Laid-off foreign workers of Japanese descent who accept financial support from the Japanese government to return to their home countries have been dismayed to learn that they will not be allowed to return to Japan.

“‘Don’t come back.’ Maybe that’s what they’re saying,” says 62-year-old Tess Ohashi sadly. Ohashi is a second generation Brazilian of Japanese descent who lives in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, where 12 percent of the residents are Brazilians, the highest rate in the country.

Not all agree with the re-entry restrictions. “There is a need to think wisely and allow re-entry for those who repay their travel expenses,” remarked Yasutomo Suzuki, mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, at a press conference on April 20. Hamamatsu is home to many Brazilians of Japanese descent.

“It’s possible that the ‘for the time being’ provision may become semi-permanent,” says former Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau chief Hidenori Sakanaka.

“People of Japanese descent are living here under qualifications granted to them under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. For the Ministry of Justice to forbid such people who used a system that has been introduced without deliberation in the Diet from re-entering Japan is beyond the discretion of the minister for justice and is also a violation of the equality guaranteed by the Japanese Constitution,” Sakanaka concluded.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20090430p2a00m0na002000c.html

In December, after a year of strike action by over 100 teachers, the company filed a lawsuit against seven union members. Named in the suit are five Berlitz teachers who volunteer as Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) executives and two officials from the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu: President Yujiro Hiraga and Louis Carlet, the deputy general secretary and Begunto case officer. Claiming the Begunto strike is illegal and meant to damage the company, Berlitz sued the defendants for ¥110 million each.

Ever since launching their legal battle, lawyers for Berlitz have appeared reluctant to go over the top. After gaining an extension in January for more time to prepare evidence and legal arguments, Berlitz lawyers still submitted their documents 10 days past the end-of-March deadline set by the judge.

The second hearing in the suit lasted a matter of minutes. One judge complained that after reading the company’s recently filed documents he still couldn’t understand their reasoning for why the strike was illegal. He told Berlitz’s lawyers to provide a concise and understandable summary of their arguments before the next hearing. Looking at the crowd of union supporters in the courtroom, the judge added that the summary was necessary not only to help him understand the company’s position, but also for the benefit of all those coming to hear the case.

Campbell expressed disappointment at the latest delay. “It’s the dragging-on that’s very frustrating. They sued in December and you’d think they would have their evidence prepared. In this case they sued and then prepared their evidence. Not only that, but they took an enormous amount of time and still haven’t finished it all.”

The last collective bargaining session between Berlitz and Begunto took place March 13. The company rejected the entire list of teachers’ demands, which included a 4.6-percent raise in base pay, the retraction of the warning letter sent to striking teachers, the introduction of a bonus system, and the disclosure of documents related to Berlitz’s financial health.

Both sides appear prepared for a lengthy legal battle. After the first January court date for Berlitz’s lawsuit, Ken Yoshida, one of the union’s lawyers, said the company’s legal team was “stalling,” and that it would be a long, drawn-out court fight.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090428zg.html

FWC members,

Join the May Day festivities at Hibiya Park on Friday, May 1, starting at 9:30 a.m.  Thousands of unionists attend this event, so be sure to meet up with the Nambu crowd at the location below.

Some historical notes: 

1886: First strike in Japan, conducted by women working in a textile factory in Kofu. The first union wasn’t formed until 1897, and women didn’t even have the vote – nonetheless, they won concessions from the factory owners.

1920 : Japan’s first May Day, held in Ueno Park, attended by 10,000 people.
 
1952:  Stronger unions meet with police oppression; two people killed in an incident known as “Bloody May Day”. 
Read more at http://nugwnambu.org/pages/headlines/maydayorigen.htm

These days, the police are just there to direct traffic, while the oppression takes the form of working-poor wages, jobs with no security, holes in the social safety net, and the myriad other problems we face at work every day.

The May Day assembly is held in the Open Air Concert Hall (Yagai Ongaku-do) in Hibiya Park (see map attached.) We
meet in the area behind the hall, labelled “Seagull Area (Local Forest)” -  Japanese name Kamome-hiroba,
Kyodo-no-mori.

http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail_02.html

A Lower House panel Friday began deliberating a controversial bill that would revise the immigration law by strengthening state control over foreigners and illegal entry by shifting responsibility for alien registration to the central government from municipalities and increasing penalties for violators.

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc is trying to get the bill passed before the Diet closes for the summer on June 3. But passage is uncertain because many opposition lawmakers and human rights groups have harshly criticized the amendments, saying they could lead to undue surveillance of foreign residents.

Japan uses a dual administrative structure to control immigration. The Justice Ministry handles immigration control and the granting of residency permits, while the municipal governments are in charge of issuing alien registration cards. The ministry estimates that about 20,000 cards have been issued to illegal stayers.

The bill would give control of alien registration to the Justice Ministry, which is thinking of abolishing alien cards and creating a new type of ID called a “zairyu” (residency) card to document foreigners intending to live here for more than three months.

Zairyu cards would list an individual’s name, photo, nationality and visa information, and foreigners would be obliged to “have the cards with them at all times,” the bill stipulates. Violators would be fined up to ¥200,000 for not carrying the card or incarcerated for as long as 10 years if caught forging them.

Critics and opposition legislators have panned the proposed penalties.

The bill would also extend the maximum period of stay for documented foreigners to five years from three.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090425a3.html

Street performances are fun for many people and give character to streets and communities such as Tokyo’s Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara and Kichijoji areas. But now such activities may be restricted or banned due to a revision of the Tokyo metropolitan by-law for “the building of safe and secure communities,” which took effect April 1.

The revised by-law not only threatens to make Tokyo’s busy and crowded areas colorless, uniform and drab but also appears to infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Metropolitan Police Department could use the revised by-law to crush people’s attempts to publicize their cause, be it human rights, animal rights or job protests.

In view of the fact that the number of criminal offenses in Tokyo reported by the police has decreased for six consecutive years since 2003, the motive behind the revision appears to be a political one aimed more at controlling the activities of citizens than on their safety. This makes the revision a clear attack on our freedoms.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20090424a1.html