Japanese immigration "Policies" and "Law"  Part2

日本の狂った法務省パート2
By: Imtiaz A. Chaudhry/イムテアーズ　チョウドリー

In February 2000, an American journalist Steven Herman filed a lawsuit against the Asahi Bank after it refused his application for a housing loan of Y68.5 million because he did not have permanent residence status. Bank officials told him that the bank's internal rules did not allow loans to be extended to foreigners without permanent residence although Herman said he intended to live permanently in Japan. The suit, filed with the Tokyo District Court, sought Y11 million in damages for the mental anguish inflicted by the bank's refusal.

I did some research on this issue, mostly by calling all major banks in Japan and all Japan bankers associations as well. I found the story behind the picture to be quite different from what has been stated by the Asahi Bank.

According to a representative of a bankers association, banks welcome good customers to improve theirs business even when the customers are foreigners. The representative went on to say that banks do not care whether customers are foreigners or Japanese, and that "Japanese" customers are not preferred customers.

In the majority of cases where banks refuse housing loan applications, the applicants are foreigners with Japanese spouses but without permanent residency. This seems related to a fear about their visa's extensions, etc. In fact, directives from the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Bureau have been the primary impetus behind the denial of housing and property loans to foreigners without permanent residency status. By doing so the government has been able to control and decrease the property ownership by foreign residents in Japan.

NEED MORE FACTS TO BACK IT UP!

Renting an apartment or a house for foreign nationals even when married with a Japanese is also not so easy in Japan. Most real estate agencies have strict and hard policies for foreigners. Very often foreigners are refused services, or choices are limited to older, less convenient and other difficult-to-rent apartments and houses.

By renting an accommodation and living there for a lifetime, it is not your property, and your money goes to improve your landlord's life. For example, if you are paying apartment rent of Y100, 000 per month and you are in program to live there for 10 years that means you will pay Y12 million in rent, four months deposit (mostly not refunded) and four renewal fees to the landlord for a total close to Y11 million.

However, you can buy a good home in a suburb of Tokyo or in a neighboring prefecture with a 30-year loan plan of Y45 million, and this will be your own property. So this is the reason people prefer to buy if they are long-term residents like Mr. Steven Herman.

The Japanese constitution says "All of the people are equal under the law, and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin," and "The right to own or to hold property is inviolable." (See article 14~29 of COJ 1946)." The constitution says so clearly and when banks do not allow loans to be extended to foreigners without permanent residency, it is a violation of the constitution and other related law.

Other foreigners are currently trying to file lawsuits against these financial institutions that rejected their housing or other loan applications. Steven Herman is only one of a number of foreigners ready to fight this discrimination legally. Therefore the banks and other financial institutions under pressure from the Ministry of Justice should stop hiding the source of the discrimination, or they will very soon find themselves liable for it.

Five years ago a friend of mine applied for a car loan for 4.5 million, and it was approved by a large Japanese bank. The applicant was not a permanent resident at that time but was married with a Japanese. For big loans all banks demand a guarantor, and if a guarantor is available then why do banks not approve housing loans too? Here is a very interesting point because although the Japanese government doesn't mind allowing foreigners to buys moveable property like a car, it does indeed attempt to stop them from buying real estate via its permanent residency directives to banks for such big loans.

"Although the Japanese government doesn't mind allowing foreigners to buy moveable property like a car, it does indeed attempt them from buying real estate."

If moveable property is not a burden for these banks then they must grant loans for immoveable property too. Of course there is a strict policy from the Ministry of Justice to control aliens who attempt to make their life permanent here.

The Dark Side of Japanese Immigration Law:

The Immigration Control and Refugee-Recognition Act (ICRRA) was passed in 1951 and subsequently amended in 1981 and 1989. According to this law there are a total of 28 statuses of residence for entry, work or stay in Japan. The various statuses of residence depend upon the activity the foreigner will be performing while in Japan. Each status explicitly states what the foreigner is allowed to do while in Japan and how long he or she is allowed to stay. The statuses range from that of diplomat, journalist or professor, to engineer, college student or temporary visitor.

Noticeably absent from the various statuses of residence is that of unskilled worker. This is at the heart of Japan's present immigration farce. Japan includes "entertainers" and "trainees" in the "skilled" worker category. Interestingly these workers account for about one-half of the "skilled" foreign workers in Japan. "Entertainer" is the largest category out of all the sixteen skilled labor categories in terms of numbers of visas issues. The majority of these people are night clubs hostesses or working in the Japan sex industry, and most of them are women from the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Columbia and more recently Caucasian women from former East Block nations. In addition, these activities also happen to be an important sources of revenues for Japanese organized crime, better known in the vernacular as the yakuza.

Trainees are the seconded largest category during the last few years to fill labor shortages in unskilled or 3K job-related industries. When the ICRRA was revised in 1989, it was mainly for the purpose of stemming the growing tide of illegal foreign workers into Japan. In 1988 men were primarily engaged in construction and factory work. The presence of these foreign men as unskilled laborers meant that Japanese industry was becoming more and more dependent upon cheap foreign labor. Soon there was a big push from Japanese industry to the Ministry of Justice to cure labor shortages by increased use of foreign "trainees." This category began to replace illegal workers and continued to fuel cheap unskilled labor into Japan's 3K industries. Student categories also assisted in supplying labor to many night- and daytime industries.

The Government of Japan made these categories to fill the gap in its labor shortage as Japan needs unskilled labor, and the rest of Asia is willing to supply it. In regard to the two categories "entertainer" and "trainees," the problem of the labor shortage farce should be properly addressed because these categories make up the dark side of Japan's immigration law. This has also greatly contributed to the exploitation of unskilled cheap labor from Asia without proper welfare and protection by Japanese society.

Policies are more powerful than immigration law:

Japanese immigration uses "policies" in handling most special cases rather than "law." Immigration prefers it this way because it can essentially do anything it wishes to with foreigners when a situation is not clearly stipulated in law.

In 1994, the Tokyo District Court ordered immigration to issue a visa to a Filipino woman who had Japanese kids from her marriage with a Japanese husband who had died. Immigration reluctantly issued a one-year visa to her after losing the court case. However, the law was never revised, and this issue continued to be treated as a policy matter, which left the woman without any legal protection of her status in Japan.

Immigration likes policies because they are flexible and can be changed on a case-by-case basis as the bureau likes. The other reason why immigration does not want to change these policies into law is because laws are challengeable, but it is difficult to challenge policies.

"Immigration likes policies because they are flexible, and can be changed as the bureau likes."

Two years ago, former Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura allowed a famous American movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to land in Japan without a passport but he never allowed an Iranian who was married to a Japanese national and had two children to do so. According to the media he allowed the former to land because his family was a fan of the star. This was too much, however, and Nakamura was forced to resign as Justice Minister in March 1999. Such actions are policies or in other words left to the capricious whims of Justice Ministry bureaucrats.

People have seen the dark side of Japanese immigration. It is now time to change immigration policies into law.

　

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