Another unfortunate dispute occurred between “foreign trainees” and their employer, this time concerning six Chinese trainees after they requested a pay rise from their “trainer”. According to an article in Mainichi Daily News, the 6 Chinese were allegedly being underpaid and forced to work for long hours usually from 8:30 AM. until midnight with only 50,000 Yen a month and 350 Yen per hour worth of overtime pay as remuneration. 

The six workers submitted a written request for their wages to be revised on Aug. 20. The company’s president, Masafumi Uchida, promised that he would reply two days later. However, at about 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 22, the president joined about 10 people including company employees and tried to force the six workers, who were sleeping in a company dormitory, to get into a minibus he had prepared to take them to Narita Airport.

The trainees resisted, and plans to take them to the airport were abandoned, but one of the trainees was left with a broken leg after jumping out of a window on the second floor of the dormitory. Two others suffered bruises and scratches during the row.

The three injured workers were later taken into the custody of the Zentoitsu Workers Union, which supports foreign trainees and apprentices. The remaining three were taken to Narita Airport by company officials and returned home. Uchida visited the union on Monday and offered an apology. ”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.” A Justice Ministry official said there was a possibility the company could be punished.

A possibility? Didn’t the company’s president admit already to the abuse and injustice they inflicted against the 6 Chinese workers? Shouldn’t the Ministry say, “there will be a full investigation about this matter to determine the extent of the company’s duplicity and punish it accordingly”? So this is what it means when the Japanese Government claimed before the United Nations that “Japan has taken every conceivable measure to fight against racial discrimination“ - a “possibility”. 

For those who understand Japanese, here is a passionate testaments of two foreign trainees talking about their experience in and anger towards the trainee business. 

  Statement on being a foreign trainee in Japan

{Gai-Jin by James Clavell, sold at Amazon.com}

There is an on-going discussion in Japan Probe that started with a post called “Is Debito Still Relevant?” which is in response to an opinion piece Debito wrote for Japan Times entitled “Once a ‘gaijin,’ always a ‘gaijin’“.

Debito, of course, is one of the most vocal spokesmen for foreigners’ rights in Japan and in this piece, he riles against people who use the word “gaijin” when referring to foreigners (or the “non-Japanese”, which is essentially the same thing).

But comparing “gaijin” with “nigger”, which he did in his article, is going overboard, which prompted the Japan Probe post. The word “nigger” has always had derogatory connotations in America, and the history of African-Americans attest to this. The word “gaijin”, on the other hand, does not carry the same negative implications for foreigners in Japan. However, in fairness to Debito, I think the comparison was made only due to lack of more familiar examples.
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Debitou Arudo, a Japanese-naturalized socio-political comentator, has just written an article in the Japan Times about the danger of the systematic usage of foreigners as “guinea pig” to the Japanese population in general. Stories of authorities deliberately planting drugs on unknowing foreigners’ baggage and random interrogation police officers of foreigners in sight, all for purpose of training, are particularly shocking. The author contemplates if Japan could do this to foreigners now without too much fuss, then it is not too far for these practices to reach the Japanese nationals themselves. As usual of Debitou’s writings, it concerns foreigner’s rights and what it means in the long run for the Japanese society. It’s a thought provoking article, and a good read too.