31–40 of 157 posts
I mean, seems fair. If I'm applying for a work visa where the work I'm doing would require me to know Japanese, I should know Japanese.
Why do you need that requirement be validated by people and at a level not connection to the place of work?
The alternative is that the company must provide evidence, but I don't see how this is better.
Key detail: > Immigration authorities say the move is aimed at preventing cases in which foreign workers obtain visas under one category, but then engage in unrelated or lower-skilled work. The claim appears to be that people were using up visa slots for things like interpreters or other jobs where clearly you'd need good language skills to actually do the job, including in Japanese, with the intent all along of doin…
Its not shocking, I see it implemented ie in Switzerland, where half of the world tries to get in. Since each part has their own language and none of that is english, its pretty important to exist in society for anything but brief visitors. Its not restrictive as this (B2 is pretty high level in any language, here its weak B1) and resefved for 'higher' permits like C, for which you anyway need 10 years of residency i…
And twelve years ago, the Swiss voted to restrict EU FoM for itself and the backlash was instant.
Can't blame the government, this is the Swiss voting public doing their best to be dickheads.
Japan is a bunch of islands, yes it's pretty closed, but Switzerland is a land-locked village with fewer people than London and entirely dependent on trade and the movement of people and money for all they have, and barely a scrap of a language to call its own. English is super common there, probably as a way of democratically inconveniencing everyone.
I mean, seems fair. If I'm applying for a work visa where the work I'm doing would require me to know Japanese, I should know Japanese.
Why do you need that requirement be validated by people and at a level not connection to the place of work?
So either you vet the companies offering those jobs, or you vet the visa applicants.
Key detail: > Immigration authorities say the move is aimed at preventing cases in which foreign workers obtain visas under one category, but then engage in unrelated or lower-skilled work. The claim appears to be that people were using up visa slots for things like interpreters or other jobs where clearly you'd need good language skills to actually do the job, including in Japanese, with the intent all along of doin…
That being said, there is a broader trend, that Japan's immigration authorities are becoming more foreigner-hostile, reflecting a broader political view shift in Japanese society (see: Sanseito political party) and one could argue in the US and globally.
One data point: a few months back we had one of our employees denied a Permanent Resident Visa due to a clerical error where our company forgot to notify the immigration bureau of an address change--we literally moved our office across the street, same city block. Our lawyer said such a case was unheard of a few years ago; these were always handled as simple corrections, instead the poor chap had to go to the back of the 9+ month waiting queue.
Our lawyer says the news is too new to know what concrete ramifications it will actually have on us, a tech company which uses English as the main language for engineering roles.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The key thing is that the ESI category includes a lot of work which you don't need to know Japanese. For example, software engineering jobs in Japan are often at either larger multinational companies or companies with enough presence outside of Japan that they have teams which are in English. Japan has been on a recent anti-immigration kick via making visas harder and more expensive to get while also blaming them for…
But the law doesn't apply to all ESI jobs, just a subset which (ostensibly) do need to know Japanese.
There are smarter ways to implement a language requirement, and really this is part of a trend of Japan tightening up restrictions on foreigners to try and solve a perceived problem by a fraction of a fraction of individuals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its not shocking, I see it implemented ie in Switzerland, where half of the world tries to get in. Since each part has their own language and none of that is english, its pretty important to exist in society for anything but brief visitors. Its not restrictive as this (B2 is pretty high level in any language, here its weak B1) and resefved for 'higher' permits like C, for which you anyway need 10 years of residency i…
Except the Swiss are total arseholes about it, they won't even grant citizenship to people born there or who've lived there for twenty years and speak the language. Many want to cap total population at 10 million, we'll see what happens in June. And twelve years ago, the Swiss voted to restrict EU FoM for itself and the backlash was instant. Can't blame the government, this is the Swiss voting public doing their best…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except the Swiss are total arseholes about it, they won't even grant citizenship to people born there or who've lived there for twenty years and speak the language. Many want to cap total population at 10 million, we'll see what happens in June. And twelve years ago, the Swiss voted to restrict EU FoM for itself and the backlash was instant. Can't blame the government, this is the Swiss voting public doing their best…
Such dickheads the Swiss voting public, how dare they exercise a direct democracy?! So inconveniencing!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its not shocking, I see it implemented ie in Switzerland, where half of the world tries to get in. Since each part has their own language and none of that is english, its pretty important to exist in society for anything but brief visitors. Its not restrictive as this (B2 is pretty high level in any language, here its weak B1) and resefved for 'higher' permits like C, for which you anyway need 10 years of residency i…
Except the Swiss are total arseholes about it, they won't even grant citizenship to people born there or who've lived there for twenty years and speak the language. Many want to cap total population at 10 million, we'll see what happens in June. And twelve years ago, the Swiss voted to restrict EU FoM for itself and the backlash was instant. Can't blame the government, this is the Swiss voting public doing their best…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such dickheads the Swiss voting public, how dare they exercise a direct democracy?! So inconveniencing!
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There is definitely some hostility to some aspects of Islam, aspects which seem to only recently have become central to the exercise of worship for some (the veiling of women for instance), yet this has not translated to some outright discrimination of muslims. Bosnian and Albanian immigrants for instance appear to have been integrated and/or assimilated into society.
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Went there in 2012 and then again last year. It's wild how quickly it's changed. IMO, Japan is a very special place and it's sad to see that it's having the same problems as the rest of the first world.