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- Japanese Government's Mysterious Policies
- By: Imtiaz A. Chaudhry
- UMJ NEWS Volume 2.
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The recent Ken Massey story is by no means a new case. Japanese immigration has deported a number of gaijin moms and dads when their spouses died or divorced. The law has changed in the past few years, and spouses of Japanese nationals can get one-year visas if he or she has Japanese kids. However, if divorced the gaijin parent can be required to go back to his or her homeland. There are three important and interesting points with the Ken Massey case. Firstly, he has Japanese children who are still minors. Secondly he has lived in Japan more than 17 years. Finally, Ken Massey does not have any criminal record in Japan. Based on this, basic respect for the family unit and international standards, I think immigration must grant permanent residency or a long-term visa to Massey. In most European countries if you are living more than three years and married there you can get permanent residency very easily. Sweden even grants voting rights. But in Japan you do not have any legal rights after divorce, and you must leave Japan. Otherwise immigration will put you in detention with a number of charges. Japanese immigration policies are indeed mysterious and not understandable for foreign residents, and I would like to clarify some of the injustice, immoral rules and lack of respect for basic human decency that exists under the current law: 1. Non-Japanese spouses not protected by law in Japan Japanese law does not officially recognize non-Japanese spouses. For example, if you are married to a Japanese national and have Japanese children, your name will not be on your spouse's juminhyo (family resident card). Of course, you can find your children's names there as if they only had one parent. This means that the Japanese government does not accept you as a mother or father of your children. You are invisible, without legal rights and still a "temporary" guest like Ken Massey. Should you divorce, the Japanese government can require you to leave Japan, regardless of whatever separation, hardship or harm this will cause for you and your Japanese children. Since your spouse appears to be "unmarried" on the government records, he or she will likely receive repeated letters and pamphlets from dating agencies promising to find him or her a bride or groom. My wife received such post card in March 2000, and I am just investigating the facts to file a lawsuit against Noda City office in Chiba Prefecture and this dating agency who are interfering in our privacy. I was surprised when my son asked to me "Dad are you really married with Mom because someone sent a letter to her to introduce a husband?" The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs, which are concerned with koseki and juminhyo, know these issues very well. But they continue to resist adding foreign spouses onto the juminhyo because they do not accept foreigners as a mother or father of their own Japanese children and do not wish to give them proper legal status. This is a fundamental, institutionalized form of discrimination against foreign people by Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs. 2. Immigration flexible and inflexible polices Entertainers and Trainees Have you ever seen some gangster-type person sitting in the immigration office with a group of young Asian women lined up next to him and a bundle of passports in his hand? These are "entertainers" who have come with their "administrator" to get visas extensions. High-ranking relations their bosses have with government officials make it easy to get visas abroad and extensions in Japan. These girls are then used to supply Japan's nightclubs and sex industry on a massive scale, approaching the numbers of sex slaves used in World War II. The numbers of foreign women who have been duped and are working involuntarily in the Japan sex industry appear to be decreasing. However, many are working on salaries so low that it would be illegal to pay Japanese (e.g., Y50,000 to Y90,000/month), and many are often abused with very little if any protection from unscrupulous managers. Immigration has replaced the Japanese Imperial Army in the role of overseeing the procurement of women for the thriving present day sex industry in Japan. Responsibility for allowing it to happen must be theirs as they stamp the passports submitted by the gangsters. Another example is the large numbers of "trainees" from Asian countries who are brought to Japan, often in government-sponsored programs, for various forms of "training." However, in many cases the industries associations that sponsor them end up giving them little training and mostly 3K jobs (kitsui, kitanai, kiken, i.e., "hard," "dirty," "dangerous") at companies in their industry. Their training wages are only Y60,000 to Y100,000 yen per month. The trainees feel compelled to do the work in order to improve their financial situation and attempt to learn some skills while in Japan. Labor laws do not seem to apply to these trainees, and orders from Japanese bosses must be obeyed at all times. Although the treatment of these laborers is nowhere near as bad as the slave labor used during World War II, it is ironic that once again the Japanese government is taking an active role in procuring cheap disposable foreign labor under questionable conditions for its industry. False contracts are regularly submitted to immigration to get visas with no verification because the industry officials have high-level connections with the government. Such bureaucratic influence and corruption can be traced back to donations to political parties and even straight bribes in some cases. Immigration and all concerned departments know very well about the entertainer and trainee arrangements, but these are allowed to continue smoothly due to financial incentives and the perception that the economy needs this system. Although Japan revised its immigration laws last year with heavier penalties for illegal workers, it is the government itself that overseas much the illegal activities. Fake marriages and trouble for legitimate marriages International
marriages have increased sharply during the last ten
years in Japan with the majority of this increase
attributable to Asian women marrying Japanese men. At
the same time, the number of cases of fake marriages (to
both Japanese men and Japanese women) has increased
sharply. I
recently interviewed a Filipino woman about this
phenomenon. She told me there are many "pros"
who can find a Japanese national for a fake marriage,
and it is very easy if you have enough money. First you
must pay a "fake marriage fee," which is
Y500,000 to Y700,000 and then you will be obligated to
pay Y30,000 to Y70,000 per month to that Japanese person
who will continue to provide marriage papers and other
needed documents. None of the money is refundable, and
everything is on a cash-only basis. Immigration
knows about these fake marriages, but they do not want
to increase their workload to investigate them.
Moreover, this stuff is small potatoes if the
information recently provided by a Japanese reporter is
true. According to this reporter, bribery and corruption
are deeply ingrained in the Justice Ministry with
middlemen selling visas for Y3,000,000 and Japanese
citizenship for Y30,000,000. After receiving the
payments, a bureaucrat gets the nod, and the visa or
citizenship is soon approved. 3.
Discrimination by immigration People
who are really married to Japanese are facing serious
trouble to get permanent residency or visa extensions.
Last December I received a call for help from an
American lady to the UMJ Hot Line. She told me Tokyo
Immigration refused to accept her permanent residency
application because she does not have a child with her
Japanese husband. She has been married for 10 years, but
due to some medical problems she was not able to have a
child. She
wept on the phone as she pleaded that those ugly
regulations be changed. In
another case, an Asian man, who was married to a
Japanese for over twelve years with three Japanese
children, called the UMJ head office for help. He had
applied for permanent residency twice because he needed
that visa status to get a loan approved. His Japanese
son was suffering from a serious ailment and needed an
expensive operation. The man had hoped to be able to
borrow about Y2 million, which was the portion of the
expenses not covered by national insurance. But Tokyo
Immigration refused his application both times. He also
wrote a letter to the Minister of Justice with all
medical certificates, etc., but nothing happened and his
application was refused twice. I was very surprised when I heard that a foreign Ginza bar hostess recently received a permanent resident visa after living in Japan only one year. Even in the unclear regulatory environment of immigration such a thing is nearly unheard of. She got the visa only because her customers were top officials of the Ministry of Justice and high level politicians. Tokyo Immigration subsequently confirmed that officials had been disciplined for this improper granting of this visa. 4.
Human rights abuses by immigration and police A
private security guard attested to the recent abuses by
other guards and immigration officials at Narita, and in
December 1994 former immigration guard Takeshi Akiyama
publicly reported "frequent beatings" of
detained foreigners by immigration officers. Some of the
more notable incidents are as follows: * On August 7, 2000 Amnesty International published a report about private Japanese security companies using violence to extort money at Tokyo's Narita airport in handling foreigners who were denied entry to Japan. (See Tidbits of this issue.) * Between May and June 1998, a 29-year-old Chinese woman being held in police custody at Hakodate Nishi police station for a visa violation was raped by a police sergeant on three separate occasions. He was not fired until March 1999 after he had raped a 24-year-old Japanese woman held at the station the month before. * On August 9, 1997 Iranian national Mousavi Abarbe Kouh Mir Hossein was beaten to death while in custody of the Kita Ward immigration detention facility. * In October 1994, Tao Yaping was beaten by seven immigration officers while tied to a chair. Tao received Y1 million in damages, and the men (i.e., confessed criminals) who beat her were given "administrative warnings" only and kept their jobs! * On
June 20, 1994, Iranian national Arjang Mehrpooran was
beaten to death while in custody for a visa violation at
the Minami Senju police station. With
consideration that the Hokkaido police sergant's
criminal case may still be pending, no Japanese
officials who perpetrated the above-mentioned crimes
have received any criminal conviction. In
working on the UMJ legal counseling desk for
non-Japanese with Japanese spouses and permanent
residents in Japan during the past four years,
complaints against immigration are at the top of the
list. People do not want to give their names out of fear
of retribution from immigration. The Public Safety
Investigation Agency (PSIA) of the Justice Ministry can
and does launch investigations into organizations or
persons who are working for the community or his or her
own human and legal rights. Therefore, an atmosphere
exists where people are afraid that asking about their
legal rights in Japan is a crime. I have spent a major portion of my part of life in Japan, and love many things about this country, including so many wonderful Japanese people I know. My wife and children are Japanese. But I also want to educate the Japanese government through the proper channels and in positive way to understand the needs and rights of foreigners to make our lives better in Japan. I am optimistic and sincerely pray for a bright future in an atmosphere of international understanding with happiness and justice for all people living in Japan. |
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