… Japan granted refugee status to 46 asylum- seekers in 2005, a record high since 1983.

Although this pales in comparison with the approximately 70,000 admitted as refugees and granted asylum by the U.S. in 2005, [Jana] Mason [deputy director of government relations for International Rescue Committee, a major U.S. nongovernmental organization] called the number a considerable step forward for Japan, which had granted refugee status to only 49 people during the entire 1990s.

According to Mason, the appropriate number of refugees a country should admit must be based on its size and population as well as the number of applicants. But there is no magic number, and it is estimated there are 11 million refugees worldwide.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061028f2.html

Nambu Halloween Party October 28th 2006, 6:30pm

All-you-can-drink 3,000 yen per person

CLUB GLITZ
B1 Kuwahara Building
1-23-12 Kabukicho,Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Map: http://glitztokyo.com/info.cgi

南部ハロウェーンパーティ　2006年10月28日（土）　6:30pm

飲み放題　1人　3000円

クラブ・グリッツ
東京都新宿区歌舞伎町1-23-12桑原ビルB1

地図： http://glitztokyo.com/info.cgi

The labor ministry kicked off studies at an expert panel Wednesday to review a job training program for foreign workers criticized as exploiting them under poor working conditions. The ministry set up the panel, chaired by Gakushuin University professor Koichiro Imano, in the wake of nearly 2,000 foreign trainees fleeing from the program a year.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/387846

A black American man won a partial victory Wednesday in a discrimination suit against a shopkeeper who had barred his entry, when the Osaka High Court ruled that the defendant’s action was illegal, but not racially biased despite his stated bigotry, and awarded the plaintiff 350,000 yen.

In overturning the lower court ruling, the high court ordered optical shop owner Takashi Narita to pay 350,000 yen in compensation to Steve McGowan, 42. McGowan had sued for racial discrimination over an incident that occurred outside the shop in September 2004.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061019a4.html

The ratio of dispatched workers to regular corporate employees in Japan came to 12.4% last year, more than double the figure eight years ago, a government survey showed Monday. The data, compiled by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, indicated corporate Japan is increasingly incorporating temporary workers to cut personnel costs following 1999 deregulation in the labor dispatch service field.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/387554

An investigation last year by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on companies using the trainees found that 731 firms, or about 80 percent, were making them work very long hours for low pay, in violation of the Labor Standards Law and the Minimum Wages Law.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20061018TDY03001.htm

The Center for Transnational Labor Studies will be hosting a lecture by Immanuel Ness, a professor at the City University of New York, who will speak on “Organization of Transnational Workers, and the Future of the Labor Movement in America: Case Studies from New York”.

He will discuss research based on his own experience with transnational workers in New York, who, working under terrible conditions, have organized to fight for improvements. He analyzes the relationship of these independent movements with established unions, who sometimes help, sometimes hinder them, and raises the question: while transnational workers are revitalizing the declining American labour movement, what is required from unions?

Discussion will focus on comparing the organization of transnational workers in the USA, and in Japan.

Time: November 11 (Sat) 1:30-6:00
Location: Tokyo Roudou Anzen Center (English site)
Koto-ku, Kameido7-10-1, Z Building 4F
(phone 03-3683-9765)
Nearest station: JR Kameido (Sobu line)

Map and access information here.

(lecture will be in English with Japanese interpretation)

Fundamentally, [Hidenori] Sakanaka [former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau] argues, the issue before Japan is what kind of country it wants to become by the middle of this century: a “big” country or a “small” country. Becoming a Big Country means accepting, by 2050, roughly 20 million immigrants in order to maintain current economic levels of prosperity. The alternative is to become a Small Country, let the population drop to about 100 million, keep most foreigners out, and use robots to do some of the work often done by immigrants elsewhere.

To achieve the goal of becoming a Big Country, Sakanaka advocates the establishment of an Immigration Ministry, a separate government organ with full ministerial powers that would be responsible for all aspects of Japan’s immigration policy, as well as the immigrants themselves once they have arrived and until they have obtained Japanese citizenship. Sakanaka basically favors Japan becoming a Big Country, not just for economic reasons but to serve as the “Canada of Asia”, a multicultural, multiethnic salad bowl of a country where people of all races and creeds can feel comfortable.

http://www.debito.org/ericjohnstonsakanakareview.html