"Japan Web Site Irks Illegal Aliens" (How Invaders Are Handled in JAPAN)

JAPAN: Japan Web site irks illegal aliens Shoddy statistics along with unbalanced news reporting have led to a climate of scapegoating in which visa overstayers are increasingly seen as dangerous

The Web site of Japan's Immigration Bureau has never been particularly foreigner-friendly: information about almost everything, from obtaining a visa to getting deported, is available only in Japanese.

The bureau this year began soliciting tips over the Internet about suspected illegal aliens, enlisting the public in a high-profile deportation campaign ordered by authorities who say foreigners are to blame for a surge in crime in Japan.

"What's next -- paid informers?" asked Osvaldo Yamamoto, 30, a welder from Brazil. "Nobody wants to overstay their visa, but everybody wants a chance to work. Reporting on these people is a worse crime."

The online tip-off system, which started in February, is the latest in a series of measures announced by authorities in a campaign to halve the estimated 250,000 illegal aliens in Japan over the next five years.

Raids and roundups of illegals have multiplied, and visa requirements are becoming more strict. Employers and even language schools that sponsor foreigners are under heightened surveillance. About 50,000 foreigners were deported last year for visa violations.

Authorities say they're just keeping the streets safe, echoing police, conservative politicians and media reports alleging that foreigners are behind a surge in crime that's rocking the foundations of law and order.

"It's shaken people's belief they are living in the safest country in the world," said Hidenori Sakanaka, Tokyo's top immigration official. "We can't ignore this situation."

Arrests of foreigners jumped 23 percent last year, hitting a record high for a third straight year. Over half of those nabbed were illegal aliens, and almost two-thirds of crimes by foreigners involved groups of two or more.

The figures got a chilling -- and widely publicized -- illustration last year when several Chinese students were arrested for murdering a Japanese family, ransacking their house and throwing their handcuffed bodies into a bay.

Rights groups, however, see something different: a disturbing trend toward scapegoating in a country where foreigners make up less than 2 percent of the population of 127 million.

"The overwhelming majority of people who break the law in this country are Japanese, but nobody would dream of asking for tips about suspicious Japanese," said Shinichiro Nakashima, a member of Kumustaka, a support group for foreign workers in southern Japan.

Nakashima points to a fact rarely mentioned in the same breath as foreign crime: While the total number of crimes reported in Japan has risen to record highs for seven of the last eight years, the foreigners' share remains as tiny as their numbers.

Last year's headline-making figure of 40,615 offenses by foreigners amounted to 1.45 percent of the total. Most illegal aliens were arrested for a charge with no impact on public safety: overstaying their visas.

The Internet tip-off system has become a flash point for foreign anger. Groups ranging from Amnesty International to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan have blasted it for encouraging the public to look at all foreigners as potential criminals and called for a general amnesty for illegal aliens.

Overstayers talk about a sense of betrayal. Ismail, a 43-year-old electrician from Pakistan who spoke on condition that his full name not be used, was invited to Japan in 1992 as a trainee for an electronics company. He stayed on after his visa expired, moving from job to job. Now he fears deportation may be a mouse click away.

"We are not criminals, we are not losers," Ismail said. "We are working all day but there is no peace for us."

Wariness of outsiders has a long history in Japan. The country emerged from 200 years of self-imposed isolation only in the mid-19th century. Since then, generations of Japanese schoolchildren were taught to think of themselves as a "single-race nation," though the phrase is politically incorrect today.

Sakanaka said his agency is merely doing its duty. But the outcry over the online tip-off system forced authorities to add a disclaimer acknowledging most foreigners are "law-abiding."

Hey, I have no problem at all with this website. Japan took careful note of what unrestricted immigration did to Europe and the US and have decided that it is NOT going to happen here.

I also have no problem with what the Japanese are doing ....it is their nation and they have the sovereign right to do what they are doing. The only part i have to disagree with is where you stated that they took careful note of what unrestricted immigration did to Europe and the US, and based on their observations took the steps they have taken.

That is simply not the case ....the Japanese as a culture have always been 'sheltered' (I could say xenophobic, but I will not) when it comes to foreigners ....any foreigner. And this goes back quite a while, even back to the days of Commodore Matthew Perry (I believe even before his ships forced Japan to start real trading with foreigners, the only port opened to foreigners was the port at Nagasaki ....and then only open to some Chinese and the Dutch).

Anyways, the Japanese have every right to set policies on foreigners and immigrants ....it is, after all, their country. And it is true that immigration has gone awry in Europe (and even though it is a big issue in the US it is no where as dire as it is in Europe .....trust me, any European nation would trade its numbers of unemployed and angry Muslim population, in some nations as high as 10%, for our Mexicans ....not to say that we should give illegals amnesty, but saying that there is a big difference between our problems and theirs).

As for Japan .....it has really zero immigration (in real terms). However they are facing some serious issues, starting with a birth rate that is 1.3 (for population replacement a nation needs a ratio of 2.1). 1.3 is the lowest in the world, and by 2050 Japan will not be sustainable. Already they are closing schools because of lack of children (by some estimates 200 schools closed per year), and there was an interesting documentary i watched some months back that showed this school in Japan with only one child (ONE child). That will continue to place great social burdens on the working population due to the inverted social pyramid (Japan also has one of the oldest populations in the world, and one of the highest life expectancies ....I believe second highest, but my figures could be out of date). Those are real issues. Now, immigration will not fix them (it is not a 'fix' when you end up substituting your native culture with a foreign one, which is what unabated immigration may do if it is not checked, or if it is not the American version that is a veritable 'melting pot' ....and before you scoff compare US muslims with European muslims ....for the most part 'our' Muslims are well integrated and quite successful, while in Europe they are basically not at all assimilated and live in small compact communities that do not even consider themselves 'French' or 'British' but 'other'). The problem for Japan is that around 2020-2025 they will be FORCED to either accept MASS immigration, or the state will have to go draconian and force increased reproduction (which is just plain darn crazy in and of itself). To be honest with you 2020 will probably be too late .....2015 may be 'bingo' point for that nation in terms of reproduction. Any later and there will be a lull between the point where there is sufficient working mass to support the elderly, and the point where the eldest of the 'new kids' (if they get them) age enough to join the working mass.

Anyways, good that Japan is taking care of illegal immigrants. But they need to put as much effort (more even) in doing something about their population decline, otherwise 2020 will roll-by and they will be forced to bring in all sorts of people. Not to mention what a nation like China (by then a regional juggernaut with only the US as its main threat) may view Japan as .....people always state Russia's demographic problems and how they might be tempting to China, but then forget about Japan (which has a far greater demographic problem, and which China has a FAR bigger bone to pick with over what happened in WW2).

However i hear that sales of digital pets, pillows that have the shape of a human arm, and warmed human size teddy-bears that a person can snuggle with are booming in Japan. I just hope those digital pets will have advanced to a level where they can work, take care of the elderly, and stand-off against a future China in 2020/25.

"Compare and Contrast" (to the United States of America.)

Sure. Take the statements of these two lawbreakers in Japan:

~~~~~~~

Osvaldo Yamamoto, 30, a welder from Brazil. "Nobody wants to overstay their visa, but everybody wants a chance to work. Reporting on these people is a worse crime."

Ismail, a 43-year-old electrician from Pakistan: "We are not criminals, we are not losers," Ismail said. "We are working all day but there is no peace for us." ~~~~~~~

Both of these fellows spew almost exactly the same dreck as our own invaders. There must be some strain if a globalized illegal alien meme that combines arrogance, self-pity, disrespect, greed, and self-deception.

I'm very impressed that they issue (and perhaps believe) the same defiant lies that we hear from our local visa criminals. "Nobody wants to overstay their visa, but..." Ah yes, "but". One million justified crimes follow that "but."

As for "Ismail", his lie that "We are not criminals" is laughable on its face, and I hope he'll make that argument before a Japanese immigration office in the near future.

It’s a problem, and its one that I have and a lot of other people have been dealing with. If you had looked at my profile you might have noted that I have lived in Japan since 1986.

There are things they can do, and things they should do, and there are things they won’t do.

Japan is working with Chinese nationalities and with the Koreans and with the Philippines because they really have no fear of Christianity, they are even looking at novel ways of bringing their own birthrate up. Some of the solutions being talked about are actually quite cute.

But the biggest of the things they WON’T do, is allow Muslims unfettered access to Japan

But this is Japan, and it will stay Japan.

Nihon-arabia is NOT going to happen.

Not necessarily. Japan needs to discover what DISincentives are in place that discourage the middle class from having children, and remove them, plus put in workable incentive to have children

Very true, particularly for Europe whereby the tax burden makes it all the harder for young people to have children. Whcih is ironic because the less children borne the greater the tax burden going forward (as generations age and are replaced by less and less working - read: tax-paying - people), making the entire thing a vicious cycle. Furthermore, there are some nations that have tried to give money-incentives to have kids .....the main problem has been that the money given is not sufficient to amount for the cost of raising a kid (per one estimate the incentive would have to be, in terms of tax, 12,000 dollars per child per year in tax breaks for such a measure to make economic sense .....the problem is that even if a nation could decide to pay that, it would only raise the - you guessed it - tax burden).

Couple to this the fact that more and more young people are seeing children as an unnecessary burden (to some extent i am somewhat trapped by this .....as wrong as it sounds, even to me, I know that I wouldn't be having the amount of discretionary income i have, nor driving the German sedan that i drive at my age, if i had a bunch of kids. I know it is wrong, but it is an influence all the same ...and even though i will overcome it some day, the fact that it is an issue in my life means that it is an issue in those of others). It is far worse in Europe once all the taxes are added in.

Anwyays, just my $0.02

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