Japan Is Becoming More Accepting of Immigrants.docx

1、Japan Is Becoming More Accepting of ImmigrantsJapan Is Becoming More Accepting of Immigrants Japan, 2009 Minoru Matsutani, Radical Immigration Plan under Discussion, The Japan Times, June 19, 2008, p. 1-3. Copyright The Japan Times. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.We will accept immigr

2、ants, not foreign workers, and let them live in Japan permanently.Minoru Matsutani is a resident of Japan who was educated in the United States. He has written for a variety of publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times and Bloomberg News, and is a staff writer for The Japan Times, a daily Englis

3、h-language newspaper. The following viewpoint, taken from an article that appeared in the latter publication, discusses a plan that aims to bring ten million immigrants into Japan during the next fifty years, as well as to increase the number of foreign exchange students and refugees. The proposed p

4、lan attempts to address an anticipated labor shortage as Japans population ages and birth rates decline.As you read, consider the following questions:%6. According to Matsutani, how would the proposed plan change the way immigrants to Japan are treated?%6. How would the proposed immigration plan cha

5、nge citizenship laws, in the authors opinion?%6. What are some fears about increasing the number of immigrants in Japan, noted by Matsutani?Foreigners will have a much better opportunity to move to, or continue to live in, Japan under a new immigration plan drafted by Liberal Democratic Party LDP la

6、wmakers to accept 10 million immigrants in the next 50 years.The plan means that some politicians are seriously thinking about Japans future, said Debito Arudou, who is originally from the United States but has lived in Japan for 20 years and became a naturalized citizen in 2000. While it is no surp

7、rise by global standards, it is a surprisingly big step forward for Japan.The group of some 80 lawmakers, led by former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, finalized the plan on June 12 2008 and aims to submit it to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.The plan is the most effective way to counter the la

8、bor shortage Japan is doomed to face amid a decreasing number of children, Nakagawa said.Helping Immigrants Settle InWhile establishing an environment to encourage women to continue to work while rearing children is important to counter the expected labor shortage, bringing in foreign workers is the

9、 best solution for immediate effect, said the plans mastermind, Hidenori Sakanaka, director general of the private think tank Japan Immigration Policy Institute.We will train immigrants and make sure they get jobs and their families have decent lives, Sakanaka said in explaining the major difference

10、 between the new plan and current immigration policy. We will take care of their lives, as opposed to the current policy, in which we demand only highly skilled foreigners or accept foreigners only for a few years to engage in simple labor.Japan had 2.08 million foreign residents in 2006, accounting

11、 for 1.6 percent of the population of 128 million. Raising the total to 10 million, or close to 10 percent of the population, may sound bold but is actually modest considering that most European countries, not to mention the U.S., have already exceeded this proportion, Sakanaka said.Fukuda outlined

12、in a policy speech in January 2008 his aim to raise the number of foreign students to 300,000 from the current 130,000, but without specifying a timetable.However, the immigration plan calls for the goal to be achieved soon and for the government to aim for 1 million foreign students by 2025. It als

13、o proposes accepting an annual 1,000 asylum seekers and other people who need protection for humanitarian reasons.Advancing Human RightsAkio Nakayama, manager of the Tokyo office of the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration, said the important thing about the new plan pitched by the

14、LDP members is that it would guarantee better human rights for immigrants.The plan emphasizes that we will accept immigrants, not foreign workers, and let them live in Japan permanently, Nakayama said.The most remarkable point is that immigrants family members are included, he said. I have never see

15、n this in similar proposals.Also, he praised the plan for proposing changes to the resident registration law to allow children born in Japan to foreign parents to have Japanese citizenship. Under the current Nationality Law, one of the parents must be Japanese and the parents must be legally married

16、 for their children to have Japanese citizenship.This provision, however, was recently ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, allowing 10 children born to Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers out of wedlock to gain the right to Japanese nationality.The plan also includes establishing an entity to be called the Immigration Agency to integrate related duties that are now shared by multiple g