Laws: January, 2003 - Number #13

Japan had a record 227,984 foreign workers in June 2002, including 86,699 hired through labor brokers. Some 19,917 Japanese firms hired 141,285 foreign workers directly. Of all the foreign workers in Japan, 39 percent were from Latin America (Brazil and Peru), 35 percent from East Asia, and 13 percent from Southeast Asia. About 12 percent of the foreign workers were in the Tokyo area.

Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, urged Japan to permit the entry of unskilled foreign workers to share the tax burdens and social security costs of Japan's aging society. Textile and apparel manufacturer Teijin has discussed moving employees from its factories in Indonesia and Thailand to its plants in Japan.

Japan and the Philippines are exploring a free-trade agreement that may permit Filipino health care workers and high-tech engineers to be employed in Japan. Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is reluctant to open the medical, health care and elderly care markets to foreign workers who do not speak Japanese.

Japan's Justice Ministry in January 2003 began to give rejected asylum seekers its reasons for rejecting their applications, saying that a rejection explanation may be: you do not face religious persecution because freedom of religion is guaranteed in your country. The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law stipulates that those seeking asylum need to file requests for refugee status within 60 days after arriving in Japan. Japan ratified the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981, and since 1982, 291 of 2,532 asylum applicants have been granted refuge- half of those denied failed to apply within 60 days.

South Korea. Illegal foreign workers who registered can stay in Korea until March 31, 2003. However, many have changed employers as well as names and addresses, and small and mid-size companies complained of labor shortages. In November 2002, the Korean government extended permission to 107,000 of 256,000 registered illegal foreigners to March 2004- they were in Korea less than three years.

Beginning December 24, 2002, ethnic Koreans with foreign citizenship may obtain F-1 visas to work in Korea for up to two years. The government said that 15,000 ethnic Koreans with foreign citizenship in Korea could obtain the visas, and that up to 50,000 ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship could be employed by the end of 2003. Ethnic Koreans are limited to jobs in restaurants or orphanages or as maids, or with cleaning services; they cannot be entertainers. There are to be quotas by sector, for instance, up to 35,000 ethnic Koreans with foreign citizenship in restaurants.

The F-1 program aims to provide replacements for some of the 260,000 unauthorized foreigners, many from southeast Asia, who registered and must leave Korea by March 2003. Korean employers can request ethnic Koreans with foreign citizenship from employment centers in Korea.

The US wants neighboring countries to help allow the escape of North Koreans, hoping that emigration can speed up regime change in North Korea, much as it did in Eastern Europe. South Korea's Constitution provides that North Koreans can become citizens of the South, but only about 2,000 North Korean refugees have been accepted since 1954. China asserts that North Koreans are economic migrants, and has since 1999 refused to allow the UNHCR to interview those in China. The US is expected to pressure the new South Korean government to accept more North Koreans, thus encouraging China to establish refugee camps.

Harumi Ozawa, "60-day rule focal point for refugee policy reform," Daily Yomiuri, December 13, 2002. James Dao, "U.S. Is Urged to Promote Flow of Refugees From North Korea," New York Times, December 11, 2002. Kwak Young-sup, "Koreans with foreign citizenship to get greater access to jobs here," Korea Herald, December 6, 2002.