The Japanese government has started reception of “4th generations Visa” on this March in 2018, which hopes for the future of 4th generation of Japanese Brazilians in Japan.
The government anticipated over 4000 new comer annually but the number of accepted applications were just two for half a year from March to October in 2018.
Contents
- 1 Visa system not considering Japanese Brazilian’s circumstances
- 2 What Japanese Brazilians tend not to speak Japanese?
- 3 Difficulties to get used to Japanese community
- 4 School refusal problems
- 5 Another factors that stay Japanese-Brazilian away from applying for this visa
- 6 Surveillance from the Japanese government
- 7 How shameful the Japanese government is
Visa system not considering Japanese Brazilian’s circumstances
“Fourth Generation Visa” for Japanese Brazilian 4th generations Established by the Japanese government enables you to stay in Japan for maximum 5 years and work freely based on the visa qualification of “Special Activity”.
At first, the main aim of establishment of Japanese Brazilian visa was originally to learn Japanese language and Japanese culture. But one of executives of the Japanese foreign ministry said that there was an expectation for Japanese companies to assign as may Japanese Brazilians as possible to manpower shortage sections.
However, one condition was added on 4th generations visa, which raised up the difficulty for Brazilian to come to Japan.
That is “proving Japanese speaking ability”.
First to third generations of Japanese Brazilians were accepted as permanent residents in Japan without any qualification and they didn’t need to prove their Japanese speaking ability.
In the period of 90’s when so may Japanese Brazilians started coming to Japan by using this immigration system, there was also the same circumstances that Japanese companies suffered from lack of manpower.
So Japanese companies paid attention to Japanese descendants from South American countries like Brazil and Peru, who originally had their roots in Japan, in order to strengthen workforce.
At that time, so many countries in South America occurred political turmoil and were confronted with serious economic difficulties. Not a few people in Brazil wanted to work abroad then. Both needs of Japanese companies that want more people to hire and Japanese Brazilians who want to work abroad matched of those days.
Accepting Japanese Brazilian means creating community together between Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian, who have different culture and custom each other. It is easy to imagine how difficult it is.
There were actually options in the Japanese government that some of Japanese Brazilians should have had profound knowledges about Japanese culture and its language which were inherited by their parents generation. But the reality was opposite.
What Japanese Brazilians tend not to speak Japanese?
There were not a few second and third generations of Japanese Brazilians who were not get used to speaking Japanese. The first generations who settled in South and North American countries for the first time at the period of WWⅡ were persecuted by the countries and were under suspicion of “Spy” as enemy country’s nation. It is well known fact that some of Japanese Americans were sent to a concentration camp in some regions.
Naturally, the background that speaking Japanese was prohibited by the country’s authority deprived some of them of speaking Japanese in everyday conversation.
After WWⅡ and Japan was defeated, they were disappointed to a part of their identity as Japanese. I heard being Japanese in South American countries shamed them and some of them suffered from identity crisis until Japan had dramatic economic growth.
In such a circumstance, people tried to get used to communities of the countries as locals and as a result, they prioritized speaking Spanish and Portuguese more than speaking Japanese even in family.
Difficulties to get used to Japanese community
Custom Japanese-Brazilian cultivated in Brazil is naturally different than that of Japan. Holding a party with big sound music til mid-night is one of their enjoyment and they don’t have rules to waste segregation. So many Japanese-Brazilian having such a custom started settling in Japanese society. There were so much troubles between Japanese neighbors and them at first.
School refusal problems
There were so many kids who were born as Japanese Brazilian and spoken only Spanish and Portuguese in their families. This situation caused difficulties for them to catch up with studies even though they were old enough to go to elementary school, which led them to school refusal. Some of them are not still used to Japanese society as even one adult.
To avoid this problem, 4th generation visa has a requirement of Japanese speaking ability to apply for it.
Another factors that stay Japanese-Brazilian away from applying for this visa
In addition to the requirement of Japanese speaking ability, a person having children can’t be granted this visa although people considering working abroad have naturally their families.
Moreover, the government set an age limit to one of the conditions of Visa application so applicants should be 18 to 30 at the time they apply for it.
The Japanese government somehow collect young Brazilians who can devote themselves to Japanese economy. After all this Japanese immigrant system was created to own advantages. In short, Japan has an intention to make truly fine investment to young generations who can take over primary economic fields in the future as one Japanese under declining birth rates.
So Japan have no expectation to people coming to Japan to work as manual labor.
Surveillance from the Japanese government
4th generations immigration system was some Japanese-Brazilians last hope but it turns out that this visa system requires immigrated people to report frequently living situation to the concerned municipal office.
Even after being granted visa from the immigration bureau, you need to strictly keep the rules and conditions about living in Japan. Which means, you live in Japan under surveillance of the Japanese government. It is really stupid policy.
This is virtual tightening policy of Japanese-Brazilian visa from the reflection of easy issuance of permanent status for 3rd generations.
I am really wondering if the Japanese government truly estimated 4000 Japanese-Brazilians coming under this visa conditions.
How shameful the Japanese government is
Speaking of second generations and third generations of Japanese Brazilians having first generations parents who immigrated in Brazil during WWⅡ, they were the ones that harvested many fruits that were grown carefully by their parents who had made serious effort to cultivate land from scratch in Brazil.
In the period of time Japanese-Brazilian society became rich and established their identity confidently in Brazilian community, Japan was in high growth period. I heard there were some people who looked up to Japan and were proud of Japanese identity.
However, the repayment policy of the first to third generations visa that the Japanese government issued for Japanese-Brazilians eventuated in making labor exploitation encourage like they were taken advantage by Japanese wicked sweatshop as cheap manual labor because of the government’s imperfect policy which was unconsidered for how people was able to survive in Japanese society.
Actually, the government left any problems to local municipalities and it didn’t pick up any troubles about how Brazilians could get along well with Japanese people.
Also when the Japanese government sent people to Brazil as national policy, it made too careless policy that was totally unconsidered on how each people who made up their mind to leave Japan and open a new path at new world could survive in undeveloped land that must have been far away from the place for human to live in.
I want to ask all of Japanese-Brazilians who look this page. Will you still love Japan?
Japan relied fully on attracting foreign people through “Soft Power” such as movie, music and anime and so on but it is estranged from creating and implementing “correct policy” that people won’t suffer a disadvantage considering human rights.
Actually time when the Japanese government showed openly its intention of strengthening relationship with Japanese-Brazilian society was pretty much recently.
I can see the Japanese government only target beneficial thing from Japanese-Brazilian society like it wants to acquire high-skilled young person who can make the most of his/her capability for Japanese economy.