3.1 Historical background and general framework of IP

For ages Japan was an isolated island state with strict control and limitation upon accepting foreigners. For example, during the period of country isolation “sakoku” the overseas traders were denied to enter the mainland Japan and were limited to use only one Japanese harbour in Nagasaki and reside only the Dejima Island.

Even nowadays Japan to a large extent remains inaccessible country closed to massive immigration flows from outer world. However the modern shape of Japanese immigration policy and structure of foreign residents began to form only after the WW2 . At that moment there were about two millions of Korean immigrants residing inside Japan. Great part of them migrated (or were forced to migrate) from Japanese colonies to mainland during the Japanese rule in Korea (1910-1945) and remained into the country till the end of the Second World War. At that time, it was considered as internal migration of Japanese citizens across the empire. However, after Japanese defeat in 1945 about 1.5 million of Korean gained the opportunity to return to their homeland, while 600 thousands decided to remain inside Japanese territory. Nevertheless, in 1947 they were required to register as foreign nationals. And after it, in 1952 according to the San Francisco Peace Treaty Japan abandoned its territorial claim to the Korean peninsula and therefore residing Koreans were deprived of Japanese nationality and became the first and most numerous part of Japanese immigrants.

At the same time in 1952, government passed the first law for management Japanese immigrant population. It was Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which follows the norms of American immigration system, but unlike the last, it does not permit immigrants to settle permanently or to demand Japanese citizenship. In addition, an alien registration system was established, which requires long-term residence (including Koreans) to register in it in 90 days since arrival and notify government of they change the address and to apply for re-entry if they leave the country.

Up until 1980s, immigration was not considered as topical question, because the share of foreign people in the society was tiny and country was able to develop its economy by employing domestic resources. The country fulfil labour demand by increasing working hours and overtime work, involving part-time workers, enhancing productivity and automation, relocating production plants to outside of Japan's territory. As part of internationalization at this time there was also an important process of joining of Japan to international conventions. For example, the procedures for recognition of refugee status were added to the responsibilities of the immigration control administration and Japan signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was ratified in 1995.

However starting from the end of 1980s Japanese business fighting for competitiveness on the world market was in need for cheaper labour force. At that time wages of Japanese workers were higher than in neighbouring countries. Japanese also became reluctant to perform duties connected with service industry jobs or manual labour, as they were not well paid and did not provide opportunity for social mobility. So cheap foreign workers, mainly from Iran and Bangladesh, started to appear in the country. Although entrance of unskilled foreign workers in Japan was illegal, government ignored it in order to support local industries. Such workers often were paid only per hour salaries and were excluded from the welfare and insurance systems. (Even zainichi Koreans were ineligible to receive public pension until 1982, although they were obliged to pay into the system). However, after “bubble”, shock and slowdown of Japanese economy foreign workers became less welcomed and large part of them was deported from country as illegal immigrant.

In answer to this situation the revised Immigration Control Act was issued in 1990. It contains two main amendments: more strict control and penalties for illegal foreign immigrants and their employee. And the second one was new policy of welcoming nikkeijin, or Japanese descendants leaving abroad, in up to third generation. It was believed that due to blood relationship they can better get accustomed to the Japanese reality, even though most of them was born outside country and hasn't ability to speak Japanese, or at least they look like Japanese. The law vests them a right to apply for long-term Japanese visa and do any work without restrictions. This policy is often mention under the name of “side door for unskilled labour force”, because it counterbalance between demand for cheaper workers and at the same time bring in people, who do not very differ from the local citizens.

The revisions of Immigration Control Act in 2004 and 2009 mainly put more control on illegal and unskilled immigration, while providing ease for skilled newcomers and students.

In addition to these documents immigration bureau is issuing an annual reports about the implementation of the policy and main changes in the sphere of immigration occurred in the precedent year. Also since 1992 immigration bureau is publishing Basic Plans for Immigration Control, where major objectives of immigration policy for upcoming years are outlined. In this chapter I will outline the main incentives of current immigration policy relying upon the latest 4th edition of the Basic Plan for Immigration Control (4th Basic Plan further).

The Basic Plan was published in the year 2010 and it contains the major objectives of the current immigration policy for the next five years up until year 2015. It sets the priorities of the reaching “more vital and prosperous society”, “a safe and secure society” and “a harmonious society coexisting with foreign nationals”. In order to reach these objectives it points out 4 main directions of its future policy: Smooth acceptance of foreign nationals vitalizing Japanese society, Promotion of measures against illegal foreign residents aiming for the realization of a safe and secure society, Smooth introduction of a new system of residence management and expansion of immigration control administration based on the system and Promotion of appropriate and prompt refugee protection. Further, I am going to stop on each of these concepts in more details and tell about their implementation.

3.2 Promotion of measures against illegal foreign residents aiming for the realization of a safe and secure society

The Basic Plan is stressing the importance of proper immigration policy in provision of safety and security for the society. In this sphere such objectives are set as prevention of illegal entry in the country, eradication of foreign illegal employment and other illegal activities of foreign residents, fight against terrorism and stowaways, reducing the number of illegal and false foreign residents. For reaching these goals the vast scope of measures are being implement or are planning to be implement. Among them there are tightened control at the ports of entry, restriction of landing examination, including utilization of personal identification information, increasing coordination with International Criminal Police Organization and putting greater attention towards illegally entering using vessels. Moreover, measures for more strict surveillance on foreign residence are being imposed, including improvement of the system for collection and analysis of information, closer contacts with local police, special detection officer units, proper operation of special permission to stay, implementation of aggressive detection and revocation of the statuses of residence of those under the guise of legitimate residency. (Those, who use, for example, fake marriage or fake study to reside in Japan illegal).

3.3 Smooth introduction of a new system of residence management

The second objective of Basic Plan is establishment of new system of residence management. It is constructed as an answer to the increasing amount of foreigners visiting and residing in the country and the diversification of the purposes of their visit and activities inside the country. This system is expected to provide better monitoring of foreign nationals, simplify issuance of a residence card, changes of status of residence and also improve provision of information about foreigners. Under this system both foreign resident and organizations of affiliation (for example place of work or study) are obliged to provide information to the Minister of Justice about any changes in his circumstances, such as change of place of living of work. As a result, the management of immigrants should become more arranged accurately and would be able to keep information accurately and continuously. Moreover, as prefectures would receive more up to date information about foreign residents, it is believed, that municipalities would be able to provide better public services for immigrants, such as health insurance, pensions and child benefits.

3.4 Promotion of appropriate and prompt refugee protection

In the year 1981 Japan ratified the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and proclaimed her desire to fulfil in such a way its role in the international community. Further measures of refugee protection included establishment in 2005 new system of refugee examination counsellors. The current objectives in this sphere are setting a standard period of time for processing of the application for refugee recognition, training personnel capable to fair refugee examination and starting program of accepting refugees through resettlement to a third country.

3.5 Smooth acceptance of foreign nationals vitalizing Japanese society

Points based system

Being aware of the problems of the future population shrinking and aging, and also seeking to revitalize Japanese economy after long period of recession, immigration bureau is proclaiming its desire to attract into Japan more foreigners “who meets the needs of society” and are eager to contribute to the development of Japanese economy. In order to achieve this goal it launches several programs, among which introduction of a preferential points based system for highly qualified immigrants is the most promoted one. It was put into effect on May 7, 2012 and was designed to bring into the country highly qualified professionals, who are believed can help Japan to strength its international competitiveness and sustain economic growth. They were devised in three fields: academic research activity, advanced specialized or technical activity and business management activity. Each category is evaluated according to such criteria as “academic background”, “business career” and “annual income.” The person, who manages to acquire more than 70 points in one of the categories, will receive a privileged treatment: a visa to the prolong five-year period of stay, permission for multiple purposes of activities, simplification of applying for permanent residence status after several years of living inside Japan and several others. Among other foreigners who meet the needs of Japanese society are named all kinds of professionals, technicians and nursing and medical personal.

Acceptance of medical and caregiver personnel

In a view of upcoming aging and shrinking of population, Japan decided to accept certain amount of medical personnel from other countries. So the 4th Basic Plan stipulates objective of acceptance of nurses and caregivers from Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam according to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with these countries. The general framework for obtaining work in Japan is the follow. After studying for about 6 month Japanese language at home, candidates in nurses and caregivers are allowed to work and study at medical institutions in Japan (for 3 years for nurses and 4 years for caregivers). In the end of this term, they are expected to pass the exam for national qualification, the same one as for the local nurses, and start working.

Acceptance of nikkeijin

After revision of Immigration Control Act in 1990 descent of those Japanese, who emigrated to Brazil and Peru in the beginning of 20th century, were given legal opportunity to return to homeland under the long-term resident status and be engaged in work activities without any restrictions. Their visa allows them to stay in Japan up to three years and it could be renewed infinitely upon condition there was no violation of the law. In the 4th Basic Plan also mentioned the valuable contribution of nikkeijin to the Japanese economy in the previous years and suggested a range of policies for improvement of their integration into local life. They include education for their children, establishing Japanese language schools for non-speakers and improvement of the working conditions.

Others

The 4th Basic Plan also set priorities on the increasing of international cooperation in the spheres of tourism and students exchange. Their numbers have significantly increased in recent years. (See the Appendix 2). The special attention was paid to the reorganisation of the trainee and technical internship programs. Originally, the aim of the program is to transfer technology and skills to the workers of less developed countries and in such a way make international contribution to the development of human resources. Nevertheless, the program is largely criticized for being a measure to import into Japan source of low-paid unskilled workforce, who is forced to work in unsustainable conditions. Under these program foreigners from the developed countries are invited to become a trainee for the first year (without any wages) and then practise as technical intern for maximum of two years term. According to the new regulation (the detailed scheme of the renewed program is provided in the Appendix 3) internships are required to work under contract of employment, and fall under the jurisdiction of Labour Standards Act, therefore their minimum wages and insurances in case of accidents are guaranteed. Moreover the supervision of the implementation of the program has also been restricted and as a result the numbers of misconduct plummet in the last two years.

4.Analysis of Immigration policies

4.1 Progress in the programmes concerning control and management of foreign residents

The Japanese polices aiming at the providing of the safe and secure society can be measured as relatively successful. As a result of implementation of the plan of “halving the number of illegal foreign residents within five years” which was established in the “Action Plan for the Actualization of a Society Resistant to Crime” in the end of 2003, the number of overstaying residents in the 2004 (which stood at 220,000 person) was cut significantly down to 113,000 people in 2009. Moreover, by the year 2013 their number again was cut in half and reached 62 thousands.

Table 2

Furthermore, the number of people, who were deported due to different violations of Immigration Control Act, was also decreasing on year to year basis. In 2012 it was more than two times less than in 2008 and equal about 15 thousand people. So we can see that the percentage of lawbreaker among the whole number of foreign residence nowadays is tiny small, and we can conclude that government is implementing sufficient measures and is coping with the task of proving safety for the society.

As for the implementation of the new residency management system, at the current moment there is not valid statistic data whether it improves efficiency and provides better immigrants' management. The system was only inaugurated on July 9, 2012 and there was not enough time to evaluate it. However more than 642 thousand residents have already obtained the residence card according to the new system.

4.2 Refugee protection

The Japanese policy concerning refugees is ambivalent. On the one hand, Japan fulfilled the objectives it set: the standard period of refugee examination was stabilized and fixed at six months, and Immigration Bureau does not exceed it. Moreover, country improves officer training in order to provide equitable examination of every case.

Table 3. Number of applications for refugee and number of approvals. Persons.

Source: Immigration Control 2013 report, p. 99

On the other hand, no targets were established concerning the quantity of refugees' acceptance. The amount of refugee that Japan accepts almost does not change from year to year and remains infinitesimal, despite the fact, that amount of applications constantly grows. So out of 2545 application the status of refugee acquire only 18 persons, which make less than 0.6%. Furthermore, in 2012 no one was accepted through the program of resettlement to a third country. So Japan is still reluctant to open its borders to refugee.

4.3 Points based system