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...even if you are a permanent resident who was born here and lived your entire life here.

 

Friday’s landmark decision by the Supreme Court that permanent foreign residents of Japan are not entitled to welfare benefits will discourage more municipalities than ever from doling out such aid amid ballooning public assistance expenditures, experts said Saturday.

 

 

Responding to a lawsuit filed by an 82-year-old Chinese resident of Oita, the top court stated in the first ruling of its kind that, legally speaking, permanent foreign residents don’t qualify for public assistance because they aren’t considered Japanese nationals.

 

The ruling is significant in that it finally clarifies whether permanent residents are eligible to claim welfare. For years, municipalities have been distributing welfare payments to financially needy foreigners with permanent or long-term residency status, including the spouses of Japanese and migrant workers from Brazil.

 

Municipalities have been granting aid at their own discretion after being advised to do so from a “humanitarian” point of view by the central government in 1954. But that never meant foreigners actually qualified for the aid like Japanese. Although they could apply for it, they had no recourse if turned down, because the way the municipalities see it, welfare payments had never been foreigners’ legal right to claim.

 

The verdict legally enshrines this de facto state of affairs, making it official that foreign residents have no legal basis to claim eligibility for public assistance.

 

From now on, foreign residents will still be free to apply for welfare payments but will likely face slimmer odds of receiving them, experts said.

 

“The impact of the Supreme Court decision is huge,” said Eriko Suzuki, an associate professor at Kokushikan University in Tokyo who specializes in foreign labor issues.

 

“As municipalities nationwide are struggling to cut back on ever-snowballing costs related to welfare benefits for the poor, concerns are rising that they might (take advantage of the ruling) to stiffen their scrutiny of foreign eligibility, or even drive foreigners away before properly examining their claims,” she said, adding that rising anti-foreigner sentiment could escalate that prospect.

 

At present, foreigners without permanent or long-term residency visas aren’t even allowed to apply for welfare payments because their immigration status only allows them to stay in Japan as long as they’re employed.

 

Hiroshi Tanaka, a professor emeritus of sociology at Hitotsubashi University, agreed that the court’s decision will make it psychologically easier for municipalities to deny aid to non-Japanese.

 

He also denounced the ruling as “outdated” and “sure to make Japan a target of global ridicule,” as it reinforces the notoriously indifferent attitude that Japanese judges take toward the protection of human rights.

 

There was a time, he said, when Japan discriminated against foreigners in almost every aspect of the social security system, including child rearing allowances and the national pension plan. But that began to change after Japan joined a series of United Nations-designated treaties in the 1970s and 1980s, giving it the appearance of an “egalitarian society” true to the principals of those accords.

 

Yet poverty relief for the poor remains one of the few areas where foreigners are still discriminated against, or at least denied the same legal rights as Japanese.

 

“Foreigners pay taxes,” Tanaka said. “If you pay taxes, you should be eligible for the social security system that you’ve contributed to. That’s a common sense understanding.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This mightn't surprise some but is worthy of outrage and is therefore outrageous. We'll take your money like everyone else but don't expect any help. Don't call us if you get MS, if your Japanese husband runs off leaving you with kids, if you're out on your bike and someone hits and runs....

 

:veryangry:

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Well, technically, welfare is any social assistance provided by the government. I think the case above is related to assistance for the poor, ill, disabled or elderly. Really though, you can apply if you are a permanent resident but there is no recourse if you are turned down... other than trying to fight it in court and eventually losing.

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I guess its the system called "seikatsu hogo". Like BM said, help for people seen as needing it. Single mothers, the sick, the mentally ill, the infirm etc. Its separate to the regular health care system and pension system. Unlike those two systems, its funded by the general taxpayer, so you qualify by being in need, not by paying in.

 

I think single mothers get a living expenses benefit and an educate the kid benefit, on top of the child benefit all parents get.

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It's not just Japan that does this. Australia also has the same, although it really only effects New Zealanders. Kiwis have the right to live and work in Aussie, but if you moved there after a certain date (2001 I think), you pay all the taxes, but can't get any benefits.

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This must fall into the .."every cent counts" category. How many foreign residents as a percentage are that destitute to require welfare assistance...? It has to be really really small..

 

Maybe amongst the Chinese and Korean groups it isn't...

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It's not just Japan that does this. Australia also has the same, although it really only effects New Zealanders. Kiwis have the right to live and work in Aussie, but if you moved there after a certain date (2001 I think), you pay all the taxes, but can't get any benefits.

Yep, I am in that situation. 457 Visa holders (temporary work permit) have more rights to welfare over here than I do.

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Maybe one thing to note here is that the Supreme Court judges what the law says, it doesn't get to make new ones. That's the job of Shinzo and his crew.

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Maybe one thing to note here is that the Supreme Court judges what the law says, it doesn't get to make new ones. That's the job of Shinzo and his crew.

 

Reckon we're all set, then. He'll surely fix things up in a jiffy.

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No faffing about etc. etc.

 

Thing is though, in the last couple of years, they've just got rid of the gaijin card and the gaijin tax, and they've started counting gaijin in shichouson's populations. For places with lots of Chinese, Koreans or Brazilians, that could be a big deal. There are bound to be some national government handouts to local governments that get calculated on population size. So if anything, the moves that have been made recently are pro gaijin.

 

I don't know what the problem is here and why the Supreme Court has been asked to make a ruling on this now, but if the current law says blah di blah convoluted language blah di blah obscure word that is a substitute for kokumin, then gaijin won't be eligible as the law stands. Gaijin are not kokumin. That doesn't mean that the law as it stands is never going to be changed, and is going to be interpreted in that way in reality every single time anyway. By the sounds, some gaijin must have been receiving seikatsu hogo, maybe thanks to some person in some town hall somewhere not being diligent enough to look up whether it was their job to only stick the hanko on Mariko Watanabe's application if she is indeed a kokumin.

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Shinzo never fannies about, so there'll be no fannying - and indeed no faffing - about if he's involved.

 

:clap:

 

I was going to mention the 'pro' gaijin things, but Mr Wiggles wasn't fannying around there and posted it.

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I saw a bit on the news the other week about how the realize they will need more foreign workers to come in and do stuff here with the decrease in population etc. How that lot will turn out...

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