Chinese
Migrant Workers in Japan
16
May 2007
A Singapore-based
news media recently reported a research study
by a Japanese media network Mainichi Co. on
foreign labourers. Currently in Japan there
are 160,000 foreign migrant workers, mainly
from China, and the study found the workers
have been exploited by their Japanese
employers with the wages sometimes paid less
than half of the minimum wage.
What is more alarming is the
fact that they are not really migrant
workers, not officially, not on paper, but
professionals and students sponsored by
Japanese government to undertake further
research, study or training in Japan.
Yet once arriving, they often
find themselves coolies in a country
that has a tradition of importing coolies,
particularly during the World War II.
According to the study, of 866
local companies registered with the
government as the participants of the
program, about 80 percent have violated
Japanese labour law in relation to the
foreign researchers, students and trainees by
way of denying their health insurance
coverage and overtime allowance payment.
The study cites an incident in
which 12 Chinese trainees working in a
Japanese factory were paid only 285 yens
(about 2 uds or 3 aud) per hour, while the
minimum wage in Japan is 610 yens. So far,
the program participating companies in that
particular county alone have between them
accumulated a total of 37 million yens in
unpaid overtime allowance to their foreign
workers.
In another instance reported
by the study, three Chinese ladies from
Shanghai were treated as virtual slaves by
the hosts.
They were initially selected
among twenty candidates through a joint
interview by one Chinese and four Japanese
companies. Each of them paid 300,000 yens
(about 2,500 usd or 3,000 aud) for an
opportunity to learn Japanese language there.
But after arrived in Japan, they received no
language training, instead were sent to a
textile factory in the remote and freezing
northern tip of the country, working as
manual labourers for 15 hours a day, from 8
am to 11 pm.
And the three were treated by
their Japanese boss just like what slaves
would be treated: they were frequently
demanded to work faster, and scolded if they
dared to slow down their pace a bit for
whatever reasons.
Their wages fully reflect
their pathetic status too: in the first year
each received 60,000 yens; in the following
year, 100,000 yens were paid with 30,000 yens
being deducted by the company to cover the
expenses on their accommodation, water and
electricity.
Let’s do not forget they’ve
paid 300,000 yens upfront fee each for a
none-existed Japanese language course. If
what have been reported are all factural,
then their situation was worse than that of
slaves - a classic slave would never need to
pay such a huge amount of money to get
herself enslaved.
Although eventually the trio
ran away from the factory and safely returned
to Shanghai, one is said to have suffered a
serious health problem as the result. That’s
the extra price she paid for being an upfront
fee-paying slave.
And all these are done in the
glorious name of Japanese government
sponsored programs designed to help less
developed nations.
