Foreign workers!!

Foreign workers are on the way, but are Japanese businesses ready?

A new visa program designed to lure more workers to Japan takes effect this year, and government officials and industry leaders hope two new types will help alleviate the national labor shortage.

But whether businesses are prepared to accept them is an entirely different matter.

We always look forward to consulting foreign workers who are suffering from labor problems.

A new law regarding foreign workers brings up old problems

Walk into a restaurant, izakaya (pub) or convenience store in Japan in 2019 and there’s an increasing chance that you’ll be served by someone who wasn’t born in this country. The language they use is the same — “Irasshaimase” (“Welcome”), “O-matase shimashita” (“Sorry to keep you waiting”), “O-nomimono wa ikaga deshō ka?” (“How about some drinks?”) — and so is the quality of work.

What has changed is the number of tasks they’re having to do. Whether it’s dealing with a customer in a new language who’s angry at the service they’re getting or having to work long hours of overtime to cover for a lack of necessary hiring, the jobs these people are doing are anything but easy.

Yet, “tanjun rōdō” — which means “manual/unskilled labor,” though “tanjun” literally translates as “simple” — is the term used in the Japanese media to describe the recipients of new visas set to be doled out to people coming to this country for work under a system designed by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The term conveys the idea that these people have no special abilities or knowledge — but try telling that to someone working late into the night handling all manner of belligerent drunken customers, a task that’s pretty far from “simple.” Semantics aside, the media narrative tends to imply that this move to create new tanjun rōdō visas by the government is a first for Japan, which is also presented as only now opening its doors to unskilled labor. But foreign workers are already working on our farms, fixing our cars and caring for us when we get old.

the Diet passed a bill to overhaul immigration control law. Part of this is the creation of two new visa categories that will affect 14 different industries and eventually allow an estimated 340,000 foreign workers to enter the country. The first category targets “lesser skilled” workers in fields such as nursing care, agriculture and restaurants, while the second category targets more “seasoned” workers with special skills needed for the construction and shipping industries. Another key component of the proposed legislation: The second category allows for certain family members to accompany the visa holder and offers a path to renewals and/or permanent residency. The first category is limited to five years and family members are not permitted to accompany the visa holder.

Critics have characterized this legislation as Japan plotting a completely new course toward immigration policy, but Abe has denied that this is the case. “The government is not considering any so-called immigration policy,” Abe told the Diet on Nov. 1. “We are trying to admit to Japan adaptable foreign workers with particular specialized ability and skill only in the industries that truly need them and only for a limited period of time. “We will go ahead with well-targeted crime-prevention efforts, including measures against illegal and undocumented workers.” I spoke with three people who work closely with foreigners about their views on the government’s policy to take in more workers.