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The core of Japan’s hiring season wrapped up a few months ago. Now, Japan’s immigration bureau is driving a push to make sure everyone hired was hired legally. However, some who live in Japan say the new legal worker campaign amounts to encouraging harassment of anyone who looks “foreign”.
“Strengthening” the crackdown
The controversy surrounds Japan’s Illegal Foreigner Worker Strategy, which Japan’s Immigration Services Agency (ISA) outlined in a May 23rd memo.
ISA says that, while it’s had success cracking down on illegal immigration, changing times have brought new forms of immigration fraud. These include fake residence cards as well as immigrants engaging in a different class of work that isn’t covered by their visas.
The memo also controversially claims it’s cracking down on “fake refugees” who are falsely claiming refugee status in order to work in Japan. This statement seems ominous in the wake of a new law that makes it easier for ISA to deport refugee applicants who’ve been denied certification multiple times.
To provide some context, Japan trails every other G7 nation in approved refugee status, granting only a paltry 0.7% of all requests a year. By contrast, Canada admits 62.1% of all applicants.
Statistically, Japan is seeing a rise in illegal immigration. However, as with other countries, the spike appears to stem mainly from overstays. The country estimates that some 74,910 people have overstayed their visas. 2022 saw an increase in overstays of 5.6%. The majority of the spike appears to come from immigrants from Vietnam and Thailand.
On the other hand, to put the scope of this problem in perspective, Japan has 125 million people. 74,910 overstays represents .05% of the country’s population.
Mascot for harassment?
As part of its crackdown efforts, Japan’s ISA kicked off an “awareness campaign” consisting of ads alerting businesses against hiring foreign workers illegally. The campaign urges businesses to fully vet workers’ visa status and residence cards.
It’s the way it’s promoting this campaign, however, that’s grabbing some people’s attention. The first obvious sign was a huge banner in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station (top of this article). The banner reads: “Please Help Ensure Appropriate Hiring of Foreigners: It’s the month for advancement of appropriate hiring of foreigners to promote a harmonious society.”
The placement in Shinagawa Station isn’t an accident. It’s the stop on the way to buses that lead to the Immigration Service Agency building in nearby Konan – i.e., the place where foreigners go to renew their visas.
ISA is also employing cute mascots to help promote its message:
Some long-term English-speaking residents of Japan took to Twitter to express their fear that this campaign encourages harassment. “Truly bizarre how Tokyo encourages unqualified vigilantes to enforce their immigration laws and also wonders why they aren’t a global hub,” wrote one.
Some commenters in the Twitter thread above praised Japan for enforcing its immigration laws – which misses the point. Of course Japan should enforce its laws. The issue is fomenting distrust between citizens and residents and encouraging vigilante action based on someone’s appearance.
We’ve seen the tragic consequences such racial distrust can have around the globe. Take Daniel Piedra Garcia in Texas, whom passenger Phoebe Copas shot to death after she suspected – without evidence – that he was “kidnapping her to Mexico.” The killing comes after years of right-wing agitation and fear-mongering about immigrants from South America.
Who’s a foreigner? (Hint: it’s mostly not white people)
The major twist here is that “spot the foreigner in Japan” isn’t a simple game to win.
In ISA’s promotional materials, the images it tends to use for “foreigners” are white people:
But as our own Noah Oskow pointed out on Twitter, white immigrants aren’t even close to being the majority of immigrants to Japan. Per ISA’s own numbers, the majority of Japanese immigrants come from majority non-white Asian countries. Over 50% come from China, Korea, and Vietnam combined. The Phillippines, Brazil (which has long historic and complicated ties with Japan), and Nepal round out the top six spots.
The country potentially shipping the largest population of white people is the United States – and only 2% of immigrants to Japan come from America. Also, needless to say, not every immigrant from the States is white. “White person == immigrant” is a stereotype that speaks more to Japan’s “whiteness problem” than to any reality regarding immigration.
Finally, as we at UJ are wont to point out time and time again, not every citizen of Japan is 100% ethnically Japanese. Japan has always had ethnic diversity – and with increasing immigration, there are more mixed-race Japanese citizens than ever. Encouraging suspicion based on someone’s appearance reinforces outdated prejudices about who is and who is not “Japanese”.
The campaign will continue for a few more days at least. If you’re a foreign resident of Japan, make sure you have your residence card on you at all times. If you’re a tourist, don’t leave your lodging without your passport. You may need it more than usual.
What to read next
Japan’s Whiteness Problem, Part 1: Colorism
Sources
不法就労等外国人対策の推進（改訂）. Japan Ministry of Justice
本邦における不法残留者数について（令和５年１月１日現在）. Immigration Services Agency
Woman shoots El Paso Uber driver to death after she wrongly thought she was being kidnapped: Police. ABC7
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