Japanese Government Tightens Its Iron Grip on Foreigners

Excerpted from the Japan Times:

You may want to read this if you are a foreigner living in Japan. If not, read if you are bored...

The Diet passed bills Wednesday that tighten controls on foreign residents, paving the way for them to take effect within three years, despite opposition from foreigners and human rights activists....

The bills, which cleared an Upper House plenary session, will abolish the Alien Registration Act and revise immigration control and resident registration laws.

The revision will shift authority to manage foreign residents from municipalities to the Immigration Bureau and enable it to consolidate the personal information of foreign residents, including name, address, type of visa and expiration date, making it easier for the bureau to detect illegal residents.

"Currently, it is difficult to fully grasp where foreign residents live, so we need to change that," LDP lawmaker Ryuji Matsumura, a board member of the Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee, said after the chamber passed the bills. "In other countries, including the U.S., France, Britain, Germany and South Korea, governments keep such personal information on foreign residents."

Rights activists condemned the bills for excessively tightening controls on foreigners.

"We will keep fighting against the enforcement of the bills in municipalities, the Diet and the United Nations, seeking cooperation from nongovernmental organizations in Japan and the world," said Nobuyuki Sato, representative of Research-Action Institute for the Koreans in Japan, which wants the bills abolished.

Currently, municipalities issue alien registration cards to foreigners overstaying their visas even though they are aware of the illegal status. By registering them, the municipalities can send them notices of various public services, including public school enrollment and medical services for children and pregnant women.

The Immigration Bureau and lawmakers worked out the bills to reduce the number of undocumented foreign residents, which the bureau estimates total about 110,000.

Human rights activists, including Akira Hatate, director of the nongovernmental organization Japan Civil Liberties Union, said that instead of focusing on reducing the number of illegal residents, the government should treat overstayers as members of society that can help the country prosper.

The United States has an estimated 13 million illegal aliens, he noted, citing information from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Europen Union is thought to have had about 8 million in recent years, Hatate added.

"In the U.S. and Europe, it is natural to have a certain number of overstaying foreigners," he said. "Japan is extremely strict.".....

The bills will extend the normal duration of visas from the current three years to five. Also, foreigners will no longer be required to obtain a re-entry permit if they return to Japan within a year of leaving the country.

On the other hand, punishments for failing to report address and other personal information will become harsher. To prevent fake marriages, the bills grant the justice minister the power to cancel a spouse visa from those who have failed to conduct for six months without a legitimate reason "activities spouses normally do."

I wonder what they mean by "activities spouses normally do", and how exactly are they going to check?