With Japan setting up an immigration agency, missionary calls for the protection of migrants’ rights

The new government body will be operational next April. The 2020 Olympics will need workers. Catholic migrants provide an opportunity for the Catholic Church to reshape its role in Japanese society.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) – Japan plans to set up a new agency to manage and increase the flows of migrant workers who will enter Japan in the coming years, government sources announced.

Fr Ignacio Martinez, a Guadalupe missionary and head of the Social Affairs Department of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, warns against the "selfish" view that sees migrants as "means" for the country, without consideration for their well-being.

The new agency will be active starting in April 2018. Foreign workers will be granted a new residency status, details of which will be defined in the coming months. Thus, Japan will be open to hundreds of thousands of workers in different sectors.

As the country’s demographic crisis got worse and the labour force shrank, the number of economic migrants has been rising exponentially, doubling in five years: from 680,000 in 2012 to 1.28 million in October 2017. Of these, the largest group is made up of Chinese (370,000), followed by Vietnamese and Filipinos.

Fr Martinez notes that Japan needs workers of all kinds, especially as it prepares for the 2020 Olympic Games. Blue collar workers are needed to build stadiums, but skilled workers are required to accommodate the expected millions of tourists.

Japan wants to show itself as an "open and friendly country", but this contrasts with the negative experiences of many migrants, whose rights are not protected. "One problem that stands out is that of communication. Immigrants do not speak the language, they do not know the culture. This is why they are often reprimanded by their superiors. They are far from their families, from their countries and they feel alone.”

Then there are the "brokers", those who contact workers in their countries of origin, putting them in contact with Japanese companies and paying for their flight to Japan. Thus, migrants find themselves in debt, which they cannot repay because of low wages. "Sometimes, brokers take their passports, so they cannot go anywhere. It is a new form of slavery."

For the missionary, there is an additional issue. Many families are separated, because the husband has a work permit, but his family cannot stay, even if the children are born and raised in Japan. "This is not only a migration problem, but a humanitarian one as well.”

Japan’s small Catholic Church cares about the fate of these families, many of whom are Catholic. "Many Vietnamese and almost all Filipinos are Catholics. If you go to any church in Japan, you will see them at Mass, praying or even taking refuge because they feel safe there.”

“Their presence is an opportunity for the Church to redefine its role in society. We must integrate people who come from other countries to build a single, multicultural and intercultural community."

In order to best meet this challenge, the Committee for Migrants, Refugees and Itinerant People, which is presided by bishop of Nagoya Mgr Michael Gorō Matsuura, will meet and define the "strategic plan" for 2019-2021.

• japan
• immigration
• demographic crisis
• 2020 olympic games
• catholic church