With a falling population, a shrinking tax base and a shortage of carers for its increasing number of elderly, calls are growing for Japan to allow in a large influx of foreign workers to plug the gap. The question is: When they come, will they be able to find a place to stay?

With its “shikikin” (deposit) and “reikin” (key money)  which mean forking out several months’ rent upfront and tracking down a guarantor willing to take on the payments in case of default Japan’s real estate system is notorious for the high demands it makes of potential tenants. Even if an individual is able to pay all the fees and find a guarantor, foreigners often hit a brick wall when looking for a place to live simply because they are not native-born Japanese.

“You often hear about racial prejudice in the U.S., but it seems the Japanese aren’t really ones to talk,” Morii said with a sad smile. “We Japanese have been going abroad for the past 100 years, and maybe experienced some discrimination there, but we’ve still been able to establish ourselves. . . . I feel bad for foreigners who studied hard to come here, and who are treated like this.”

Discrimination is an issue that will need to be tackled if Japan is serious about creating a more international society. Tourism minister Nariaki Nakayama alluded to this problem days after his appointment in September, when he bemoaned the fact that Japanese “do not like nor desire foreigners” and called for Japanese to “open their hearts” to diverse cultures. Nakayama was sacked days later.

Calls to allow in more foreign workers to Japan have grown louder as the implications of a rapidly graying society on Japan’s global clout and industrial might have sunk in. The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) last month urgently called for an influx of “medium-skilled” immigrant labor. In June, former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa presented a proposal on behalf of some 80 lawmakers calling for the government to raise the ratio of foreign residents in Japan to 10 percent of the population within 50 years.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20081118zg.html

The House of Representatives at its plenary session on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the Nationality Law to enable a child born out of wedlock to a Japanese man and a foreign woman to obtain Japanese nationality if the father recognizes his paternity.
The bill will be immediately sent to the House of Councillors and is expected to pass the upper chamber for enactment by the end of the current parliamentary session through Nov. 30.

The government proposed revisions to the law after the Supreme Court ruled in June unconstitutional a provision in the law requiring parents to be married in order for their children to be granted Japanese nationality.

The bill includes a provision for the imposition of prison terms of up to one year or fines of up to 200,000 yen on anyone falsely filing for the paternity of a Japanese man to be recognized in order to secure Japanese nationality.

A group of lawmakers mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are against holding a vote, saying the revision could lead to an increase in false nationality claims.

At present, a child born outside a marriage can obtain nationality if the Japanese father admits paternity when the child is still in the mother’s womb. In other words, nationality is not granted to a child who receives paternity recognition after birth.

The envisioned amendment would enable nationality to be given to any child born out of wedlock as long as he or she receives parental recognition.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94H47AO0&show_article=1