Japan's First Victims...

A very interesting topic.  So many similar stories around the world...  The Indian workers in Guyana are one of them, although they make up over 40% of the current population.  Thank you for writing about this.

I fell sorry for the Brazilians . People should have some element of mercy in them.

I hadn't heard anything about this until now.  What a betrayal of those people.  Japan has some very harsh aspects to its culture.

I was aware there are very many Japanese descended people in Brazil but was not aware that some were returning to Japan.

Very good article.

Wow, now aint that a kick in the nibbly bits, I never knew that>?

Japan won't be deporting anyone even if they don't have work. Only people who have committed a crime or their visa's have expired will be deported and only after a court case. The deportee must pay the cost of deportation and will remain in a detention center until they can pay. One foreigner who lost his work and his accommodation was given new free accommodation by a kind landlord and is also receiving welfare until they can find work.

Deregulation in 2004 allowed manufacturing firms to hire temporary staff. It was a time when companies needed to slash excessive labor costs amid a decade-long economic slowdown that started in the 1990s. With the relaxed labor dispatch law, the number of temp workers jumped to 3.84 million in fiscal 2007 from 1.07 million in fiscal 1997. (Japan Times)

Facts.:

Filipino Express, The 
02-27-2000 
40,000 FILIPINOS FACE DEPORTATION IN JAPAN: TATAD 

MANILA 

Around 40,000 Filipinos in Japan face deportation when a new immigration 
law goes into effect Feb. 18, the labor department said yesterday. 

And

Some two to three million migrant workers may be displaced by the economic crisis in Asia. Many analysts predict that the problem of foreign workers will create tension between southeastern Asian countries. Many workers will be compelled to return to countries in which unemployment is high and rising. 

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1458_0_3_0

The Asian Crisis: "Double Whammy"

The impact of the ongoing Asian crisis is best summarised by the May Day 1998 joint statement of HK migrants' groups and NGO's:

"The ongoing Asian economic crisis has dramatically demonstrated the extreme vulnerability of Asian migrant workers, particularly women. Migrant workers are the most directly, immediately and adversely hit by the crisis. Migrant workers face a "double whammy": they are being deported - sometimes forcibly- from receiving countries (e.g. Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan): meanwhile in their home countries (e.g.Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc.) they are being pushed out by the sky-rocketing prices, unemployment, and the deepening economic recession.

"South Korea has already deported more than 45,000 migrants; it plans to deport 146,000 Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Filipino and other migrants by August 1998. In Malaysia, 850,000 foreign workers' permits will not be renewed this year; forcible deportation of Indonesian migrants have been done. In Thailand, more than 30,000 migrants have been deported, including 6,000 Burmese. In Japan, crackdown on undocumented migrants have resulted in crowded prisons in preparation for migrants' deportation. In Hong Kong, while there are no mass deportations, cases of termination have increased. Foreign domestic helpers' wages have been frozen this year, and there are moves to even reduce the minimum wage. Pressure from local trade unions is intensifying to ban the importation of labor.

"All these happen because migrant workers are not treated as human beings, but plain economic 'tools'.  Migrants' human rights are not fully recognized and protected."

 http://www.ibiblio.org/ahkitj/wscfap/arms1974/HRS/1998/keynote-1998%20HR%20workshop.htm

http://home.pacific.net.hk/~amc/papers/AMY98JP.htm

Two Australian married to Japanese one of them having children and living in Chiba where refused a Visa renewal due to job loss and had to leave Japan. 

Good post, and indicative of a long-standing and worldwide scandal. Many countries use imported and expendable labour on all continents and have done since time immemorial.

For example France has, in the last 150 years, used cheap labour from Italy, Poland, Portugal and, more recently, Northern African countries like Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia...

This mechanico-economic problem is going to be difficult to eradicate, impossible even, as long as countries and continents have different standards of living and freedom.