More details on immigration reform in Japan
The Japan Times has an article today that explores the new immigration plan drafted by Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers to accept 10 million immigrants in the next 50 years:
Akio Nakayama, manager of the Tokyo office of the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, said the important thing about the new plan pitched by the LDP members is that it would guarantee better human rights for immigrants.
“The plan emphasizes that we will accept immigrants, not foreign workers, and let them live in Japan permanently,” Nakayama said.
“The most remarkable point is that immigrants’ family members are included,” he said. “I have never seen this in similar proposals.”
Also, he praised the plan for proposing changes to the resident registration law to allow children born in Japan to foreign parents to have Japanese citizenship. Under the current Nationality Law, one of the parents must be Japanese and the parents must be legally married for their children to have Japanese citizenship.
This provision, however, was recently ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, allowing 10 children born to Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers out of wedlock to gain the right to Japanese nationality.
The plan also includes establishing an entity to be called the Immigration Agency to integrate related duties that are now shared by multiple government bodies.
Among other proposals, the plan calls for extending the maximum duration of student and working visas to five years from the current three, easing the conditions for granting permanent resident status, setting up more Japanese-language and culture centers overseas and outlawing racism.
If the plan is accepted and these reforms go through, Japan is going to go through some huge changes.
