Foreigners in Japan need assistance too
Japanese politicians want to prevent COVID-19 assistance from going to Japan’s foreign-born population
Despite its record of homogeneity, Japan has a foreign-born population of about 2.8 million people (recorded in June 2019), a number which has steadily increased year after year. Due to its aging population, the Japanese government has seen the need to loosen immigration requirements to attract people from overseas whose contributions to the Japanese tax and pension systems are desperately needed. These foreigners run the socio-economic gamut. And in a time of crisis, they too deserve the same assistance the Japanese government is prepared to offer native Japanese taxpayers.
While Japan has not yet felt the impact of the COVID-19 in the same way that countries like Italy or America have, it seems likely that we are in for a sharp and dramatic rise. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has—until recently—severely downplayed the seriousness of the threat. Presumably, this was due to concerns that fear over COVID-19 would have a negative impact on the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. And it is perhaps telling that almost immediately after the decision was made to postpone the games, Abe’s tone drastically shifted.
The government is now prepared to offer ¥300,000 (just under $2,800 USD) to households whose income has been affected by COVID-19. This is a good beginning. However, some members of Abe’s ruling party—the conservative Liberal Democratic Party—have called for draconian restrictions based on citizenship.
It began first with Kimi Onoda, who suggested on social media that foreign-born residents of Japan be denied the same cash payouts that would go to Japanese citizens. This has recently been echoed by one of her cohorts in the LDP, Mio Sugita. Their logic is that foreign residents of Japan are the responsibility of their respective countries and they should petition their home countries for assistance.
This is, to be blunt, utterly ridiculous.
Foreigners in Japan contribute to the system
As I said earlier, one of the primary reasons Japan has begun to loosen its immigration restrictions is due to a dire need to support the aging population.
Foreigners in Japan pay taxes not to our home country, but to the Japanese government. We don’t buy groceries from stores in our home country and have them shipped to Japan, we go to the local Japanese supermarket to shop. We patronize restaurants and bars, we use public transportation, we go on business trips and stay at hotels, and in doing so, we are paying the increased consumption tax instituted by the Japanese government. We aren’t covered by the health insurance programs of our respective home countries, we contribute to the Japanese health care system and are covered by that. We don’t make pension contributions to the programs where we came from, we make pension contributions to the Japanese pension system.
In short, we are active participants in Japanese society. When we came to Japan, we entered into an agreement with the Japanese government—we would participate in Japanese society and in return, we are entitled to the same benefits of the system we support.
But Onoda, Sugita, and others like them want us treated like second-class citizens. They expect us to contribute to the system, but when we are in need of help, they tell us to screw ourselves.
A recipe for contributing to the spread
What other countries have realized is that the best way to flatten the COVID-19 curve is to get people to stay home. One way of doing this is by ensuring that people do not have reasons to go outside. Telework has been instituted in a number of countries, but Japanese companies are woefully ill-equipped for such a measure. While schools in other countries have begun online programs, few educational institutions in Japan have even the barest of barebones online instruction portals. This means people are still going to work or have been furloughed because of work cancellations.
For salaried employees, this is not much of a concern. But there are many in Japan—both foreign and native—who are not salaried employees but contracted freelancers or hourly wage workers. For these workers, if they don’t work, they don’t get paid.
Lawmakers like Onoda and Sugita who let their xenophobia overrule their common sense are risking increased spread. If foreign workers do not receive the benefits they need to stay home, then they will need to make money in order to pay their rent, their utilities, and make their scheduled contributions to the tax and pension systems. That means going out and working, which further increases the risk of transmission.
We cannot apply for assistance in our home countries because their response will be, “you chose to contribute to Japan’s system, so you should speak to the Japanese government.” Just as Japan will not provide cash payments to Japanese citizens living abroad, neither will our home countries provide cash assistance to its citizens living in Japan.
Sending the wrong message to future immigrants
Beyond the immediate concerns, lawmakers like Onoda and Sugita need to consider just what message they are sending down the line. Japan needs increased immigration, that is something even the LDP (which has a history of xenophobia) now acknowledges.
But how will the Japanese government convince those immigrants to come and work here if that same government is unwilling to provide assistance when it’s needed?
We have been active participants in Japanese society and we deserve access to the social safety net that we are propping up with our tax dollars. If Onoda and Sugita refuse to make that promise, then I expect them to quickly reimburse me for the twelve years of payments I’ve contributed.
And if there is any doubt how much I contributed, I kept the receipts.
A petition has been started calling for Onoda’s resignation. At the time of this writing, it has received over 10,000 signatures from both native Japanese and foreign residents of Japan. Please consider adding your name.
