JAPAN - MIGRATION IN 1999

In spite of a sluggish economic performance, considering the large pump priming through public spending, Japan continued to be a place of destination for migrants, both through regular and irregular channels. In July the Justice Ministry revealed that the number of foreign residents had risen to a total of 1.51 million at the end of 1998, 74 percent of them Asians. Koreans were the major group (42 percent), followed by Chinese (18 percent), Brazilians and Filipinos (7 percent). A survey conducted by the Economic Planning Agency showed that 51 percent of Japanese favor maintaining the current restrictive policies to the entry of foreign workers. However, the demographic trends are indicating that in 25 years one in three Japanese will be over 60. For this reason some have indicated that in 10 years the immigration of foreign workers will be inevitable. Japanese are resisting it because of the currently high unemployment rate and the fear of an increasing crime rate.

Stricter control and apprehensions of irregular migrants lowered the number of foreigners staying in Japan with an invalid or expired visa to 268,421 in September, a decline of 2,627 since May. Most of them have been in Japan for some time. In fact, in 1992 only 6.2 percent of all overstayers had resided in Japan for more than three years; however, the same percentage had risen to 45.6 in 1998.

The concern for the issue of irregular migration and trafficking led the government of Japan to organize the first international symposium on ways to combat human-smuggling. It is part of the Asian perspective on human security that the government of Japan intends to pursue.

Koreans, the most numerous and most established group of foreigners, obtained dropping fingerprinting as a requirement for foreign residents and non-carrying the alien registration card as an administrative, rather than a criminal offense.