Recently, some friends and I were discussing the discrepancy between what immigrants make in Japan vs. Japanese nationals working at a factory. For example, Chinese factory workers might make $2-3/hr while standing next to a Japanese employee doing the same job but is making $12/hr. And this morning a friend sent me a link to a Yahoo News article about immigrants working in Japan. I thought I would share the article, there are some interesting quotes:
Japan Mulls Importing Foreign Workers
I write this as my Japanese speaking Brazilian neighbors (and their friends) are installing a new bass (or woofer) into their black sports car parked right below my window and next to my bumper stickered little yellow plate (the only one in town). They started this project at about 8:30 this morning while drinking beer. The seem to have gotten the bass working just fine and they (and all the neighbors) are listening to their favorite tunes via car stereo on a Sunday morning.
Unlike the views expressed in the article, I find their Sunday morning activities and the loud music a bit refreshing (although mildly distracting for studying). It's kinda nice to feel a bit of life in this town! It's so quiet most of the time, a little rowdy noise is welcome. It makes me feel like I'm living in a big metropolitan city somewhere. And if listening to a little bit of music in the parking lot makes them happy after a week of underpaid factory labor...who can get upset about that!!
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1 comment:
Thanks for the informative post.
Japan wants to modernize, to speak English, and mostly `to communicate` with the outside world, but prefers to do it only with `good foreigners` on their terms and at their price.
I`m not sure what type of pedigree they hope to attract for 2$ per hour.
This topic takes on a new light when you see the conflict between European countries and their immigrant workers from North Africa and Turkey. They`ve let so many in, treated them poorly and unfairly and now struggle with crime and isolation.
It could seem as though Japan is trying to avoid that problem all together.
I think the best tactic is to pay each worker equally. Incitements to crime would be less frequent if foreigners themselves were at risk of being stolen from or vandalized.
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