17 Organizations for Inclusion, Not Control !

In March 2017, Hien arrived at Narita Airport full of hope. She was a little anxious, as it was her first time away from her family, but for Hien, it was like a dream to be able to learn Japanese and work in Japan – a country she liked very much. She had persuaded her parents who were against her going, and borrowed money from her relatives to study at T Japanese Language School in Gunma Prefecture. She shared a room with three other women from Vietnam, and the school introduced her to a place where she could work part-time. It was a smooth start for her life in Japan. She had already studied Japanese for six months before her arrival, so she could speak some Japanese.

Hien starts her day working from 6:00 to 8:00 cleaning buildings. She goes to school from 9:00 to 12:30. After that, she goes over what she has learnt, prepares for her next class, and takes a nap. Then she works as a cashier at a convenience store from 18:00 to 02:00. She has to pay back her loan as well as save money to go to a vocational college in two years’ time. Still unaccustomed to life in Japan and suffering from a lack of sleep, Hien worked as hard as she could.

But she began to feel that something was not right. Most of the foreign students in her class were asleep, and the teachers just let her do the exercises in the textbooks. The only times she communicated in Japanese properly was with the customers at the convenience store, and her Japanese did not show much improvement.

Hien thought, “I cannot go on like this,” and she decided to look for another Japanese language school. She consulted with T School and told them that she wanted to leave the school. They asked her why she wanted to leave, and they tried to persuade her not to, but finally her withdrawal was approved. She was going to live with another Vietnamese she met on SNS, who was studying at a vocational college. She also submitted a notification of change of address to the municipal office.

▶ Unilateral revocation of residence status

Not long after that, she received a letter from the Tokyo Immigration Bureau. Thinking it was about the renewal of residence status, she went to its office. There, a hole was punched through her residence card, and she was told, “You were struck off the school register because of insufficient attendance. You have been working for more than 28 hours a week. Therefore, your residence status is revoked.”

To the day she handed in her withdrawal notice, Hien had never missed a day of class. She never missed her daily Japanese language classes however busy or tired she was. She decided not to continue at T School because she wanted to learn Japanese properly so that she could work in Japan. She knew that foreign students could work only 28 hours a week, but a school staff had explained to her that that it was not a problem if she had been introduced by the school.

The procedures for revocation of residence status were introduced in 2004. New grounds for revocation have been added each time the Immigration Control Act was amended, and if for example, a person did not engage in the activities specified in the residence status for three or more months – or even less if the person engages in activities other than those specified in the status – the residence status may be revoked. This is a procedure to deprive foreign residents of their right to stay in Japan and to exclude them. The Immigration Bureau treated Hien as a “fake” resident because she did not engage in the activities specified in her residence status of “student.” Even when Hien tried to explain her circumstances as best as she could in Japanese, the immigration official did not listen to her. T School had reported her to the immigration authorities as having been “struck off the register for insufficient attendance.”

▶ What is needed is an Agency for Migrants, not an Agency of Immigration Control

Why would Hien, who is studying Japanese in earnest, be unilaterally expelled from Japan? That is because the Immigration Bureau, which is the office for foreign residents, focuses only on “controlling” them.

In April 2019, the Immigration Bureau became the Immigration Services Agency. But will the new organization help foreign residents like Hien? Unfortunately, the answer is “no.” This is because the new organization still maintains its earlier purpose of control. The scope of their control has been merely expanded to cover the residence of foreigners. For foreign residents, this only means that control (exclusion) will be strengthened.

Prior to leaving the school, Hien called the Immigration Bureau and told them of T School, but the official who spoke with her merely told her to talk with the school. If that official had given her advice on ways to continue her studies in Japan, the situation would have been much different.

What we need in order not to repeat the tragedy experienced by Hien, is a new organization – a new agency for migrants – that will put migrants first, comprehensively support their residence in Japan, and build the social bases for Japanese and migrants to live together for their mutual benefit.