Japan treats its foreign workers like Kleenex. They have a use-it, toss-it mentality.

Kingston is always spot on.

Japan shows its disregard for the rights of foreigners by not having any laws relating to discriminatory behavior.Equal access to housing, attempts to block trade union access and other controlling behavior limiting rights are what I have personally witnessed.More foreigners coming here will lead to an outing and maybe a possible entry to 21stcentury norms but I’m not holding my breath.....

Staff relations, never been a strong point in sushiland. Just the way the treat each other in their role obsessed rigid power hierarchies is hard enough to watch. Quite shocking actually. There’s no surprises they don’t roll out the red carpet for the “guest” workers from overseas. Stay long enough to wear out your foreigner card in any company and the real face starts to reveal itself. Fascinating stuff if you have the metal for it!

Just the way the treat each other

I suspect this why there is so little interest in protecting the rights of workers who will only be allowed to stay a few years anyway. Your average Taro isn't happy about how the company or school or factory is treating him either. Why should he concern himself with foreigners when there seem so few tools available to change his own condition. In my experience, most full-time workers here are pretty beaten down and unhappy with their lot, no matter how well compensated or secure their positions. Naturally, they're not going to be founts of sympathy for outsiders.

Now, a proper government would protect workers regardless of what their passport says. Limiting overtime for our native Japanese and forcing industries to treat employees fairly. Japan Inc. however is given free reign by the ruling party to squeeze labor out like a sponge. If they die or quit or leave the country, too bad. This is why I expect no improvement for guest workers. It's 2018 and Japan still can't treat their own decently.

What happens when hierarchies aren’t based on competence basically. In my little corner of the game though even the worst offenders and henchman are all smiles and friendliness to the new foreign staff. They see it as a chance to appear worldly and smart. Any chance to look like they know what they’re doing right?

They don’t fool anyone, but it’s funny to watch.

More like puppet CEO's. We'll put you in charge so that we can blame you if things go wrong. But make no mistake the Japanese are really in charge.

Jcapan) expecting government to step in and bat for workers just ain’t going to happen. Period. Thing is though if companies put some of their wealth of resources into research and development of what real productivity looks like they wouldn’t need the government breathing down their necks to force them to do anything.

There’s a sea off solutions to problems of listless and stagnant work practices out there and if they were serious about productivity they’d be reforming the workplaces themselves. That’s if productivity is actually a goal, which you have to question sometimes.

Jcapan) expecting government to step in and bat for workers just ain’t going to happen. Period. Thing is though if companies put some of their wealth of resources into research and development of what real productivity looks like they wouldn’t need the government breathing down their necks to force them to do anything.

This government!? Of course not. A ruling party whose quest to achieve a proper work-life balance ended up empowering industry to do what they've always done, working their prize resources like slaves. "Only 99 hours a month of OT--look we've improved things enormously!" Now go out and procreate.

I agree that a truly competitive environment would lead to changes from within industry, that better conditions would make them more attractive to prospective employees, but Japan has gone along like this for a long time and I can't imagine any real change on the horizon. If foreign firms and practices had ever gained a real foothold here, a la Hong Kong, Singapore or Dubai, perhaps things would have evolved.

Which is why we few, we lucky few are about the only professionals who are going to come here and work for J-institutions and companies. As you said, it's fun to watch, for a time at least.

Nothing like stereotyping all Japanese people, businesses, etc etc etc etc etc etc....  So much fun.  (PS I know many foreigners who are very happy living here in Japan long-term).  But stereotype away!!!

I will definitely bring this up to the attention of his Uni and others.

Thats extremely misguided and quite racist remark from someone supposedly in charge of educating people.

He should not be teaching, or living here in fact.

Japan business and gov , has a real problem with treatment and payment of its own workers, instead of focusing on improvement of its citizens employment, they learned they could just bring foreigners on the cheap. Yes they will NOT have same legal rights and protection as citizens - and rightfully so!

To resolve the issue, the solution is not screaming about how Japan treats its foreign workers but improve conditions for Japanese citizens so there will be actual benefit working ( especially for spouses - today a working spouse actually ends up costing more to household because of how taxation is structured ) and on same hand restrict the inflow of foreign workers so that businesses will be forced to improve pay and conditions.

The US guys at the office say that there is a saying among foreign achievers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't blame racism, xenophobia, etc etc etc" for their own failure.

Thats extremely misguided and quite racist remark from someone supposedly in charge of educating people.

He should not be teaching, or living here in fact.

That's because he is Jeff Kingston.

This is a little strange to me. I have read articles by Jeff Kingston before (in the Japan Times), and his views are always very analytical and informative. Did he really say this?

Nothing like stereotyping all Japanese people, businesses, etc etc etc etc etc etc.... So much fun. (PS I know many foreigners who are very happy living here in Japan long-term). But stereotype away!!!

Indeed. If Kingston made a similarly blanket statement about any other national or ethnic group he would be branded a racist but it's OK to say things like that about the Japanese.

I happen to be one of those foreign born people who rather like living in Japan. I've been here a total of more than 25 years and I took Japanese citizenship in 2014.

Further, it is not "Japan" that employs foreign workers but rather individual companies and organizations. Some of them good, some of them bad, some of them indifferent.

I spent 18 years working for a single Japanese employer. I was treated exactly like the native Japanese employees. At the same time, I know people who have had real problems.

A blanket statement about "Japan" has no more validity in this context than does a blanket statement about "Britain" or a blanket statement about "America."

I happen to be one of those foreign born people who rather like living in Japan. I've been here a total of more than 25 years and I took Japanese citizenship in 2014.

I also like living in Japan. I'm almost at the same amount of time as you, though I have no intention of taking Japanese citizenship.

I spent 18 years working for a single Japanese employer. I was treated exactly like the native Japanese employees. At the same time, I know people who have had real problems.

And again I have to agree. I was treated like an equal at my last company. I've seen people I know treated horribly at other companies however.

Men are you still working for Japanese companies and complaining? Your Japanese colleague doing the same job may not be reading & posting during daytime weekdays.

A little context before we throw Jeff under the bus, people. From the original article,

But the country's historic failure to integrate previous waves of foreign workers raises questions as to why migrants would choose to come to Japan. Faced with labor shortages in the 1990s Japan revised its immigration rules to offer long-term, renewable visas to the descendants of Japanese immigrants who had moved to Latin American after World War II.

But when the economy slumped in 2008, the government urged those same immigrants to return to Brazil and the other Latin American nations where they had moved from.

"Japan treats its foreign workers like Kleenex," says Jeff Kingston, a Japanese studies professor at Temple University. "They have a use-it, toss-it mentality."

It seems pretty obvious that he was discussing blue collar workers, not comfy salarygaijin or those engaged in the edutainment industry.

The US guys at the office say that there is a saying among foreign achievers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't blame racism, xenophobia, etc etc etc" for their own failure.

Yeah, I think I heard a Nepalese guy carrying cinder blocks at a black company saying exactly this to his colleagues the other day. Oh wait, that can't be right, I was sitting in my office on a pretty college campus that day. In fact, I don't have any contact with that other kind of foreigner, those malcontents and whingers. I think they exaggerate the trouble they face. They should just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps!

The US guys at the office say that there is a saying among foreign achievers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't blame racism, xenophobia, etc etc etc" for their own failure.

Gokai, REALLY? I am successful, a full professor at a national university, but a bigot did her best to make sure my promotion didn't go through; she held it up for nine months. To have thus Disney view of the hard worker always succeeding, is so simplistic. There are LEGIONS of conservative bigots in Japan and more so in the US. For every successful foreigner in Japan there are probably 10 who are not.

„The country's historic failure to integrate previous waves of foreign workers“

plus pondering the outback origin of present day Yamaguchi politicans put together does not breed well for potential applicants.

No yellow vests insight over here.

@TheRat I'm just saying what the US guys at the office are saying. They took the trouble to learn to speak and read Japanesse fluently, take the time to figure out how to do what they want to do, then do it. They say that too many foreigners are here thinking they are "guests" who deserve everything on a silver platter. They don't bother to learn Japanese or figure things out. They just say "Give me! Give me!"

I am successful, a full professor at a national university, but a bigot did her best to make sure my promotion didn't go through; she held it up for nine months.

Not a defining characteristic of Japan. Happens in the US and the UK. Read the Chronicle of Higher Education or the Times Higher.

When I was working in UK universities it was not unusual to encounter other academics who made it clear they did not like Yanks but I could not call it "racism" because my ancestry is English-Irish-Scots. Fortunately, none of them were involved with my promotion or salary determination.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west in Japan does as it does elsewhere. There are bigots in Japan just as there are elsewhere.

Jcapan , Nepalese guy carrying cinder blocks for black company shouldnt have been doing that in the first place... I am very curious as to how he ended up in Japan at all and if his papers are in order.