The number of visas for entertainers issued by Japan is estimated to have fallen by more than 70% from a peak of 140,000 in 2004 to 40,000 this year on tougher visa requirements, according to data made available by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday. The government issues such visas to singers, dancers and other foreign artists willing to work in Japan.

The tougher requirements include a minimum of two years’ experience as an artist, and certification of personal identity and special education records during visa issuance procedures. The number of entertainer visas is expected to decline for Filipinos from 85,000 to less than 10,000 this year, for Chinese from 8,500 to less than 5,000 and for Russians from 6,000 to 3,000, according to the ministry’s data.

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/394757

For years, people like Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara have been up in arms about rising crime rates among foreigners and juveniles in Japan, but one of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s public safety experts has come out to say the claims are groundless, according to Sunday Mainichi (12/31).

Ishihara and his ilk have long laid the blame on foreigners for a perceived worsening of public safety standards that has allowed the powers that be to strengthen and crack down on non-Japanese and teens.

But Hiroshi Kubo, the former head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Emergency Public Safety Task Force, says they’ve got it all wrong.

“Put simply, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s public safety policy involves telling people that public safety standards have worsened and police groups need strengthening to protect the capital’s residents,” Kubo tells Sunday Mainichi. “But I’ve realized there’s something unnatural about this ‘worsening.’”�

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20061221p2g00m0dm003000c.html

Only 20 percent of the 47 prefectural governments and 15 major cities across Japan have third-party points to accept calls from whistle-blowers, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

Many other local governments have contact points concurrently managed by local government officials in charge of general affairs. But these contact points are rarely used, meaning that the system to prevent corruption in politics is not functioning properly, the survey found.

The whistle-blower protection law took effect in April this year, banning company and government officials from taking punitive action, such as dismissals, against employees who report illicit activities.

But fears of repercussions abound, particularly in governments that control the whistle-blower system.

“If one is to report wrongdoing under his or her own name, the name will be inevitably leaked and will be identified in the prefectural government,” said an official who once worked in the secretarial section of the Wakayama prefectural government, the site of a recent bid-rigging scandal that forced the governor to resign.

The official said if calls are made anonymously, they will simply be filed as “rumors.”

“We can’t do anything about it unless there is a third-party entity,” the official said.

Two prefectures, including Fukushima Prefecture, where a former governor was recently arrested over another bid-rigging scandal, and one city have no whistle-blowing systems whatsoever, the survey showed.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200612230134.html

Twenty union members gathered in front of NOVA Ikebukuro school on Sunday to show support for striking teachers at the company. Strikers included a majority of the German department in Ikebukuro, effectively shutting down lessons for the afternoon.

NOVA’s ekimae location was a perfect spot to get our message out to the public, and hundreds of passers-by took leaflets, or stopped to read the signs held by picketers.

The union is demanding job security, and the reinstatement of members who were “non-renewed” after as many as 13 years with the company.

Meet your fellow union members and wind down 2006 at the Tokyo Nambu Bonenkai party with all you can drink and all you can eat for 2000 yen. This year’s party�again�includes all the fresh oysters that you can possibly eat.

Friday December 22nd from 6:30pm on at Nambu HQ, Shimbashi, Tokyo