Immigration News: April, 2004 - Volume #11

Japan, Korea

Japan achieved its goal of raising the number of foreign students from 10,000 in 1983 to 100,000 in 2003- there were 109,508 in 2003, up from 10,428 in 1983. In 2003, 65 percent were from China and 15 percent were from Korea.

The government's goal in increasing the number of foreign students was to spread knowledge of Japanese and help mend Japan's relations with Asian neighbors that remember wartime atrocities. However, most foreign students leave Japan without making Japanese friends. One said that "Living in Japan is like staying in a hotel forever, never in a home. I'm always waiting to go home."

Foreigners in Japan face many hurdles. To rent an apartment, for example, requires a local guarantor, and many landlords refuse to rent to foreigners. Japanese, on the other hand, blame especially Chinese foreign students for rising crime. Foreign students are 25 percent of the foreigners arrested in Japan, especially for theft and shoplifting. Many foreign students are shocked at high living costs in Japan, and tend to work more hours than their student visas permit, or steal.

In November 2003, the Immigration Bureau established stricter screening for those applying for "ryugaku" (college) and "shugaku" (pre-college) visas from countries with the highest number of visa overstayers -- China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Mongolia- mostly pre-college foreigners coming to Japan to learn Japanese. As a result, a sample of 400 Japanese language schools reported in spring 2004 that 70 percent of the applications from Chinese language students were rejected. There were about 10,000 language student overstayers in Japan in January 2003.

In February 2004, the Immigration Ministry added a form on its web site that takes reports of suspected unauthorized foreigners. There were an estimated 219,400 illegal foreigners in Japan in January 2004, 70 percent of whom entered with short-term visas, and the government reported receiving "hundreds" of tips on suspected illegal foreigners. The government reported that 46,400 of the unauthorized foreigners were Koreans, followed by 33,500 Chinese and 31,400 Filipinos.

Korea. Korea had an estimated 139,000 unauthorized foreigners in spring 2004, with the leading countries of origin China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines; there were 267,000 legal foreign residents.

Under Korea's new guest worker program, unauthorized foreigners could leave by March 1, 2004 without paying fines, but few did. One article profiled a Filipina who borrowed $6,000 to get a contract to work in Korea, but was paid only $500 a month, not the promised $2,000 a month, and remains in debt after four years and is thus unwilling to return.

Korea has a trainee program, under which foreigners work in small and medium-sized firms for less than the minimum wage. Under the new guest worker program, foreigners are entitled to at least the minimum wage, but they can stay in Korea a maximum of four years, including any time they were in Korea illegally. Workers in Korea more than four years who are apprehended after March 1, 2004 are subject to fines.

In March 2004, the Korean government announced that 79,000 foreign workers would be admitted to fill jobs in manufacturing, construction, agriculture and livestock cultivation, fisheries and services. Some 25,000 visas are reserved for nationals of the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia, and 16,000 for ethnic Koreans living abroad.

Norimitsu Onishi, "Mood Sours for Japan's Other Asian Students," New York Times, March 28, 2004.

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