Japan eyes relaxed immigration rules for skilled workers

Wednesday 20th May, 06:59 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 60 Total Comments Show All

Patrick Smash at 03:32 PM JST - 20th May

sydenham. The foreigners I know with well-paid jobs often speak no Japanese at all and are on ex-pat salaries. Less so than a year ago of coures, but it is still often the case.

I know some westerners who learned good Japanese and are still HS teachers on low salaries. I don't think for westerners language ability translates to pay; it is more which country and which industry. I know Asians who speak excellent Japanese and work in crappy metalwork jobs in Chiba. Again, language ability does not translate to decent pay.

But those who have skills that the Japanese need should have an easier ride with immigration. Language is a part of that, and I think in particular Asians who study Japanese and have a skill can get a better life here. The country certainly doesn't need any more eikaiwa teachers who can only function in English.
mareo2 at 04:03 PM JST - 20th May

timeon:

About foreigners students, that remember me what a peruvian told me once: "Mareo get in the local university, they have to fill a number of foreigner students". I looked to him and answered, "I got a japanese passport, so I cant do that". The brother of these peruvian barely speaked japanese, so the test was made on english, but he was so bad student that he dont even can write in english and failed. As a Tax-payer, I am not very impressed with the foreigner student system in Japan. In that moment it sounded to me like when the police in the US or some companies have to fill a certain degree of women and minorities in their ranks.

Back to topic:

When I read these article I get the "use and droop" feeling to the "unskilled workers" being repeated with the "skilled workers". In my humble opinion, some of us still are being misleading by the gob saying "inmigration" when is reality is just a flexibilization of the "guest worker" system. People live in a gray zone, get a passport or dont make long term plans, but dont confuse "inmigrant" with "guest".
sydenham at 04:06 PM JST - 20th May

Patrick, nice friends. Wish I new more blue-blood expat pads to crash.

The Asians I know are entrepreneurs. Educated, or saved money in crap jobs until they could open their own business. Oh, and there's one IT guy who works at a Japanese import firm.

The HS teachers you know, I'm guessing, are underqualified for getting real paying positions. I know some guys like that who work for cities, and will be stuck there until they get some supporting qualification besides an arts BA, or the like. They speak good Japanese too, but by good, I mean shooting the sh*t Japanese, not professional level stuff. Every guy I know who has passed 1kyuu has a nice, steady job.
BurakuminDes at 05:28 PM JST - 20th May

They should relax the immigration laws to allow for "ethnic" Japanese, from Brazil, Hawaii and The Phillippines to stay more easily. These "ethnic" Japanese will work much harder, fit in much better, look "normal" and thus not scare the local populace, and be fluent in the local language. Also they won't commit as many crimes as the white ones. Oh, hang on, they already tried that experiment! D'Oh!!! Plan B, Ministry of Justice...
elbudamexicano at 06:25 PM JST - 20th May

Japan, is a very funny place. Most of of the old folks, who are not in old folks homes can not do these type of jobs, the young, drunk, girl chasing J dudes, are too lazy to keep their jobs each and every day, so I guess now they are finally realizing that they have no choice but to import hard workers from abroad.
majimekun at 08:20 PM JST - 20th May

Why this talk when the article clearly states :

to seek such highly capable workforces mainly from other Asian countries

???
dishdash at 09:35 PM JST - 20th May

Based on the article I dont understand what the govt really wants - one minute it talks about immigrants from Asian countries, then about reseachers, engineers and corporate management specialists and then manufacturing and health care. I think the govt should just get people from any country who can fill the gaps - whether they be Brits, Americans, Asians or Africans. The govt if it imports this labour does need to ensure that they make things a little easier otherwise they will have integration problems like other countries.
aelieth at 10:07 PM JST - 20th May

If they can pass something like this - a point system per say. This would just be incredibly beneficial. Working on my Master's now and really hope to be able to stay in Japan.

As with many other comments here, I hope they include more countries than just asian countries. Else... dang it, haha. I'll show them! Somehow.
WMD at 10:34 PM JST - 20th May

Skilled foreigners WILL NOT come to japan. No way. There's a whole world to choose from, who in their right mind would choose japan where you can't even rent an appartment without hassle or outright refusal. And what's with foreigners only getting crappy short term contracts of 1 year or less? Christ, only the desperate would choose japan.
nigelboy at 10:46 PM JST - 20th May

IMHO, the government doesn't need to "relax" anyting for if you are "talented" as many posters claim to be or known someone, there is no obstacle in making a decent living here.

But in general I think there's this tendency of English speakers to bitch and moan and blame everything on stereotypical images of Japanese because it's easier than going out and making an effort to learn the language and integrate into the host culture.

sydenham nails it.
WMD at 10:54 PM JST - 20th May

japanese japanese easy. Learn Mandarin and Russian, far more difficult. What is difficult about japanese I wonder? No tones, easy grammar and pronunciation.
Gaijinocchio at 12:17 AM JST - 21st May

nigelboy: sydenham does not nail it. The majority of foreign workers in Japan are not from English speaking countries. In fact, the article clearly states

to seek such highly capable workforces mainly from other Asian countries

case in point, there is no incentive to work in Japan if you are a skilled worker! Why choose Japan over, say the USA as an engineer or corporate manager? Or your home country for that matter? Instead of implementing long term plans to produce their own skilled workers, Japan wants to brain drain neighbors now. The J-gov can relax all they want, it'll still be a decade or so behind.

No, They want a POINT SYSTEM?! It is an asinine, preposterous plan; and I can see the headlines of unfair treatment and hangups already! But then again, they're only "eyeing" and not even "considering" nor "contemplating". Wake me up when they 'decide' to do something zzz
nigelboy at 12:37 AM JST - 21st May

Gijinoochio:

sydenham nails it in regards to "English" speakers.

And as I stated, my position is in disagreement with the government with regards to giving "relaxed" rules.
Good_Jorb at 01:43 AM JST - 21st May

The foreigners I know with well-paid jobs often speak no Japanese at all and are on ex-pat salaries. Less so than a year ago of coures, but it is still often the case.

When I applied for and got a transfer to the Japanese branch of the firm I was working for, I had 3 months of Japanese lesson(so basically I knew nothing) and upon arrival for the first year, I never had to use Japanese, although I learned anyways. At that time though there was a special visa for Accountants(I don't believe it exists anymore). I don't know how much relaxed immigration rules for skilled workers is going to help Japan, it is not that hard for skilled workers to immigrate to Japan in the first place, it is more of a question of money, work-life balances. I moved back to Canada because I could make more money and my wife could advance in her career and wasn't handicapped for not having a twig and a couple of berries.
jonnyboy at 09:56 AM JST - 21st May

Why choose Japan over, say the USA as an engineer or corporate manager?

i was reading in newsweek or time recently that actually the usa is experiencing quite a drop in demand for working visas and green-cards since post-911 the visa application process has become so draconian and there is ready money waiting in places like china and india.

anyway, i think at the end of the day people will choose japan if it offers the right incentives. clearly if you are starving to death at home you would be more than willing to live off curry-rice in japan, but if you are a well-qualified professional on a good salary in your home (asian) country then there needs to be some strong incentives for you to uproot, learn a foreign language and adapt to a culture which will not adapt to you.

in short; there needs to be a return on investment