[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by GTJ

That's okay, immigration isn't even what I was thinking about when I said it. Sure, it would be nice to not have to go through this hell to get a visa, but it's the same--and sometimes worse--for every other country. It's to be expected. What I was thinking of was more the process of living in Japan, like how the government treats/doesn't treat us. One example is the new gaijin cards with a scannable computer chip so a policeman can pick out all the gaijin in a crowd.

That is fear mongering. I am THRILLED about the new cards. Why? Because gaijin are being taken out of the separate system, and put into the SAME one everyone else is in for juminhyo. With the new system in place - which, by the way uses the SAME cards and SAME IC chip system as the Juki net... nothing special for foreigners. Japanese ID cards are the same. - Foreigners won`t be tied to the pain of doing all their government transactions at the place they first registered or be fined etc for forgetting to change residence information.

But somewhere along the line somebody out there say IC chip in the works and jumped to assume it was to single people out in crowds. Sure, it could be used for that... The thing is it`s a system wide thing. All the Juki cards will/already have it.

Another example is police being taught that gaijin commit up to 90% of all the crimes in any given area, and are trained to go out and stop random foreigners for questioning/harassment.

Official documentation they are taught by is 50% for certain types of crime, which is actually correct and WAY outweighs the normal amount you`d expect. Asian crime rings have a huge presence in Japan, Nigerian and Middle Eastern gangs are also prevalent... and they DO commit a pretty hefty chunk of *the type of crimes that they could tell by stopping you on the street*.
When 50% of street drug dealing, pick pocketing, and the like are committed by a tiny slice of the population... Unfortunately racial profiling happens. A good thing, no. But a policy that isn`t as founded in nothingness as a a lot of people would like to think.

Actually... the only problems I think I have is with the police. Hm. I've experienced this first hand, so when I see the cops roll by I can't help but feel my lip curl a bit. There's a lot of power tripping going on, in all levels of government in Japan.

I`ve never had a negative run in with police. In fact, I had my very first contact with police quite recently when they came by to gather emergency contact information from everyone in my building because a new koban had been built... So I can`t comment on any negative behavior, as I`ve not witnessed any first hand.

We're now required to pay into national healthcare AND pension. Plus, if you've been in Japan however many years or so, I'm not sure, but don't you have to pay BACK pension? On top of that, foreigners are only entitled to withdrawl 3 years' worth, if you apply for it two years ahead of time. So it only really helps you if you plan to stay in Japan the rest of your life, and completely screws you out of a large portion of your salary if you don't.

You were ALWAYS required to pay it. I was legally required to pay it back 10 years ago. They`re just pushing it as they didn`t follow up with employers about it when it came to short term residents.
*sigh*
People in Japan for short term do not contribute much of anything. They usually get by on close to free health care for the first year (as it`s calculated on the last year`s paid taxes - the first year you`re here there are none.) and most people dodged paying pension. In a country where the pension system is in a terrible state and there are too few children... The money has to come from somewhere if not from kids, right? In this case, it`s foreign residents in Japan.
I thought this was kind of what everyone wanted when they went on about foreigners needed in Japan to help pay for the aging population?

By the way, you are required to pay 25 years into the pension system in order to collect. This is between 20 and retirement. However, if you have lived abroad for any period you are entitled to an "empty period" allowing you to receive credit for that number of years. So if you`ve lived 25 years of your life outside Japan between 20 and retirement - you can still receive without having contributed. If you have lived in Japan straight and don`t want to do the exemption, you will need to pay back payments to make the 25 years before you retire... The SAME as regular Japanese recipients. Something you COULDN`T before because you were a foreigner. You also no longer have to start from zero if you take Japanese citizenship, which was true in the past. You`d be "reset" as a person, and have to start over.

Anyway though - I`m quite HAPPY with the changes *gasp*, because it is the beginning of a process of putting "gaijin" on the exact same playing field as regular Japanese. No special treatment, no exceptions, etc. The Juki net move is a HUGE step toward putting gaijin on regular juminhyo, and it is something a LOT of long term residents pushed for. The government made the excuse that because the systems were and always had been separate there was no way to unite them - then the Juki net came along and they had to move a chunk of Japanese over into that anyway... And are now going for a nationwide electronic system for juminhyo, starting with those who registered for Juki. Putting foreigner info in the Juki system is a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately because the cards are the same as all the other national ID cards that come with an IC chip, it`s become "OMG!! It`s for oppression of foreigners!" while somehow forgetting this is what a bunch of foreigners have been pushing for since god only knows when - being put into the same system and being treated (system wise) as native Japanese.