Brazilian and Chinese laborers complain about working conditions in Japan

It seems that Al Jazeera English has decided to pay some attention to stories of economic trouble in Japan. They’ve followed up their report on homeless people with this one about foreign workers in Japan:

[hat tip to Canadaguy]

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16 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 7, 2008 at 10:45 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://www.broccolicity.wordpress.com A Taste of Life

Wow kinda crazy
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http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

I can’t stop laughing at the irony of Arabs offering civil rights advice.

Funny they don’t mention how they mis-treat their own citizens (**cough** women **cough**) let alone foreigners in their own Country.

Stop giving those hypocrites web space – NO MORE Al Jazeera Crap PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

Kevin

Please. Al Jazeera is just a news service based in the Middle East – in Qatar, no less. You need to do some more reading:

Under Emir Hamad, Qatar has experienced a notable amount of sociopolitical liberalization, including the endorsement of women’s suffrage or right to vote, drafting a new constitution, and the launch of Al Jazeera, a leading English and Arabic news source which operates a website and satellite television news channel.

The International Monetary Fund states that Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in the world, followed by Luxembourg. The World Factbook ranks Qatar at second, following Luxembourg.

Qatar served as the headquarters and one of the main launching sites of the US invasion of Iraq [7] in 2003.

I’d really like to hear which news service you think is capable of producing non-biased news.
tokyojesusfist

“Arab” can be used to refer to any number of people based on geneaology, language or nationality (most are Muslim, but religion isn’t a factor), and they do not have a single country where they all live in.

Al Jazeera is based in Qatar, and I wouldn’t know if and how much they’ve covered the situation of foreign workers there. This clip is from Al Jazeera English, though.
concerned Filipino

Yeah, it’s kinda like Faux News reporting on human right abuses in other countries, isn’t it?

I can’t stop laughing at how your comment doesn’t actually respond to the issue. While it has a certain emotional appeal, ad hominems are logically very weak. Weak, man.

Blacknimbus

“Comment by concerned Filipino
2008-12-08 00:16:49

Yeah, it’s kinda like Faux News reporting on human right abuses in other countries, isn’t it?

I can’t stop laughing at how your comment doesn’t actually respond to the issue. While it has a certain emotional appeal, ad hominems are logically very weak. Weak, man.
”

You might want to re-read your comment…unless heavy-handed irony was what you were shooting for.

And considering the situation in Mindanao, I’d think that you might understand the way the world works a little better than most. I guess not.

Grow up…ignorance is the most expensive commodity on the planet.

concerned Filipino

As if someone living a comfortable middle-class life such as you understands anything about the situation in Mindanao. Get to the point.

I think you need to take your own advice about growing up. Ignorance is something those of us who live in the real world, not some parallel universe where the Muslims are responsible for all the world’s problems, can’t afford. Is that “the way the world works” that you were referring to? Weak, man.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Isn’t the point of hiring foreign labor to save costs?

TofuUnion

Those foreign workers have normally only seasonal or temporary (within three years) employment contract. Workers who aren’t permanent employees (including many Japanese) can be laid off easier by the companies.

Lee

not only in japan but also in any business, this happens. The only reason why japan is hiring foreigners is mostly because of language skills or cheaper wage, else they might as well hire their local japanese which are already accustomed to the japanese work culture.

If you really are an asset to the company then you wouldnt have been laid off that easily. You want a company that values you so one way to look at it is that its a blessing in disguise. Well anyway there’s a reason why foreign workers only stay in japan for a few years and move to another country like the US. Not the best country for a foreigner to live in

http://amaikoibito.blogspot.com/ Gusuke

I’d like to disagree about Brazilians only staying here a few years; I live in an area with a large Brazilian and Peruvian population, and for the most part a lot of the ones I’ve met have been here for a long time, and actually have established roots here, such as buying property (The Brazilian woman I tutor English has lived here since 1992), and enrolling their kids in the Japanese education system.

In fact, I think it’s interesting while I went to my local Brazilian store (Screw eating Japanese food which I can eat any time when I can eat feijao and tons of meat!), I was perusing one of the Portuguese language magazines. Apparently in areas such as Gunma, Shizuoka, and Aichi there are now realtors and home builders catering to them as a demographic, with being able to conduct business in Portuguese.

A lot of the ones I’ve met also appreciate living here, and generally like it.

Grit

Plus, as I have heared, it is not only the foreigners who are facing lay-off. I read that 50% of Japanese in their 20′s can only get short temporary contracts and now thousands of them face massive lay-off.
The point is, Japanese industries are firing low-skilled labourers, whether they are Japanese or not. (And just in case you don’t know, I heared that the group of Corporate heads want more immigrants in Japan… for cheap labour, obviously(while, in their labour market, they have plenty of young Japanese looking for work without success) and so what do you expect from those kind of guys? And is that different in any other countries hiring foreign low-skilled labour?

So why do you have to focus on Chinese and Brazilians and Japan as difficult country to live(for you) and “racism” and blah blah blah. Seems to me, it is just another excuse that certain politically motivated individuals(not only that Debito guy, it seems!) want to use for Japan-as-racist campaign.

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JL

These foreign workers wouldn’t be in Japan if not for their motherland’s downtrodden economy. I have a feeling that the economy in Brazil and China is a whole lot worse than some plants closing. They apparently did nothing to bolster their economy or provide incentives for their citizens to work at home, which enabled this kind of exploitation (if indeed that is the case) in Japan.

Brazilian and Chinese laborers complain about working conditions in Japan

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