The economy takes its toll on foreign workers and students
Mainichi reports that manufacturers are letting go of foreign workers as the economy gets worse:
Sonia Marie de Almeida, 47, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian, who lost her job at a parts plant of a large automotive manufacturer, left her two children behind to come to Japan.
“I was told that I need not come to work anymore because production has fallen,” she said. “I have to send money to my children. I need to find another job quickly.”
The number of jobless foreign visitors to Hello Work Hamamatsu has increased markedly this year. The total number of job inquiries by foreigners last fiscal year was 3,307 — a monthly average of 276. This fiscal year, however, that figure has grown to a total of 2,726 in the six months until September — a monthly average of 454 — which is a 1.6-fold increase from the previous year. The number of visitors in September alone was 534.
Meanwhile, Tokyo’s Waseda University is extending tuition payment deadlines for students from countries suffering the worst from the financial crisis:
The major private university in Tokyo said 339 students from South Korea, for instance, have tuition payments in arrears, although the total includes those who had failed to make payments before the financial crisis started biting.
The South Korean won has depreciated particularly sharply against the Japanese yen, which makes yen-denominated payments more difficult for them. The university said it polled around 100 South Korean students and many of them said they have difficulty making ends meet and honoring tuition payments.
Also eligible for the extended deadlines are two students from Iceland, a country reeling from a massive outflow of bank deposits as the banking sector has collapsed.
Bad as the economy may be, it hasn’t lessened the demand for nurses. Kyodo News reports that hundreds of Filipino nurses and caregivers are preparing to come to Japan next year as part of a special program under the new Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement.
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