Deportation in Japan

Visual Novel Community Off Topic
#1

Rather interesting stuff. US deports people like a mutherfuka (Mexico and China especially), but you don’t see Japan get his much media attention:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/0 … index.html

Filipino parents were thrown out the country because they’re illegal immigrants, however their 13 year old daughter had a choice to leave or stay. That probably was due to the HUGE negative press, as being native-born in Japan does NOT mean you’re a citizen. The daughter can only speak Japanese, and she’s practically Japanese culturally and mentally, so that gesture is a merciful one.

The girl choose to stay (and her parents urged that she do). From a cold, logical prospective that was a good choice. Not only does she have a better life (financially and socially), but she might be able to aid her parents returning to Japan down the road… although they can’t even apply for 5 years. Of course from an emotional standpoint, it’s a terrible experience.

Sad footage to see though… parents giving up their child so she can live better, and a child not certain she’ll ever see them again…

#2

hmmm… no one else has said anything which means I guess I’ll play the devil’s advocate . First let me say though that I feel sorry for the girl it is truly saddening that she committed no wrong doing and is now paying the price for her parents mistakes :frowning: :frowning: .

however her parents broke the law and they knew that [though Im still not sure how as there is an ocean between them] .Poor economic circumstances do not justify law breaking to say otherwise is rationalising. The only time immediate access might be necessary would be in the case of a civil war/genocide campaign like we are seeing in some countries like darfur or rwanda in the past and people would likely be granted refugee status . Unless the parents could prove their current country was adanger to their well being they should have applied for visa + citizenship and however else its done in Japan.

#3

I’ll readily concede this, but just because it was illegal does not necessarily mean the punishment was appropriate, or even rational. It is evident that the only problems the parents got into in the law over more than a decade is this immigration violation. The purpose of the regulations is essentially to keep criminals and so forth out; obviously these people have demonstrated via empricial observation that they are productive members of society. They were contributing to society, and now they’re not. They are returning to an impoverished area, their net contribution to the world (economically speaking) has just been decreased. Japan’s economy and demographics especially are hurting; Japan’s economy is in crisis because the demographics won’t support the decrease in population current projections are calling for. There are a LOT of things at issue here behind that, most of which I know marginally more than nil about :slight_smile: but Japan’s immigration laws remain very restrictive even today, and more generously allowing immigration is an easy way to fix their demographic numbers.

Expelling them after they have been productive for so long is totally disproportionate, especially given Japan’s demographic issues. This sort of thing is why we have statues of limitations: after a certain amount of time it is no longer really fair to bring down the banhammer of doom. A fine, perhaps community service. It essentially amounts to a paperwork violation. Nobody was actually harmed in any way; if anything, the lives of everyone involved were improved.

#4

Many countries will allow you to ‘forgive’ your illegal status if you’ve somehow managed to stay in the country and not cause any trouble for 5-15 years (exact amount varies) - I suppose they figure that by that point, the point’s moot, and it’s REALLY not worth spending the money to chase them out.

Of course, as an immigrant myself and one who’s constantly struggling with meaningless red tape, I’m pretty much opposed to immigration controls in the first place. If you can show that you’re not a criminal and you want to come be a productive member of society, why should you be banned? I can see there are some problems in the case of countries with decent public services being potentially overwhelmed by people in search of free health care, but even then, a simple check of “Can you support yourself? Okay.” should suffice.

A more mobile population is a good thing, imo. It means better ability to deal with changing economic and environmental needs.

#5