04 Ensure Rights to Stay Permanently

Wang Shihan came from China to work in a Japanese factory as a technical intern trainee on a three-year contract. However, some months after arriving in Japan, she found out that she was pregnant. Wang did not tell anybody about that, because she had been told by the sending organization that she would be forced to go back to China if she got pregnant. Besides that, the contract said that the sending organization would not return the guarantee money (i.e., deposit) if she returned home before the end of the contract term. As she had to borrow money from her relatives to pay the guarantee money, Wang feared being forcefully returned.

Although for a while, Wang managed to hide her pregnancy and kept working while taking care of her health, it was unavoidable that people began to notice her increasingly growing belly. The president of the factory and the supervising organization forced her to choose between abortion and returning to China.

▶ What restrictions on permanent stay cause

Under the Technical Intern Training Program, technical intern trainees are only allowed to stay and work up to five years alone without bringing their families. After having worked for three years in certain occupations, they may change their residence status to “Type-1 Specialized Skills,” but this residence status also only allows for work up to five years without permission to bring family. Migrants who can acquire residence statuses that allow for bringing family are limited to only those working in construction, shipbuilding, and elderly care industries (as of September 2021). No matter how much they work in Japan, those workers are supposed to live without family and eventually return to their home country. Such a system that does not allow workers to stay in Japan for the long-term does not only fail to benefit any of the workers, but also fails to benefit their workplaces and local communities.

Also, migrants with residence statuses for the purpose of working in Japan are allowed to stay only during the time they engage in the kind of work they are allowed to do. Such a restriction may seem natural, but it actually makes it difficult for those migrants to claim their rights not only as workers, but also as residents. A person is not a laborer for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are times when a person cannot work for various reasons such as unemployment due to the employer’s bankruptcy, illness, pregnancy, and childbirth. In order to respond to those situations, there are social security systems such as health insurance, employment insurance, insurance for work-related injuries, maternity leave, childcare leave, pension, and livelihood assistance. These systems are in place to ensure the rights of people to live without having to depend on work income until they can start working again. Just like Japanese nationals, foreign nationals also pay insurance premiums and taxes. However, the restriction that allows migrants to stay in Japan only as long as they work, effectively prevents migrants from using the above mentioned social security systems. They may be denied a residence status when they are unable to work, and thus forced to return to their home countries – or like in Wang’s case, forced to choose between abortion and forced return.

This may pressure migrant workers to bear whatever problem they may face in order to keep working so that they can stay in Japan. To remove such pressure, there is a need to substantively ensure migrant workers’ access to social security systems and to create a system that allows any migrant worker to choose a long-term/permanent resident residence status.

▶ Harm to the unaddressed rights and dignity of residents

There are other factors that hinder migrants from claiming their rights as residents in Japanese society. Due to the government’s policy stance not to admit to the existence of migrants and the need for an immigration policy, there has been a lack of policies to ensure the rights and dignity of migrants who have long lived in Japan. One of the problems caused by this is the inappropriate responses to discrimination against migrants at the workplace, school, and residence. In 2016, the Diet passed the Hate Speech Act, which is the first anti-racism law in Japan (refer to Proposal 12). However, the Act does not cover discrimination that occurs in daily life. The Japanese government does not recognize the need to legislate a comprehensive anti-racism law, which other countries have.

However, this stance of the Japanese government is a mistake. There have been and are many migrants suffering from discrimination. In fact, according to a survey by the government on foreign residents (published by the Ministry of Justice in March 2017), around 40% of foreign nationals who have looked for housing in Japan answered that they were declined because they were foreigners. Also, 30% of respondents reported that they experienced discrimination because they were foreigners. These survey results show that being discriminated against is a part of daily life for migrants and people with migrant roots, and they have been deprived of their rights and dignity to live a life with a sense of safety. It is necessary for the government to recognize the reality of discrimination against migrants, prohibit it, and legislate policies to eliminate it.