Mainichi Daily News ran a story about a week back about a dry-cleaning firm and its treatment of foreign labour:
Six Chinese female trainees at a dry-cleaning company in Yamanashi Prefecture got into a row with the company when they complained that they were being paid under the minimum wage, and three of them suffered injuries including a broken bone, it has been learned.
The article goes on to say that the employees complained that their monthly salary of 50,000 yen (about USD $500) was far below minimum wage, and that their overtime pay of 350 yen/hour (later raised to 450 yen/hour) was less than half of the region’s minimum standards for overtime.
When the six workers submitted a written request for their wages to be raised, the dry-cleaning company showed up at the company’s dormitory with 10 other people, and tried to force the women into a van taking them to the airport and sending them to China. During this scuffle, one woman’s leg was broken when she jumped out of a second-story window trying to escape, and two others were also injured, presumably by the company employees who were trying to force them into the van.
The company president later visited the foreign workers’ union headquarters and apologised:
“If they were Japanese I wouldn’t have done it (tried to force them to leave). I was asked for a high amount of unpaid cash and thought I couldn’t negotiate. I’m sorry for their injuries.”
Nice. ”You don’t have to worry, Japanese government. I wouldn’t have tried to kidnap Japanese girls after they demand that I start following employment laws, only dirty foreign ones. Please rest assured.”
That’s OK though; the Justice Ministry has said that the company might be punished:
“The failure to pay wages, the human rights violations and other actions constitute illicit behavior, and there is a possibility that this warrants banning the firm from accepting trainees for three years,” the official said.
Translation: ”You might have to wait three whole years before being allowed to abuse other foreign labour in this way”.
In the “Western bloggers in Japan” community, there is often a lot of grousing about what is seen as horrendous acts of racism: “I had to see 8 whole apartments before I found one that would rent to a white man!” ”Boo hoo, when I went to buy my iPhone I had to show a different kind of ID!” ”A lady gave me the stink-eye on the subway!”
Truthfully that stuff bothers me a bit too, but I can’t get worked up about the small stuff when I know what kind of problems the immigrants who aren’t lucky enough to have been born in a rich country face: Not being able to rent anything but the most disgusting shacks of apartments… working long hours in poor conditions… in some cases, being imprisoned by the Yakuza and forced to work as sex workers for Japan’s business and government elite.. And then when finally one case actually makes the news — an abuse and kidnapping and assault case — it’s met with a slap on the wrist like that.
This sort of thing is what the “Westerners in Japan” blogosphere should really concern itself with; not petty bullcrap like iPhones and video rental memberships.
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September 9th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Dry-cleaning firm breaks law, legs…
My own take on an article that appeared in the Mainichi last week, concerning a company who abused, kidnapped, and assaulted its employees, and the lack of reaction from either the Japanese government or the Western blogging community….
September 9th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I always wondered how Japanese dry cleaning shops could launder, starch, iron and fold a shirt for half the price I pay in the UK. Now I know.
>>Translation: ”You might have to wait three whole years before being allowed to abuse other foreign labour in this way”.
Unless of course they should choose to quietly violate the same labour laws for which they had already shown contempt.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
There is an extended investigative report airing about this on TBS right now. They are interviewing all the women and playing tapes they recorded. I wish I could rip it, but unfortunately my desktop computer has been broken.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
@James: That’s nice to hear; maybe a bit of media scrutiny will lead to more punishment from the government? We can always hope.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. “We’re considering suspending your right to get more indentured servants for a year. Maybe.” Does Japan even have a Justice system?
As for your other point, you’re right, it could always be worse for Westerners in Japan…but honestly, isn’t it part of the same problem? Japanese society, in all its institutions, drives home the idea that non-Japanese are less, that Japan and the Japanese are unique and special and that to be different makes you somehow broken.
Yes, it is horrible the way that people from poorer nations are treated–in Japan, and elsewhere (like the US ). The fact that as Westerners/English speaking people we don’t experience the same level of exploitation does not detract from the fact that, say, half Japanese children are branded with the name “Half” for life, and that they are often mercilessly teased and tormented at school for not being “Japanese”. (True story–my friend’s daughter was teased for being “a foreigner” as a mixed race child, and the teacher’s response was “No, no, she’s Japanese, not a foreigner!”).
Any efforts to reduce racism in Japan will help all the targets, and the Western Bloggers, because of our relative wealth and voice, can do much more to help than those who are suffering more. So we should do our best to make people more aware of the true problems of racism in Japan, and everywhere, and try to combat them. That does not mean, however, that our problems are not real. When it’s ok for people on the street to walk up to you and touch your hair like you’re some kind of exotic animal, or when there is no law preventing businesses from racial discrimination, or when police openly target non-Japanese for interrogation, it is part of a very real system of dehumanization.
It hurts. It reduces your dignity as a human being. It’s not right, and just because other’s have it “worse” doesn’t mean it should slide.
Essentially, I think we have to hold Japan to the same standards that we hold any industrialized nation, and under the rubric of human dignity and human rights Japan is failing.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:50 am
As was said above, any complaints voiced and heard could have a possible impact in helping the situations of all foreigners.
I do agree that too many people complain about discrimination directed toward them while ignoring the more serious cases that happen to others. It’s a team effort, and all cases should be made public.
But, unfortunately, until there’s an aggressive foreigners’ rights group headed by a credentialed Japanese person, there likely will just be a lot of “shoganai”’s from the collective Japanese public.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Well put.