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Would you agree that in many cases Non-Japanese are treated better by society and by employers than Japanese are treated ? I am not saying that NJ are always treated better but in my experience and from my observations over the last 25+ years I would argue that NJ are very often treated better than Japanese.

Arguing for equality is of course common sense but the consequences of true equality for NJ would often be that their lives in Japan would become more difficult.

what i feel is irrelevant. The fact is, I am treated differently and this is deemed acceptable..

It seems to me that this statement in particular is extremely subjective. I’ve had zero experience with discrimination in Japan – that’s based on my own experience. You may be treated differently but I don’t see this as being universal or a symptom of state-run discrimination. Obviously I’m still speaking from personal experience, but humans think and make decisions based on subjective rationale. If I was the only one in Japan with positive experiences I might be inclined to believe as you do, but as it stands, nearly everyone I know living in this country continues to benefit from Japanese altruism.

However, the original point still remains. It’s not the job of the Ministry of Justice – the Immigration Bureau – to deal with labor laws. This is the job of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. You are arguing for equal treatment under Japanese law, but based on those terms, you need to deal with labor disputes and improve working conditions in the same way as other Japanese people.

This article states that the government has made it easier for people with Japanese skills to get visas. This has nothing to do with labor disputes or working conditions. I agree with your original point that this is only dealing with half of the immigration problem, but it’s now up to the proper governmental body to create rules to fix that.

The point being discussed, at least at the time that I made that statement, was immigration and language. Issues of assimilation.

Have you been reading Debito too much? The problem isn’t what laws Japan does or does not have, it is how they are enforced, and how people in general see you (including lawmakers). This is changing. Ten, fifteen years ago I would walk past a crowd of schoolkids and get the “haro!” chorus. Rarely happens now, which I think has a lot to do with the increase in ALTs giving the kids exposure to foreign people.

Your bit about the language comes off as overly defensive. No, language does not affect your legal standing. But it does affect, very much so, how others around you treat you. That’s only logical. Therefore it is fair to say that discrimination you face will be lessened by greater fluency. On a personal level.

My point about speaking the language of the US is nothing to do with “rights” as such but in terms of immigration and who should be favoured: those who either are or willing to be culturally assimilated.

No one has the right to use you as slave labor – There are laws that are enforced to protect your basic human rights. As for “equal treatment”, you don’t have a right to it unless you’ve pledged allegiance to the nation.

You are treated differently because you are different. A lot of times you are babied because they think that’s what makes you comfortable, they assume that you are a naive little grasshopper in a brave new world, and it can come off as antagonizing, but it’s definitely not a problem large-scale enough (or even necessarily negative at that) to warrant tax money to be spent on a solution. There are some shady employers out there, but it’s not an issue gone rampant.

For example, an old man selling ekiben kept trying to warn me the bento was rice. I assumed he thought I wouldn’t like it because of misconceptions of what westerners liked. That could be called a racist assumption nevertheless his heart was in the right place.

If you take sites like bigdaikon.com or gaijinpot.com at face value, you’re cheating yourself. A (very small) minority who have had bad experiences have a very loud voice, and I often suspect they exaggerate their sour experiences as justification for bemoaning about them on the internet. Everyone loves drama.

The English industry in Japan exists because it’s auspicious. If the net benefits were negative, there wouldn’t be such a high population of imported workers, plain and simple.

As to your two choices, while I understand it’s hypothetical, it’s never that clear-cut. For example, in Japan, I speak the language rather well, but I would never claim that I am “always treated separately and unfairly in matters of rights and law.” Treated differently, at times, yes. Treated unfairly, too, perhaps. But definitely not “always.” China MIGHT be a better example, but I stress the “might” – I don’t really know what the legal rights for foreigners in China are. After all, the natives themselves don’t seem to have enough….

John, it seems to me after reading some of your posts here that you’re not having a good time in Japan. By watching foreigners around me, and from my own experience I’ve noticed that ones own outlook is the most important. The happier you are the better your experience will be. Considering that the things you are talking about will take time to change, how can you make your experience here better by changing your own outlook on life?

Oh yea, I like this new change to the visas and I’m glad they haven’t made it harder for non-speaking people to enter.

Anyway, personally I feel that you should be allowed to live indefinitely in any country so long as you speak the language fluently…..

John – just to be picky, but if you don’t speak the language fluently and read 2000 kanji, how do you know you are not being treated the same as someone who does? Surely, to be completely fair, you’d have to compare you before and you after mastering the language….

I haven’t noticed a huge change (though I arrived with a fair bit under my belt already) but that is because I really don’t have any complaints about Japanese government bureaucracy – and no, this is not a paid advertisement. If you are open and honest and sincere and polite, dealing with them can almost be a pleasure. And I say that having just come back from the city office….

However I cannot really give much experience about private companies. It seems very variable, though I do wonder how much the personality of the person complaining about them is part of the issue – look at Debito’s complaints about the company he worked at in the ’80s, and read some of the critiques of his abrasive and almost dictatorial manner, and it may be that he was not entirely blameless.

“In other words, once you understand the Culture, you realise the culture discriminates against NJs. So until you understand this you will always complain. Once you understand this, you will do something about it.”

The language requirement, if you get down to it, it really more of a tate-mae kind of thing. It seems to me that the government is preparing to bring in more immigrants but to keep people from freaking out, they can simply say, “Don’t worry. The foreigners are learning Japanese and will fit in in no time at all.” If you think about it, even if we all learn the language, it doesn’t mean we’re actually going to use it.

You seem to be more focused on working conditions so the question was probably something more like – “How will the government make sure foreigners are provided with positive working conditions once they get here?”

I think the government was probably looking at it like this – “How can we make sure that foreigners can acclimate themselves to Japanese culture in the fastest way possible?”

I think you’re correct in that improved labor laws will be a big step in the right direction, but this language policy is just the beginning. Getting foreigners to come was the first step, making it look like the foreigners will be able to adapt to Japanese culture was the second step, and figuring out logistics is the next step.