March 2019 Hiroba Union

March 2019 Hiroba Union 10-13p
Series: Awakeners "Continuing to support foreign residents"
Mayumi Yoshida

Overcoming hardships
- Foreigners who have been granted special permission to stay
The number has dropped significantly from around 7,000 in 2011 to around 1,000 in 2017.
　　　
According to a survey by the Ministry of Justice, there are approximately 70,000 irregular foreign residents in Japan (as of July 1, 2018).
On the other hand, the number of foreigners being forcibly deported each year is 14,000 (2017).
Among all the deportations, there are 70,000 undocumented foreigners.
This probably indicates that there are many foreigners in Japan who are working non-regularly.

--The government plans to expand the acceptance of foreign workers.
In the future, technical intern trainees and international students may flee or disappear,
It has also been pointed out that the number of undocumented foreigners in Japan may increase.

What APFS wants to say most right now is that before accepting new foreigners, we need to support the Japanese economy to date,
They want the undocumented residents who have already become part of Japanese society to be legalized.
It can be said that up until now, the Japanese government has viewed foreigners simply as a "convenient" source of labor.
During the bubble economy, irregular residents were tolerated as a source of labor for simple jobs.
　　
In the midst of this, they established a living and economic base in Japan and formed families.
The government's response of deporting them now shows that foreigners will not be treated as targets for "coexistence" in the future.
I think this indicates that they are treating them as a "convenient" source of labor.