LABOUR-JAPAN: Male Migrant Workers, Too, Have it Tough

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 30 2005 (IPS) - Ananda, a Sri Lankan man, left for Japan a year ago after mortgaging his parents home to raise 7,000 U.S. dollars to pay a broker for a three-month tourist visa.

”I was determined to work at any job and make enough money to help my poor family in Sri Lanka,” said the father of three, who lives on the outskirts of Tokyo in a cramped apartment with a group of friends.

But the going was much tougher than he imagined in a country he hoped would make him rich, to pave the way for a comfortable life when he returned home.

Ananda, who prefers his last name not to be used, works 14 hours a day in a cramped factory; rarely takes a holiday because he does not have paid leave, and endures harsh working and living conditions in order to make ends meet.

The case of Ananda, say activists, is typical for the foreign male undocumented worker in Japan who faces abuse and hardship. While not directly linked to trafficking, they can be compared to women victims of sexual slavery, an issue now in the limelight after the release of several international reports.

”While the problems of human trafficking focuses on women forced into sexual slavery in Japan, there are many cases of coerced male labour in the country, a situation that still goes ignored and needs urgent attention,” said Tomoyuki Yamaguchi, a counsellor at the Asian Peoples Friendship, an non-government organisation (NGO) supporting migrant workers.

He points out that complaints by male workers sound very similar to those of trafficked women, such as low wages, long and exhausting working hours, and violence from their bosses – even though the cases of repaying huge debts and forced prostitution rarely applies to men.

The Asian Peoples Friendship helps about 40 foreign workers a month, the majority of them men.

Yamaguchi said the bulk of complaints are over unpaid overtime, sometimes running into years, and injuries in the workplace. The counsellor said many of the workers were reluctant to confront their bosses for fear of being deported for violating their tourist visas.

The Japanese media reported recently that accidents involving foreign workers have increased sharply because of the lack of training in workplace safety and their inability to read safety instructions in Japanese.

Of the 208 foreign employees who were injured recently in Shizuoka prefecture, south of Tokyo, 70 Brazilian and Filipino male workers in fish processing plants had their fingers cut in the grinders – some of them suffering serious hand injuries.

Indeed, a recent global report released by the International Labour Office (ILO), indicated that men comprise a large number of the victims of forced labour, even in Japan.

The ILO report singles out Japan as a recognised destination for migrant labour from Asia and other developing countries. It also stated that there are as many men as women entering the country to work illegally, as well as being deported.

In 2003, for example, according to the Japanese Immigration Bureau, there were a total of 219,000 workers who had overstayed their visas out of which 52 percent were men.

A breakdown of workers who were deported in 2004 according to their jobs, indicated that 5,146 men were working in factories compared to 2,010 women. Koreans topped the list followed by Chinese and Filipinos.

In service industry, there were 4,873 women who were sent home compared to 184 men. From the construction industry, 5,426 foreign male workers and 42 women were deported.

”The huge problem of trafficking of women to Japan was raised because of the very low consciousness of the issue in Japan. But, it must be acknowledged that foreign males who enter to work here are also exploited. This is an issue that is still hidden,” Mitusko Horiuchi, of the ILO Japan office, told IPS.

In March, Rengo, Japan’s largest labour union, launched a union for Chinese workers in the country to help protect their rights.

”The situation for male migrants is terrible. Their working conditions are bad in both Japanese and Chinese companies that have been set up here,” said Rengo’s Shu Furuyama.

Furuyama, who spearheaded the union for Chinese workers, told IPS the difficulty in getting a valid work visa is the biggest problem for male migrants.

”Without proper visas, the men are highly vulnerable in the working place where they are employed as cooks, in factories dealing with industrial waste or in the labour intensive agricultural sector,” he said.

Added the unionist: ”Cases of unlawful dismissal, injury, and deportation force these men to keep working in conditions that are nothing short of torture and totally against Japanese labour standards.”

Yamaguchi pointed out that the situation has become worse for men these days as immigration officials have started to crack down on foreign workers after the problem of trafficking surfaced, forcing foreign male workers not to venture out of their dormitories to seek help – for fear of being arrested.