POPULATION-JAPAN: For Latin Americans, Blood Ties Are Not Enough

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Sep 18 1998 (IPS) - Ten years after Carlos left his native Peru with his family to settle in Japan, he remains quite a way off from his dream of a comfortable life.

“Right now we can barely make ends meet to even eat,” said the 37-year-old Carlos, who asked that his surname not be used.

He is one among tens of thousands who took up a 198decided to try their luck halfway around the world.

For many, being able to leave home at a time of economic difficulty in Latin America was a welcome chance, not least because Japan normally has tight immigration policies.

Armed with residence visas and work permits, they came at a time when Japan’s booming bubble economy created a chronic labour shortage. Migrant workers were snapped up by expanding businesses.

But as Japan tumbled into recession, Latin American migrants found themselves being fired, discriminated against and worrying about a future that once seemed so much more upbeat.

For instance, Carlos’s wife is a third-generation Japanese Peruvian. With her husband, she began working in a small Japanese automobile trading company exporting second-hand cars to Latin American countries.

The job paid well, more than 10 times what Carlos earned as a schoolteacher in Peru. With their two children in Japanese schools, they even managed to save a little despite having to spend most of their income on household expenses.

But as the recession deepened a year ago, the company they worked for declared bankruptcy. “Suddenly we were on the street with no security or anybody to depend on. We were so frightened,” Carlos explained.

For months after that, Carlos walked around visiting people he had gotten to know and begging them for a job. “I now teach a little Spanish and my wife does the same. We make enough to pay for our meals and the rent,” he said.

Carlos has also founded the Latin American Group to support Latin Americans in his area and elsewhere in Japan. “They need help and comfort. They need a place to express their problems. Many people are sleeping under bridges or at railway stations because there is nowhere they can go,” he said.

Hitoshi Yamnouchi, a pastor who counsels Latin Americans, explains that migrant workers bear the brunt of Japan’s economic collapse. “The first people fired are the Latin Americans and other foreigners working in Japanese companies. In addition it is much easier for a Japanese to find another job,” he pointed out.

According to Japanese immigration officials, there were some 284,000 Latin Americans of Japanese origin in the country as of 1997, compared to 240,000 in 1996.

According to the Japan Immigration Association, Brazilians at 201,795 topped the list of Latin Americans living in Japan. Peruvians followed with 37,099.

There are no official unemployment figures for the Latin Americans, but social workers estimate that about one-third of them are jobless. Many of these migrants live in small towns. Unskilled and not fluent in Japanese, they work in factories or small companies as assistants.

In a homogenous society like Japan, the entry of these newcomers, despite the fact that many of them look Japanese, created some hostility among local people.

Indeed, many Latin Americans complain of discrimination in the work place as well as in their towns. As their jobs disappear, counselors say the situation has quite unbearable and the community needs official support.

“I counsel many Latin American migrant workers who come with their problems, such as family break-ups and unpaid salaries, to me after the Sunday sermon,” said Yamanouchi. “The situation has got particularly bad this past year but the Japanese government is not addressing the problem.”

Social workers and labour lawyers want Tokyo to enact laws and other protection for migrant workers.

Illustrative of growing tensions is a suit filed last month by a Brazilian television reporter against a jewelry shop owner. Arguing the shop had treated her with discrimination, she sought to claim 12,000 U.S. dollars in damages.

Ana Bortz, 34, says the store’s owner tried to evict her when he found out she was Brazilian. The shop had a notice informing foreigners not to come in.

In October, a 14-year-old Japanese Brazilian boy was attacked by a group of Japanese youth and stabbed to death. The suspects told investigators the boy had broken into their car, but they were proven wrong and sentenced to five years in prison.

The boy’s parents have since begun a campaign against violence directed at Japanese Latin Americans — but say they still receive calls from people telling them to go home.

In July, the Latin American community was up in arms when a village government banned non-Japanese using the municipal pool, citing complaints by parents of local children who said they were being “harassed” by foreigners. Brazilians are the largest group of foreigners in the village.

Yamanouchi attributes the tensions to misunderstandings based on different customs and behaviour between Japanese and the Latin Americans, and the arrests of Latin Americans for various crimes.

Asked about returning to Peru, Carlos says life would be even harder there and adds it would be hard to uproot his family again. “We just have to stick it out here and try harder and hope Japan’s economy turns around,” he sighed. “What’s the point in going back?”