Tuesday, October 28th  “Halloween”

Last weekned, there was a Halloween event in Sakae.  Did you know about this event?  I just found out about this event just recently.  It’s great for kids because they can join a parade and do trick or treating. 

As for me, I went to a party and after that we all went to Karaoke.  I ended up staying until 5:00 am.  I have never stayed at a Karaoke so long in my life.  It was fun but I was exhaused.  There were a lot of young people so they were full of energy.  I could not keep up with them.  Anyway, it was a good experience for me.  

Wednesday, October 31st    “Halloween in Shibuya”

Yesterday, I googled Halloween in Shibuya and I found a You Tube video.  It just showed bunch of people walking around in costumes.  I was really surprised to see so many foreigners among the crowd.  I would say 30% of them were so.  There were a lot of people from Asian countries.   I was happy to see so many people from different countries enjoying themselves.  I hope Japan allows more immirgrants into the country so we would have more diversity in this country.  I feel Japan has been too closed to allow people in.  Some Japanese people say that we should not allow immigrants but I’m sure the world would be a better place if we accepted more people rather than keep people out.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUWOIMIarSU

Sunday, November 4th   “Immigration”

It seems like the number of foreign workers will increase from next year.  Actually, there has been a pretty big increase in immigration in the previous years.  Japan hit 1.27 million immigrants this year.  The increase is due to the labor shortage in Japan.  Actually, I remember one of my students complaining that he could not find any workers for his business.  10 years ago, when he tried to recruit people he got tons of applications.  Now, it’s difficult to get even one.  The shortage is pretty severe.  

The problem is that the foreign workers can only stay for 5 years.  I’m sure those workers would like to stay longer.  Actually, there are two types of visas.  One is skilled and the other one is unskilled.  For the skilled workers, they can extend their visas if they apply.  However, for the unskilled workers, they have to go home to their country once their visas expire.  English teachers in Japan fall under the skilled workers so they can extend their visas.  The other skilled workers are like lawyers, doctors, professors, and researchers.  I really wonder if the English teachers fall under skilled workers.  

In other words, it’s really difficult to get a permanent visa in Japan.  Japan’s immigrants are only 2% of the population whereas America has 14% and Canada and Australia has over 20%.  Japan was sucessful with bringing tourists in so I think it’s time to allow more immigrants to work in this country.  

Source:  Nikkei Asian Review “Abe bets big on adding foreign workers”