many migrant workers arrived in the prefecture in search of jobs, and due to a desperate shortage of labor, many construction subcontractors hired undocumented workers . However, when the construction projects were completed, these migrant workers were pursued and arrested by the police. According to a newspaper report, as of November, Nagano Prefecture Police arrested or deported 397 foreigners, conducting 13 raids on homes and other locations where undocumented foreign workers could be found. The migrant support groups have criticized police for cracking down on foreign workers and violating their rights after exploiting their labor for years.
The Japan Times covered a lengthy report on the subject including the following interview with a migrants' rights activist:
Just as some venues for the Olympics were taking shape last June, six of Ramilo de Leon's friends suddenly ended up in police custody after a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Since that day, de Leon, a Filipino construction worker, has spent several sleepless nights worrying about another sweep. Fearing police, he closeted himself in his apartment, leaving home only for work. [The foreign workers] have worked very hard for years to prepare Nagano for the Games.
But once our work was done, we were thrown away like toys," said de Leon, 29, who lost his job in December and has yet to receive his pay for the month. "Police have been extremely opportunistic. They have ignored foreign workers' contributions to Japan and suddenly tightened control over them," said Monica Nakamura of Shinshu Network for Foreigners' Human Rights. "Police seemed to condone their existence when the immigrants were busy building the sites, she said. "And it is not the number of arrests that is in question. We should look at the fact that many foreigners here went through a tremendous degree of agony, fearing a police crackdown," Nakamura said, noting many foreigners came to her in a state of panic for help during the past six months.
Police nevertheless insist the operation was merely an intensified crackdown on vice, which happened to include many foreigners. "Between 70% to 80% of the arrested foreigners were women," said Toshio Gomyo of the Nagano Police. But such women also contributed to the Olympics indirectly by entertaining the officials and staff involved in the event, Nakamura argued. "International participation has been called for at the Nagano Games. But this sounds so vain, considering how much foreigners are exploited in the process," she said.
("Illegal aliens who built Nagano Games sites facing sweep," Japan Times, February 3, 1998)
As more and more migrants choose long-term residency in Japan, more cases related to marriage, divorce, domestic violence, children and citizenship are brought to NGO support groups as well as to municipal consultation desks.
There are many children born by mixed Japanese and foreign nationality marriages. These children are sometimes left stateless. Official statements of the government revealed that the registered children under four years old with no nationality amounted to 734 at the end of 1996. This figure only represents registered children; the number of unregistered children is not known. For school-age children, however, it is difficult to enter school without a nationality. Some parents of stateless children fear deportation when applying for their children to enter school.
Each local education council is in charge of dealing with such application cases. But according to a staff of the Education Ministry, "When a local education council is in trouble of judgement, it will contact the immigration office, and children can go to school while waiting for deportation, if they so wish." Children of non-nationals in need of Japanese language education are many, estimated to be about 11,000 as of the end of 1996.
Cases of attempted suicide, unknown death, violence, murder, rape and sexual harassment have been continuously brought to migrant support groups. This year, there were cases of abuses against children of migrant workers in school. The most outstanding case was a murder of a Brazilian-Japanese boy.
His parents are Japanese descendants who migrated from Brazil. The boy was killed in November by a Japanese joyrider group though he had no connection with them, because of their hatred against Brazilians of Japanese descent.
In another case in Utunomiya City in March 1997, a Brazilian boy had to quit junior high school in order to avoid bullying by classmates. He had been bullied by some classmates who verbally abused him, saying " You stink!" and his notebooks and pencils were throw in a dust bin. He spoke very little Japanese, but he was eager to learn. Such cases are only a few incidents which have surfaced, therefore, we suspect that they are only the tip of an iceberg.
The "trainee" system is one of the mechanisms to obtain cheap labor. As of 1994, there were 17,305 trainees, the majority from China (56%), followed by Southeast Asians, including Filipinos (10%), Thais (9%) and Indonesians (8%). Small companies actively use this system to obtain cheap unskilled workers legally; monthly salaries average as low as US$661-744, and they are not protected by any labor laws.
In 1997, several complaints by Chinese, Indonesians and Pakistanis were brought to support groups and law offices. In another case, part of the wages of Chinese women trainees were paid to a Chinese public officer who operated as a recruiting agent. The workers received only about 25,000 yen (US$250) per month. When the women went home after complaining, they were heavily fined by the Chinese Officer.
Treatment of migrant workers in immigration detention centers has been continuously problematic, despite a widely publicized case in 1994 in which a Chinese woman was hit and kicked fiercely by an immigration officer.
A recent case involved a Chinese family consisting of a mother (45 years old), grandmother (74 years old) and a baby (1 year and seven months old) detained in Ushiku detention center even though they were not in good health. The baby had never seen the outside world since birth, until eventually they were temporarily released after strong protests by various people and groups both in Japan and other countries.
Women migrants as domestic workers are not protected under the Japanese labor law, left totally alone in the hands of their employer. About 3,000 domestic workers are said to work in the Kanto area, and they are yet to be covered under the Japanese labor protection law. A Filipina who worked for a US embassy staff had signed a contract for 120,000 yen a month. She had to work long hours without Christmas holidays, and was actually given only 30,000 yen a month. Her Foreigner's Registration Card was confiscated, and she was threatened when she complained. She eventually filed a lawsuit against the diplomat; however, the courts dismissed the case on the pretext of diplomatic immunity. This case should not be considered as an isolated incident since we have been hearing many similar cases which did not reach the legal proceedings. Recently, a very similar case was reported by a lawyer; however, the victim decided not to bring the case to court.
No steps have been taken by the government towards ratifying the 1990 UN migrant workers' rights convention. On the contrary, the revised immigration law was enforced in May in spite of nationwide anger and protest by human rights and migrant support groups against this revision. This revision followed a rapid increase of illegal immigrants from China since 1996. However, a close look at the contents of the amendment reveals that the Justice Ministry seeks not only to strictly penalize brokers and persons smuggling Chinese, but also penalize those who "assist" foreigners who illegally entered Japan. In other words, under the new law, support organizations may be subject to prosecution.
The National Network for Solidarity with Migrant Workers was established on April 29, 1997, at the end of a two-day annual Zenkoku (national) forum held in Aichi Prefecture. The idea of a new network which encompasses a variety of groups, such as migrant support NGOs, church groups, labor unions, was expressed during a forum the previous year, and it took a year of preparations for its actualization. Establishing the nationwide force, "Zenkoku-net" was a great step towards empowering migrant workers and linking migrant support groups.
More than 60 groups including grassroots groups and trade unions all over Japan are affiliated. The current objectives of the network includes campaigns and negotiations with government officials to press for migrant labor rights, a reversal of the deleterious changes to the Immigration Law, health insurance for migrants, and protection of women migrants - in employment, marriage, divorce, violence, child rearing, and trafficking.
The National Network for Solidarity with Migrant Workers organized its first public action on December 2 in front of the Ministry of Labor (MOL), and held negotiations with the Ministry demanding an end to discrimination against foreign workers. At the negotiation, a delegation requested that the MOL apply the Labor Standards Law, the Workers' Accident Compensation Insurance Law and other relevant legislation to migrant workers. The group also asked that the MOL take measures to prevent accidents in the work place, unfair dismissals, nonpayment of wages and other problems facing migrant workers.
Japanese-Brazilian migrant worker, Okada Manases Okada, and his family demanded compensation from a personnel agent for withholding their passports against their will and for withholding salary. On December 19, the Himeji Branch of the Kobe District Court concluded that it is an illegal act for the agent to keep the passports after the plaintiff's request have them returned, and ordered the agent to pay the compensation. This was the first court decision of its kind in Japan, and groups that supported the Okada family throughout the case hope that this will set a precedent for migrant workers who are in a similar situation.
This report was compiled from the following sources:
"Illegal aliens who built Nagano Games sites facing sweep," Japan Times, February 3, 1998.
Ogasawara, Kimiko (the National Network in Solidarity with Migrant Workers, Japan), report contributed to AMY 1998.
"Petitioning the Government," The New Observer, February 1998 (Tokyo).